All language subtitles for The Queens That Changed the World s01e06 Boudica.eng

Across the centuries,

and around the world...

..women have ruled kingdoms
and built empires.

She could not be hidden,
she could not be suppressed.

Now, we discover the real story
of six iconic queens.

She tore the city down.

Despite the fire,

despite the whole city
being massacred,

we still have these walls.

In this series,
we follow in the footsteps...

Here it is, the Chapel Royal,
a pretty magical place.

..of history's most important
female monarchs...

She believed that every single man

who fought on
the battlefield in her name,

was worthy of honour and respect.

..to find out how they overcome
the prejudices of their times...

She is their mother,

she is their commander,

she is their goddess.

..and the challenges
facing their reigns...

This was a dangerous place to be.

She wouldn't have shown any fear,
but I'm sure she felt it.

..to change their world, and ours.

She is sassy, she is fearless.

She is badass queen.

60 CE.

Boudica,
ancient Britain's warrior queen,

is leading an army of tribal Britons
to Camulodunum,

the Roman town known today
as Colchester.

Camulodunum was the centre really

of the Roman presence in Britain.

It was their cultural capital.

The whole town was a symbol of this
oppression, of this occupation,

and so the whole town had to go,
whoever was in it.

For two decades, tribes across
Britain have endured

the Roman's tyrannical rule.

The cultural clash that had been
swallowed down,

swallowed down, over the decades,
was now just exploding.

It happens so quickly
and it's so violent.

When they finally unleash
their attack,

they destroy the Romans
and massacre them.

The Roman town of Colchester
is razed to the ground.

Queen Boudica's victory
leaves its mark on history.

Her ambition

to hit the centre of Roman power,

rather than just pecking
at the sides of it,

is what elevates her
into kind of iconic status.

1902.

Boudica is the toast of
the British people again.

A statue of her is unveiled
in the heart of London.

When we think of Boudica

we instantly think
of the famous statue

on the river Thames

near the houses of Parliament.

We have Boudica in her chariot

with her daughters in all of her
righteous avenging angel glory.

But this iconic statue

is the culmination of centuries
of reimagining Boudica.

She is dressed as

a traditionally classical figure.

She's almost allegorical.

I think there's still
a sort of disconnect

with actually what she achieved
versus her image.

To this day,

the real story of Boudica
is shrouded in mystery.

Little is known
about this famous queen.

We only have Roman sources that tell
us about Boudica,

so therefore we will never know

her story through her own words.

This means that we have
to contextualise it.

We have to do a bit more work
to understand who this person was.

Born early in the first century,

she lives on the island
of modern-day Britain,

a place the Romans know
as Britannia.

This is a time before
Britain existed.

There are separate kingdoms
of people bound together by tribe

considering themselves separate
nations unto themselves.

One of those tribes is the Iceni.

And it is into this society

that Boudica is born,
sometime around 30 CE.

The Iceni, one of the most powerful
Britain tribes,

settled all over East Anglia,
particularly in Norfolk and Suffolk.

And here in Thetford
were one of its key settlements.

The Iceni are wealthy,

trading in wool and pottery,

and farming the low-lying land.

This was a very flat,

marshy, watery area.

There were horses,
the Iceni loved their horses,

but it wasn't developed,

so you wouldn't really have had
stone houses.

There would've been
the traditional round houses.

You didn't have hill forts

cos there aren't too many hills
in East Anglia.

The occasional dykes and ditches,

but really it was a very flat, open,
agricultural culture.

43 CE.

Boudica's life is about
to change forever.

A Roman army, under the charge
of Emperor Claudius,

lands on the south coast of England.

Claudius decided that he needed to
bolster his reputation as an emperor

because nobody liked him,

and he had no military
experience at all.

So, he decided to take an
opportunity to invade Britain.

And so he turned up
and very easily

overwhelmed the Britons
very quickly.

Rome had turned war
and warfare into a science.

This is very different from the
Iceni who, yes, war-like people.

Yes, used to going to war against
their neighbours.

But they are not people who've gone
all the way around the world

conquering nations
and developing the science of war.

