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Authors: Elizabeth Mahon
Tags: #General, #History, #Women, #Social Science, #Biography & Autobiography, #Biography, #Women's Studies
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BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
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Cleopatra was a heroic and brilliant patriot, and the last major threat to the Roman Empire for a while, but she will always be known as the seductress of the East who lured two of Rome’s greatest men away from their duties. Her legend only grew as writers from Shakespeare to Shaw shared their versions of her story with the world and by the many movies since then. She has passed from history into an icon.
All this ruin was brought upon them by a woman, a fact which caused them [the Romans] the greatest shame.
—DIO CASSIUS
Boudica was a wife, a mother, a revered queen, and the leader of the most violent rebellion against the Romans in British history. The first heroine in British history, even her name adds to her legend, as it is the Celtic word for “victory.” Little is known of her life before she became a thorn in the side of the Romans, although she was probably of royal descent. The historian Dio Cassius described her as tall, terrifying, and with a great mass of tawny hair hanging to her waist, wearing a large golden necklace and a manycolored tunic—a real-life Xena, Warrior Princess. We’ll have to take his word for it, for he wasn’t actually there. His history, like that of Tacitus, was written years after the events, and he had a keen interest in promoting the Roman point of view. Still, she must have been formidable, even if she wasn’t the Amazon that Dio Cassius described.
After a century of seeing Britain solely as a useful source for tin and great oysters, the Romans came a-calling in 43 CE launching a full-scale invasion. The emperor Claudius, who needed some good PR to change his image as a drooling, limping fool, decided it was time to bring Britain under the civilizing influence of the empire. At the time Britain was divided into a hodgepodge of kingdoms large and small. When the Romans arrived, many Britons welcomed them, not thinking what it would mean in the long run. The emperor himself made a ceremonial visit, holding a huge celebration at Camulodunum (Colchester) to impress the locals with a little Roman razzle-dazzle. Most of the southern tribes, including the Iceni, chose the path of least resistance, becoming client kingdoms.
In 60 CE, after twenty years of rule, King Prasutagus of the Iceni in East Anglia
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died, leaving his empire divided between the Roman Empire and his two daughters, with his widow, Boudica, as regent. Prasutagus had been one of the first to sign a treaty with Rome, but since he died without a male heir, the Romans considered the treaty to be null and void. Under Roman law, inheritance could only come through the male line. Having a woman in charge proved that the Iceni were barbarians as far as they were concerned. Women in Celtic Britain were able to rule, marry whom they liked, and own property; they had a great deal of freedom compared to their Roman counterparts, whose lives were tightly controlled.
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died, leaving his empire divided between the Roman Empire and his two daughters, with his widow, Boudica, as regent. Prasutagus had been one of the first to sign a treaty with Rome, but since he died without a male heir, the Romans considered the treaty to be null and void. Under Roman law, inheritance could only come through the male line. Having a woman in charge proved that the Iceni were barbarians as far as they were concerned. Women in Celtic Britain were able to rule, marry whom they liked, and own property; they had a great deal of freedom compared to their Roman counterparts, whose lives were tightly controlled.
Tacitus wrote, “Kingdom and household alike were plundered like prizes of war.” When Boudica protested their actions, the Romans flogged her in public and allowed slaves to rape her daughters as a warning to the other tribes. The Romans chose the wrong woman to make an example of. Boudica appealed to the Iceni as well as several of the neighboring tribes, including the Trinovantes, who had a laundry list of grievances of their own, to join her in rebelling against Rome. She was helped by the fact that the Romans, under the procurator Catus Decianus, had begun to treat the Britons like slave labor. The native population was now subjected to brutality and casual mistreatment. Army veterans helped themselves to whatever land they wanted, driving the natives out. A huge temple dedicated to the emperor Claudius had been built in Camulodunum, using the Trinovantes as unpaid labor and then taxing them to pay for it to boot.
At first Boudica’s rebellion was in luck. The military governor Suetonius was off massacring the Druids on the island of Mona (Anglesey). In his absence Boudica amassed an army over 120,000 strong made up of men, women, and priests. While Boudica must have had extraordinary charisma to persuade so many Britons to follow her, she also had a powerful story that everyone could relate to. What made her a strong leader was that she was filled with outrage—she felt that she had justice on her side. The Celtic tribes had spent their lives preparing for war. When the call came, they were ready to go kick some Roman butt.
First stop was Colchester, where they took the town by surprise. Boudica prayed to the goddess Andraste for victory and released a hare into the multitude to determine by its direction whether the campaign would be a success. The omen must have been favorable since the people were unarmed and unprepared, and the town was unfortified. Boudica and her army sacked it, razing the town and setting it on fire. The nearest legion of two thousand Romans was at Lincoln. The commander hurried to meet the rebels but his forces were ambushed by the Britons on the way and cut to pieces.
Emboldened, Boudica headed toward London, the commercial heart of the Roman Empire in Britain. As soon as Catus Decianus heard Boudica was on her way, he fled the city to Gaul. Meanwhile Suetonius arrived in London from Wales with only a cavalry unit. When he had first heard the news of the revolt, he was not too concerned. The Britons must have been desperate to take orders from a woman. However, after sizing up Boudica’s forces, and realizing he was lacking sufficient strength, Suetonius made the executive decision to abandon the town, telling the people to flee. After burning London to the ground, Boudica and company headed for St. Albans and sacked it, although the inhabitants had already fled.
