Boudicca: Warrior Queen of Ancient Britain (FULL MOVIE) | documentary, women's history, biography

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when it comes to women in history there are few that command the respect that's Boudicca the warrior queen of the ancient Britons has achieved over the centuries yet this fearsome female still remains to this day a true enigma who she was what she did and the consequences of her actions are as fascinating as they've ever been this program will take you on a journey of discovery to find the real Boadicea the woman behind the legend [Music] nearly 2,000 years ago this widowed Queen was one of the few souls brave enough to rise up in rebellion against the mighty Romans were occupying her homeland she managed to amass and control an army of over 100,000 ancient Britons laying waste to several of the nation's occupied towns and cities along the way including London before eventually succumbing to the dominance of the Roman Empire in one final huge battle in 61 AD this is the history of booty ker in a nutshell but before we go any further we have an important issue to straighten out it was William Shakespeare who famously posed the question what's in a name in his play Romeo and Juliet but it could equally have been asked of the heroine of our program here's a quick puzzle pick the odd one act Boadicea Boadicea booed weaker bond dukkha all this is Prasutagus did you spot it you may have thought the odd one out was mrs. Prasutagus as the rest of the variations seem to be different ways of saying and spelling the name of this incredible woman however mrs. Prasutagus is the one option that actually goes without question as she was without doubt the wife of Prasutagus the king of the Iceni tribe I seen II I seen I beam yet another major area of debate in pronunciation so the answer to the question is that there is no odd one out each variation has been used at some stage throughout history but for this program we'll stick with Boadicea which seems to be the modern accepted form of this great lady's name Boadicea would have been derived from the Celtic word Buddha which means victory with boodikka being the Celtic goddess of victory today we tend to associate the term Celtic with the people of Ireland Scotland and Wales but this collection of noble and warlike people from the late 5th century BC onwards populated many other countries including Austria Switzerland Norway Germany France Denmark Belgium Spain Italy Greece Finland Portugal and of course England boudicca's homeland the name Celt derives from the Latin Celt I Latin being the language spoken throughout the Roman Empire which included many of the countries where the Celts resided but more of the celts and their colorful traditions a little later so if Boudicca was named after the Celtic goddess worshiped by the Iceni tribe then this may not have been the Queen's real name tall but just the name given to her by her followers as she led them into battle [Music] the Iceni tribe boom Boadicea became a leader of after her husband Prasutagus death occupied most of the English region known as East Anglia and to be more specific the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk the town of Thetford being at the heart of boudicca's domain we know this because of the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus who took a particular interest in the courageous and battle hardy queen of ancient Britons [Music] it said that history is only told by the victors this is never more evident than in the case of Boudicca her story has only been passed down through the centuries as a result of the Roman accounts of her but only after she'd been defeated [Music] interestingly Tacitus took a great interest in Britain because his father-in-law had served there as a military Tribune under Suetonius Paulinus during the time of boudicca's uprising and is highly likely that he was able to give Tacitus and eyewitness account of the events but with the archeological research and reading between the lines of roman boasting and bravado it is possible to form our own picture of this mighty rebellious woman [Music] time then to expand on the legend of Boudicca who is still regarded as one of Britain's greatest leaders alongside the great men of British history including King Arthur Winston Churchill Robin Hood and King Richard the Lionheart after all who says all legendary heroes have to be men [Music] [Applause] it all began with Britain being invaded by the Romans but before we get into the swords the fighting the shield's the helmets the flags the war crimes the chariots the spears the togas the laurel wreaths the guts and gore let's pause for a moment and travel back through time a little further than boodikka to experience a flavor of the Roman Empire itself [Music] around 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ the city of Rome was built and first it was ruled by kings and then when the last King Tarquin the proud was overthrown because of his barbaric cruelty to his people Rome became a republic this is essentially a country with a king queen or an emperor but with an elected ruling body Rome's Republic was ruled by a Senate made up of elected senators very much like the United States of America or with different responsibilities with a powerful military tradition as the advancing Roman army became more powerful the city of Rome itself became the capital for an ever-expanding Roman Empire the Romans dominated wherever they advanced from France to North Africa they eventually appointed an emperor to rule over all of their territories this was due to the fact that the generals who controlled the various legions of the Roman army couldn't agree on a single decision which made controlling the Roman Empire the task fraught with constant bickering and backstabbing of course this isn't to say that this all stopped when an emperor was appointed in fact some cases it got us [Music] even with a troupe of special soldiers to protect him called the Praetorian Guard many of the more unpopular Emperor's were often attacked or even assassinated sometimes by the very soldiers who were supposed to be protecting them [Music] in Britain the Celts dominated but they were far from being a big happy family either made up of tribes often ruled by kings queens or Chiefs they usually lived in settlements where a large hill could be used as a vantage point to defend themselves from attackers often a fortification would be built on a hill like a very early form of a castle as can still be seen across East Anglia in fact one of the lowest hill forts just six feet above sea level can be found at Stony camp near the town of March in Cambridgeshire