Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is
Speaker 1: advised before we start this episode in earnest, just one
Speaker 1: quick reminder. I have a book coming out and it
Speaker 1: comes out January. It's a novel called Anatomy, a love story,
Speaker 1: and it's a story about a young woman who wants
Speaker 1: to be a surgeon in the eighteen hundreds in Edinburgh
Speaker 1: and Scotland during the dawn of surgery, and she falls
Speaker 1: in love or does she with a resurrection man, a
Speaker 1: guy who digs up dead bodies to sell to doctors,
Speaker 1: as was common practice during the nineteenth century. So if
Speaker 1: you like this podcast, I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: really up your alley and it would mean the world
Speaker 1: to me if you wanted to read it. So it's
Speaker 1: available for preorder now, you know, on Amazon or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your books, your local indie bookstore ideally, and
Speaker 1: it's hopefully going to be available in every store where
Speaker 1: you get your book starting January. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much much for everyone for all their support. You could
Speaker 1: support the show on Patreon, Patreon, dot com, slash, Noble
Speaker 1: Blood Tails and I upload episode scripts there and also
Speaker 1: do bonus episodes talking about the TV show Rain on
Speaker 1: the c W and the Tutors, and I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: doing bonus episodes on the Great but yeah, you can
Speaker 1: find all that there. Thank you so much to everyone
Speaker 1: who supports the show. But as always, the best support
Speaker 1: is just listening. So thank you to everyone who's listened,
Speaker 1: and let the show come into two. There's a statue
Speaker 1: in London, on the western side of Westminster Bridge, a
Speaker 1: statue that stands ten ft tall. It's a bronze statue
Speaker 1: depicting a woman riding in a chariot pulled by two horses.
Speaker 1: The woman stands with both hands raised arms above her head,
Speaker 1: like an o singer or ava Perone standing on a balcony,
Speaker 1: except unlike ava Peron, and unlike most opera singers, the
Speaker 1: woman holds in one of her upraised hands a spear.
Speaker 1: Her hair is braided beneath a crown. On either side
Speaker 1: of her are two smaller women, her daughters. It's very
Speaker 1: clearly a statue of a warrior, and the figure has
Speaker 1: been sculpted in such a way to convey to the
Speaker 1: viewer that this woman was brave and fearsome, though not
Speaker 1: so brave and fearsome that she's not also conventionally beautiful.
Speaker 1: Her gown, a simple classical shroud beneath a cloak, clings
Speaker 1: close enough to her body that you can make out
Speaker 1: the contours of her belly and her breasts. She's a
Speaker 1: warrior woman, the statue says, but she's still a woman.
Speaker 1: The statue, originally sculpted by Thomas Thornycroft in the late
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, is a representation of Boudica, the warrior queen
Speaker 1: of Britain, who fended off the invading Roman forces for
Speaker 1: a little while in a surprising but ultimately unsuccessful rebellion.
