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| Roman Officer |
Prior to the arrival of the Roman army in the 1st
century AD, Britain didn't have any sort of large standing military force as
such with which to defend the country, but instead had a collection of
individual tribal groups, who would periodically fight one another in regional
disputes over territory, mineral deposits, water rights, or some other such
valuable commodities. It was thought to be as a result of one of these
inter-tribal disputes, between the Catuvellauni people and their neighbours,
the Atrebates that eventually led to the military invasion of Britain by the
legions of the Roman Empire in 43 AD. Dispossessed of his kingdom by the
Catuvellauni princes, Caratacus and Togodumnus, who were seeking to extend
their own territorial influence, the Atrebate ruler, Verica, was said to have
travelled to Rome, where he pleaded with the new Roman Emperor, Claudius, for
military support in regaining his traditional tribal homelands. Fortunately for
the ousted British king, his pleas for military aid were thought to have come
at a convenient time, given that Claudius was reportedly desperate to stamp his
own authority on a Roman Empire, which had been severely damaged by the actions
of his predecessor, the Emperor Caligula, whose madness was said to have
brought the empire to the edge of destruction.
Britain at that time was reportedly composed of a
large number of regional tribes, including the likes of the Catuvellauni,
Atrebates, Iceni, Silures, Ordovices, et cetera, who were commonly ruled by a
single high born individual, or members of a particular household, or clan,
whose decisions were often informed by their closest and most experienced
advisers. Each of these pre-Roman societies were thought to have been slightly
distinct from one another, with some having tribal capitals, whilst others did
not, others produced their own coinage, whereas others relied almost entirely
on barter, some tribes grew crops, others bred and traded horses. However, even
though each of these peoples were thought to have regarded themselves as being
entirely distinct from the other surrounding British tribes, many of the
smaller, more peaceful tribal groups were thought to have shared a common enemy
in the form of the larger, more militaristic societies, such as the
Catuvellauni, who used their martial strength to impose their demands or their
territorial ambitions on their smaller, weaker neighbours.
Consequently, when the four Roman legions of Aulus
Plautius landed at Richborough in Kent in 43 AD, many of the smaller tribes
were thought to have generally welcomed their arrival, simply because the
Roman’s military presence promised to curtail the expansionist policies of the
stronger indigenous British tribes. It was precisely because of Britain’s fragmented
and regionalised tribal system that the estimated forty thousand Roman
legionaries, who arrived in the summer of 43 AD, were able to successfully land
on the British mainland and establish their first bases there, without any
serious local opposition. According to most contemporary sources, both
Caratacus and Togodumnus, the rulers of the Catuvellauni were reported to have
been in the vanguard of what British resistance there was to the European
invaders and despite lacking the military strength to confront the Roman
legions directly, were said to have conducted a highly effective guerrilla
campaign against Rome’s military forces, using hit-and-run, as well as a
scorched earth policy to slow down the legion’s inexorable advance into the
centre of the country. Unfortunately, the Catuvellauni princes’ decision to
rely on the Rivers Medway and Thames to hold back the advancing Roman legions
ultimately proved to be a fatal mistake, as the highly experienced legionaries
quickly overcame both of these natural barriers and were able to confront and
defeat the British defenders, with Togodumnus reportedly being killed shortly
after the battle on the Thames.
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| Roman Cavalry |
Unlike his brother, Caratacus was thought to have
avoided being killed or seriously injured at the battle on the Thames, although
with much of his army destroyed or captured by the Roman’s, he was said to have
been left with little choice but to retire westward, in the hope of finding new
military forces with which to resist the invaders. In the short term however,
Aulus Plautius and his four legions were content to request Claudius to come
from Rome, so that he could triumphantly enter the Trinovantes capital of
Camulodunum (Colchester), at the head of his triumphant Roman army, where he
was said to have received the submissions of eleven British tribal leaders,
mostly from the south of the country, who were keen to show their allegiance to
the new military administration. Having established their hold on the south
east of the country, over the next four years the Roman legions were reported
to have pushed further west, imposing "client" relationships with
those willing to accept their rule and conquering those that were not. For
those that were able to escape the Roman’s military expansion, almost inevitably
they were said to have been forced back into the Welsh homelands of the Silures
and Ordovices peoples, who controlled much of the territory there.