amidst the Norfolk fence this region is a popular walking area that covers three counties in the eastern England and used to be known as the wetlands because of its soggy nature this is believed to be the site where a huge battle took place between the Iceni tribe 20 years before Boudicca was Queen and an invasion force of the Roman army who were on a reconnaissance mission to see whether Britain would be a viable place to conquer and add to the Empire around at the time of Boudicca stony camp would have been a very wet place with the ditches filled with water archaeological excavations have uncovered horrible mutilated adult and child skeletons at Stony camp with indents of Roman swords cut right into the bones proving that a battle did take place at Stony between the Iceni and the Roman army nevertheless fighting off invaders was never the highest priority for the Celts as they were more often than not preoccupied with fighting amongst themselves neighbouring tribes of Celts were never at ease with one another and were frequently engaged in arguing or fighting over something very much like siblings in a large extended family [Music] the invasion of Britain by the Romans began in earnest during the year 55 BC Julius Caesar probably the most famous of the Roman emperors conquered France then known as Gaul in this year before turning his attention across the channel to England [Music] in actual fact Julius Caesar trying to conquer Britain twice once in 55 BC and then again two years later but both of these attempts failed this was due to the ferocity of the British warriors who never fought in massed ranks or with tactical precision like their Roman counterparts battling to the death with anger with passion and with pride one of the other major stumbling blocks for the Roman army was the British weather the rain cold wind and the odd spot of sun-maid invading a land with no roads virtually impossible dirt tracks were about all that joined the tribes in each area together there was little adequate shelter as the ancient Britons were a hardy people lived in homes there were little more than mud huts with roofs of straw that barely kept out wind and the rain this was a far cry from the type of living conditions the sophisticated Romans were used to the British may continually bemoan the weather but in this instance it was actually a great help to the natives and not a hindrance at all a hundred years later with the new roman emperor claudius in charge they decided to have another go at invading Britain this time with the knowledge acquired from the previous attempts the Romans succeeded in their conquest of Britain [Music] the Romans made peace with some of the Celtic tribes allowing them to still rule over their small territories and client kingdoms were born client kingdoms enabled Rome to maintain control by appointing a king from within the tribe who would be loyal to them the Romans would take 1/3 of the tribes harvest away from them every year homegrown food and hand reared animals and the tribe would then be forced to buy it back again at a higher price than they were paid for it in the first place not surprisingly this enraged some of the tribes who continued to fight with the conquering army instigating little pockets of resistance against the Romans all over the country however it wasn't until 61 AD that the Romans had to deal with that most dangerous threat of all a woman scorned as we already know Boadicea was married to Prasutagus who was the Roman appointed leader of the Iceni tribe which was all fine and good until he died being a wise sort of a fellow well used to dealing with the Romans he left a will that split all of his land and possessions between his wife Boadicea and the new roman emperor Nero [Music] the Romans did tend to get through rather a lot of Emperor's thanks to plotting and scheming and murder and mayhem some were definitely better than others fortunately Nero was a disaster for Rome and proved to be equally bad news for Boudicca as well Nero wasn't satisfied with Rome's cutoff Prasutagus --is will and not only demanded that Boudicca stepped down as Queen but also that as well as taking most of their harvest every year Rome would demand the payment of large taxes from the already starving Iceni understandably this enraged Boudicca and her refusal to comply resulted in the Romans instigating a campaign to publicly humiliate her on orders from Rome her tribe were forced to witness her being flogged with whips and beaten with wooden rods and in turn Boadicea was made to watch her two young daughters violated by Roman soldiers a Roman historian wrote of her after witnessing this appalling public humiliation that she stood defiant and unbound she was very tall and the aspect was terrifying for her eyes flashed fiercely and her voice was harsh a mass of red hair fell down to her hips and around her neck was a twisted gold necklace in an unprecedented show of support the neighboring Celtic tribes rose up in anger alongside Boudicca forming a viable resistance to such barbaric treatment and together the huge army marched from Bedford to the capital of Roman Britain Colchester promptly destroyed it [Music] boudicca's fearsome army then stormed through Essex before targeting London then st. Albans in hartfordshire to meet out some equally bloody revenge [Music] the Romans regathered their troops as some of them were fighting to overthrow rebellious tribes of Welsh Celts marching them back from the far-flung island of Anglesey the final battle between boudicca's irrepressible Celts and the might of the Roman Empire is believed to have taken place in the village of man setter near the town of a Thurstone in the county of Warwickshire England this was on the Roman Road called Watling Street which stretched with Roman precision from Dover to Shropshire and the ensuing battle went down in history as the Battle of Watling Street boudicca's army was massacred in part due to the battlefield discipline and superior military tactics of the Roman army but despite the rebellion being crushed her passionate stand against barbaric tyranny had given the Romans the shock of their lives but we'll return for a more detailed view of boudicca's last and a little later firstly we'll take that promised closer look at the Celts [Music] the name Celt originated with the ancient Greeks who called the Barbarian people of Central Europe quelle TOI the area where they lived became a constantly-changing collection of tribal nations the celts were never an empire ruled by one government instead they are thought to have originated in Central Europe southern Germany Austria and Hungary for example from around 3,500 years ago the Celts