But Boudica wasn’t done; she decided to follow the Roman army north, sacking a few towns along the way. No one knows exactly where the final battle took place between Boudica and the Romans, but it was probably in the West Midlands. What is known is that Suetonius picked a place that was surrounded by a wood where he could only be attacked by the front. Outnumbered, the Romans had to rely on strategy and the fact that they were a highly trained and organized fighting machine.
Before the final battle Boudica drove up and down the front line in her chariot with her daughters in front of her, exhorting her army, “You will win this battle or perish. That is what I, a woman, plan to do. Let the men live in slavery if they will.” Confident of victory, the Britons had brought their families with them, installing them in carts that were stationed at the edge of the battlefield.
In a straight-line formation, the Romans held their ground with their shields and javelins as the Britons, faces and bodies painted blue and screaming insults, charged toward them in frenzied chaos. It must have been a fearsome sight but the Romans held their ground, launching their javelins into the air. With no body armor to protect them, the first wave of Britons fell. They were no match for the superior fighting skills of the Roman legionnaires, who used the wedge formation to corner them. When they tried to turn and flee they were hemmed in by their own wagons on the edge of the field. When the dust settled, untold numbers of Britons were dead, but only four hundred Romans. It was the last significant rebellion against the Roman Empire. It is believed that Boudica poisoned herself and her daughters rather than end up in Roman hands.
It took sheer guts and bravery for Boudica to mount a rebellion against the greatest world power in existence at that time. And she almost won. Boudica’s revolt actually had Nero, Rome’s emperor during the uprising, considering withdrawing all Roman forces from Britain. Her fatal flaw was that she seemed to have no clear plan other than kicking Roman ass. If she had been able to capitalize on her earlier victories, she might have gained more support and led Rome to finally give up on Britain.
Centuries after her defeat, Boudica became known as a heroine, a patriotic queen who died defending the liberty of her country against a ruthless and alien power. But it was the Victorians, with their penchant for romanticizing ancient British myths like hers and King Arthur’s, who really took Boudica to heart. Her statue now stands proudly on the Thames near the Houses of Parliament, as a reminder of the might of the British Empire and a symbol of national patriotism. It is a fitting memorial to the woman who has now passed into legend.
A woman without compare.
—RICHARD OF DEVIZES
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most famous women in medieval Europe and one of the most infamous in history. Wife to two kings and mother of two kings, she founded a dynasty that would rule England for the next 330 years. In her lifetime, she was the subject of scandalous rumors: that she rode bare-breasted on crusade; that she slept with her uncle; that she murdered her husband’s mistress. She was a warrior who helped her sons revolt against their father, and she served as regent while Richard the Lionheart went on crusade.
Born in 1122, Eleanor’s family history was filled with romance and drama. Her grandfather was a flamboyant figure, acknowledged as the first troubadour. He was also no stranger to love or to scandal. Having discarded two wives, and been excommunicated twice, he decided to abduct a married woman named Dangereuse, who became his mistress. Indifference to public opinion and doing pretty much what one pleased ran in Eleanor’s blood.
With the death of her brother when she was eight, Eleanor became the heiress to the duchy of Aquitaine. It was a major chunk of real estate, encompassing one-fourth of modern France, and whoever married her would be incredibly powerful. Proud of having such a beautiful, lively, and intelligent daughter, her father made sure that she was highly educated. She traveled with him throughout the duchy, observing the skillful way he handled his subjects. When she was fifteen, her father died from food poisoning while he was on a pilgrimage to Spain. In order to protect Eleanor from being vulnerable to bride snatchers after he was gone, on his deathbed he dictated a will making her a ward of Louis VI of France. Eager to get his chubby fingers on the duchy of Aquitaine, Louis, nicknamed “the Fat,” quickly married Eleanor off to his son, the future Louis VII. There was only one tiny catch. Aquitaine would remain independent of France for the moment, but if the union was blessed by a son, he would be both King of France and Duke of Aquitaine.
The bride wore scarlet, which would turn out to be appropriate given her later reputation. Eleanor’s first glimpse of her husband was not promising. Louis was quiet and pious, as unlike her warrior father and grandfather as it was possible to be, and he definitely knew nothing about girls. “I thought to have married a King,” she complained, “but I find I have wed a monk.” Louis on the other hand was thrilled with his half of the bargain. His new bride was highly sophisticated, blessed with beauty and brains. She had seen more of the world than her cloistered husband. Before Eleanor could adjust to her married life, she became queen when her new father-in-law died a few days after the wedding.
Paris shocked Eleanor; it was a backwater compared to Poitiers, and the royal palace left a lot to be desired. Rolling up her sleeves, she started by giving the palace an Extreme Makeover: Medieval Edition, tearing down the musty tapestries and filling her apartments with light, perfume, and color, bringing a little bit of Poitiers to Paris. Flouting convention, she enlivened the court with party games after dinner and minstrels who sang ribald songs. Determined to civilize the court, she introduced new innovations like napkins and tablecloths and insisted the servants wash their hands before serving food.
BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
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