As soon as they realised that they
had no real chance,

most of the British chieftains
and kings immediately bent the knee

and agreed to be peaceful partners
in the Roman Empire with Claudius.

To help keep control
over their new territory,

the Romans implement
a system of client kings.

This was really a treaty
with the local kings

that ran the local tribes
that made up Britannia.

The way it operated was
that the Romans would allow

these tribal leaders,
these tribal kings,

to keep their lands
in exchange for taxes

and other financial obligations.

Rebellious tribes
are swiftly quelled,

including an ill-fated uprising
of the Iceni.

Many of Boudica's tribe
are forced into slavery.

The Britain tribes didn't have as
much formalised structure

and procedure as the Romans did.

Also, the Romans perceived
the tribes as less of a threat

because they were fighting
each other

and thus they could not formulate
together to fight the Romans.

In many places
the invaders were unchallenged.

These remains,
almost 2,000 years old,

in the heart of Colchester,
record one such Roman advance.

In 49 CE when the Romans settled
in Colchester,

they imagined that
any perceived threat

had already been taken care of.

The arch was to mark that
they had now taken the space

and it was theirs.

And so it was very much
more decorative,

something to just honour their new
status within the space.

At this time, Colchester is seen
as the capital of Britannia,

and as local tribes pose no threat

the city quickly becomes a beacon of
Roman civilisation and engineering

and a stronghold
for retired veteran soldiers,

while the Romans continue
to occupy large parts

of the south of England.

54 CE.

While the Emperor Claudius

is succeeded by his great nephew
Nero in Rome,

in Britannia
the Iceni have a new ruler, too.

We know very little
of Boudica's life.

A lot of it is conjecture, trying
to kind of piece it together

from the limited textual and
archaeological evidence we have.

So, we know she was the wife
of a client king,

the client king of the Iceni,
Prasutagus.

Prasutagus was very friendly
with the Romans,

and had specifically been
put in place

by the Roman authorities in Britain

because the previous
king of the Iceni

had led a rebellion against them.

But just six years later,

the Iceni are in mourning.

Their king, Prasutagus, is dead.

He leaves behind his wife Boudica
and their two daughters.

When Prasutagus dies,

he gives half of his kingdom
to the Emperor Nero

and the other half of his kingdom
to his two daughters.

As far as we can tell,

the Britons do not seem
to have had a huge problem

with female rulers.

We know that there is
another powerful client queen

towards the north of England,
called Cartimandua.

He gives half of his kingdom to Nero

in an attempt
to ingratiate the Iceni with Nero

by including him in his will
and giving him a lovely gift.

But it's not enough
for the invaders.

Rome wants to annex the entire
Iceni kingdom...

..by force.

His kingdom was plundered

and looted by soldiers.

His relatives were made slaves,

they were stripped
of their ancestral lands.

And worse was the violation
of Boudica and her daughters.

Boudica was flogged
and her daughters were raped.

We're talking about young children,
maybe 11, 12, 13 years old.

It absolutely beggars belief

as to how she was able

to cope with the reality

of that event.

And it doesn't take a psychologist

to imagine that she would've been
incredibly traumatised by that.

It's hard to put into words

the assault on Boudica,

how she would have interpreted that,

how her people would've
interpreted that.

It would've been
so profound at every level.

At a spiritual level,
at a physical level,

emotional, cultural, social,
every kind of level.

The brutal attack
is meant to demoralise

and disempower the Iceni.

It does something quite different.

After years of oppression,
it galvanises the tribe,

and unleashes the wrath
of their Queen.

Boudica is out for vengeance.

I think many women will identify
with that feeling of,

you know, "I'll put up with a lot,
but if you come for my children,

"I'm going to come after you."

And that element of Boudica

seems to have really captured
our kind of collective psyche,

as this warrior wronged woman coming
back from the brink of destruction,

ultimately to face her
perpetrators head on

in a do or die heroic battle.

60CE - the Iceni tribe is reeling
from the brutal attack

the Romans inflicted on its people
and its royal family.

But Queen Boudica wastes little
time tending to her wounds.

She wants revenge.

However, she knows the Iceni
cannot face the Romans alone.

She reacts by raising a rebellion.

