Boudicca & The Great British Rebellion (60/61 AD) // History Documentary

Boadicea today the very name itself conjures up images of freedom and defiance of standing up against injustice and oppression yet over the long centuries since she lived the name has meant many things to many people what do we really know about the woman behind the legend very little unfortunately just the words of two Roman writers one of them near contemporary the other writing close to 200 years later much like most enemies of the Romans no sources survive to tell her side of the story [Music] in those Roman sources recording events 2,000 years ago Boadicea a powerful queen of the icy knee tribe of modern-day east anglia appears fully formed in the historical record with a fierce image and flowing red hair ultimately fighting a desperate doomed war for the independence of her people when her story was eventually rediscovered by the Tudors in the sixteenth century during the reign of another powerful Queen the name was latinized as Boadicea though in reality we don't even know for sure whether this was her name at all it being the Celtic for victorious it was during the 19th century as the world teetered on the verge of a new industrial future during the reign of another powerful female ruler Queen Victoria but her story became widely known and celebrated in Britain just like in neighboring European countries Boadicea gains new life being utilized as a national icon during this era of uncertainty akin to other Celtic rulers like Ambria ryx in Belgium verson Jetix in France Hermann in Germany and very Arthas in Spain yet the real story of Boudicca is a far more nuanced one to those unfortunates Roman settlers and romanized Britons that she and her vast army came into contact with in the first century AD she was a nightmare remarkably the legacy of that war can still be seen here in London in a thick layer of burned ash that permeates the archaeological record along Oxford Street South walk and King Street among others and this isn't the only town to be permanently marked by this swath of destruction across southeastern Britain for in 61 AD this city then home to tens of thousands of people was burned to the ground according to the Roman sources its entire remaining population put to the sword great tortures inflicted here on mass though we can't ever know to what extent these records are propagandistic a large number of those people were in fact native Britons gradually being absorbed into the new Roman world according to the Roman sources none not even women and children were spared the real Boudicca was very much a woman of her time living through an era of outside invasion when the very world of her people was coming to an end desperate times called for desperate measures her story is not only a sad one but one of the greatest ever told in British history today using archaeology as well as the written record we can arrive at a more accurate picture of Boudicca than ever before [Music] Boadicea is surely one of the most iconic women in all of history but there are other fascinating figures from all different eras too to celebrate Women's History Month here at the History youtubers community we've decided to present an entire playlist of iconic women throughout history be sure to check out the other videos in the playlist and in particular the one before this one by history and headlines and the one after by history in yesterday's neisha you don't want to miss out on this playlist are they folks Pete Kelly Here I am the creator of history time I'm broadcasting here out of the history time mountaintop stronghold this is all CGI around me of course where I'm currently bunker down working on new videos now these are very long videos that I'm putting out here and as I'm a one-man team they take a huge amount of time and effort to make as research writing editing etc takes a long time for just me to do on my own so I hope you don't mind me putting an advert on this one and if you like seeing more from me go and subscribe to my new channel which I'm also going to be pumping videos out of over the coming months so without further ado this video is sponsored by Magellan TV a really awesome subscription service a bit like Netflix but populated entirely by documentaries let's have a look Magellan TV is an on-demand video streaming service with over 2000 documentaries to watch on all manner of different subjects including history science nature culture and geography films series and exclusive playlists you can't find anywhere else you can watch Magellan anywhere at anytime on any device through the high quality app which also offers a wide selection of content in 4k at no extra cost and the best part new documentaries are added on a weekly basis those of you who head on over to tri-dot Magellan tv.com forward slash History time or use my link in the description below we'll get a free trial so what are you waiting for after you've finished this video why not go and continue learning about ancient Europe with this documentary that I really enjoyed on the celts head on over and get yourself some free knowledge [Music] it's 60 ad 17 years have passed since the legions of Rome first crossed over the Narrow Sea to invade the island of Britannia veteran commander Aulus Plautius had been the man initially chosen for the job officially