The statue of Boadicea and her daughters (also called the Boudiccan Rebellion Statue), the Celtic queen who led an uprising against Romans, stands in the heart of London, the city she destroyed thousands of years ago.
Boadicea (c.30-61 AD), also spelled Boudicca, was the queen of the Iceni, a native Celtic tribe that lived in today’s East Anglia. In 60 or 61 AD, during the reign of Nero, she led a rebellion against the Roman Empire forces and destroyed Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St Albans), and Londinium (London).
Eventually, the Iceni tribe lost, the Romans took over their territories, and Boadicea died. According to one version, when realizing the loss in coming, she poisoned herself and her daughters before being captured by the Romans; the other version claims that she was mortally wounded during the fight and was given a proper burial by her tribe. Throughout the years, mostly during the Victorian Era, Boadicea became a national symbol of British independence.
The artist and engineer Thomas Thornycroft began to work on the statue in the 1850s, with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert involved in its commission. Inspired by the parallels between the two queens, which both names mean Victory, Thornycroft sculptured Boadicea after young Victoria, and the prince’s horses were the models for the horses that pulled Boadicea.
Thornycroft died in 1885 before the completion of the sculpture, and his son, Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, took over the assignment. Lack of funding and locations delayed its installation, and it was unveiled at Westminster Bridge only in June of 1902.
The Bronze statue depicts Boadicea and her two daughters mounted on a scythed chariot drawn by two galloping horses. She is standing up in her flowing gown, holding a spear in her right hand and outstretching her left hand in a regal gesture. On the granite plinth of the statue, inscriptions were added a year after its installation; on one side, the inscription reads a quote from the 18th-century poem by William Cowper “Boadicea, an ode: Regions Caesar never knew, thy posterity shall sway.”
The Boadicea and Her Daughters Statue stands at Westminster Pier near many museums and historic sites, such as the Palace of Westminster, Parliament Square, Big Ben, the Jewel Tower, and Florence Nightingale Museum.
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