20 Facts About Boudica

Boudica is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence.

Boudica left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will.

Boudica's army defeated a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana, and burnt both Londinium and Verulamium.

Much is lost and his account of Boudica survives only in the epitome of an 11th-century Byzantine monk, John Xiphilinus.

Boudica provides greater and more lurid detail than Tacitus, but in general his details are often fictitious.

Boudica was the consort of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a tribe who inhabited what is the English county of Norfolk and parts of the neighbouring counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Lincolnshire.

Dio claimed that Boudica called upon the British goddess of victory Andraste to aid her army.

Boudica amassed an army of almost 10,000 men at an unidentified location, and took a stand in a defile with a wood behind.

Tacitus states that Boudica poisoned herself; Dio says she fell sick and died, after which she was given a lavish burial.

Variations on the historically correct Boudica include Boudicca, Bonduca, Boadicea, and Buduica.

Boudica's name was spelt incorrectly by Dio, who used Buduica.

Boudica's name was misspelled by Tacitus, who added a second 'c.

One of the earliest possible mentions of Boudica was the 6th-century work by the British monk Gildas.

Boudica was called 'Voadicia' in the English historian Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, published between 1577 and 1587.

The illustration of Boudica by Robert Havell in Charles Hamilton Smith's The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands from the Earliest Periods to the Sixth Century was an early attempt to depict her in an historically accurate way.

Tennyson's image of Boudica was taken from the engraving produced in 1812 by Stothard.

Boudica was encouraged by Prince Albert, who lent his horses for use as models.

Boudica was once thought to have been buried at a place which lies now between platforms 9 and 10 in King's Cross station in London.

At Colchester Town Hall, a life-sized statue of Boudica stands on the south facade, sculpted by L J Watts in 1902; another depiction of her is in a stained glass window by Clayton and Bell in the council chamber.

Boudica was adopted by the suffragettes as one of the symbols of the campaign for women's suffrage.