Budika. Today the very name itself conjures up images of freedom and defiance,

of standing up against injustice and oppression. Yet, over the long centuries since she lived, the name has

meant many things to many people. What do we really know about the woman behind the legend?

Very little, unfortunately. Just the words of two Roman writers. One of them near contemporary, the

other writing close to 200 years later. Much like most enemies of the Romans, no

sources survive to tell her side of the story.

In those Roman sources, recording events 2,000 years ago, Budika, a powerful queen of the Isini tribe of modern-day East Anglia,

appears fully formed in the historical record with a fierce image and

flowing red hair ultimately fighting a desperate doomed war for the independence of her

people when her story was eventually rediscovered by the Tudors in the 16th century, during the reign

of another powerful queen, the name was Latinized as Bodicea.

Though in reality, we don't even know for sure whether this was her name at all, it being the Celtic for Victorious.

It was during the 19th century as the world teetered on the verge of a new industrial future,

during the reign of another powerful female ruler, Queen Victoria, that her story became

widely known and celebrated in Britain. Just like in neighbouring European countries, Budika gained

new life, being utilised as a national icon during this era of uncertainty, akin to other Celtic rulers,

like Ambriyrix in Belgium, Versengetyx in France, Hermann in Germany, and Viryathus in Spain.

Yet, the real story of Budaica is a far more nuanced one.

To those unfortunate Roman settlers and Romanized Britons that she and her vast army

came into contact with in the first century AD, she was a nightmare.

Remarkably, the legacy of that war She was a nightmare.

Remarkably, the legacy of that war can still be seen here in London, in a thick layer of burned ash that permeates the archaeological record

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