Specifically,

forming an alliance
with her neighbours,

which is something that

had not been done before,

and is something that the Romans
were not expecting at all.

The Romans have used
the fierce rivalry

between the tribes across Britannia
to divide and conquer...

..but Boudica understands
the growing frustration

amongst the native Britons.

The events that occurred
against Boudica

and her family
would've struck a chord

with a growing sense

of anti-Roman sentiment

to peoples who had, by this point,

been under Roman rulership
for almost two decades.

Boudica's best chance
for an alliance

is the Iceni's neighbours
to the south - the Trinovante tribe.

They'd had their traditional lands
taken over to be

the Roman capital of Britannia.

Modern Colchester, previously,
was Camulodunum...

..and that was their tribal centre.

Colchester was one of
the first spaces

and the main space
that the Romans occupied

and really set up
their establishment,

set up their houses,
and really began to live in Britain.

They weren't just invading,

they were setting up a colony
where they would live and thrive.

The situation for the Trinovantes
is about to get even worse.

The Roman procurator in Britain,
Catus Decianus,

the same man who ordered
the pillaging of the Iceni,

is trying to squeeze even more
from the indigenous tribes.

The procurator of Britain
suddenly declared that

a lot of very large gifts of money

that had been given to the British
kings were actually loans,

and they now had
to pay them all back to him,

at a high rate of interest
immediately.

This then stirred up a lot of
resentment because the Iceni,

the various tribes
who were fairly wealthy,

suddenly lost that wealth.

And it wasn't just money.

They had to pay tribute in grain
as well so that caused famine.

Boudica is able to persuade
the Trinovantes

to put aside their differences

and forge an alliance
against a common enemy.

Boudica recognised that the Romans
didn't see them as a threat

and they didn't imagine
that they could amass such a force.

She shows her own strengths
in diplomacy and politics

beyond the warrior image.

Boudica's alliance creates
a huge fighting force,

many thousand strong.

To the Romans,

it would've been deeply shocking
that Boudica, as a woman,

was able to rally troops.

To have the reputation
to rally troops,

to have that leadership skill
to rally troops.

Here was this woman,

a mother with her two poor daughters

by her side.

"Let's come together,

"let's fight for this terrible
but united cause,

"because none of us want
the Romans coming for our wives

"and our daughters."

East Anglia, 60 CE,

Boudica is mobilising her vast army.

Her target? The capital of Roman
Britain - Colchester.

The Romans are caught off guard.

Boudica has several thousand,

certainly far more numerous
than the couple of hundred

active troops
that are in Colchester.

CRIES OF BATTLE

The Romans were so confident
that the conquest

of Britain would proceed
relatively smoothly

that they hadn't taken time
to fortify this really important

prized location for the Romans -
this seat of Roman power.

When Boudica's army swept in,
they weren't met with any defences.

They weren't met
with any fortifications.

They were able to sweep through
the town like a tornado.

The Iceni slaughter any
Roman inhabitants they encounter.

Some Roman troops fall back
to the safety

of the vast Temple of Claudius,
hoping to be relieved.

Boudica's army begin
to lay siege to the temple.

They are carefully over two days
taking it down with siege warfare,

and then they burn it to the ground.

Boudica didn't just destroy
the population of Colchester.

She destroyed the city and destroyed
all of the architecture

and everything that's sort of been
raised up here as a Roman town.

The city is razed to the ground,

but here, in the centre,

traces of that original
Roman city survive...

..below ground.

This is what is left of
the temple of Emperor Claudius.

Thankfully, the foundations,
despite the fire,

despite the whole city
being massacred,

we still have these walls
that are left.

It's surreal to think
these have lasted 2,000 years

and that we can still touch them.

And they still kind of highlight
the scale of this temple

and the massive marker
that the Romans made.

It's a measure of the ferocity of
Boudica's attack that a temple

with such great foundations
is destroyed.

But they are put to use again

when the Normans built their own
castle here 1,000 years later.

This line marks the divide between

the original Roman temple

and the castle walls
that the Normans built.

There's different textures of stone,
different looks,

and it's an interesting divide where
these two worlds collide.

