When Roman troops threatened to seize the wealth of the Iceni people, their queen, Boudica, retaliated by inciting a major uprising, allying her tribe with the neighbouring Trinovantes. The ensuing clash is one of the most important - and dramatic - events in the history of Britain, standing testament to what can happen when an insensitive colonial power meets determined resistance from a subjugated people head-on. In this fascinating account of a legendary figure, Miranda Aldhouse-Green raises questions about female power, colonial oppression, and whether Boudica would be seen today as a freedom fighter, terrorist or martyr.

When Roman troops threatened to seize the wealth of the Iceni people, their queen, Boudica, retaliated by inciting a major uprising, allying her tribe with the neighbouring Trinovantes. The ensuing clash is one of the most important - and dramatic - events in the history of Britain, standing testament to what can happen when an insensitive colonial power meets determined resistance from a subjugated people head-on. In this fascinating account of a legendary figure, Miranda Aldhouse-Green raises questions about female power, colonial oppression, and whether Boudica would be seen today as a freedom fighter, terrorist or martyr.

From seven bestselling authors, including New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, comes a gripping and vividly imagined novel following an epic struggle of rebellion against the might of Rome. Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Briton . . . and these are their stories. A calculating queen foresees the fires of rebellion in a king’s death. A neglected slave girl seizes her own courage as Boudica calls for war. An idealistic tribune finds manhood in a brutal baptism of blood and slaughter. A death-haunted Druid challenges the gods themselves to ensure victory for his people. A conflicted young warrior finds himself torn between loyalties to tribe and to Rome. An old champion struggles for everlasting glory in the final battle against the legions. A pair of fiery princesses fight to salvage the pieces of their mother’s dream as the ravens circle. A novel in seven parts, overlapping stories of warriors and peacemakers, queens and slaves, Romans and Britons who cross paths during Boudica’s epic rebellion. But who will survive to see the dawn of a new Britannia, and who will fall to feed the ravens?

The year is 1597. For nearly a decade, the island of Britain has been under the rule of King Philip in the name of Spain. The citizenry live under an enforced curfew—and in fear of the Inquisition’s agents, who put heretics to the torch in public displays. And with Queen Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower of London, the British have no symbol to unite them against the enemy who occupies their land. William Shakespeare has no interest in politics. His passion is writing for the theatre, where his words bring laughter and tears to a populace afraid to speak out against the tyranny of the Spanish crown. But now Shakespeare is given an opportunity to pen his greatest work—a drama that will incite the people of Britain to rise against their persecutors—and change the course of history.

Boudica, “She Who Brings Victory.” Born to the Eceni, a tribe of dreamers and warriors, she is her people’s last hope: a copper-haired warrior who can lead her tribe in battle—and speak the language of the sacred dreamers. But in the face of a battle half won, Boudica has retreated with the living and wounded. Because across a river is the world’s mightiest army. And with the invaders comes a strange, bloodthirsty warrior astride a pied horse—a man who seems to know the Eceni as well as they know themselves. For just as destiny marked the young queen for greatness, it was destiny, too, that drove Boudica’s half brother to a far different path. Now brother and sister will stand on opposite sides of a brutal war of attrition, each unknowingly determined to see the other dead.

A new ancient history play that tells the story of one of Britain's most infamous women: a queen, a warrior and a rebel.

"This is the first book in the Boudica series. In AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance. This book recreates the beginnings of a story so powerful its impact has survived through the ages." --Worldcat.org.

"This is the first book to concentrate exclusively on texts about Boudica and to cover the full chronological range from the first surviving historical account by Tacitus in AD 98 to the triumphant conclusion of Manda Scott's series of novels in 2006. All our knowledge of the ancient British queen Boudica, and her ferocious yet ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans, is derived from a few accounts in ancient Greek and Latin. Yet they have inspired a flood of history, fictional narrative, drama, and poetry, and there is no indication that the process has ended. This study illuminates and celebrates the rich variety generated by the creative tensions between writers' knowledge and their individual tastes, beliefs, and political or artistic aims and considers whether Boudica's textual metamorphoses are without limits or variations on a distinctive theme bounded by a flexible yet enduring narrative pattern." --Book Jacket.

Boudica introduces readers to the life and literary importance of Boudica through juxtaposing her literary characterizations in Tacitus and Cassius Dio with those of other women and rebel leaders. Literary comparisons assist in the understanding of Boudica as a barbarian, queen, mother, commander in war, and leader of revolt.

This diachronic study of Boudica serves as a sourcebook of references to Boudica in the early modern period and gives an overview of the ways in which her story was processed and exploited by the different players of the times who wanted to give credence and support to their own belief systems. The author examines the different apparatus of state ideology which processed the social, religious and political representations of Boudica for public absorption and helped form the popular myth we have of Boudica today. By exploring images of the Briton warrior queen across two reigns which witnessed an act of political union and a move from English female rule (under Elizabeth I) to British/Scottish masculine rule (under James VI & I) the author conducts a critical cartography of the ways in which gender, colonialism and nationalism crystallised around this crucial historical figure. Concentrating on the original transmission and reception of the ancient texts the author analyses the historical works of Hector Boece, Raphael Holinshed and William Camden as well as the canonical literary figures of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. She also looks at aspects of other primary sources not covered in previous scholarship, such as Humphrey Llwyd’s Breuiary of Britayne (1573), Petruccio Ubaldini’s Le Vite delle donne illustri, del regno d’Inghilterra, e del regno di Scotia (1588) and Edmund Bolton’s Nero Caesar (1624). Furthermore, she incorporates archaeological research relating to Boudica.