Speaker 1: As described by the statues plinth, she is quote Boudica Budetica,
Speaker 1: Queen of the Assni, who died a d. Sixty one
Speaker 1: after leading her people against the Roman invader. If you're
Speaker 1: British or were schooled in Great Britain or the Commonwealth,
Speaker 1: you're almost certainly familiar with Boudica as she's most commonly
Speaker 1: referred to. But if you're American, her story might be
Speaker 1: a little less familiar. It's a classic tale of David
Speaker 1: verse Goliath, even if this is a case in which
Speaker 1: Goliath uses his considerable armed forces and superior weaponry and
Speaker 1: organizational strategy to defeat David. But I'm not just interested
Speaker 1: in the story of Utica. I'm interested in the idea
Speaker 1: of her, or rather how the idea of her has
Speaker 1: changed over time. You see Thomas Thorneycroft sculpture was finally
Speaker 1: cast in bronze and erected in nine two, at the
Speaker 1: end of the reign of Queen Victoria. The statue is
Speaker 1: in an undeniable place of prominence, overlooking the Thames, facing
Speaker 1: straight toward perhaps the two most enduring symbols of London
Speaker 1: and centralized British power, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
Speaker 1: The Boudica was a relatively obscure figure for most of
Speaker 1: British history. In the Victorian era, she exploded in popularity,
Speaker 1: becoming a figure not only in the popular, artistic and
Speaker 1: literary movements of the day, but becoming a national heroine,
Speaker 1: a symbol of Britain, a face for the feminized representation
Speaker 1: of the abstract now national term Britannia. Boudica was a
Speaker 1: heroic warrior, but it might strike you, as it struck me,
Speaker 1: that she's an unusual choice to be the heroine of
Speaker 1: Victorian times, a period often stereotyped as one of piety, domesticity,
Speaker 1: and female obedience, the era that's become synonymous with women
Speaker 1: in tight corsets being afraid to talk about sex. That
Speaker 1: era certainly doesn't seem to be a natural fit for
Speaker 1: stories about a woman who led armies into battle with
Speaker 1: her hair hanging wild behind her. Plus she was a pagan,
Speaker 1: a wild heretic who used divination and looked to nature
Speaker 1: for advice and guidance, and she uh burned London to
Speaker 1: the ground. We'll get to that later. But even all
Speaker 1: that aside, one might imagine buttoned up Victorian Christianity having
Speaker 1: a were challenging time embracing a story that ends with
Speaker 1: a hero committing the sin of suicide. History, as much
Speaker 1: as it's about telling stories, is about examining the reasons
Speaker 1: we choose to tell certain stories and when, to very
Speaker 1: loosely paraphrase one of the many Batman movies, a city
Speaker 1: gets the hero it needs. In sixty A d. Boudica
Speaker 1: fought for her life, her family, and her homeland, and then,
Speaker 1: almost two thousand years later, even though the nation she
Speaker 1: lived in had a different name, she was resurrected to
Speaker 1: continue to fight. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is Noble Blood.
Speaker 1: A trigger warning for anyone listening who might be sensitive
Speaker 1: to particular content. This episode contains sexual violence. Almost all
Speaker 1: of our information on Buddhica comes from two classical sources,
Speaker 1: both written a few decades after Boudica's death. The first
Speaker 1: is by Tacitus, who actually spoke to witnesses about Boudica's
Speaker 1: uprising firsthand. Tacitus's father in law was actually a Roman
Speaker 1: governor of Britain. The second source was written by a
Speaker 1: man named Cassius Dio, who was seemingly based most of
Speaker 1: his account on the words of Tacitus, the age old
Speaker 1: strategy of copying but changing it just enough so that
Speaker 1: the teacher won't get suspicious. For classical historians at the time,
Speaker 1: it was common practice to include in their histories long,
Speaker 1: flowery speeches supposedly given by their subjects. It made the
Speaker 1: history more interesting to read, more relevant to readers, and
Speaker 1: it was a chance for the authors to add some
Speaker 1: color or moral teachings. But it's important for us to
Speaker 1: remember that these speeches are meant to be evocative, but
Speaker 1: not direct transcriptions. So though Cassius Dio and Tacitus both
Speaker 1: wrote down what Boudica allegedly said to her troops. It's
Speaker 1: not meant to be taken verbatim, after all, Boudica wasn't
Speaker 1: speaking Latin or Greek. We're not certain when Boudica was born.
Speaker 1: It's not recorded anywhere or reported with any real certainty,
Speaker 1: but most likely it was around thirty a d. Most
Speaker 1: likely somewhere around the present day English city of Colchester.
Speaker 1: Bouddhica spent most of her life in and around what
Speaker 1: is now considered East Anglia, to the northeast of London,
Speaker 1: and though there's no source that makes it absolutely certain,
Speaker 1: it's likely that she was born into a prominent family,
Speaker 1: if not noble, then considered well bred and well respected.