began moving across the continent and eventually inhabited a large portion of Europe [Music] [Applause] weapons were very important to the Celts and they would sacrifice their finest swords shield spears and even chariots to the gods by throwing them into lakes rivers and bogs places they considered to be sacred on the island of Anglesey in North Wales an important location for later in the Boudicca story archeologists have found over 150 bronze and iron objects including shields daggers swords chariot fittings and harnesses in a marshy bog the dredging and digging that took place has transformed the area into a lake so it's unlikely that anything else will be discovered but the collection reflects just how militaristic and proud the Celts were and because of similar collections in the South of England they undoubtedly also traded items as a major part of their culture [Music] for the celts religion was closely tied to the natural world and all that mother nature provided they worshiped their gods and goddesses in so-called sacred places as mentioned earlier like rivers and lakes even taking themselves to the clifftops to worship with the beautifully significant White Cliffs of Dover being of equal importance to the ancient Britons as they are to us today [Music] the Celts were also convinced that the world of the supernatural governed every aspect of the world that they knew with the most powerful being the Sun the moon and the stars and many of their celebrations and rituals reflected this with some having been passed down through the ages just take a look at Stonehenge one of Britain's most treasured ancient monuments to this day we really have little idea of the purpose of these fine stones but as traditional druids gather here to celebrate the summer solstice each year our best guess is that this positively Herculean construction was somewhat connected with Sun worship so intrinsic to Celtic beliefs [Music] as a contrast the everyday lives of the Celts were on a much simpler scale there are places where even in the 21st century we can go to find out about how Queen Boudicca and her people lived welcome to sin debris fault which is a reconstruction of an Iron Age settlement which truly demonstrates what Celtic life would have been like [Music] the Celts were a proud artistic race of people and this showed in every aspect of their lives they wove their own cloth were wonderful Potter's and incorporated highly decorative design into their metalworking in fact looking at this amazing heart in detail it is indeed a work of art in its own right the wooden frame has been covered in clay to make hard walls and thatch was often used to keep out the rain and iron cauldron would have hung over a fire for cooking and creating warmth while a domed clay oven would have provided the Celts with their daily bread the Celts were very practical people and they're also very spiritual worshipping as we'd heard earlier an entire range of gods and goddesses they even had their own priests called druids who led religious ceremonies and acted as judges and advisers within Celtic society however as a race they were undoubtedly best known for their fierceness on the battlefield these people that quietly lived tending to their animals making pots and metalworking in settlements like this would fight to the death when they were under threat believing the death was simply a journey to their Otherworld consequently the Celts showed no fear whatsoever in battle which even the disciplined Roman army had no answer for who knows this might just be another explanation of why so many swords and so much weaponry got thrown into lakes or at least got buried with its deceased owners to help them in the other world instantly the count believed that if you died in the other world which was possible you'd be born again on earth to do all that fighting all over again now while we're still on the subject of throwing the swords into lakes understanding the Celts can help to demystify another right royal great british legend Boadicea fought to be queen of the ancient Britons against the Romans but when the Romans finally left Britain many years later King Arthur was crowned the last Celtic monic legend has it that young Arthur drew a sword from a stone to prove his right to rule but could this have been a mere distortion of history [Music] the Celts were great fans of single combat where two tribal leaders would often fight on behalf of their people for supremacy the druids would oversee the proceedings while the symbol of kingship was not a cran but instead a sword the sword was placed on an altar usually made of stone and watched over by the Druids until it was bestowed upon the victor could it have been a sword on a stone rather than a neat [Music] also the legend of Arthur claims that his sword was returned to the Lady of the lake after his death again immortalizing the celtic practice of throwing swords into sacred bodies of water but that's of course another story altogether so let's return to the more unusual Celtic practices that boodikka would have known very well Celtic people had great respect and reverence for of all things the human head this wasn't just by looking in mirrors and admiring the braiding in their hair all the tattoos over their faces no that would be too simple the Celts according to Roman historians cut off the heads of their dearly departed family members and worshiped their skulls by encircling them with candles and praying the Celts were also renowned for cutting off the heads of their enemies too so that they could remove the brain and mix it with lime to make it into a hard round ball they could then carry this into battle to give them the strength of their enemy as well as their own failing that when they ran out of objects to throw a well hardened brain could make a very handy missile indeed [Music] [Music] throughout Celtic history the head of the tribe could just as easily be a king or a queen there were no stereotypical sexist views from the Celts as they believed that women were equal to men with Boudicca being the prime example of this the title of king or queen was not necessarily inherited for monarchs could nominate their successor however when the Romans invaded Britain they appointed the head of the tribe to ensure the people's allegiance to Rome [Music] the Romans came to Britain looking for riches land slaves and most of all iron lead zinc copper silver and gold the Romans took over the celts land and built their own towns with strong thoughts linked by a good road system that is still in evidence today ports and harbors were also important places for the Romans to bring in food wine and oil from abroad [Music] to this