But in 60 CE,
as Boudica's army ransacks the city,

the temple, a symbol of Roman
strength, is no more.

They burned it to the ground.

They totally destroyed

and wiped the Roman identity
off the landscape.

A message is sent to
a nearby Roman military camp.

The leader here,
General Petilius Cerialis,

leads a legion of soldiers
to confront the tribal army.

Boudica turns around
and wipes that legion out.

The infantry is just
completely obliterated.

It's a mighty victory.

The Romans don't know what
Boudica might do next.

The Roman procurator that started
the rebellion,

Catus Decianus, is terrified.

He flees across the sea to Gaul.

Boudica represented something
that was almost unfathomable

for the Roman world because women
very much had their own set space

of being domestic, of being wives,
of being mothers,

and being outside of any warfare
or of politics.

And so for her to have done that

and also been successful
in actually posing a threat

to the Roman Empire

and have galvanised
these different tribes

to amass this force
that threatened them

was an incredible achievement.

But also something that really had
to make them look

because it wasn't the man

that they anticipated
to be the leader.

It was a woman who clearly had
a military ability,

she had political ability.

She was so unique
to their perception of womanhood.

The legend of the brave warrior
Queen is born.

But might it all just be legend?

There is no hard archaeological
evidence that Boudica

as a human being,
as a figure, existed.

We have the historical record,

but we only have
the Roman historical record.

And there are so many reasons

why Romans paint
the histories that they do.

Ancient Britons did not have
a documentary history

like the Romans did.

We had a very oral culture.

So, we don't know the truth.

The entire story of Boudica is based
on the writings

of just two Roman historians.

Tacitus writes his account
of the Boudican rebellion

over 40 years after it happens.

And he never set foot in Britain.

Tacitus,
very young when this happened,

he didn't witness it first-hand.

His father-in-law
Agricola was there.

But again, you know,

any information he has
is very separate from the event.

The other historian who mentions
Boudica is Cassius Dio.

He is writing over 140 years
after the Iceni revolt.

And both writers
have their own agendas.

To them,
Boudica is an enemy of Rome.

But they have their sights set on
more than just the tribal leader.

Tacitus' explanation
is basically that

the Roman Empire under Nero
has become so rotten

and so decadent and luxurious

that it has lost its ability
to control the world around it,

and has become tyrannical.

And it is that luxury and tyranny

which has made them unable
to deal with a girl.

So, they both have to come up
with an explanation

as to how this happened.

Are they trying to create a very
accurate account of exactly

what happened at the revolt? No.

They're telling the story of Rome

and she's used as kind of
a foil to Rome in a way.

Dio tells us...

She's portrayed as this noble enemy
who is fighting back

against a Rome who has kind
of lost its way.

Yet there is evidence
of the sacking of Roman towns.

Archaeologists have uncovered layers
of ash and scorched earth

in the towns Boudica
is said to have raided,

dating to the first century.

But did Boudica, a tribal Queen,
lead the revolt?

The best evidence that she existed
is that the Romans say

that she existed,
which sounds circular,

but there's a thing called
the criterion of embarrassment.

Whereby it would be less
embarrassing for the Romans

for her not to exist.

It would be less embarrassing
for them to say they lost

a legion to a coalition of men

or to one great male leader.

It's embarrassing
that they lost to a woman.

And so the fact that they are
constantly having to examine it

and explain how it was allowed
to happen,

suggests that it actually did happen

because otherwise they wouldn't
make it up.

But painting a detailed picture of
the powerful warrior queen

is impossible.

We don't even know if
Boudica was her real name.

We don't know if it was her given
name, or if it was a title.

We know that the word "Bouda" was a
word in Celtic that meant victory.

Throughout history
she has had so many names.

I grew up knowing her as Boudeccia.

It was quite a shock
to discover that, actually,

that was just a miss-transcription
of her name.

Cassius Dio describes her
appearance as...

This is all reinforcing this image
of her as other,

as barbarian, as the noble savage,

as this kind of non-Roman
individual, if you like.

She has to be extraordinary,

because the idea of an ordinary
woman being able to rise up

and destroy key Roman towns would
just be too existentially troubling

and unsettling and disturbing
for the Romans.

