Boudicca (died AD 61)

Queen of the Iceni (native Britons), often referred to by the Latin form of her name, Boadicea. Her husband, King Prasutagus, had been a tributary of the Romans, but on his death in AD 60 the territory of the Iceni was violently annexed. Boudicca was scourged and her daughters raped. Boudicca raised the whole of southeastern England in revolt, and before the main Roman armies could return from campaigning in Wales she burned Londinium (London), Verulamium (St Albans), and Camulodunum (Colchester). Later the Romans under governor Suetonius Paulinus defeated the British between London and Chester; they were virtually annihilated and Boudicca poisoned herself.