day you can find examples of the Roman occupation of Britain ranging from the grandiose splendor of these baths in bath to remains of Roman villas like this one tucked into the rural hillside of the Cotswolds [Music] the major Roman settlements close by were at leave'em modern-day Gloucester and Caribbean lovely market town of Cirencester the artist's impression shows just how sophisticated this villa would have been and it typifies the way the Romans in Britain would have lived now looking across the valley the hills are beautiful but for the Roman settlers there was danger lurking high above them about a mile as the crow flies from these Roman remains on a hilltop you'll find another set of remains this time from a once magnificent I am the aged hill fort with a vantage point from which the Celts could have seen any would-be attackers in boudicca's day this Hill would been fortified with ditches and ramparts and although you need a little imagination to visualize what it would have been like at least having seen the reconstructed huts at sin debris you have a better idea however even those who came here with a dedicated interest in iron age and Celtic archaeology will be amazed by the magnificent panoramic view and go away impressed the ancient Britons ability to choose a beautiful place to live even if they lacked the home comforts of the Romans in the valley below having seen how closely the Romans and Celts lived together it's understandable that relations were not always unfriendly the Roman Way of life was very different from that of the Celts and many of the Celts started to copy the Romans speaking their language and living like then the Celts started using Latin words within a few generations the Celtic and Roman ways of life became mixed with marriages taking place between them Roman soldiers retiring from the Army to become farmers and artisans in Celtic tribes sons and grandsons of those who fought against the Romans even joining the Roman army in Wales Scotland Ireland the Isle of Man Cornwall and Brittany across the channel in France the Celtic culture has survived many of us still regard ourselves as Celts to this day with our greater understanding of the life that Boudicca and her people lived and the traditions and beliefs that shaped the way that they behaved will now return to the story of this great warrior queen and take a closer look at her incredible story the best place to start is by taking a journey to the area of Britain where the Iceni tribe lived over by King Prasutagus and then taken over by Queen Boudicca after his death tribe occupied land situated in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk unlike the Roman invaders who'd set up luxury towns and homes the Iceni tribe as we've already seen would have lived relatively simple lives the palace that King Prasutagus and Queen Boudicca ruled their tribe from would have been made of entirely perishable materials like wood clay straw mud and even animal dung even if it had been on a grander scale and the charming hunts we saw at cinder berry but sin debris is far from being the only place in Britain where you can experience firsthand what the life of an ancient Britain was like if you visit the county of Norfolk in southeastern England you'll find an actual reconstruction of a genuine Iceni tribe village which is situated at the village of Copley clay near the town of Swofford there are all sorts of treasures to discover including the dubious delights of a snake pit hanging skeletons stocks and a pillory plus the usual Celtic Rand houses and forges for smelting iron and fashioning ornate weapons this is about as close as we can ever get to an exact replica of the village that Queen Boudicca would have lived in and although this isn't the real thing there is evidence that the latreille site actually had a celtic settlement based here when our heroine was waging such bloody war against the Romans [Music] the town of thetford the actual seat of power of boudicca's Iceni tribe is not far from Kok leaked leh and is well worth a visit if you're in the area there are remnants of the defensive works that would have protected the settlement from attack and the fascinating Castle Hill stands as a proud testament to this for modern day tourists castle hill is to the east of Thetford it is a massive mound probably about 80 feet in height and a thousand feet in diameter that dates back to the time of Boudicca wherever you happen to be unearthing celtic settlements across the country it's evident that wherever possible that Celts favoured the high ground which must have been a terrifying prospect for their enemies [Music] there's no denying that the Boudicca story if it was a work of fiction would top the historical bestseller chance with immediate effect and even in the 21st century few can fail to feel anything but empathy for this great woman literally centuries ahead of her time we've already had a look around the Iceni tribes home and done our background research on the period in history when this all took place but what was Boudicca really like she was the archetypal heroine courageous tempestuous the well-respected queen of the Iceni tribe with flame red hair to match her fiery temperament also she was far from being alone enjoying great status as a woman warrior because the Celtic people were noted for allowing their wives and daughters to join in any battle with them although historians claim that Celts were no more than illiterate barbarians with a rudimentary knowledge of farming that helped to keep them alive between battles inter tribal fighting and general skirmishes they were wise enough to allow women to operate on an equal footing to men in all aspects of their culture boudicca's husband died whilst her daughters were still very young and it's believed that she was in her late 30s at the time this happened and what off the love-interest Prasutagus was boudicca's old a husband who taken over as leader of the Iceni tribe when the roman invasion reached britain shores the romans allowed the Iceni to keep their land so long as Prasutagus as king of the tribe Dida's they asked and kept paying the taxes needing a queen he married Boadicea who was off the celtic nobility and they had two daughters Prasutagus had been clever enough to keep the Romans happy but he was also wise enough to know that if he died there would be difficulties so he left a will that he thought would resolve matters nicely he bequeathed half of his money his personal possessions and the Iceni lands which consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk governed from Thetford to Boudicca and his daughters because he had daughters rather than sons he needed to