sailing to the aid of an owl stood pro Roman King of Erika though equally important was the emperor claudius his desire to seem powerful in his office brutal war had followed in many areas though in others accommodation and commerce continued as it had done for decades the Romans in truth seeking to avoid conflict wherever they could after innumerable military campaigns and slightly less violent annexations by 60 ad much of the island had by now been provincial Iced client Kings often becoming Roman in lifestyle seen in vast palaces such as that at Fishbourne potentially built for a Celtic ruler but this certainly wasn't the case everywhere on the island especially on the wild western coast of modern-day Wales by 60 ad Claudius and Claudius were both long gone political machination in Rome having put a new emperor on the throne [Music] now at the head of two battle-hardened legions Roman provincial governor Suetonius Paulinus is mopping up some of the last resistance to his rule on the island of Anglesey they're known as Moana a mysterious ancient place and last stronghold of the Druids two and a half years earlier the young Emperor Nero living as a god on earth in the capital but put Powe Linus in charge his orders to hack his way into the wild western frontier a determined career soldier pow Linus followed his orders to the letter in truth though he himself came from a wealthy background in Rome Pao Linus's man were mostly not Roman at all but the descendants of provincial Iced conquered peoples from all over the Empire offered a chance at Roman citizenship by doing their years in the army and land afterwards in Concord places for those that survived service in the military could be extremely profitable offering not only monetary incentives to sign up but in guaranteeing their descendants citizenship in the Empire [Music] this far west the territory was largely unknown and the fighting had been fierce the Britons by this stage being experts at guerrilla warfare often slipping back into the wilderness to fight another day but it wasn't the violence that shocked Pao Linus's man most for people living 2,000 years ago absolutely everything was imbued with a spirit by our standards Roman soldiers were extremely superstitious this was a war of the mind it wasn't just the Celts that they had to beat but their gods too usually foreign deities would be placated in the short term with offerings so as to not offend them and ensure a Roman victory in time often becoming incorporated into their own Pantheon by synchronizing these gods with Roman wants searches can be seen with Sulis Minerva at Bath yet this took a long time generations in the making many of those fighting on Mona had been born long before Romans ever set foot on their land even before one particular incident completely rattled the Roman army the omens were not good for on that particular day a large group of druids had arrayed themselves on a beach in all black robes arms raised to the heavens yelling curses and chanting at the approaching roman troops shocked and terrified by what they were witnessing the Romans set about packing the Druids down before they could fully comprehend what was happening a funeral pyre the Celts had been stood on was lit the Romans had participated in a mass human sacrifice to the Celtic gods this was terrible news but worse was on the way brought to power Linus by a messenger from the south 300 miles away on the other side of the island the icy knee a horse rearing people of the east had risen up raising a vast army astonishingly led not by a man but a woman a queen and figurehead who began unifying several Celtic tribes under her command [Music] reluctantly coming to terms with the people of Anglesey Paulinus had no choice but to begin a desperate journey south with his outriders to Londinium the fate of the province in his hands this is the story related to us today by the historian Tacitus a writer with a good reputation as being non biased and fairly accurate his father-in-law Agricola had been present as a young officer attached to power line as his staff allowing Tacitus first-hand knowledge for his account unfortunately for the Celtic side of the story we know next to nothing they left us no written sources but we can try to form a picture nonetheless [Music] not long after the roman invasion of 43 ad 11 british kinks a said to have come to the emperor claudius at camula Dunham's to pledge their fealty to rome [Music] arriving from as far afield as Orkney these rulers had for now at least been awed into submission by the superior Roman military the force which had just steamrolled through the South prasit Argos king of the icy knee whose lands now bordered the twin of antes the former holders of Camilla denim the new Roman provincial capital may well have been present or he may have been installed as king following the defeat of an icy knee rebellion in 47 AD we can't be short besides that we know little else yet nevertheless archeology can help us get a picture of these people and the picture we get is astonishing [Music] far from the crude barbarians often depicted by their enemies this was a sophisticated land of metallurgists and city builders a world of storied oral traditions passed down from one generation to another by word of mouth almost all of which is lost today when we look at pre Roman