Queen Boudica and Historical Culture in Britain

Abstract

This innovative and distinctive book takes a long chronological view and a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach. It is the definitive work on the posthumous reputation of the ever-popular warrior queen of the Iceni, Queen Boadicea/Boudica. It explores her presence in British historical discourse, from the early modern rediscovery of the works of Tacitus to the first historical films of the early twentieth century. In doing so, the book seeks to demonstrate the continuity and persistence of historical ideas across time and throughout a variety of media. This focus on continuity leads into an examination of the nature of history as a cultural phenomenon and the implications this has for our own conceptions of history and its role in culture more generally. While providing contemporary contextual readings of Boudica’s representations, this book also explores the unique nature of historical ideas as durable cultural phenomena, articulated by very different individuals over time, all of whom were nevertheless engaged in the creative process of making history. Thus this book presents a challenge to the axioms of cultural history, new historicism, and other mainstays of twentieth- and twenty-first-century historical scholarship. It shows how, long before professional historians sought to monopolize historical practice, audiences encountered visions of past ages created by antiquaries, playwrights, poets, novelists, and artists, all of whom engaged with, articulated, and even defined the meaning of ‘historical truth’. This book argues that these individual depictions, variable audience reactions, and the abiding notion of history as truth constitute the substance of historical culture.

The Queen of Propaganda: Boudica’s Representation in Empire

“…The same can be said for 19 th century descriptions and depictions of Boudica. Scholars like Martha Vandrei (2018) and Margaret Steyn (2019) have worked to revise Boudica's historical narrative and explore her broader impact. These works are complicated by the current climate of historiography's politicization and are often challenged on ideological grounds.…”

“…The discipline of classics in universities revised methodological practices to use an empirical, scientific approach (Rommel, 2001). These shifts in the study of classics and the zeitgeist of late 19 th -century Britain created fertile ground for Boudica's re-emergence (Vandrei, 2018). The combination of romanticism, colonialism, and a female monarch created an appetite for a figure who was wild, noble, feminine, and duty-bound.…”

“…Nineteenth century British depictions of Boudica were more openly artistic than the Roman treatment of Boudica (Steyn, 2019). However, these works presented themselves as inspired depictions of Britain's true ancestry (Vandrei, 2018). Published in 1901, Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem BOÄDICEA draws from the Roman accounts for Boudica's battle speech to her troops.…”