Although both of these British tribes were reported
to have resisted increasing Roman expansion within Britain, especially along
their own regional borders, with what would later become known as England, it
was only in 47 AD that the Roman authorities began to plan for the large scale
invasion of the unconquered western regions of the country, when the new Roman
Governor of Britain, Publius Ostorius Scapula, began a series of military
campaigns against the peoples of Wales and northwest England. However, despite
the experience and professionalism of his legionary forces, Scapula was
reported to have found it extremely difficult to suppress the fighting men of
the Silures and the Ordovices, both of whom were said to have been led at some
point by the renegade Catuvellauni prince Caratacus, who was thought to have
organised British resistance to Rome, right the way through to 51 AD, when his
forces were finally defeated at the Battle of Caer Caradoc.
Although he managed to escape once again, following
this particular battle, Caratacus’ wife and children were all reportedly
captured by the Roman’s, who were said to have used them as hostages, in order
to force the British prince’s surrender, but all to no avail. Unfortunately for
the rebel prince, having fled Wales, he then made the mistake of fleeing north,
to the kingdom of the Brigante’s and the court of their queen, Cartimandua, a
client ruler of the Roman Empire. Duty bound to seize Caratacus, Cartimandua
was reported to have ordered him chained and handed over to the Roman
authorities, who subsequently arranged for the rebel prince and his entire
family to be taken to Rome in chains, where Caratacus would be publicly
displayed, before being executed. However, according to the Roman historian
Tacitus, the British prince was permitted to make a speech before the Senate,
which was said to have so impressed the Roman Emperor Claudius that Caratacus
and his family were released from their imprisonment and allowed to settle in
Rome, where they were said to have remained for the rest of his life.
The second great British insurrection against Roman
rule was thought to have occurred around ten years after Caratacus had finally
been captured by the Brigante’s client ruler, Cartimandua; and was brought
about in part by Rome’s own inheritance laws and the overbearing attitude of
some of the Roman officer’s stationed in Britain. The Iceni people, who
occupied the area of Britain, now marked by the modern day county of Norfolk,
were reported to have been a generally successful tribe of horse breeders and
traders, whose ruler, King Prasutagus and his wife Boudica, had taken a fairly
pragmatic view towards the Roman invasion of Britain and as a result had
maintained a significant amount of independence within the new Roman province
of Britannia. However, as part of their increasing political and commercial
links with the Empire, Prasutagus not only incurred a considerable amount of
debt through Roman money lenders, but was also obliged to accept the Empire’s
strict inheritance laws, which would transfer all of his rights and properties
to Rome upon his death and that strictly forbade any of his female relative
from inheriting his estates when he finally died.
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| Anglo Saxon Warrior |
Unfortunately, when Prasutagus finally did die in
around 60 AD, his will ordered that all of his estates should be divided
between the Roman Empire and his two daughters, in what was a clear breach of
Roman Law, but perfectly legitimate under traditional British rules. However,
the Roman authorities in Britain, no doubt encouraged by many of the money
lenders who were keen to recover their loans, decided to ignore the Iceni
king’s last will and testament; and simply annexed the entire kingdom, bringing
it under their own direct military control. When the late king’s wife, Boudica,
publicly protested their actions, according to some contemporary sources, she
was publicly flogged and her daughters were raped, as punishment for daring to
challenge the Roman authority’s decision. It was an outrage that the Roman’s
would subsequently have cause to regret, as the Iceni queen soon began plotting
with other neighbouring tribes to bring their military forces together and
drive the Roman’s out of Britain forever.
To best illustrate the difference between the two
societies, the fact that this particular British army chose to accept Queen
Boudica as their war leader, was completely at odds with Rome’s social norms,
where women were held in little regard, save for those few that achieved noble
status. For the ancient Briton’s however, women were generally granted similar
status to their men folk in terms of commerce, political power and leadership;
and as in the case of Boudica herself, were sometimes attributed with having
magical powers that were largely unknown to men.