Speaker 1: In forty three a d. What's known as the Claudian
Speaker 1: Invasion of Britain began. Emperor Claudius in Rome began his
Speaker 1: conquest of southern Britain, or as it would have been
Speaker 1: called by the Romans, Britannia. I imagine what this must
Speaker 1: have been like for a teenage Boudica, seeing legions of
Speaker 1: strangers carrying weapons marching over her green hills, then making camp,
Speaker 1: laughing and jeering in a language she didn't understand. It
Speaker 1: was around this time that Boudica got married to a
Speaker 1: man named press Tagus, the leader of the Aseni tribe
Speaker 1: the Britonic people living around present day Norfolk. Sources claim
Speaker 1: that press Tagus was long reigning, which means it's probable
Speaker 1: that he was already king when he married Boudica. Boudica
Speaker 1: was tall and athletic. Women would have trained in weapons
Speaker 1: alongside men, which meant that she knew her way or
Speaker 1: und a sword as well as anyone. She had long,
Speaker 1: ginger hair that reached her waist and piercing eyes, and
Speaker 1: she often wore a golden necklace and a cloak fastened
Speaker 1: with a brooch. Rather than fight the Romans, Prasatagus made
Speaker 1: the pragmatic decision to ally with them. It became a
Speaker 1: mutually beneficial partnership in which the Assane people offered assistance
Speaker 1: to the Romans in their invasion and assistant and putting
Speaker 1: down revolts against other nearby tribes, and in return, Romans
Speaker 1: allowed Prasatagus and the Assane people protection and they're much
Speaker 1: valued independence. It worked out, at least it did until
Speaker 1: Prasatagus died in around sixty a d In his will,
Speaker 1: Prasatagus left half of his fortune to his wife, Buddhica
Speaker 1: and their two daughters. The other half of his property
Speaker 1: he left to the Roman emperor, who by this point
Speaker 1: was Nero. It was meant to be a generous offering,
Speaker 1: a symbolic deference, as if to say, hey, you can
Speaker 1: have half of my holdings, but for the other half,
Speaker 1: let's keep that mutually beneficial, salutary neglect situation going on.
Speaker 1: But the Roman Empire is known for many things, and
Speaker 1: mercy towards people that they want to conquer is not
Speaker 1: one of them. They flat out ignored Prasatagus's will and
Speaker 1: claimed all of his property. When Buddhica attempted to defend
Speaker 1: their home from invading soldiers, the soldiers captured her. They
Speaker 1: tied her up and flogged her, blood dripping down her back,
Speaker 1: and torn pieces of skin that would leave painful wealths
Speaker 1: and then scars for the rest of her life. But
Speaker 1: that wasn't enough, it seems, to send the message. The
Speaker 1: Roman sold stormed into Buddhica's home and raped both of
Speaker 1: her daughters. The Romans knew that Boudica was a queen
Speaker 1: and a leader that she had the capacity to rally
Speaker 1: the Asne people behind her. They meant the flogging and
Speaker 1: the cruel violation of her daughters to be such a humiliation,
Speaker 1: such a trauma, that it would break her and leave
Speaker 1: her defeated. It had the exact opposite effect. Buddhica began
Speaker 1: rallying troops to expel the Romans from Britain. There was
Speaker 1: precedent stories from history that inspired her and inspired the
Speaker 1: people who followed her. A few decades earlier, in nine
Speaker 1: a d Prince Arminius of the Cheruski people drove the
Speaker 1: Romans out of his land in present day Germany and
Speaker 1: even in Britain. Julius Caesar himself had been defeated and
Speaker 1: forced to retreat, and so Buddica gathered men and women
Speaker 1: to fight alongside her. As she allegedly said in a speech,
Speaker 1: it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry,
Speaker 1: but as one of the people that I'm avenging lost freedom,
Speaker 1: my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. To
Speaker 1: subtly encourage men to fight alongside her, she challenged their
Speaker 1: manliness by adding, this is a woman's resolve. As for men,
Speaker 1: you may live and be slaves. Eventually, her army had
Speaker 1: over one hundred and twenty thousand troops, both from the
Speaker 1: Ane and from the neighboring tribe with whom she allied
Speaker 1: against their mutual enemy. To the shock of the Romans,
Speaker 1: Buddhica and her soldiers fought and one they defeated the
Speaker 1: Roman ninth Legion and sacked the city of Camelodnan. They
Speaker 1: continued on pillaging and fighting, burning down homes and Roman
Speaker 1: settlements in the Roman cities of Verylamnium modern day Saint
Speaker 1: Albans and Londonium, which you might have correctly guessed is
Speaker 1: where London now stands. Boudica put her faith in a
Speaker 1: number of pagan rituals in order to lead her troops.
