I am always looking forward to learning more about the Iron Age and Celtic history. So, when I saw this biography of Boudica in a bookstore, I decided to pick it up, enthusiastic at the idea of learning more about this mythical warrior queen. I had already some knowledge about the Icenian Queen, though not as much as I would have liked, as she had been mentioned in the works of historians I had previously read such as: Peter Beresford Ellis's A Brief History of the Druids (1994), Jean Markale's Women of the Celts (1989), Jean Markale's The Druids: Celtic Priests of Nature (1985), and Jean-Louis Brunaux's Nos ancêtres les Gaulois (2008). Therefore, when I had the opportunity to read Vanessa Collingridge's biography of Boudica, warrior Queen of the Iceni tribe, I could not contain my excitement. However, this portrayal of Boudica had nothing "groundbreaking" about it which disappointed me greatly.
My first main issue with this historical account is that the first eight chapters were dedicated to Rome from the creation of the city, its monarchical system followed by the establishment of the Republic of Rome and, finally, the foundation of the Roman Empire. Vanessa Collingridge explained Julius Caesar's Gallic War(s) and Octavian's ascension as first Roman Emperor. The thing is that Octavian became Emperor in 27 B.C.E while the Britons's uprising led by Boudica occurred in 60/61 A.D which, in my view, felt as though Vanessa Collingridge's biography of Boudica was padded out due to the scarcity of information we have on the Icenian Queen as well as on this time period.
Don't get me wrong, I do think that giving context about the Gallic War(s), Julius Caesar's desire to conquer Britannia, and how the Romans expanded to Britain and formed alliances with Celtic tribes and kings, provided the readers with a better understanding of the period. However, I do have a problem with a historical book labelled as a biography that only manages to discuss its main subject for only a hundred pages. And that is what happened in Boudica: A Groundbreaking Biography of the True Warrior Queen. Only six chapters truly focused on Boudica and what had her take arms against the Romans, and the Britons, attacking Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St Albans). But, most of the information were, unfortunately, not new to me which was another negative aspect of this biography.
I know that not much is known about Boudica, Queen of the Iceni, one of the leaders of the Britons' uprising against Suetonius Paulinus's troops, which undeniably makes it difficult to write a proper account on this famous, almost mythical, warrior figure, especially when what we know is based on the accounts of Roman historians, who, for some of them, were not even born when the Britons' rebellion broke out. Yet, I thought there would be more to this biography than what it actually ended up to be but, to finish on a more positive note, I found that the analysis on how Boudica's image changed in the course of history, from Queen Elizabeth I to Queen Victoria, was interesting and sometimes quite paradoxical, especially when, in the 19th century, Boudica, who fought Roman imperialism in the 1st century A.D, actually took the mantle of Britannia embodying the figure of the British Empire during Queen Victoria's reign.
Collingridge, V., Boudica: A Groundbreaking Biography of the True Warrior Queen, London, Ebury Press, 2006.