ensure that they would have enough money for a dowry so that they could marry well also booty could needed to be able to govern as Queen of the Iceni and pay taxes to the Romans until she could marry again and hand over some of the responsibilities the other half of his legacy was left to the roman emperor nero in the hope of appeasement unfortunately the emperor nero was not one of Rome's most reasonable citizens and he greedily decided that he wanted everything Prasutagus left for himself [Music] without doubt returning to our historical novel scenario Nero would have been classed as the true villain of the piece this was one of Rome's most notorious emperors who became corrupted by absolute power absolutely his mother Messalina had married the Emperor Claudius her own uncle as a means of gaining wealth and power through her scheming and conniving she managed to get Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son and thereby make him rightful heir to the Roman Empire but before the ink was even dry on the statute Messalina poisoned Claudius and at the age of 14 Nero became the new emperor of Rome spoiled beyond all measure he loved living life to excess he married frequently divorced regularly and had many of his wives and a whole host of lovers of both sexes murdered just because he'd got bored with them Nero also considered himself to be a great artist and performer those considered shameful for a Roman Emperor to appear as a public entertainer acting singing and playing his lyre which is a small type of harp never one to bow to public opinion he continued to do exactly as he pleased and never once left Rome as other Emperor's had done to see the territories claimed for the Empire and congratulate the Army on their conquests when a great fire devastated Rome in July of 64 AD just a few years after the death of buddhic Nero was accused of starting it himself to make way for a new and more glorious Palace that he wanted to build made entirely of gold [Music] so when the Emperor Nero decided to steal the rest of the money lands and possessions from the widowed Queen Boudicca it wouldn't have come as a great surprise to anyone neither would it have been a shock that Boudicca and her daughters were treated so barbarically upon Nero's orders and from the point of view of an epic saga their humiliation and violation at the hands of the roman soldiers proved pivotal in rallying the Celts who generally fought amongst themselves to rise up against Rome and if the story now calls a rage and retribution this is exactly what the Romans were about to get with the neighboring Celt client kingdoms fired up and ready to follow budagher as their leader the Romans had to face their biggest threat on British soil to date the southeast corner of England was predominantly made up of these small client kingdoms as the Romans christened them which was still ruled by the Celts but under strict Roman control nevertheless there was always an uneasy sense of the status quo could be very easily upset in actual fact although the Romans had successfully invaded Britain they never quite managed to truly conquer it in the West particularly in Wales it took 30 years of continual battling before the Celts finally succumbed to Roman rule [Music] the further north the Romans advanced the more difficult they found the terrain the weather and the people 60 years after boudicca's humiliation in front of her own tribe the Romans gave up trying to conquer Scotland or Caledonia as the Romans called it building Hadrian's war to prevent military raids by the Scottish tribes of Celts into Roman occupied England this stone and turf fortification stretched across the breadth of Great Britain of which a significant portion still exists specifically in the middle section and historians and preservation societies are unanimously agreed when they call it the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain returning to our story though the plot is set to reach its conclusion as boom de Kigali damp as many rebellious tribes as she could convincing everyone to put aside their differences in order to go to war against their common enemy the Romans [Music] [Music] from the town of thetford Boudicca and the masked Celtic army of 100,000 soldiers marched straight for the roman stronghold of Camulodunum now known as Colchester which was dominated by retired Roman officers and their families at this time the town of consciousness was the capital of Roman Britain so it was the ideal place to attack first however before the Romans arrival it had been the main base of the trim Avanti tribe who also claimed the County of Essex and part of Suffolk as their home before their lamps had been seized from them many of their people had been enslaved they'd also been ordered to pay taxes to the Romans for their own land just like the ic9 previously the trin of ante had feuded constantly with booty cos Iceni tribe until the differences were put aside to rise up against to the Romans [Music] Colchester had many fine examples of Roman buildings and architecture including council chambers a theatre and the massive Roman temple - Claudius Nero's predecessor the murdered uncle boudicca's army dramatically outnumbered the inhabitants of Colchester as many of the soldiers that should have been stationed there were away fighting the Celts in Wales Colchester today seems rather proud of Boudicca even though she totally destroyed their town she's even been commemorated in a stained glass window in Colchester Town Hall [Music] Boadicea by now our warrior queen in every sense of the word and her celtic army completely devastated the town of Colchester burning down the Roman temple of Claudius its opulence grandeur and sophistication representing everything that the Celts hated about the Rhodes [Applause] a grand castle was later built on the vaulted foundations of the Roman temple of Claudius and today this is the home of the Colchester Castle Museum at the eastern end of the high street if you visit the museum you can experience an audio-visual drama all about Boadicea reasons for burning the town to the ground the museum also exhibits charred remains of fruit grain pottery and bedding from the time as well as the decapitated skulls of Roman soldiers among the highlights on show are two Roman military tombstones when they were discovered they were broken into and found facedown on the ground the local historian believes this happened at the time of the revolt and some recent finds at a London Cemetery bear out his theories that the desecration of sacred burial grounds was a feature of boudicca's rebellion putting together the pieces that archeologists have discovered it would appear that