Pic: Aldaron

NS Gill, About.com’s Ancient History specialist has blogged about Boudicca in some detail. She writes that Boudicca (also spelled Boadicea and Boudica) was the wife of King Prasutagus of the Celtic Iceni, in the east of ancient Britain. When the Romans conquered Britain, they allowed the king to continue his rule, but when he died and his wife, Boudicca took over, the Romans wanted the territory. They are said to have stripped and beaten Boudicca and raped her daughters.

As a result, in about A.D. 60, Boudicca led her troops and the Trinovantes of Camulodunum (Colchester) against the Romans, killing thousands in Camulodunum, London, and Verulamium (St. Albans). The tide turned and the Roman governor in Britain Gaius Suetonius Paullinus (or Paulinus) defeated the Celts.

Boudicca: The Biography

Boudicca was the wife of Prasutagus, who was head of the Iceni tribe in East England, in what is now Norfolk and Suffolk.

In 43 CE, the Romans invaded Britain, and most of the Celtic tribes were forced to submit. However, the Romans allowed two Celtic kings to retain some of their traditional power; one was Prasutagus.

The Roman occupation brought increased Roman settlement, military presence, and attempts to suppress Celtic religious culture. There were major economic changes, including heavy taxes and money lending.

In 47 CE the Romans forced the Ireni to disarm, creating resentment. Prasutagus had been given a grant by the Romans, but the Romans then redefined this as a loan. When Prasutagus died in 60 CE, he left half his kingdom to the Emperor Nero to settle this debt.

What happened to Boudicca is uncertain. It is said she returned to her home territory and took poison to avoid Roman capture.

A result of the rebellion was that the Romans strengthened their military presence in Britain and also lessened the oppressiveness of their rule.

Boudicca’s story was nearly forgotten until Tacitus’ work, Annals, was rediscovered in 1360. Her story became popular during the reign of another English queen who headed an army against foreign invasion, Queen Elizabeth I.

The full details from this superb biography can be found at the ancient history site.

Marriage, Rape, and Revenge

Life among the Ancient Celts seems even more desirable, since there women could enter a variety of professions, hold legal rights — especially in the area of marriage — and have rights of redress in case of sexual harrassment.

They could govern, took prominent roles in political, religious and artistic life, even becoming judges and law-givers; they could own property which marriage could not deprive them of; they chose when they wanted to marry and, more often than not, who [sic] they wanted to marry; they could divorce and, if they were deserted, molested or maltreated, they had the right to claim considerable damages.
P. 18 Celtic Women

In Celtic Women , Peter Berresford Ellis claims the early Celts had a sophisticated, unified law system. Today two of the Celtic legal codes survive:

• The Fénechas (known as THE BREHON LAW), codified during the reign of the High King Laoghaire (428-36 A.D.), and
• The Welsh Law of Hywel Dda, codified in the tenth century.

Marriage

Celtic women were free to marry in one of nine ways (in the Brehon system) starting at age 14. As in other civilizations, marriage was an economic union. The first three types of marriages required formal, pre-nuptial agreements. With the others — even the ones that would be illegal today — marriage meant the assumption of financial responsibilities for child-rearing.

1. In the primary form of marriage (lánamnas comthichuir), both partners enter the union with equal financial resources.
2. In the second type (lánamnas mná for ferthinchur), the woman contributes litle or nothing.
3. In the third category (l&aacutenamnas fir for bantichur), it’s the woman who is financially better off.
4. Cohabitation with a woman at her house.
5. Voluntary eloping without the consent of the woman’s family.
6. Voluntary abduction without the family’s consent.
7. Secret rendezvous.
8. Marriage by rape.
9. Marriage of two insane people.

Rape and Sexual Harrassment

Looking to Celtic law, we see similar situations, but, with the punishments directly helping the rape victim (financially) while permitting the rapist to remain free, perhaps there’s less incentive for the man to lie. Then again, failure to pay could lead to castration.

The woman, too, had an incentive for honesty. She had to be sure of the man whom she was accusing of rape because if she made an allegation that later proved to be false, she would have no help raising the offspring of such union; nor could she charge a second man with the same crime.

More detail can be found on the first page of her articles.

A Mother’s Revenge

Boudicca, one of history’s most powerful women, suffered rape only vicariously — as a mother, but her revenge detroyed thousands.
Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, made an alliance with Rome so that he would be allowed to rule his territory (as a client-king). He died in 60 A.D.

9/19/98 Update
In an article from The Independent, Science Editor Steve Connor says Oxford historian Martin Henig now believes the British welcomed the Romans against the Celtic invader in 43 A.D.

"All the evidence suggests Britain’s southern rulers were Romanized before the invasion, welcomed the invasion and profited from it."
"They had effectively been conquered by the tribes to the north, who had virtually enslaved the whole area to the south. The inhabitants of southern Britain were really refugees and the Roman "invasion" a "liberation"."

Tacitus reports that he made the emperor and his own two daughters heirs, hoping, thereby, to placate Rome. Such a will was not in accordance with Celtic law; nor did it satisfy the new emperor, for centurions plundered Prasutagus’ house, whipped his widow, Boudicca, and raped their daughters.

It was time for revenge ("dial"). Boudicca, as ruler and war leader of the Iceni, led a retaliatory revolt against the Romans. Enlisting the support of the neighboring tribe of Trinovantes and possibly some others, she headed towards the town the Romans called Camulodunum, the new administrative capital of the Roman imperial province. After Boudicca’s forces resoundingly defeated the Roman troops at Camulodonum and virtually annihilated the IX Hispania, they headed towards London. The Roman commander chose to sacrifice London, so when Boudicca’s troops arrived, they slaughtered all Romans and razed the town.

The full details of the article can be found at the ancient history site.

Originally posted 2009-06-24 08:51:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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