Rallying her combined military forces, Boudica’s
first target was said to have been the Roman settlement of Calumodunum, now
Colchester, which had once been the tribal capital of the Trinovantes people,
but had since been colonised by Roman migrants, merchants and former soldiers.
Some of these ex-legionaries were reported to have treated the local Briton’s
with great disrespect and had not only stolen their lands and possessions, but
had also forced the local population to bear the cost of building a brand new
temple dedicated to the former Roman emperor Claudius, which quickly became the
target for the Briton’s latent anger. Perhaps believing that the presence of
these former legionaries would protect the settlement from any sort of attack,
according to some sources, Calumodunum lacked any great defensive features and
as a result was quickly overrun by Boudica’s army, who were reported to have
butchered everybody in the city, regardless of their nationality, or their
reason for being there.
The great temple that had been built to celebrate
the Emperor Claudius was said to have become the final refuge for many of the
town’s terrified residents, who huddled inside its protective walls for a
number of days, before finally succumbing to the vengeance of the native
British army. Modern day archaeological excavations in the city, suggest that
having overcome the local defences Boudica’s forces then systematically
demolished the settlement, taking away only those items that were easily
transported, whilst destroying and burning those that were not. Having spent
several days razing the entire settlement, Boudica and her army were then
thought to have prepared to move on to their next target, the relatively new
Roman settlement of Londinium, which was said to have become an extremely
important administrative and commercial centre for the Roman authorities.
However, having been delayed at Calumodunum, a
handful of survivors were said to have escaped the town and alerted the nearest
legionary commanders about the raid, who quickly despatched members of the 9th
Hispanic Legion into the area, in an effort to confront the Boudican army,
before it managed to attack and destroy another Roman settlement. Unfortunately
for the 9th Legion’s commander, Quintus Petillius Cerialis, the
forces that he managed to assemble at such fairly short notice, were reported
to have been completely inadequate for the task presented to them and were
subsequently annihilated by Boudica’s army, which then simply continued with
its relentless march on Londinium.
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| Edward the Confessor |
At the same time, the Roman Governor of Britain,
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, who had been busy campaigning against the Druids on
the island of Anglesey was informed about the razing of Calumodunum and the
later defeat of the 9th Hispanic Legion, forcing him to bring his
own legions south, in an effort to try and save the settlement of Londinium.
Unfortunately, given the distances involved and his lack of seasoned troops,
Paulinus was said to have essentially sacrificed the new Roman settlement, for
the sake of confronting the Iceni queen and her army at a place of his own
choosing; and where the conditions would favour his smaller, but much more
professional force. As a result, Boudica and her army quickly overran the
defences of Londinium, putting everyone to the sword and forcing many hundreds
of Roman administrators, traders and visitors to flee the city in terror. Even
today, evidence of the widespread destruction wrought by the Boudican army
remains beneath the modern day streets of the English capital, with a thick red
layer of burnt debris testifying to the wholesale devastation that took place
there nearly two thousand years ago.
Once again, this British tribal army was reported
to have spent several days pursuing those residents who had failed to leave the
city beforehand, slaughtering many thousands in the most barbaric way, whilst
tearing down and burning anything that the Roman’s had built, leaving the whole
settlement as a bloody burning memory of the British horde’s passing
visitation. With both Camulodunum and Londinium destroyed, Boudica then led her
army to the Roman settlement of Verulamium, now St Alban’s, where once again
the local population were slaughtered and their town destroyed, with particular
attention being paid to any high bred woman who happened to fall into the rebel
army’s hands. According to some later reports, such women had one of their
breasts cut off, which was then sewn into their mouths, before the unfortunate
victim was impaled on a wooden stake, although such reports may just as easily
have been horror stories invented by Roman historians in order to justify the
equally brutal actions that the Roman legions would subsequently employ in the
aftermath of the bloody Boudican revolt.