Britain today we have to forget the borders and counties that sprung up in later ages for this was a very different world to the one born later the I scene II lived in a very flat land like the other tribes of Britain their borders dictated by natural barriers such as rivers and fans unlike other regions of the island which had access to elevated areas the icy knee didn't build hill forts they were horse people of the open plains part of a rich continent spanning culture dating far back into the Bronze Age evidenced by huge amounts of items found all over the landscape but in particular at three rich archaeological centers in modern-day East Anglia the icy knee were apparently so into breeding animals that prior to the conquest Roman writers assumed that they didn't farm at all [Music] in truth the icy knee were very different to their southern neighbors the belgae and at rabat ease to the south and Parisi i to the north at least partly seemed to have originated on the continent in gaul and other tribes around them such as the can t reg knee and trina von teese all had strong links they're visible in the archaeological record in the form of coins and trade guts indeed julius caesar's justification for launching the first invasions of britain some 90 years earlier had partly been to do with british warriors involving themselves in the great war for gall his own rebellious cavalry commander communist betraying him and fleeing back to britain afterwards in comparison the icy knee not having strong links with the continents may very well have been seen as a wild uncivilized group although interestingly the archaeological record isn't so clear-cut during the twilight years between Caesars aborted invasions and that of Claudius in 43 ad some 90 years later the southern tribes of Britain had began minting their own coins unique pieces of metal which fell out of use almost as soon as the standardized Roman coins came in the icy knee were no exception adorning theirs with horses according to Tacitus prasit Argos lived a long and full life although it's likely a fair few icy knee warriors were present during the warrior king carracticus is lengthy war against rome prasit Argos at least officially remained loyal to his new overlords in return he was allowed to remain nominally independent his people receiving vast loans in order to adopt the Roman Way of life another ruler who did the same was in control of the largest state in Britain cartas mandawa queen of the Brigantes may be a suggestion that Tacitus is assertion that many female rulers held sway in britain does hold some truth this was a very different culture to that of the Romans archaeology suggests great respect for female rulers buried with chariots and other war gear such as the wet wank graves rather than fight an unwinnable war cartas mandawa attempted to save her people by working with rome ruling successfully for more than 20 years in [Music] order to placate the emperor Nero in an effort to ease the transition Prasutagus named three people in his will the Emperor and his own two daughters whose names are lost with Boudicca presumably expecting to act as regent on their behalf until they came of age as long as the king lived the peace was kept but when he died all hell broke loose when this proud people rich in gold with a long tradition of fine metalworking and reputation as masters at horse-racing came into the Empire they effectively started again from scratch being forced to adopt a coinage to enjoy the benefits of Rome strapped for cash and looking for quick money by 60 AD it seems to be that Nero's policy had become one of fully absorbing client kingdoms in two provinces upon the deaths of their rulers removing any semblance of independence to annex them entirely in the case of the I scene II the calling in of loans by Roman finances soon devolved into heavy-handed pillaging slaving and mass rape not even Boudicca a royal Queen was spared according to Tacitus when she protested against the pillaging of her kingdom but daughters were raped she herself stripped naked beaten and scoured with barbed whips in doing so however the Romans had outstretched themselves Mycenae territory was far away from Rome on the very fringe of the Empire and a reckoning was on the way Colchester today it's a normal English town in Essex Gregg's McDonald's and Primark hold sway close to 2,000 years ago however this was a Roman settlement Camulodunum the first provincial capital of Britain and their first stronghold on the island seized from the defeated train of auntie's by 60 ad this place was far from the front line a thriving town populated by retired soldiers often with British wives yet according to Tacitus almost as soon as the 20th Legion usually based here went west with power liners to Anglesey strange omens began to be seen corpses washing up in the temps a blood-red color in the sea and a phantom town laid to waste upon the horizon whether they knew it or not events were being set in motion out in the forests and marshes outside the city since the pillaging of their lands by the Romans Tacitus tells us that the icy knee didn't even bother to plant crops instead spending the entire summer forging weapons sending messages to neighboring tribes and readying themselves for war soon enough Boadicea and the ruling elite of the icy knee had called a secret