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Queen Boudica's FIERY legacy | Tony Robinson's Time Travels
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Apr 4, 2025
Exploring the stories of powerful women from history; Queen Boudica was a legendary figure - leader of the Iceni Celtic Britons, she enacted a brutal and violent campaign of vengeance on the occupying Romans. Over one thousand years later, women campaigned for basic rights in New Zealand and ultimately won the right to be heard.
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MUSIC
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My time travels have brought me home to London in search of one of Britain's greatest patriots
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In the summer of AD 43, a 40,000-strong Roman army crossed the British Channel to lay claim
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on what was then considered outside of the limits of the known world
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The Romans were living the civilised life of the classical age when they invaded a Britain in AD 43
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which was still firmly rooted in the Iron Age. The invaders must have looked quite a sight
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as they marched into London with their emperor Claudius and a herd of elephants
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It signalled a time of enormous change in a land that was then riddled with bitter inter-tribal warfare
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Within months, the Romans were in control of most of the southeast of the country
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They set about imposing their laws, their language and their social infrastructure
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The most important Roman road in England was called Ermine Street and it linked London, or Londinium as it was known in those days, with Essex
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It crossed the River Lee right there where that lock is before heading off across the marshes towards the Roman city of Colchester
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While their newly built transport links made it much easier for the Romans
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to move troops and provisions to their new settlements, they were also ideal channels for their enemies to attack them
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When the Romans invaded Britain they found that it was a country not with just one king but with lots of different kingdoms ruled by different chiefs A lot of these chiefs teamed up with the Romans because they thought that a Roman alliance
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would strengthen their relationship with the locals. But it didn't always work to the chief's advantage
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A catastrophe in waiting for the Romans was their deal with King Presetagus
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ruler of the Iceni tribe in East Anglia. Rather than attempt to conquer the Iceni, they made a pact with them
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It worked well until the king died. And the Romans then decided to rule the Iceni directly
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confiscating the property of the leading tribesmen, stripping and flogging Queen Boudicca
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and raping her daughters. It proved to be a monumental mistake Dispossessed and defiled, Boudicca vowed to teach the Romans a lesson
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Win the battle or perish, she cried She raised an army 100,000 strong
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and fireballed her way from Colchester to London raising the Roman settlements to the ground
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She'd certainly have used the Roman road and the marshy area around here
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on her way to London. What a sight that must have been
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True to her word, Boudicca would not accept defeat. With the Romans regaining the upper hand, she killed herself with poison
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But her legend lives on. From the Dark Ages to today women are no strangers to rebellion At the end of the 19th century women waged one of their greatest battles ever
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So, for my next time travel, I'm jumping forward 1,900 years. I've come to Christchurch, New Zealand
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home to a very determined lady who started a worldwide revolution. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen
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do you know which country in the world was the very first to give women the vote
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New Zealand. New Zealand, correct. And do you know the name of the woman
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who championed the rights of women to get the vote? Kate Shepard. Kate Shepard
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Kate Shepard was extremely intelligent, well-spoken and a brilliant organiser. In the 1880s, she started using her considerable talents to get women the vote
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But she wasn't just content to take on male prejudice, she took on the all-powerful liquor industry as well
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And Kate thought that if she got women the vote, then women would vote against guys being able to sell liquor all over Christchurch
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Now, as soon as she started campaigning on that, of course, the liquor lobby started campaigning against her
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Can I raid your shopping? Yeah, all the people who supported Kate wore white camellias
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These aren't actually camellias. They're what we in England call snot rags
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And on the other side, what else you got in here? Can I pinch those? Yes. All right, thanks a lot
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OK, on the other side, all the nasty boozers, the ne'er-do-wells, the dodgy, sexist blokes
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They all wore red camellias or as we call them today tea bags And of course the people who supported women suffrage booed the boozers
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CHEERING And those supporters of the demon drink were always against the suffragettes
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CHEERING But Kate and her supporters wouldn't be stopped. They wrote to newspapers, lobbied politicians
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and travelled the country collecting signatures for their cause. This will do as a petition, won't it
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And they got 32,000 signatures. And one of Kate's supporters, John Hall, went to Parliament
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and he laid out this petition in Parliament. He opened the door and he threw it and it went so far
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Wow! It didn't actually hit a child, but it did hit. It did hit the far wall, all of those signatures
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And gradually, these people started to lose support until eventually the day came when the vote was going to happen in Parliament
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Which way would it go? In favour of the snot rags or the tea bags
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But at the end of it, by 20 votes to 18, you guys won
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And consequently, New Zealand was the first country on earth, possibly in the entire solar system where women got the vote
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It was a stunning victory that began a wave of female suffrage around the world
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and a shining example for generations of campaigners to come
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