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- Boadicea Haranguing The Britons. John Opie, (1761-1807)
Boadicea (or Boudicca) d. 60 or 61 was a queen of the Brittonic Iceni tribe (now East Anglia). Her husband, Prasutagus, ruled the Iceni and was a staunch ally of Rome. When he died, he left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman Emperor, but his will was ignored. Boudicea had been trained in warfare, and she educated her daughters to be warriors. She refused to submit to Roman oppression. Boadicea was willing to die for the freedom of her people, although she knew that to give the Romans a fight she had to persuade neighboring tribes to join the Iceni’s in battle. Under her command, she organized and led a violent uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire and convinced the tribes to join her army. A Roman historian described Boadicea’s appearance in battle: ‘In build she was very tall, in her demeanor most terrifying, in the glint of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; a great mound of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden torc; and she wore a tunic of many colors upon a thick cloak that was fastened with a brooch. This was her general attire’. Later generations honored her as a hero of the people and a female wartime leader.
Bibliography:
Aldhouse-Green, M. Boudica Britannia: Rebel, War-Leader and Queen. Pearson Longman, 2006.
Böckl, Manfred. Die letzte Königin der Kelten [The last Queen of the Celts]. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2005.
Cary, Earnest trans. Cassius Dio Cocceianus. Dio’s Roman History 8. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chernock, Arianne. “Boadicea.” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 6, 5-11, editorial notes, 407-8.
Collingridge, Vanessa. Boudica. London: Ebury, 2004.
Cottrell, Leonard. The Great Invasion. Evans Brothers Limited, 1958.
de la Bédoyère, Guy. “Bleeding from the Roman Rods: Boudica,” Defying Rome: The Rebels of Roman Britain. Tempus: Stroud, 2003.
Dudley, Donald R and Graham Webster. The Rebellion of Boudicca. London: Routledge, 1962.
Fraser, Antonia. The Warrior Queens. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
Godsell, Andrew “Boadicea: A Woman’s Resolve.” Legends of British History. Wessex Publishing, 2008.
Hays, Mary. Female biography; or, Memoirs of illustrious and celebrated women of all ages and countries (6 volumes). London: R. Phillips, 1803, vol. 2, 3-9.
Hingley, Richard and Christina Unwin. Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen. London: Hambledon and London, 2004.
Mikalchki, Jodi. The Legacy of Boadicea: Gender and Nation in Early Modern England. Routledge, 1998.
Roesch, Joseph E. Boudica, Queen of The Iceni. London: Robert Hale Ltd, 2006.
Taylor, John. Tacitus and the Boudican Revolt. Dublin: Camvlos, 1998.
Trow, M.J. Boudicca: The Warrior Queen. Sutton Publishing, 2004.
Webster, Graham. Boudica. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978.
Resources:
Brooklyn Museum
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Place Setting: Boadaceia
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/boadaceia.php