council attended by the neighbouring Trin avanti's katya velena and others peoples who she apparently called kinsmen an astonishing notion for formerly warring tribes by the end of that meeting she'd been chosen as war queen and a course of action decided [Music] the ensuing events can be seen not only in the written record but in archeology to a number of outlying villas have been found in the surrounding countryside along with evidence of destruction at the hands of the vengeful Britons according to the Roman sources Boadicea called upon the goddess and drastic to help her one of over 400 Celtic deities whose names we know Boadicea was certainly of royal blood she wouldn't have been followed otherwise maybe she was even a druid or some kind of religious leader herself a terrifying prospect for the people of Colchester soon enough the gleaming capital of Britannia gargantuan temple to the deified emperor claudius ever visible atop the skyline monument of empire - some symbol of oppression to others who was put to the torch the entire town burned in a firestorm none of the women and children were evacuated the surviving citizens made their way to the Temple of Claudius holding out there for two days before they were battered and burned out no one survived Roman tombs and burial places many of them triumphantly celebrating the conquest were desecrated statues defaced and destroyed not too far away upon hearing the news a contingent of the Ninth Legion marched to take on the rebel army though we know nothing of boudicca's planning or whether she led the army herself or had generals to do it for her the Romans were outmaneuvered taken completely by surprise in an ambush only the cavalry escaped with no other significant Roman army anywhere nearby the road lay wide open to London [Music] riding hard and fast ahead of the main army with a contingent of cavalry power Linus rode day and night upon hearing of the sack of Colchester he knew where Boudicca was headed the city of londonium had been set up as a trading center on the temps just a decade before to open up the province to the rest of the empire since then ambitious merchants had flocked from all over the world to make their fortunes with cheap taxes now populated by many tens of thousands of people it was the largest settlement in Britain and it had no walls or defenses of any kind when power Linus finally arrived on the outskirts he wasn't much further ahead of the Celtic army perhaps a hundred thousand strong he found streams of refugees flooding out to the pro-roman tribes of the south but most people had nowhere to go it wasn't just men in Boudicca army but their entire families nations on the move and according to the Roman sources the women fought just as much as the man perhaps now carrying the captured standard of the shattered Hispania Legion before them faced with this vast seething anger of humanity power Linus opted to sacrifice the city to save the province racing back north along Watling Street to meet his army whilst sending out desperate messages to other contingents of troops scattered around the province the city didn't stand a chance Tacitus puts the death toll at 70,000 people according to him the Britons couldn't wait to murder torture and crucified later embellished further by do Casillas speaking of hideous tortures although he was writing 200 years later was this propaganda or a real memory of the event we can't ever know for sure though it may be that there were certain brutal religious rituals demanded by the druids in times of crisis however it may be that London wasn't even the main target simply being burned on route to the far more symbolic town of Vera lamian modern-day Sint Albans the former capital of carracticus is katya velena which also suffered the same fate much of the population of London having prior warning may well have escaped before boudicca's arrival this is speculation but the archaeology is real enough three disembodied skulls having been found at wallbrook stream and of course the thick layer of ash all over the city dating to this time freed slaves and other British people continued to flock to Buddha cos course swelling her numbers according to the Roman writers to a hundred and thirty thousand people at this stage the Emperor Nero seriously considered pulling his remaining troops out of Britain entirely abandoning the province to its fate of course very possibly toppling him from his position in the process barbarians weren't supposed to beat Romans this eventualities having the potential to disrupt the entire empire Paul Linus however and his man had more to lose than most no doubt many having wives and families in Britain their futures and fortunes were inextricably tied up with the island and they wouldn't go down without a fight Boadicea having destroyed the three largest cities in Roman Britain moved out of Sint Albans heading north knowing her only chance to win the war was to catch POW Linus before he could escape and reform a significant army a battle was on the cards one of the largest ever fought on British soil [Music] heading north according to the Roman sources Paulinus swelled his ranks with retired soldiers from all over the land he sent word to the other legion still in Britannia down in Domino Nia its commander Pontius posthumous simply declined to join nevertheless POW