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If you come with us on the first Walk Thru History tour, you'll see this statue of a barbarian queen and her two daughters in a war chariot when we visit central London, and the location of the Battle of Watling Street (which is neither in London nor on a street):

The statue is located across the street from Big Ben at Westminster Palace, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament. It was put up in 1905 by Prince Albert, and it took a particularly British sense of humor to set it up so that the warrior queen who burned London looks like she is about to storm the doors of Parliament...

Click on the picture below and look in the extreme lower right corner. Boudicca and her daughters are on a pedestal in the extreme lower right corner.

So who was this woman in the chariot, and what did she do to deserve such a prominent memorial?

Boudica (also spelled Boudicca, formerly known as Boadicea, and known in Welsh culture and legends as "Buddug") (d. AD 60 or 61) was a queen of the Iceni tribe of what is now known as East Anglia who led an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.

Julius Caesar had landed in Britain in 54 BC and established a foothold, but the Romans invaded in force 90 years later in 43 AD and began pacifying the south and southeast parts of the island. After gaining control of the southeast the legions turned west to subdue Wales. In 60-61 AD while the legions were campaigning in the Welsh mountains war broke out in their rear, north of present-day London:

The southeast of Britain rose in revolt under Boudica, widow of the recently-deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus, provoked by the seizure of the tribe's lands and the brutal treatment of the queen and her daughters. Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the rest would be left untouched. He was wrong.

Queen Boudica, angry over the Roman seizure of her lands and kingdom, united the British tribes with similar feelings. Personally leading the rebellion from her war chariot (a favorite weapon of the British, Celtic and Gaulish tribes -- Julius Ceasar records what skilled charioteers they were in his memoirs, The Gallic Wars). The rebellion gained momentum and moved along the roads between the Roman market towns:

The Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum and routed the part of the IX legion that was sent to relieve it. Suetonius Paulinus rode to London, the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities.

The Roman army, engaged in Wales, had to divide its force and turn to meet Boudica's army. The two forces moved along the ancient route called Watling Road or Street, maneuvering for position and finally clashing a place where the road climbed through a narrow valley (click to enlarge the map):

But [General] Suetonius regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. The revolt had almost persuaded Nero to withdraw from Britain altogether.

Queen Boudica has become a folk hero in Britain, hence the statue, a couple of movies (supposedly a new one is coming out in 2010) and a whole cottage industry in Boudica souvenirs.

One of the many interesting things about Boudica's revolt and the Battle of Watling Street is how easily the heavily-outnumbered Roman legions defeated the Britons. In fact, despite their fierce appearance and warlike culture, the native Celtic, Gaulish and British tribes lost just about every set-piece battle they ever fought against the roman legions. Why?

Roman discipline and organized -- almost mechanized -- fighting techniques were simply superior to the individualistic, heroic and emotional style of the Celts and Gauls. The two-part video below explains how the legions were able to defeat a force ten times its size. Take the time to watch them: