By Browneyes

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there lived in East Anglia a king and a very tall queen with long flowing hair and stunning but very scary eyes. They had two daughters named Isolda and Siora.

One day, just as they were sitting down to dinner, some very nasty men knocked on their door.

“’Tis the Romans!” screamed Isolda

“Don’t scream child.”

“Sorry Pa…Goodness gracious, it’s the Romans Pa.”

“That’s better.”

Wiping roasted wild boar from his moustache King Prasutagus opened the door and was immediately summoned to a meeting with a man named Claudius who had, a while before, landed on the shores of Britain and assumed control of it.

Later that day…

With a satisfied smirk on his face Prasutagus signed the document on the table in front of him and turned to his wife.

“Right. So there it is…my will. Half my property and lands go to Nero and the rest goes to you and the girls my love.”

Unfortunately he didn’t realise that later, when he’d popped his clogs, Nero would totally ignore his wishes and claim the whole lot leaving his family without a bean and, despite the fact that his wife Boudicca would put up a pretty good fight when she refused to hand over the goods, would beat her up and his men would do unmentionable things to the two girls.

Widow Boudicca had the right hump. It was bad enough that her husband had died, her daughters had been savagly molested and she was black and blue but knowing Nero had taken what rightly belonged to her and that she was expected to kowtow to him now was the last straw . Off she went to gather over two hundred thousand men – I doubt they’d have argued with the woman – and they all went off to defeat the Romans.

On and on they rode, fighting their way through Colchester, London, St Albans and finally, it’s thought, Warwickshire where a very gruesome battle took place.

Poor Boudicca. If only she’d been at the top of the hill in Warwickshire instead of the bottom they’d have probably won. Where she died no one knows for sure…she may have escaped…we’ll never know. Sadly the battle was lost to the Romans but her name will never be forgotten. Will it?

So, in my opinion, the event that changed the face of Britain was when Boudicca, a woman, stood up and faced the Roman army…was she an ancester of Emily Pankhurst’s I wonder?

“We British are used to women commanders in war. I am descended from mighty men! But I am not fighting for my kingdom and wealth now. I am fighting as an ordinary person for my lost freedom, my bruised body, and my outraged daughters. Consider how many of you are fighting and why! Then you will win this battle, or perish. That is what I, a woman, plan to do! Let the men live in slavery if they will.”
Boudicca, according to Tacitus, Annals