Linus was very much made of the same stuff as Julius Caesar always maximizing his own advantages whilst minimizing those of the enemy there was a reason why he'd abandoned London the retreat allowing him to take her a strategic position of his own choosing a place he knew well somewhere along Watling Street later known as the place of the chariots only fielding somewhere between 5,000 and 11,000 men pow Linus placed his legionaries in the center cavalry on the wings his secret weapon however was the landscape itself placing his line on top of a hill his flanks surrounded by impassable woodland when boudicca's army arrived likely well over 100,000 of them Casius deoxys 230,000 it must have been a terrifying sight carnac's war horns sounding out over the shouting of warriors champions racing forwards to sing the deeds of their ancestors and encourage the Romans to face them in single combat perhaps carrying the heads of defeated foes around their waists do calls it the largest army ever faced by Rome if it had been it makes sense why Boudicca needed to attack immediately feeding that many people would have been a logistical nightmare writing with the benefit of hindsight their works very much designed to be performed out loud at parties and events Tacitus and do were both partial to writing speeches for their pataga nests we have one for each respective leader at Watling Street in truth we have no idea whether either is true Tacitus in particular having a propensity for putting his own words in the mouths of leaders like a Khal Gatos in Scotland using the barbarian as a mouthpiece for himself to say something about Rome according to do Boadicea atop her chariot raced through the ranks of her men shouting at them with appraisals of her ancestors saying she is descended from mighty men reminding her people of why they are fighting for freedom that's what she as a woman will do and let the man live in slavery if they wish how lionesses speech was simpler we've beaten than before we'll beat them again for him it was a simple matter of life and death better to fight now than be tortured to death later soon enough as the entire British Army surged forwards as a mass intending to use their numbers to overwhelm and break through the Roman line their war chariots moved out ahead to the Romans these were a relic of the ancient world long since defunct in their style of combat though still deadly nonetheless the charioteers raced forwards towards the Roman line hurling insults and challenges as they went along with javelins thrown between each army in equal measure though massively outnumbered the Romans held the advantage and power Linus knew it it took all the Roman metal to hold the line but of course there was a reason how Linus had been chosen for the job because of the copses of wood on either side of the Roman line only a fraction of the icy knee could engage at any one time a large mass of humanity building up behind them the well disciplined Romans on the other hand constantly recycled their numbers rotating their ranks to keep those at the front as fresh as possible as the afternoon wore on the British Nimbus worked against them crushing them together in a terrible state as they attempted to fight uphill towards the Romans her lionesses cavalry beginning to circle around to nip at their wings we're told that before the battle the Celts were so sure of victory they'd brought their families and children up in a large wagon train to watch the battle and possibly to cut off the Roman retreat now those wagons would cause the doom of the icy knee blocking them from getting away from the battlefield as soon as the Celts began to break ranks the battle was effectively over it was in retreat that most soldiers lost their lives and the Romans in an especially vengeful mood left no one alive killing around 80,000 in all according to Tacitus power Linus's legion was given a new title to award their victory whereas posthumous who'd refused to join the war took his own life from shame Boadicea and a handful of her followers managed to escape the battlefield Tacitus his information was that she drank poison what happened to her daughters nobody knows the war for Britannia had only lasted a few months but the Romans would make sure it never happened again 7,000 hardened reinforcements being drafted in from Germany and the lands of the icy knee and train of auntie's mercilessly pillaged before being covered in fortifications the surviving icy knee forcibly moved into market towns to allow romanization to gradually take place you've been watching history time don't forget to Like and subscribe let me know in the comments what you think and I'll see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: History Time

Views: 290,111

Keywords: boudicca, great British rebellion, celts, celtic europe, celtic, ancient europe, Iron Age europe, brone, Bronze Age europe, paulinus, tacitus, agricola, Cassius dio, watling street, roman london, 60 AD, 61 AD, romans, roman history, roman britain, history documentary, documentary, education;, educational, roman bath, roman gods, roman religion, history of roman britain, roman invasion of Britain, calgacus, Julius caesar, invasion of Britain, Britannia, druids, history of the druids

Id: c3Hq6UaFQqk

Length: 39min 59sec (2399 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020