Speaker 1: One involved taking a hare and putting him under the
Speaker 1: many layers of her skirts. She would then lift her
Speaker 1: skirts and release the animal and watch the direction that
Speaker 1: the hare chose to run in. She knew that whichever
Speaker 1: way it went had some symbolic meaning. As Boudica and
Speaker 1: her soldiers marched, they desecrated Roman cemeteries, breaking tombstones and
Speaker 1: knocking statues down. Some of those broken statues are still
Speaker 1: on display today at the Colchester Museum, a centuries old
Speaker 1: reminder of anger and fury towards an invading army, made
Speaker 1: symbol in broken stone that last to this day. What
Speaker 1: helped Boudica in these early battles was the fact that
Speaker 1: the Roman governor of the province, a man named Gaius
Speaker 1: Suetonius Paulinus, was away during her attacks. He was leading
Speaker 1: a campaign on the Welsh island Mona when he heard
Speaker 1: about the staggering defeats that his countrymen were suffering on
Speaker 1: the east side of Britain. Enough was enough, Suetonius decided
Speaker 1: he would bring his troops towards Boudica for a final confrontation.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of disagreement among historians about where this final
Speaker 1: battle took place. Presumably it was somewhere between vera Limium
Speaker 1: and Londinium. Some claim it was along a Roman road
Speaker 1: called Watling Street. What we do know is that Boudica,
Speaker 1: her waist length ginger hair flowing behind her, rode in
Speaker 1: a chariot up and down her ranks to rally her
Speaker 1: troops before battle. Nothing is safe from Roman pride and arrogance,
Speaker 1: she shouted. One historian claims, they will deface the sacred
Speaker 1: and will deflower our virgins. Win the battle or perish.
Speaker 1: That is what I, a woman will do. The Bouddhica
Speaker 1: had numbers on her side, Stonius had the advantage when
Speaker 1: it came to weaponry and strategy, with his ten thousand
Speaker 1: soldiers mainly from the fourteenth Legion. He first made a
Speaker 1: tactical withdrawal in order to draw Buddhica into battle on
Speaker 1: his terms. When the battle began, the Romans began by
Speaker 1: throwing javelins at Buddhica in her army, which led to
Speaker 1: massive casualties in minutes before the two armies had even
Speaker 1: really engaged. The Romans then advanced to move in for
Speaker 1: the kill. With short swords that allowed them flexible ality
Speaker 1: of movement. They turned Boudica's numbers against her. She and
Speaker 1: her army were trapped in their tight ranks. Their weapons,
Speaker 1: which were mostly long swords, were difficult to use against
Speaker 1: the Romans who came in so close and so fast,
Speaker 1: and then Suetonius released the cavalry, which encircled Boudica's army
Speaker 1: from behind. It was only another few moments after that
Speaker 1: until the battle was over. Eighty thousand of Boudica's Britons
Speaker 1: were killed. There were a comparatively few four hundred dead Romans.
Speaker 1: Boudica was captured alive, but she knew the fate waiting
Speaker 1: for her would be worse than death. She would be
Speaker 1: raped by her Roman captors, or forced to become a slave,
Speaker 1: or both, and so before that could happen, Boudica drank
Speaker 1: poison and killed herself. We don't know what happened to
Speaker 1: her two daughters. Some claim that they killed themselves as well,
Speaker 1: but they also might have died in battle. Her revolt
Speaker 1: was ultimately unsuccessful, although for a moment it almost persuaded
Speaker 1: Emperor Nero that the conquest of Britain was more trouble
Speaker 1: than it was worth. Still, the story of a woman
Speaker 1: brutalized who then rose up against her presser was one
Speaker 1: worth recording. Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote in the late
Speaker 1: first century, and then it would be another few hundred
Speaker 1: years before Boudica would appear in another major source, this
Speaker 1: time a sixth century book by a British monk named
Speaker 1: Gildas called on the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, in
Speaker 1: which Guildess describes Buddhica not unflatteringly as a treacherous lioness.
