Hail Boudica!

On the embankment of the River Thames near Westminster in London you will find a large bronze statue of a warrior woman on a chariot, with two girls beside her. The horses are rearing, the woman has her arms raised in a gesture of triumph, and in her right hand she holds a spear. It is a statue of the Celtic Queen Boudica, the woman the Romans called Boadicea. All British people know of Boudica. She is a symbol of resistance and freedom from Roman rule.

(Some of my readers may not know of her, and her story is quite a long one, so I suggest you look her up for more detail than I can give here. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article.)

Boudica and her husband were originally collaborators with the Romans, but when Boudica’s husband, Prasutagus, died without a son he willed his wealth to his two daughters and to the Emperor Nero. The Romans, however, ignored the will and humiliated the family by scourging Boudica and raping her daughters. Subsequently she raised a huge combined army of her own Iceni tribe and the neighboring Trinovantes people, and raged through England burning Colchester, Saint Albans, and London, and killing more than 80,000 Romans and British. She was fueled by the desire for revenge. Ultimately, she was beaten, and either died of an illness or killed herself. It was a disappointing end for a formidable woman.

Boudica was a childhood hero of mine. I’m sure I knew only a romanticized version of her life story, but the idea of a female warrior who led an army was very attractive to me.    

Hence Aethelreda.

More than 300 years separate the two female leaders, and they are very different. Boudica was a vengeful and savage warrior, and a real historical figure.  Aethelreda was more forgiving, and, of course, a figure of my imagination. She had to struggle to beat down the strong desire for revenge that was in her blood, passed down from her ancestors, both Celtic and Nordic.

It was the need for revenge that drove Aethelreda to return to Britain and drive out the Saxons who had humiliated and tortured her. But the killing nauseated her, and she came to see that revenge was ultimately self-defeating.

All of this makes Aethelreda a new kind of ruler. She chose diplomacy over battle. She chose cooperation over competition. It might be unrealistic and anachronistic to have a Celtic tribal leader choosing such “modern” tactics, but I wanted to explore what might happen if a leader, particularly a female one, did. I wanted to assume that the influence of the Christians in those early years was profound and helped to shape history.

But history seems to go round and round in circles. We are 1,500 years further along in history than the time period in which “Bound by an Oath” was set, and leaders are still choosing violence and savagery to solve their problems. World peace continues to allude us.

Lord have mercy on our vengeful, selfish souls, and may the Prince of Peace reign someday soon.