BOADICEA of Old England (30 - 61 AD)

Boadicea was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.

When the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Anglesey off the northwest coast of Wales, Boudicea led the Iceni, the Trinovantes, and others in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes but at that time a colonia, a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers and site of a temple to the former Emperor Claudius. An estimated 70,000 - 80,000 Romans and British were killed in the three cities by those led by Boadicea. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces in the West Midlands, and despite being heavily outnumbered defeated the Britons in the Battle of Watling Street.