In AD 47 in Roman occupied Britain the iceni tribe{from modern day east Anglia} revolted as the Romans tried to disarm them. The rebellion was crushed and the Romans appointed Prasutagus as the king of the Iceni, Boudicca {the Celtic name for victory} was his wife and queen.  In his will Prasutagus left half his kingdom  to his daughters and half to the Roman empire. When king Prasutagus died Boudicca offered to share her kingdom with Nero, the then roman emperor. She wanted to avoid trouble but instead the Romans ignored the will Prasutagus had made and confiscated the leading tribesmens property and had her kingdom declared a slave province.  Boudicca who protested was then publicly flogged and her two daughters were raped. Up until this point  the Iceni were willing to collaborate with the Romans to live in relative peace but were now the bitterest of enemies.  A bad move from the Romans as the more clever ones  wanted to avoid a coalition of the British tribes, who were unhappy with the Roman occupation of there lands. In AD 60 Boudicca’s Iceni tribe along with the neighbouring Trinivantes tribe started marching to the Roman capital of Colchester with bloody revenge on their minds. At this time a lot of the crack roman soldiers were on the isle of Anglesy {north Wales} trying to crush a rebellion there. On there march through eastern England Boudicca’s army destroyed and burned  all the Roman settlements along the way and eventually reached Colchester. They then defeated the 9th Roman legion who,d been sent to relieve the city and set about destroying Colchester. Many thousands perished as Boudicca and her army burned Colchester to the ground. Governor Paulinus who was the leader of the Roman army in Anglesly rushed back to defend London but being heavily outnumbered decided to evacuate and abandon it instead. Next it was London’s turn to be sacked and after that Verulamium,near modern day St Albans. An estimated 70 to eighty thousand perished in the sacking of the three cities. Boudicca’s army were eventually defeated by Paulinus and his much smaller but much more experienced army. The exact location of the battle isn’t known but is thought to be in the west midlands. Emperor Nero had considered withdrawing all his troops from Britain but after Boudicca’s defeat at the hands of the Romans Britain was again under Roman rule. It is largely due to the Roman historian Tacitus who recorded and  had a very keen interest in British history that we know about Boudicca. The picture below is Boudicca’s statue at Westminster bridge in London.