How long before
Boudicca poisoned herself
During the final days of Boudicca, after her defeat by Suetonius
and his Roman Army, what could the Iceni warrior queen have possibly done? She
was not too far from the southern boarders of the Brigante where another Queen
ruled. This was the Queen known as Cartimandua and it is very probable that she
would not entertain helping Boudicca in anyway. Cartimandua had given another
rebel chieftain named Caractacus to the Romans when he sought sanctuary in the
Brigante.
It is believed that Boudicca escaped the battlefield after
the defeat of her rebellion and this theory must carry some weight because Rome
would have written of such a thing if her body was found among the slain.
If she went into hiding and poisoned herself she remains a
myth and for a writer of historical fiction one can milk such a grey area of ‘ifs’
and ‘maybes.’ How long did she remain before taking her poison?
Cartimandua’s dilemma
Surely Queen Cartimandua of Brigantes would have been very
concerned by the dreaded warrior queen’s success. As a Roman ally she must have
been praying to any Gods that they might hear her pleas. What of her divorced
and spurned husband Venutius? He had been driven from the Brigante because of
his intolerance towards her friendship with Rome. Surely he did not remain
inactive while Boudicca and her Iceni went on the rampage.
The Brigante are a bit of a grey area during Boudicca’s
rebellion. Queen Cartimandua was long established as Brigante sovereign by this
time and ruled for a further eight years after Boudicca’s demise.
If I could go back in time I would dearly love to interview
Cartimandua – more so than Boudicca. She must have had, or had access to; a strong
degree of political expertise for she seems to have kept a huge temperamental
power at bay to the south and a mischief making ex-husband away to the north. For well over twenty five years, she was able
to keep Rome at ease by collaborating and being a buffer between her divorced ex-husband,
in exile in Caledonia among the Picts. Did she really play one off against the
other - stroking and pleasing the wolf of Rome while scolding and beating the weasel
in Caledonia? If she did, all this must have broken down briefly during
Boudicca’s rebellion. For a short space of time in 61 AD, Cartimandua must have
been faced with a terrible dilemma. Boudicca looked as though she might win.
With Boudicca to the south and Venutius to the north,
Cartimandua must have become anxious because of her Roman friendship – a circumstance
that would have no merit among any Britons of the rebellion once Rome was
driven off of the Isle.
It is therefore feasible that she may have gone to her
southern boarders to stop her people from rallying to Boudicca’s cause. When
Boudicca did lose her final battle, Cartimandua may have enjoyed a brief time
of adulation from the Brigante commoners. Rome was not going to take revenge on
them.
Maybe Cartimandua was more substantial then history portrays
her. I can’t help feeling that this Brigante queen may have been more cunning
then Boudicca. She may have used Rome as much as Rome used her. Even under
civil strife – eight years latter – during the Year of the Four Emperors in 69
AD, Rome thought enough of Cartimandua to send help and bring her south when
the empire was consumed in civil war.
All we know is that Cartimandua was allowed to go into exile
in mainland Europe while Rome sorted out its civil strife, leaving the Brigante
under Venutius to simmer and await Rome’s more special attention in 71 AD. None
know what became of Cartimandua as she went into exile. She fades from history
and becomes virtually unknown.
I often wondered if Boudicca and Cartimandua may have met
between the days of the warrior queen’s defeat and her taking the poison elixir
that took her to the afterlife, from where she screams out at us with her story
of monumental failure.
But what of Cartimandua – the durable sovereign that reigned
for more than twenty five years and even escaped to tell the tale after her
eventual demise. I would really love to have had a chat with Queen Cartimandua
of the Brigantes.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHEI3S8/ref=r_soa_s_i
No comments:
Post a Comment