Speaker 1: Though Boudica was mentioned here and there for the next
Speaker 1: few centuries after that, she didn't become anything resembling a
Speaker 1: folk hero or even a may stream historical figure until
Speaker 1: the reign of Elizabeth the First, the last Tudor queen,
Speaker 1: happened to be reigning during a period in which the
Speaker 1: classical work of scholars from ancient Greece and Rome were rediscovered,
Speaker 1: including the writings of Tacitus and Cassius Dia, and Boudica
Speaker 1: was a heroine ready made analogous to their own ginger haired,
Speaker 1: notably tall Queen Elizabeth. Boudica seemed to be especially relevant
Speaker 1: to their own queen when Elizabeth the First made a
Speaker 1: speech to her troops at Tilbury before facing off against
Speaker 1: the invasion of the Spanish Armada. Both queens were mere
Speaker 1: women leading massive groups of men against foreign invaders. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was more successful than her historical counterpart. After Elizabeth's reign,
Speaker 1: interest in Buddhica waned slightly during and after the reign
Speaker 1: of James the First and sixth, the King of scotl Land,
Speaker 1: who ruled England after Elizabeth's death. Buddhica was seen with
Speaker 1: a little bit of suspicion, to say nothing of the
Speaker 1: misogyny that you might expect. In the sixteen hundreds, John Milton,
Speaker 1: in his History of Britain, frames Boudica as shameless, a
Speaker 1: wild heridan who should have kept her mouth shut. But
Speaker 1: Milton was notable for his misogyny across the board. He
Speaker 1: didn't think any woman should occupy a position of power,
Speaker 1: least of all a woman with heretical attitudes. But by
Speaker 1: the mid to late seventeen hundreds, Boudica began to re
Speaker 1: emerge as a historical figure, and an incredibly useful one,
Speaker 1: a historical figure who also acted as a symbol. Boudica
Speaker 1: became not just a woman who fought and lost against
Speaker 1: the Romans in a d but a symbol for Britain
Speaker 1: as a nation. Female personification of countries is a global tradition.
Speaker 1: In America, there's a famous painting by John Gast called
Speaker 1: American Progress or manifest Destiny. If you took a p
Speaker 1: U S History, you probably had to study it for
Speaker 1: your a P test. It's a painting in which idealized
Speaker 1: American pioneers travel from the right side of the canvas,
Speaker 1: painted to look like a growing dawn towards the dark,
Speaker 1: shadowy West, where Native Americans brandish their weapons beneath dim clouds.
Speaker 1: The covered wagons, cowboys, and trains make their way towards
Speaker 1: America's expansionist destiny, and they're guided along by a massive
Speaker 1: female figure towering high as the mountains in the background
Speaker 1: of the picture. The woman, meant to be Liberty or
Speaker 1: America or God's purpose for American expansion, is bedecked with
Speaker 1: blonde curls. She wears a one shoulder toga, evoking the
Speaker 1: classical democracies of antiquity. In France, the female personification of
Speaker 1: the nation is sometimes called Marianne. Picture the famous Eugene
Speaker 1: Delacroix painting Liberty Leading the People, in which a woman
Speaker 1: raises high the tricolor flag. It's the painting Cold Play
Speaker 1: used for their Viva Levita album cover. If you need
Speaker 1: help remembering. Like the American figure of Liberty, this figure
Speaker 1: also wears a one shoulder toga, although maybe a predictable
Speaker 1: French fashion, her toga reveals both of her breasts, though Boudica,
Speaker 1: unlike America's blonde giantess and Frances, Marianne was a real
Speaker 1: person she served more or less the same symbolic purpose.
Speaker 1: William Cowper was a famous eighteenth century poet. In his
Speaker 1: work he actually coined the phrases God moves in a
Speaker 1: mysteri arious way and variety is the very spice of life.