So, by making her extraordinary, in
a way it reduced her overall threat.

She was an exception to the rule.

Dio also notes that Boudica
wore a large golden necklace.

A claim that archaeologists believe
has the ring of truth.

Here we have some artefacts
from first century BCE

to first century CE.

We don't necessarily know
exact dates,

but this is very likely a lot of
the items that would've been around

in Boudica's world.

Things she may have had herself
or encountered

or very much seen in her
day-to-day life.

These are torques that would've
worn around the neck -

this is definitely a status symbol.

This is something that only
a noble person would've worn,

and it would've very much stood them
out in society.

This was something that people
would've associated

with her as a queen,

would've associated with her status.

It would've been a very bold piece
to have around one's neck,

to set one apart as not
just a noble in this case,

but as a queen.

Archaeology also suggests

that the tribal rebellion does not
end with the sacking of Colchester.

Queen Boudica wants the Romans
expelled from her lands.

She was very much on a mission
to destroy the Roman culture

that they were developing here

and really threaten the footholds
that they had established.

Boudica was not only just
a threat to the military units,

but also to private citizens,
the residents.

They had to now sit up
and take notice

and respond in a way that would
neutralise the threat.

61 CE.

Queen Boudica is at the helm
of a vast army of warriors.

They are marching west through
East Anglia,

heading for the river Thames.

Behind them are
the charred remains of Colchester.

Once Boudica's army had finished
with Camulodunum,

where to go next?

Well, the obvious place is

the Roman settlement of Londinium,

this town that became later

the city of our modern London.

On the other side of the country,
in Cambria, Wales,

Roman General Suetonius Paulinus
is forced to abandon his campaign

against a druid stronghold
in Anglesey.

He heads south in a bid
to halt Boudica's revolt.

However, he has to concede
that London is doomed.

Both Tacitus and Dio

describe the attacks

of Boudica's people on Londinium

as being this
indescribable slaughter,

this rampage of horrors,

which leave the dead
lying in the streets,

but then also these really horrific
tortures that they enact.

When you think about
the graphic nature of the story

of how her daughters

had been defiled by the Romans,

perhaps they needed to come up

with something even worse
that she had potentially done.

Otherwise, they might have been in
danger of being compassionate

towards a mother whose daughters
had been raped,

who had been flogged,
and they couldn't have that.

They couldn't have any
compassion among the Roman people

towards this poor defiled queen.

North of London,

Boudica and her army have sacked
another Roman settlement,

the town of Verulamium,
modern day St Albans.

The queen must be stopped.

Suetonius must act now.

To get from one settlement
to another,

you would've needed
to use a Roman road,

particularly an army of that size.

And so to keep everything together,

Roman roads would've been
the easiest way to move

a large body of people
through the space

and arrive at another settlement.

61 CE.

Watling Street,

the main Roman road
out of St Albans.

Suetonius is inspecting his legions,

awaiting the arrival
of Boudica's army.

He has picked the spot carefully.

Strategically, it was perfect for
the Roman method of warfare.

They've got a wood behind them
that will block the chariots.

They've got the walls of the valley
either side

with the cavalry positioned inside,

so that Boudica's army,
to approach the Romans,

are being funnelled
into a wall of death.

The only thing in Boudica's favour
is the size of her army.

Dio tells us,

which we should take with
an enormous pinch of salt,

that there are 230,000
British fighters

and maybe 10,000 Romans.

It is probably not quite
that overwhelming,

but there are much bigger numbers
on the British side.

The Roman military had spent more

than eight centuries being at war,

and they had turned war

into a science.

The Iceni thinking, perhaps,
that the fight against the Romans

would be fought like
their other conflicts,

but it wasn't.

They met trained regular Roman
soldiers who were battle hardened

and ready for a fight.

This is very different
from Colchester and London,

where they were effectively meeting
civilians, Roman civilians.

From her chariot,
Boudica addresses her warriors,

rallying them for
the forthcoming battle.

She really specifically says,
"I'm just like you.

"I'm a woman of the people.

"And they've done this to me,
poor little me.