most of the Roman residents of Colchester crammed into the vaults of the Temple barricading themselves away from the invading Celts but Boudicca remember was a woman scorned and no mercy was shown or quarter given as they were all burned alive however compared to the violent death the marauding Celts inflicted on other Roman citizens of Colchester it was perhaps a better option although there's no sign of the Roman temple above-ground the vaults where so many Romans died are still to be found below the castle and if you're not afraid of ghosts you can take a guided tour around the vaults when you visit the Colchester Castle Museum [Music] and just for added interest in the basement of an old coaching inn called the gorge on the main High Street not too far away from the cultures to castle museum there's a pane of glass that protects a cutaway section of the soil that's been built upon over the years it's about six foot below the surface and near the top you can see a distinctive layer of bright red burnt clay this is all that remains the wattle and daub buildings of the celts that became when burned a hard red clay this is often referred to as the Buddakan destruction layer but for now we'll leave cultures to smoldering behind us as another exciting male protagonist comes to join the story with a final showdown between Boudicca and her ancient Britons and the Roman army already looming large we meet the commander of the opposition the Roman soldiers fighting in Wales at the time of the burning of Colchester were led by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and as soon as the news broke of boudicca's terrible attack the Roman army was mobilized marching southeast in order to stop the warrior queen in her tracks Suetonius Paulinus was the Roman general who'd been appointed governor of Britain and at the time of boudicca's revolt was trying to gain a stronghold on the island of Anglesey this outcrop Island in Wales was home to many British fugitives fleeing from Roman justice as well as many druids ironically because of the Druids social and religious influence they were not only priests but also philosophers scientists teachers judges and counselors the Romans actually feared these peace-loving Celtic preachers far more than the bloodthirsty warriors many of the traditional rural religious practices from the druids have been assimilated into modern day Christianity has evolved to become the dominant religion in Britain so in essence the druid influence survives through the many harvest rituals and festivals that are celebrated each year as the harvest is safely gathered in also more pagan rites such as the celebration of Halloween stem from Celtic origins today as children happily carve pumpkin lanterns and enjoy playing trick or treat it's hard to believe that a real ancient tradition is behind all the fun and games although the Celts did not celebrate Halloween as we know it they commemorated the day of the dead on All Hallows day which is the day after Halloween the first of November but as we're just reaching the climax of Boudicca story it's time to stop getting sidetracked and get back to the action during the few days that it took to reduce Colchester to ruins a message 'event managed to reach Suetonius Paulinus who was able to send a troop of Roman soldiers to try and assist to the under siege town he let 5,000 of his soldiers return but Boudicca had already received word of this and she ambushed them to the north of Colchester wiping out the entire troop Boadicea then steered her victorious band of kells towards Londinium soon to be renamed as london and rebuilt as the new capital of the nation this was a relatively new settlement at the time which the Romans had founded only a decade before boudicca's uprising it said that approximately 10,000 people were living there and it expanded at great speed quickly nearing the size of the present city of London those streets were about 16 feet lower than they are today of course in those days there were no famous landmarks like Big Ben Tower Bridge Nelson's column the houses of parliament or Westminster Abbey Lavinia wasn't even as magnificent as Colchester had been before it had been reduced to red rubble can you imagine today's London compared to the londonium of yesterday it would have been a lot like the reconstruction of the Iron Age villages we've been looking at with a few more upmarket Roman villas scattered about today as you watch all the hustle bustle and noise of the busy streets of London complete with red double-decker buses and black taxicabs and the shining lights of the West End theatres restaurants and coffee houses imagine it all melting away into the green open countryside of Roman occupied Londinium the majestic trees the furrowed fields and the rolling hills of boudicca's times [Music] as news spread that Colchester was no more and that Boudicca was on the rampage marching on Londinium the governor Suetonius Paulinus and managed to return with his troops to this relatively simple settlement before the arrival of the warrior queen and her army of Celts however never one to underestimate his opposition the military tactician decided that he didn't have sufficient manpower to defend London from the passionate Celts who were determined to regain their homeland so unlike many other Roman commanders whose pride and ego got in the way of a sensible decision he chose to make a tactical withdrawal before Boadicea arrived the Roman historian Tacitus wrote this of the strategy of the Roman commander he decided to sacrifice the one town to save the general situation meanwhile Boudicca and her army had marched through Essex destroying Roman settlements wherever they found them along the way brutally leaving a trail of bloody mayhem behind them as Londinium came into view if anything the celts raf hadn't been appeased in any way shape or form by the destruction of Colchester and another Roman historian notes that the violence torture and atrocities were equal to anything the Roman occupiers had inflicted on the ancient Britons warfare is never pretty and historical records can be prejudiced by those who write them in this case the Romans but the Celts practice of mutilating bodies and hoisting them on stakes as warning to any Roman who might stand in their way was particularly barbaric however these were violent times and human life was cheap and beset with danger even in peacetime and on that gruesome note we return to our story [Music] Boadicea burnt Londinium to the ground just as she destroyed Colchester again the melted remains turned into a layer of red clay sometimes ten inches thick the same Buddakan destruction layer that you can see in