Who was Boudica?
Boudica was a queen of the Iceni tribe in eastern England who led a rebellion against Roman rule in about AD 60 or 61. Her forces destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being defeated.
Boudica's husband, King Prasutagus, ruled the Iceni as an ally of Rome. When he died, the Romans seized his lands, flogged Boudica and mistreated her daughters.
Boudica united the Iceni with other tribes and led a revolt. Her army attacked Camulodunum, now Colchester, the Roman capital of Britain, followed by Londinium and Verulamium.
Defeat and legacy
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the attacks. The Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, gathered his army and defeated Boudica's much larger force at an unknown site in the Midlands.
According to Roman historians, Boudica died soon after, possibly by taking poison.
Boudica became a symbol of British resistance and female leadership. A bronze statue of her riding a chariot stands on Westminster Bridge in London.
Her name is sometimes spelled Boadicea. Little is known about her life apart from the accounts of Roman writers Tacitus and Cassius Dio.