Queen Boudicca

In AD 43 there were a lot of kings and queens all over Britain. The Roman emperor, Claudius, wanted to be emperor of all Britain. His Roman soldiers came to Britain to take the country from the British kings and queens.

In the east of England there was a young queen called Boudicca. The Roman soldiers were afraid of her husband because he was a good soldier. But her husband died, and the Roman soldiers came into Boudicca's town. They wanted to take things from the people.

Boudicca was very angry. "Go away!" she said. "I am the Queen, and these are my people!"

But the Roman soldiers laughed. "You can't fight - you're a woman!" they said. In front of all her people they took off her dress, and hit her and her children, many times. Then they laughed again, and went away.

That night, Boudicca, and hundreds of her people, killed the Roman soldiers. They burned the Roman towns of Colchester and St Albans. Thousands of British people came to help Boudicca. They burned the Roman city of London, and killed hundreds of Roman soldiers, and women and children too. "I am going to kill all the Romans!" Boudicca said. "I am going to be Queen of all Britain now!"

But more and more Roman soldiers came to Britain - thousands and thousands of them. Boudicca's men began to run away. Six months later, Boudicca died.

Boudicca wanted to be Queen of all Britain, but the Romans were too strong. But we remember her because she was the first famous British queen.

Today you can see her, a big, tall, beautiful woman, in Hyde Park Corner, in the middle of London.

Tim Vicary: Kings and Queens of Britain; Oxford Bookworms Factfiles (Stage 1: 400 headwords); Oxford University Press, 1997, page 2 f.