Colchester but Boudicca and her band of warriors were still not finished now as you look around London today it's often difficult to spot remnants of the past unless you happen to be a fully qualified historian however one of the best things about Britain's capital city for modern-day visitors happens to be the amazing museums that tell the story of ancient tongues the British Museum on great Russell Street has a huge collection of artifacts from the age in which Boudicca fought her battles including jewellery from the Iceni tribe it even has the head of the Emperor Claudius the Roman leader responsible for the occupation of Britain in the first place well it's actually the head of a statue of him that stood in front of his temple in Colchester and we now know what Boudicca did to that building with her army behind her she ripped the statue down decapitated it and threw the head into the nearby river it was some 2,000 years later that it was recovered and brought here for safekeeping once her work was complete in London Boudicca and her army forged ever onwards targeting the town of very lame iam today's town of st. Albans as their next destination however news of boudicca's advance was also spreading equally fast and the people of Vera Lane iam realized that they were going to be the Moriya Queens next victims consequently when Boudicca arrived with her followers now numbering over 200,000 the town was completely deserted nevertheless Boudicca destroyed Vera lay Liam evidently reluctant to stop while on a winning streak by this stage in the campaign Boudicca and her celtic army must have been feeling that they had the Romans on the run and as they ventured northwards to confront Suetonius Paulinus face-to-face confidence must have been extremely high however the Romans were not great Empire builders for nothing and he'd managed to meet up with two Roman armies marching into Wales swelling his army to over 10,000 soldiers it was still nowhere near the quarter of a million rebels that Boudicca was controlling so poor Linus was anxious to find a battlefield where he could fully exploit the ancient Britons weaknesses with the discipline of his Roman legions [Music] what happened next was a great battle and although there is disagreement about where it actually took place the general consensus of opinion is that both sides met at a little village called pancetta in Warwickshire along Watling Street which was the longest and most important of the incredibly straight roads that the Romans built stretching from Dover through to London in the Southeast of England to Anglesey in the north of Wales the name man setter actually means the place of chariots it was the site of a Roman fort - and this is where the finale of this great historical saga was destined to be played out [Music] today any hint of there being a battlefield here is long gone as the flat open plain of the countryside with the river anchor running through it is situated to the southeast of the town of Bastogne Warwickshire between the continually busy a-five Road which still follows the line of the Roman Watling Street and what's known locally as the Hearts Hill Ridge Suetonius Paulinus had chosen his location well and despite boudicca's Army's superior numbers they were no match for the Roman military machine unfortunately this is where Boudicca met her downfall although the Celts fought with passion and belief they were destroyed by the warrior queens Roman nemesis [Music] imagine the scene wagon loads of Celtic spectators mostly women and children and the spoils of war gathered from the sacking of Colchester London and st. Albans placed behind the Army on the battlefield ready to watch the ultimate showdown Boadicea made an impassioned speech to rally her followers before they charged into the fray it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom my scourge body the outraged chastity of my daughter's Roman lust has gone so far that not our very person nor even age or virginity are left unpolluted but heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance a legion that dared to fight has perished the rest are hiding themselves in their camp or are thinking anxiously of flight they will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands much less our charge and our blows if you weigh well the strength of the armies and the causes of the war you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die this is a woman's resolve as for men they may live and be slaves [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the ancient Britons charged the Romans only to be met with a flurry of javelins which disorientated the Celts then the Romans advanced as one unit hidden by shields as they pushed forward stabbing and trampling all those [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Boadicea was cold and she couldn't tell her army to retreat and regroup because they were trapped by the line of their own wagons behind them they were armed with long swords that needed space to swing and connect but they were crushed in a melee of their own making because of the large celtic army they'd accumulated and consequently the brave warriors were unable to move [Applause] in contrast to the disciplined well-trained soldiers of the Roman army boudicca's rebels were a disorganized rabble hindered by vast numbers of women and children armed with swords spears and knives before long boudicca's advantage in numbers had been cancelled out and there was quite literally nowhere to run at the end of the bloody battle 80,000 of boudicca's warriors had been killed including the women and children who were waiting in the wagons behind the battle lines while only 400 Romans lost their lives and what of Boudicca the great warrior queen did she survive the last battle reports are varied and conflicting on this subject but whether she escaped and fled back to the Iceni country of east anglia or she was taken prisoner bunny Suetonius Paulinus one thing is always consistent namely that she took her own life wherever they were fighting in the world it was the tradition for the leaders of the Romans vanquished foes to be shipped back to Rome where they would be paraded in Chains through the streets the ultimate humiliation before being executed Boadicea had certainly been a worthy adversary and she would have suffered this fate without a doubt if she hadn't have taken such drastic action for a Celt suicide was an honorable death and wherever her remains lie the legend of Boudicca although lacking a happy ending can at least boast a satisfactory conclusion despite Boudicca not living to see it the Romans eventually left Britain and the pages of history closed on this chapter of