Speaker 1: But in his seventeen eighty poem Boudica and Ode, he wrote, she,
Speaker 1: with all a monarch's pride, felt them in her bosom glow,
Speaker 1: rushed to battle, fought and died, dying, hurled them at
Speaker 1: the foe Ruffians, pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance
Speaker 1: due Empire is on us, bestowed shame and ruin Wait
Speaker 1: for you. And then Buddhica became permanently entrenched in British culture.
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty seven, when a young woman that they
Speaker 1: began calling Victoria became queen of their empire, Boudica became
Speaker 1: the emblem of Victoria's power, a comparison made easy by
Speaker 1: the helpful coincidence that the root of the name Buddhica
Speaker 1: comes from either the Celtic or the Welsh word for victory,
Speaker 1: which meant that she and Victoria basically had the same
Speaker 1: name During a period when Brits might have begun to
Speaker 1: fear that their empire would be in decline. Boudica became
Speaker 1: a helpful tool to bolster national pride, a rallying symbol.
Speaker 1: Victorian children were forced in their classrooms to learn William
Speaker 1: Cowper's poem by heart, and there was a renewed interest
Speaker 1: in trying to find out where exactly her battles took place.
Speaker 1: Attention towards Boudica reached a zenith during eight nine four,
Speaker 1: when archaeologists excitedly determined that an earthwork on the north
Speaker 1: side of Parliament Hill might be the site of the
Speaker 1: any queen's final resting place. Though the land was excavated
Speaker 1: and no grave was found, the public hubbabaloo of everyone
Speaker 1: talking about the ancient queen gave John Isaac Thorneycraft boost
Speaker 1: he needed to help raise funds to finally cast the
Speaker 1: sculpture made by his by now late father Thomas Thornycroft,
Speaker 1: who died before ever seeing his plaster cast set in bronze.
Speaker 1: In two his sculpture Boudica and her Daughters was finally
Speaker 1: erected on Westminster Bridge, a permanent tribute to the woman
Speaker 1: who tried to burn London to the ground. To this day,
Speaker 1: She's still considered a national heroine of Britain. That's the
Speaker 1: story of Boudica and the story of the story of Boudica.
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about rumors that still persist around her.
Speaker 1: There's still no historical consensus as to the location of
Speaker 1: Boudica's remains. One magical but almost certainly not true, holds
Speaker 1: that Boudica was buried in the ashes of Londinium and
Speaker 1: that a train station sprung up in the centuries after
Speaker 1: her death. The rumor is that Boudica's body happens to
Speaker 1: be located far beneath the bricks, directly between platforms nine
Speaker 1: and ten, where at platform nine and three quarters another
Speaker 1: symbol of Britannia has made his claim. Another theory, and
Speaker 1: one I quite like, even though I have absolutely no
Speaker 1: expertise to evaluate its historical accuracy. Actually that's not true.
Speaker 1: In my limited expert opinion, I'll say this one is
Speaker 1: not true. But the idea is that the mysterious Circle
Speaker 1: of Stonehenge was erected in Boudica's honor as a funeral arrangement.
Speaker 1: This was a speculation first put forward by the writer
Speaker 1: Edmund Bolton, who lived in the court of James the
Speaker 1: first and six. I think his historical basis was mostly
Speaker 1: that it would be cool the theory of whoa can
Speaker 1: you imagine what a fun coincidence? A more likely theory
Speaker 1: is one that gives us less to hold onto. We
Speaker 1: don't know how the Iceni tribe dealt with their dead,
Speaker 1: or what their rituals around funerals were, but some other
Speaker 1: tribes in Britain during the Bronze Age simply laid their
Speaker 1: dead out in special places to be desiccated by the
Speaker 1: elements out in the open. It's possible that that's what
Speaker 1: happened to Boudica. If so, there would be nothing left
Speaker 1: of her. She's gone, disappeared into the British soil and
Speaker 1: air and water, nothing left except what we want her
Speaker 1: to be. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show
Speaker 1: is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is
Speaker 1: produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you
Speaker 1: can learn more about the show over at Noble blood
Speaker 1: Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. M