Having devastated Verulamium, Boudica’s native army
was then reported to have moved north, along the route of the main Roman
highway, Watling Street, which would have taken them to the area of Britain now
commonly referred to as The Midlands. Whether or not the Iceni queen intended
to take her forces to attack yet another major Roman settlement is unclear, but
it is known that as they moved north, the Roman Governor, Suetonius Paulinus,
was beginning to assemble his own military forces to try and intercept the
British army. Supported by an estimated ten thousand legionaries, Paulinus was
said to have carefully chosen the site where he would finally confront Boudica
and her native army, selecting a site that would favour his own men and
disadvantage the war chariots of the Iceni warriors that he knew would be used
against him. Although the exact site of the resulting battle has been lost over
time, according to some contemporary reports Paulinus was careful to choose a
location that not only prevented the encirclement of his forces by the much
larger British army, but also ensured that Boudica’s battle line was only equal
to his own, by choosing a site that essentially limited the amount of space
available to the soldiers from both side. Despite being several times larger
than Paulinus’ military force of ten thousand men, the Boudican army was
reported to have been so large that it was virtually uncontrollable, which
ultimately resulted in a lack of coordinated actions being taken by the Iceni
queen and her military commanders, who were unable to oversee or control the
actions of their massed troops, with the result that any attacks on the Roman lines
were thought to have been chaotic at best.
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| Motte & Bailey Castle |
For the highly experienced and professional Roman
legionaries however, the months and years of drilling, training and fighting
had formed them into a highly cohesive military force that could fight and die
on any terrain, or in any conditions, simply by following the lead of their
closest comrades, or the instructions given by their immediate superior, which
they followed without question. Whilst the native British troops rushed
headlong to meet their adversaries, the Roman legionaries were said to have
calmly stood their ground and launched volley after volley of javelins into
their enemy’s rapidly advancing ranks, killing and wounding thousands before
the two sides even got within arms length of one another. Even when the two
armies did come together in hand-to-hand combat, the interlinked shields of the
Roman phalanx and the skilfully employed legionary swords and spears were
thought to have caused significant levels of death and destruction amongst the
generally ill disciplined British ranks. As more and more British warriors
rushed to attack the Roman lines, so those at the front were forced onto the
legionnaire’s swords and spears, causing even greater numbers of casualties
amongst the native fighters, with no escape available even if they had wished
to withdraw from the battle.
Almost inevitably perhaps, as more and more of
their fighters fell to the Roman weapons, so the British attack began to weaken
and fail, until eventually increasing numbers of Boudica’s army began to fall
back, relieving the pressure on the Roman lines and allowing them to move
forward, in pursuit of the retreating British fighters. However, in what
subsequently proved to be a major tactical error, the Boudican army’s line of
retreat was reported to have been blocked by their own caravan of carts and
chariots that contained their families and the many looted treasures that had
been stolen from the Roman settlements of Camulodunum, Londinium and
Verulamium. With no clear escape route and with their families now at risk from
the rapidly advancing Roman forces, many of the British fighters, along with
their wives and children, were reported to have been slaughtered by the
vengeful Roman legionaries, whose commander, Suetonius Paulinus was determined
to teach the native Briton’s the human cost of rebelling against Roman military
rule.
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| Boudicca Statue |
Although some later historians have reported that
as many as eighty thousand Briton’s lost their lives in this final bloody
engagement, it seems highly likely that this figure had been exaggerated, by
both Roman and British recorders, often for their own particular political
ends. As for the Iceni leader Boudica and her daughters, according to some
later reports, she was reported to have committed suicide, rather than face the
humiliation and pain of being take prisoner by the Roman army, although as with
all such historic events, such reports are almost always speculative at best.
However, it is generally accepted that Boudica’s rebellion was the last great
British revolt against Rome during their four centuries of military occupation
of the British Isles.
