Queen Boudica in London | ||
In AD43 the Roman army invaded Britain. At that time, Britain was divided into tribal | Párr. 1 | |
territories. The Romans formed alliances with tribes in the south-east, like the Iceni and the | ||
Trinovantes, to create a new and peaceful province called Britannia. In AD59, the King of | ||
the Iceni died. He hoped his wife, Boudica, would succeed him. However, the Roman | ||
5 | Emperor had other ideas. His harsh treatment of the royal family led the Iceni to rebel. They | |
attacked Colchester, London and St Albans. These towns were largely undefended as the | ||
Roman army was away fighting Druids in Wales. The Roman historian Tacitus estimated | ||
that 70,000 people were killed in the rebellion. This may have been an exaggeration as | ||
estimates suggest that 10,000 people were living in London at the time, with perhaps similar | ||
10 | numbers in the other two towns. Although there are many stories about how Boudica died, | |
the truth has yet to be discovered. | ||
In AD59, Prasutagus, King of the Iceni of East Anglia, died. He left his kingdom to | Párr. 2 | |
be ruled jointly by his wife Boudica with Nero, the Roman Emperor. He’d hoped this would | ||
keep his kingdom intact. Instead, Nero seized the kingdom. Boudica was treated like a | ||
15 | common criminal and publicly flogged. Her daughters were raped. The furious Iceni, led by | |
Boudica, were joined by a tribe from Essex called the Trinovantes. They also bore a grudge | ||
against the Romans. Their land and property had been taken by army veterans (ex-soldiers) | ||
who had set up home in Camulodunum (Colchester), their tribal centre. The ninth legion was | ||
sent to put down the revolt. However, it was ambushed on its way to Colchester with only | ||
20 | the cavalry managing to escape. The Romans regarded this as their worst ever defeat in | |
Britain. Both sides were now set on avenging past humiliations. | ||
Two hundred elderly and ill-equipped soldiers were sent from Londinium (London) | Párr. 3 | |
to help defend Colchester. They were defeated after a two-day siege. The rebels then turned | ||
their sights on London, which represented everything the rebels loathed about Roman rule | ||
25 | with the population living a Mediterranean lifestyle. But, instead of going straight there after | |
their victory in Colchester, the British tribes spent the summer of AD60 celebrating and | ||
looting. This enabled the Governor, Suetonius Paulinus, to reach London from Wales with a | ||
small cavalry force. He then evacuated as many people as he could to Verulamium (St | ||
Albans). More important Londoners escaped by boat. Some abandoned their shops, others | ||
30 | buried their possessions for safety, intending to return and retrieve them. A Roman jeweller | |
hid his intaglios (engraved stones for finger-rings) in a pot buried in his workshop. So, by the | ||
time Boudica’s forces arrived, London was both deserted and undefended | ||
The tribal army spent several days in London burning the town, and torturing and | Párr. 4 | |
killing anyone who had stayed behind. The houses, shops and workshops were built of wood | ||
35 | and wattle and daub (woven twigs covered in clay), so they burnt easily. Having destroyed | |
London, the rebels next target was St Albans. On the way, they met the Roman army | ||
returning from Wales. The rebels were doomed. They were no match for this disciplined | ||
army. They could not attack in force as the battlefield was confined on both sides by a wood | ||
and a narrow pass. They couldn’t escape as they were trapped by their wagons, which they | ||
40 | had parked behind them so their families could watch. According to Tacitus, 70,000 Britons | |
were slain with the loss of just 400 Roman soldiers. He said Boudica poisoned herself, | ||
whereas the Greek writer Dio Cassius wrote that she fell ill and died. No one knows the truth. | ||
Even though the revolt was crushed, the Romans took revenge for the loss of the ninth legion | ||
by repeatedly destroying tribal crops. In AD61, Emperor Nero appointed Classicianus as | ||
45 | procurator (chief financial minister) of Britannia to restore peace and financial prosperity. |