occupation yet this is far from being the end of the Boudicca story ironically as the dark ages descended upon Britain Boutique have vanished into the back waters of history for many centuries it wasn't until the Renaissance that a story was rediscovered even Roman manuscripts most notably in the writings of Tacitus [Music] the Renaissance is usually considered to have originated in the late 13th century in northern Italy and extends to the mid 15th century across Europe it was the rebirth in essence of the ideals of classical ancient Greece and more importantly Rome however the true resurrection of this warrior queen didn't actually take place until the 19th century when Queen Victoria became Britain's sovereign in 1837 as the word Boudicca translates as the Celtic word for victory and through Roman Latin translation actually becomes Victoria so Queen Victoria became associated with her namesake from the ancient Britons for Queen Victoria there were few women that she could look back on in history that offered inspiration for a female fighting for supremacy in a male-dominated world Queen Elizabeth the first had ruled magnificently but she came terrifyingly close to losing her life for her beliefs on a number of occasions and she'd also needed to bear the burden of sovereignty alone [Music] when Queen Victoria lost her beloved husband Prince Albert she too was alone and a fascination with the long dead British Queens Elizabeth and boodikka would have been inevitable and where Queen Victoria led the rest of the population followed in London today you'll see many statues of Queen Victoria and if you know where to look you'll find Boudicca as well [Music] as discussed earlier there are some that believe boudicca's last battle didn't take place in Warwickshire but instead in London a rumor started in 1937 by an expert in mythology and Celtic folklore stated that boudicca's body was buried under the site of platforms 10:00 and 11:00 at Kings Cross station London in this version of events this wouldn't have been far from where the final showdown between the great warrior queen and Suetonius Paulinus took place however it should be stated that the strongest evidence in favor of this version of events is the existence of London's battle Bridge Road which does perhaps seem a little bit flimsy [Music] but if you want to find Boudicca in London today you need to travel to the embankment of the River Thames a bronze statue sculpted by Thomas thornycroft depicts her in a war chariot with her daughter's riding beside her and she stands majestically next to the north end of Westminster Bridge and the houses of parliament the statue was commissioned by Prince Albert Queen Victoria's husband before his untimely death at the age of 42 of typhoid fever it's a magnificent commemoration of one of Britain's greatest female leaders and standing so close to the houses of parliament there are some who liken Britain's first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to Boudicca as there are few others who've made such a public show of strength against all the odds however it's only now in the 21st century that women are beginning to enjoy the kind of equality with their male counterparts that Boudicca as a Celt experienced so who can say how many budding boudicca's are out there waiting for their finest hour Boadicea has continued since the Victorian era to be the inspiration for copious quantities of songs and stories with the warrior queen making many appearances in music and literature and as the struggle for equality between the sexes is ongoing she will no doubt remain in the public eye as an inspirational role model for battling women everywhere yet as our program draws to a close and we all cry who are for Boudicca we must remember that there are two sides to every story under her leadership some of the most barbaric acts of reprisal were carried out against those that were innocent of any crime just as boudicca's own daughters had been the roman women who were captured suffered the worst treatment of all on the orders of Boudicca so there was little empathy for a universal sisterhood in truth we must accept that although Boudicca is perceived as a symbol of women's liberation this is in fact a distortion of history it's so easy to look back into the past and judge the actions of our ancestors by the standards of the present Boadicea belonged to a Celtic culture that didn't discriminate against women she simply was fighting for survival just like her male counterparts [Music] those who wish to portray her as a heroine have conveniently forgotten boudicca's barbaric behavior many of the great heroes from history have also been treated in the same way a prime example is Alexander the Great who before many admirers is the greatest hero the world has ever known in point of fact he probably treated his horse more kindly than any human unfortunate enough to be in his vicinity and as absolute power again corrupted absolutely his despotism ended up knowing no bounds so just remember as you stand before the majestic statue of Boudicca don't take everything you hear about this remarkable lady at face value if you need confirmation of this all you have to do is go back to her name which today we pronounced as boodikka however for anyone watching this who was born before 1960 Boadicea is the only way to pronounce this warrior queen's name [Music] so here you ask is this due to a fashion trend or a great archaeological discovery unearthed during an excavation in Iceni country it's neither of these things the most likely explanation is that when some medieval scribe was laboring over making a copy of Tacitus 'as historical roman manuscript he made a spelling mistake and that's probably all there is to it form your own opinions about Boudicca and don't let historical prejudice sweep and now our time journey into the dim and distant past to discover the true identity of Boudicca bond dukkha or even boa decir if you prefer really is at an end hopefully you have enjoyed visiting the places that forged the character of this truly remarkable Celt who just happened to be a woman this is one adventure into the past that truly can be described as her story rather than history just for a change [Music] you

Channel: FREE MOVIES

Views: 292,488

Keywords: Boudicca, Warrior, Queen, Ancientbritain, Britain, movie, 1091, biography, history, legend, celt, celtic, icenitribe, roman, romanoccupation, oppression, eastanglia, anglia, woman, women, powerfulwomen, ladyboss, documentary, freemovie, fullmovie, inspirational, freefilm, featurefilm, ondemand, watchathome

Id: 5eiO13BPnMM

Length: 85min 38sec (5138 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2017