With Britain under Roman military occupation and
protection for the best part of four hundred years and with a number of the
country’s former military tribal powers having been forcibly disarmed by the
legions of Rome, by the time the Roman’s decided to withdraw from Britain at
the beginning of the 5th century, the nation had few native military
forces with which to defend its own territorial borders. Although several
contingents of both Roman legionaries and auxiliaries were thought to have
remained in Britain following the withdrawal of Rome’s legions by around 410
AD, they were said to have been few and far between, given the growing level of
threat that the country was facing from beyond its national borders. Quite
apart from the Scottish tribes, such as the Caledonii, Cornovii, Gaels and
Picts who lived in the far north, well beyond Roman control, other native
tribes, including the Errain, Laigin, Deisi and the Dal Riata tribes from
Ireland were said to have made their way across the Irish Sea and conquered
parts of Western Britain. To the east, northern European tribes such as the
Saxons and Vikings were said to have regularly raided around the British coast,
stealing away people and possessions, as well as bringing death and destruction
to numerous coastal settlements of Britain.
The Votadini people, from the region of southern
Scotland, were reported to have acted as a local auxiliary force to the regular
Roman army during its occupation of Britain, although following the Roman
abandonment of the country in the 5th century, a significant number
of Votadini tribesmen were also said to have travelled south to the region of
North Wales, where they established themselves as a defence against Irish
raiders. However, such occurrences were rare and with Britain increasingly at
risk from numerous foreign raiders, Romano-British leaders, including Ambrosius
Aurelianus, were thought to have enlisted military aid from the European
continent, in the form of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, including the Angles,
Saxons, Frisians and Jutes, who were promised both land and pay, in return for
their military services.
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| Caratacus Illustration |
Unfortunately, before long, the new Romano-British
leadership were reported to have failed to pay the agreed monies, causing the
mercenaries to launch their own full scale invasion of the country in an act of
revenge. In response, the British leadership appealed to the still surviving
Western Roman Empire, whose leading military commander, Flavius Aetius, refused
to send any of his remaining legions to Britain, informing the British leaders
that they should look to their own resources to defend the country. For much of
the period from 410 AD to 500 AD, large parts of Britain were reported to be in
almost constant turmoil as the various competing factions, Britons, Angles,
Jutes, Picts and Vikings all fought for control of particular regions of the
country, a situation that was only temporarily halted in 500 AD, when the
native Britons managed to defeat a combined Anglo-Saxon army, at the Battle of
Mount Badon.
Unfortunately, despite this generally rare outright
victory for the native British forces, many parts of the country continued to
remain under foreign control, with the counties of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia
and areas of Yorkshire all coming under Anglo Saxon control over a period of
time, establishing the basis for the seven kingdoms that would come to dominate
England right the way through to the 9th century. This Heptarchy of
Anglo Saxon realms would eventually comprise Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia,
Essex, Sussex, Kent and Wessex, although all of these separate kingdoms would
eventually be absorbed into a single English nation, a geographical, political
and cultural union first envisaged by King Alfred the Great in the 10th
century.
Parts of northern England,
those controlled by the Viking’s Danelaw, were reported to have remained
outside of a unified England until 1013, when the whole of the country fell
under Danish control, even though Anglo Saxon rule was subsequently restored in
1042, when Edward the Confessor ascended the English throne. Although in part
the Anglo Saxon invasion of post-Roman Britain represented a military takeover
of the country, it was thought to have taken so long and happened so gradually
that the two societies, British and Anglo-Saxon, essentially merged together to
form a new, better and stronger Britain, one that embraced the best of its
various characteristics from the Ancient Britons, Romans, Vikings and the Anglo
Saxons, creating a new culture, traditions, national identity and even a new
language. Those early Briton’s who refused to adapt and embrace these new
changes were thought to have been forced further west, creating the unique
cultural identities of Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria that still exist to this
present day, albeit in smaller numbers and in a much altered form. However, for
the new Anglo Saxon England, one of the most significant advances, was thought
to have been the development of centralised government and administration,
which allowed the country to be ruled as a single political, financial and
military union, allowing national policies, institutions and defence forces to
be organised, both for the benefit of individual regions, as well as the
country as a whole. No longer tribal or regional, England eventually began to
emerge onto the European stage as a national entity in its own right, governed
by a single monarch and administered by a collection of nationally appointed
officials who brought the king’s laws, justice and security to every corner of
the country.
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