|
|
take over the entire kingdom. Boudica, the King’s widow, was flogged and her daughters raped. The chieftains of the Iceni were robbed of their family estates and forced into slavery. The whole country was practically handed over to the Romans. Enraged, Boudica joined Iceni forces with another tribe, the Trinobantes, and, together, they fought back. They attacked and conquered the Roman colony and burned the temple dedicated to Claudius, the Roman emperor who had completed the conquest of Britain. The Romans retaliated against the insurgents by sending a whole division of soldiers, but they were defeated. The insurgents then marched on London, which they sacked, and killed the Roman population along with their sympathizers. Finally, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain, gathered all the Roman troops in the south of Britain and attacked the British in a narrow valley so the larger rebel forces would be of no advantage against the smaller Roman army. In 62 AD, Tacitus reported that Boudica was seen riding her chariot and inspiring her troops before the battle. However, this time, the Romans were victorious and slaughtered the rebel troops. Boudica and her daughters escaped but then poisoned themselves rather than risk being captured. The Roman retribution for rebellion was swift and cruel, but the British kept up the fight for another year; then Suetonius was succeeded by Publius Petronius Turpilianus, who changed the policy toward the native population to one of appeasement, which remained in place for 300 more years of Roman occupation of Britain (Cook, 2006; Davies, 1993).
Agustina de Aragón, another female patriot, was a Spanish heroine who defended Spain during the Spanish War of Independence, first as a civilian and later as a professional officer in the Spanish army. In the summer of 1808, Zaragoza was one of the last cities in northern Spain not to have fallen to the forces of Napoleon and was, therefore, by the time of the siege, choked with vast numbers of refugees fleeing the advancing French army. Upon arrival, the French army stormed the Portillo, an ancient gateway into the city defended by a hodgepodge battery of old cannons manned by an outnumbered volunteer unit. Agustina came to the ramparts with a basket of apples to feed the gunners and watched