"And so, you know, if even me,
a pathetic woman who's been flogged,

"can stand up against this tyranny,

"then surely you, too, can, as men,
stand beside me."

Boudica's battle speech,
according to Tacitus,

is a fantastic piece of oration.

It is almost like the perfect speech

to whip up your army

and to get them fighting
for the glory of your tribe.

Why would the Romans invest her
with that speech?

Perhaps because she said it,

perhaps because they feel
that she should have said it.

Did she actually say it?
We'll never know.

The battle begins.

On foot, on horses and in chariots,

Boudica's troops race toward
the Roman soldiers.

Boudica's army have to run up
a valley towards the Romans

who have their legionnaires
in the middle,

the cavalry either side,

they've got their javelin throwers.

So, when the Britons launch
their attack

they are funnelled
into a death machine.

In a full frontal attack,
the Roman army had the power,

had the superiority,

and had the military strategy
to be able to take out

a much larger army.

Now this was very much a slaughter.

The battle is soon over.

Tens of thousands
of Boudica's followers

lie dead on the battlefield.

The Romans lose only
a few hundred of their men.

The rebellion is no more.

The Queen has survived...

..but not for long.

Dio says that she dies of illness,

that she just gets ill and dies.

Tacitus says that she took her
own life with poison,

which is his final way
of complimenting her

because the Romans believe that
to be active and to take action,

including ending your own life
when it is necessary to,

is a moral virtue.

If she's a worthy opponent,

if she's a righteous opponent,

Rome has all the more glory

in its ultimate victory over her.

The 3rd century CE.

The Romans reading Tacitus and Dio

only get a glimpse
of Boudica's life -

a mere two years
recounted in a few paragraphs.

But her story is engaging.

The idea of a warrior queen
fascinates the Romans.

It's significant that Boudica
was a woman

because the Romans emphasised
that she was a woman.

The news that this was a woman who
was killing this many people

would be baffling in the extreme.

It just doesn't make any
sense within the Roman worldview

that a woman can do this,

or that a woman would do this.

It leaves a real impact
on the psyche of the Romans

that they have to wrestle with
for a long time.

62 CE.

After his victory
at the Battle of Watling Street,

General Suetonius Paulinus
is hunting down

the last pockets
of Boudica's rebellion.

Roman rule in Britannia
has been preserved.

The Roman Empire had had such a
shock that there was a reaction,

a very visceral reaction,

to seek revenge,

to devastate the rebellious
tribal lands.

Boudica's uprising exposed
the vulnerabilities of the Romans,

prompting them to fortify their
towns and settlements.

Even Colchester, which is little
more than charred ruins,

is given defensive reinforcements.

After Boudica's rebellion
and the sacking of the city,

they realised the city
was without defence,

without fortification.

And so what they decided to do
was build

a huge wall around the city
that stretches almost two miles

to defend the town

and stop Boudica's rebellion
from happening again.

And these walls still stand today.

476 CE.

Roman rule, that has lasted
over 500 years, has fallen.

Its histories are consigned
to the archives,

and with them, Boudica's story.

But her influence on Britain and the
wider world is not yet over.

She disappears from the historical
record for almost 1,000 years.

She's not someone that anybody knows
about at all

until her early renaissance

and the rediscovery of Tacitus.

Tacitus is pulled out of monasteries

and republished.

1513.

Polydore Vergil, an Italian scholar
living in England,

is writing his influential
history of the country,

using the republished classical
texts as reference.

His finished work,
the Anglica Historia,

includes the story of Boudica.

The work is published in 1534,

just two decades
before Queen Elizabeth I

ascends to the English throne.

Boudica's story is perfect for
the controversial monarch

whose gender puts into question
her very right to rule.

Queen Elizabeth is casting
around for a foundation myth

that shores up a woman's right
to rule.

And here you have Boudica,
another redhead,

another warrior queen,
who becomes incredibly useful

to shore up a woman's legitimacy
to be on the throne.

This image of her as this fearsome
warrior queen,

rallying the Britons
against their oppressors

is rhetoric that
Elizabeth can borrow.

It is an image that
Elizabeth can appropriate.

1588 - England is in danger.

A huge armada of Spanish ships
threatens to invade.

Parallels between Boudica
and Elizabeth grow stronger.

They both have to fight
this foreign enemy

with Elizabeth fighting
the Spanish Armanda

and Boudica fighting
the Roman occupation.

They both have this sort of nobility
standing as warrior queens

against this enemy,

and galvanising their kingdoms
in order to fight.

This time,
the English defeat the invaders.

To celebrate, James Aske composes
a poem "Elizabetha Triumphans."

He draws a direct comparison
between the two women.

Boudica is hailed as
"once England's happy queen"

who valiantly triumphed
over the Romans.

And the current queen, Elizabeth,

is said to embody Boudica's legacy
and courage.

Plucked from obscurity,

the tribal queen is reborn
as an English hero.

But not every English monarch
embraces this portrayal.

After Elizabeth I dies in 1603,

we have a man on the throne,
we have a new dynasty,

and we have, perhaps, a pushback
on this idea of female rule

and female authority.

We start to see a Boudica
who perhaps is too vengeful,

who perhaps is erratic,

who perhaps makes mistakes,
and that causes her ultimate defeat.

28th June 1838.

Another British female monarch

is about to be crowned at
Westminster Abbey - Queen Victoria.

She, too, can see the benefits
of invoking Boudica.

During Victorian times,

there was very much
an emphasis placed on

a woman's role being in the home,

being a wife, being a mother.

And so for Victoria

to truly be accepted as Queen,

she may have utilised

the image of Boudica
as this previous female leader,

but also a mother,
to her advantage.

You could be both a mother,
but also a great ruler.

But to fit Victoria's narrative,

Boudica's story needs some tweaking.

Britain was kind of modelling itself
as this new Roman empire,

so it's ironic, in a way,
that we appropriate

an individual who is fighting
against the Roman Empire.

She is taken by
the establishment and reinvented,

she is reframed as
a uniquely British icon.

Someone whose power can be harnessed

for the good of the empire.

In 1856, Prince Albert,
Queen Victoria's husband,

is eager to strengthen
the connection

between Victoria and Boudica.

He commissions a vast statue
of Boudica

from the artist Thomas Thornycroft.

It takes nearly 50 years
to construct.

Today, it stands
in the centre of London,

on the bank of the Thames.

It's a really complex statue.

There's so much going on here.

We have Boudica herself
as the central figure,

and she is atop an immense chariot.

Either side of her on the chariot
are her two daughters.

And pulling the chariot are these
two huge rearing horses.

It's a really kinetic work.

It's full of this dynamism
and energy.

This is no longer a Boudica
who is distant in the past.

She's not shrouded in mist
and mystery any more.

This is someone who has risen
from the dead

and brought back
to overlook a new empire,

to stand guard and to give her power

and protection
to a new Victorian world.

The statue has become iconic,

and so has further shrouded
the truth about this ancient Queen.

This is a version of ancient British
history as reimagined

by the Victorians, and it's
completely historically inaccurate.

Not only is Boudica herself
dressed as a classical goddess

rather than an ancient Briton,

but the chariot itself
has these blades coming out

the side of the wheels.

This is a mythological version
of Boudica

that was invented by the Victorians

and that has been handed down
to us today.

Amidst the enduring image
of Boudica,

it is possible to forget
that 2,000 years ago,

the historical figure of Boudica,

the warrior queen who led a revolt
against the mighty Roman Empire,

changed the world.

Even in her own right she should
have that reverence as this woman

who stood up against an empire
and commanded tribes in a way

that hadn't really been done
in this period of history,

and became a credible threat
to the Roman Empire.

She scares the Roman empire in
a way that very few people do

and she hits them so hard
and so surprisingly,

and does it as a woman
that she leaves a real mark

on the psyche of the Romans.

Ultimately,
she's not a great victor,

she's not a winner,
but yet she still is in our hearts.

We still are attached to her. It's
almost this love of the underdog

perhaps that makes her so iconic.

Boudica is such a powerful idea.

She exists on so many levels,

and I think that's why she is
fittingly held up

in the pantheon of queens
who've changed the world.

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