Monday, July 6, 2015

Warrior queen

Have you ever heard of Queen Boudica?  Me neither!
I read about her this weekend.

Although named a queen, surprisingly there seems to be"no real proof she ever existed."  Hmmmm...
The information that is out there comes from classical authors Tacitus and Cassius Dio.  They wrote years and years "after the alleged battles" between the Queen and the Romans.  Information about her comes from "limited and circumstantial archaeological evidence."

Boudica emerges in AD 60 after her husband, who happened to be the leader of the Iceni, died.  Upon his death, half of his riches went to The Romans, and half to his two daughters.  

There's that saying, "money is the root of all evil." I'm thinking that was true in this case.  Things got ugly.  "Halfing" money probably wasn't a good thing to do!

The Iceni needed a ruler.  Enter Boudica.  She led many against the Romans.  Boudica fought, but in the end, many Britons were killed.

All that fighting makes me think of that saying  "There's nothing new under the sun." Not sure why nations find it necessary to fight, but all throughout history you will find it.  I learned a lot.

One author says Boudica "killed herself with poison."  The other states "she got sick and died."

Whatever happened, history makes for interesting reading.
I'll read anything that has anything to do with the history of the throne.  

Excerpts from Vanessa Collingridge Author of Boudica (Ebury 2006)  This author has quite an impressive resume.  She lives in England.  I would love to meet her one day!  

Read anything interesting lately?





 

No comments:

Post a Comment