Why Did Boudica Burn London? The Celtic Queen Who Took On Rome

Boudica burned London because Rome had broken its deal with her people, and, according to the Roman historian Tacitus, because Roman officials had flogged her and assaulted her two daughters. When her husband Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, died, he left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the emperor Nero; Rome ignored the will, annexed the kingdom and seized property. In AD 60 or 61 Boudica led the Iceni and their neighbours the Trinovantes in a revolt that destroyed Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans) before a much smaller Roman army crushed it. London was a target not because it was a capital, but because it was a growing Roman trading town that its governor could not defend in time.

Who was Boudica?

Boudica, also spelled Boudicca and once popularly Boadicea, was queen of the Iceni, a people living in what is now Norfolk in eastern England. Her name is usually traced to a Brittonic word meaning roughly "victorious woman". It may even have been an honorific, which would mean we do not know her original personal name.

The only physical description comes from the Roman historian Cassius Dio, who wrote that she was very tall, fierce-eyed and harsh-voiced, with a mass of tawny hair falling to her hips. Since Dio wrote some 140 years after the events, this is best read as a dramatic portrait rather than an eyewitness sketch.

A client kingdom on borrowed time

Rome began its conquest of southern Britain in AD 43. The Iceni were not conquered outright. Their king, Prasutagus, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, a "client king". The Iceni had already rebelled once, in AD 47, and kept their status afterwards.

Prasutagus seems to have hoped his will would protect his family. By naming both his daughters and Nero as heirs, he was probably trying to keep the alliance alive and give Rome a stake in his kingdom's peace. It did not work.

What made the Iceni rise?

After Prasutagus died, Rome treated his kingdom as conquered territory. The procurator Catus Decianus was sent to secure it. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters were raped, Iceni nobles lost their ancestral lands, and royal relatives were treated as slaves.

Cassius Dio tells a different story. He does not mention the flogging or the assault. Instead he blames money: loans to British leaders were suddenly called in, including some from the philosopher Seneca, and Decianus confiscated funds. Historians generally give more weight to Tacitus, whose father-in-law Agricola served in Britain at the time. Both versions point to the same underlying cause: Rome had stopped treating the Iceni as allies and started treating them as a resource.

The perfect moment to strike

The rebels chose their timing well. The Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was far to the west, campaigning on the island of Mona, now Anglesey, in Wales. The Trinovantes, who had their own grievances against the Roman colony planted on their land, joined the Iceni. Dio claims that Boudica invoked the goddess Andraste.

Colchester: the first city to fall

The first target was Camulodunum, modern Colchester. It was a colony of retired Roman soldiers and home to a Temple of Claudius, a hated symbol of Roman rule. The rebels took the town, and those who sheltered in the temple were killed. Decianus had sent only about 200 lightly armed men to help.

A relief force from the Ninth Legion under Quintus Petillius Cerialis marched to the rescue and was crushed. Decianus fled to Gaul.

London and St Albans in flames

Suetonius hurried back from Wales and reached Londinium before the rebels. But he was badly outnumbered, and he made a cold decision: he abandoned the town. The rebels burned it. Some residents left with his army; those who stayed were killed. Verulamium, modern St Albans, was sacked next, although how badly it was damaged is unclear.

Tacitus and Dio both put the death toll at around 80,000, and modern summaries often give a range of 70,000 to 80,000 Romans and Britons. Ancient numbers like these should be treated with caution, but the scale of the destruction was clearly enormous.

The final battle

Suetonius gathered roughly 10,000 soldiers and chose his ground carefully, probably a narrow defile with woodland behind him and open ground in front. The British army was far larger and had brought families, who watched from wagons at the edge of the field.

The narrow ground cancelled out the rebels' numbers. Roman javelins hit the crowded ranks, the legions advanced in a wedge, and the cavalry followed. When the Britons tried to flee, their own wagons blocked the way, and the rout became a massacre. The battle is often called the Battle of Watling Street, but its location is unknown; suggestions range from London's King's Cross to Church Stowe in Northamptonshire.

How did Boudica die?

The sources disagree. Tacitus says she poisoned herself. Dio says she fell ill and died, and was given a lavish burial. The two accounts may not be completely incompatible. Her grave has never been found. A popular legend claims she lies beneath platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross station, but there is no evidence for this, and it is probably a twentieth-century invention.

The revolt shook Rome badly enough that Nero is said to have considered withdrawing from Britain altogether, but the victory confirmed Roman control. Suetonius was later replaced by a governor who pursued gentler policies.

From "treacherous lioness" to national heroine

Boudica's reputation has swung wildly. In the sixth century the monk Gildas called her a "treacherous lioness". The Renaissance revived her story; John Fletcher wrote a play about her, Bonduca, in 1612, and Purcell later set a version to music.

In the Victorian age she became a patriotic symbol of British identity. Thomas Thornycroft's bronze Boadicea and Her Daughters, made between 1856 and 1871 with horses lent by Prince Albert as models, was placed beside Westminster Bridge in 1902. In the early 1900s suffragettes adopted her as a symbol too. It is one of history's ironies that a woman who fought an empire became a mascot for another.

Learn with Boudica: English phrases about revolt

Phrase	Meaning	Example
the last straw	the final problem that causes a reaction	The seizure of her kingdom was the last straw.
to rise up against	to rebel	The Iceni rose up against Rome.
to go up in flames	to burn completely	London went up in flames.
to be outnumbered	to have fewer people than the other side	The Romans were heavily outnumbered.
to turn the tables	to reverse a situation	Suetonius turned the tables in the final battle.

Try this: Write three sentences about a protest or rebellion you know, using "the last straw", "rise up against" and "turn the tables".