Ancient Warrior Queen Boudicca of the Iceni Tribe

[♥ Lily ♥]

BOUDICA - QUEEN OF THE ICENI

Boudica or Boudicca (/ˈbuːdɪkə, boʊˈdɪkə/, from Brythonic *boudi 'victory, win' + *-ka 'having' suffix, i.e. 'Victorious Woman', known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, was an ancient Celtic red-haired warrior Queen of the ancient Iceni tribe in eastern England.

Iceni is pronounced as eye-SEEN-eye: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceni



Boudicca led an uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in 60 AD or 61 AD.

She is considered as a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence in the British Isles, against the expansive Roman Empire which already ruled over much of continental Europe.

Boudica's husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome.

He left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will.

When he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken.

According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Boudicca was flogged and her daughters were raped by the Romans.



The historian Cassius Dio wrote that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Britons.

In 60/61, Boudica led the Iceni and other British tribes in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes, but at that time a colonia for discharged Roman soldiers.

Upon hearing of the revolt, the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus hurried from the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) to Londinium (the Roman name for the city which would later be shortened to London,) the 20-year-old commercial settlement that was the rebels' next target. Unable to defend the settlement, he evacuated and abandoned it.

Boudica's army defeated a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, and burnt both Londinium and Verulamium.

In all, an estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed by Boudica's followers.

Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands, and despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the Britons.

Boudica died shortly afterwards, either by illness or by suicide (as with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt who committed suicide rather than face humiliation of being captured by the invading Roman forces.)

Her burial site remains a mystery.



The crisis of 60/61 caused Nero to consider withdrawing all his imperial forces from Britain, but Suetonius's victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province.

Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era and as a cultural symbol in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica

A momument dedicated to Queen Boudicca and her daughters near Westminster Pier and close the UK Houses of Parliament in the City of Westminster, Central London.

[♥ Lily ♥]

A tranquil song by the Irish singer Enya that is dedicated to the bravery and courage of the Celtic warrior Queen Boudicca (which has several spelling variations, including Boadicea,) in her fierce battle to defend the British Isles against the Roman Empire invasion.

[♥ Lily ♥]

An interesting short documentary about Queen Boadicea of the Iceni tribe, which also shows how the Celts were the most skilled and advanced jewellery makers of anyone in the world during that era of time.

The documentary shows how the Celts had their own political and organised monetary systems too and could understand runic letters, so they weren't simply waiting around in eager anticipation for the Romans to invade to teach them how to read and write.

When Celts went into battles, they would often paint blue woad on their faces and bodies, (which also contained semen - as shown in the documentary.)

[♥ Lily ♥]

Boudicca is considered as a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence in the British Isles, against the expansive Roman Empire which already ruled over much of continental Europe.

I draw parallels today with the British rejecting the expansive EU empire who are opposed to unelected foreign bureaucrats in mainland Europe making the laws for our islands.

Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era and as a cultural symbol in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica

A momument dedicated to Queen Boudicca and her daughters near Westminster Pier and close the UK Houses of Parliament in the City of Westminster, Central London.

[♥ Lily ♥]

On a side note:

Although as the documentary shows, despite the brutal invasion of the Celtic British Isles, the Romans were highly advanced, knowledgeable, and sophisticated people in the sciences, medicines, arts, weapons, architecture, etc, and the Romans built lots of beautiful and sophisticated aqueducts, bridges, ancient Roman baths (which can be seen in historic Roman spa cities such as the City of Bath in England,) and they also built lots of other beautiful architecture with many tall, orderly, and refined columns and sculptures that the Romans built on our island whilst Britain was part of the Roman Empire - especially in London (which was originally named as Londinium by the Romans.)

Albion is the oldest name given to the British Isles and is still used to this day as an alternative name for Britain, (Britain stems from Britannia - which is the Roman Latin name.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

The name "Albion" may originate from the White Cliffs of Dover along the south-east coast of England.

The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today.

The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic (which is pronounced as "Al-a-buh" in Scots Gaelic,) Albain (genitive Alban) in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh and Cornish.

After the Roman Empire collapsed, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes then took over England, followed by Viking invasions, followed by the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The word Norman stems from "North Man" and they mostly took over the ruling elites after the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England (Harold Godwinson) lost in the Battle of Hastings in 1066: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans

The name "England" stems from "Engel Land" (although the word "Engel" means "Angel" in German, Dutch, and Danish, the word "Engels" means English in those languages, and so "Engel Land" means "Land of the Engels", (Angles... Anglo Saxons.)

In Boudicca's era of time, the name was called Albion.

1/3 of the modern English language (along with its grammar and base) stems from German (which was brought here via the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes,) 1/3 of words (over 14,000) in the English language stems from French (via the Norman Conquest of England,) and about 1/3 of the English language stems from Latin (via the Roman Empire,) and the rest of the vocabulary consists of a small amount (about 600 words) of Scandinavian origin words (via the Viking conquest and Danish rule over England in the North Sea Empire,) and only a small amount of Celtic origin words remains today in the English language, along with some ancient Greek words.

Interestingly, a lot of words that relate to violence and bloodshed are of Germanic and Scandinavian origin in the English language, whereas most words relating to arts, ballet, music, and cuisine tends to be of French origin, and most of the medical, scientific, and legal terms in the English language are of Latin origin.