Lesson video

Hello, welcome to lesson five on the unit on Roman Britain.

in today's lesson, we are going to be looking at, why did Boudicca lead a revolt against the Romans? And you're probably thinking, who is Boudicca? What's a revolt? Well Boudicca was a queen of one of the tribes that lived in Britain during the time of the Romans and to revolt is when you refuse to accept someone's authority or you refuse to accept someone is in charge and you fight back using violence.

So it's going to be a very interesting lesson.

Let's have a look at the agenda now.

Here's our agenda for today.

Firstly, we're going to look at who were the Iceni tribe? Secondly, we're going to find out what happened when King Prasutagus died? And thirdly, we're going to explore, how did Boudicca fight back against the Romans? For this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen and lastly our brains.

So pause the video now to get those things and then resume once you're ready to get started with the learning.

The first thing I'd like to do is take us back to our timeline.

So remember, this timeline shows us where the Roman Empire fits into human history.

But what we're going to do now is we're going to magically zoom in again.

And this shows us a very specific part of Roman history.

And remember that each of these blocks represents 50 years and it shows some of the events, not all of the events that we've covered.

So you can see Julius Caesar's failed invasions of Britain and then approximately a hundred years later, the Roman invasion of Britain.

And the events that we're going to be looking at in this lesson take place in approximately 60 CE.

So let's have a look now, who were the Iceni tribe? So the Iceni tribe we're one of the largest tribes in Britain.

And the area that they covered or the area that they owned is where approximately the County of Norfolk is today in England.

And you can see where that is in the pink box on the map below.

The Iceni tribe were led by someone called King Prasutagus and his wife Queen Boudicca.

Now, they were one of the tribes who were forced to make an agreement with the Romans.

And they made an agreement with a Roman governor and the Roman governors were the people who the Romans sent over to Britain to be in charge of the areas that they now owned.

And the Roman governor they had to make an agreement with was called Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, great name right? Let's try pronouncing that again together.

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.

So the agreement that King Prasutagus had to make with Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, we'll just refer to him as Paulinus, was that King Prasutagus could keep half of his kingdom or half of his land, but he had to give the other half to the Emperor of Rome.

And by now there's a new Emperor of Rome and his name was Emperor Nero.

So Prasutagus who's got a good deal, he keeps half his land, the other half he has to give to Emperor Nero.

And the Romans also promise that when Prasutagus dies, his land will then become the property of his daughters.

Okay, let's use that information now to complete the following task.

What you need to do is match these people who are on the left with the correct descriptions of who they are.

So write down the name on your piece of paper and next to them, write down the correct description of who they are.

And when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and resume once you're finished.

Okay, how did you find that? Lots of big names on there that are quite difficult to pronounce? Don't worry if you're finding them difficult to pronounce, that's something I've struggled with and had to practise a few times as well.

So we'll go through those together now.

So Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, he was the Roman Governor of Britain, and we'll just refer to him as Paulinus.

Boudicca was this Queen of the Iceni tribe.

Nero, he was the Emperor of Rome and Prasutagus was the King of the Iceni tribe, who had to make a deal in which he gave half of his land to Emperor Nero and that when he died, the Romans promised that that land would go to his daughter.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

Let's find out now what happened when King Prasutagus died? So King Prasutagus died in approximately 60 CE.

And unfortunately for his wife Queen Boudicca and their daughters, the Romans did not keep their promise.

They actually took over the lands that had belonged to Prasutagus, they took loads of the money from the people there and they started to charge them extra taxes.

Queen Boudicca, she was obviously very angry and she complained to the Romans.

And how do you think the Romans responded? They did not respond well.

The Romans actually attacked Boudicca and her daughter.

And so Boudicca was rightfully so very, very angry with the Romans.

Angry because, well, first of all, the Romans had invaded Britain, taken over these lands, but most importantly, they had gone against their promise.

They were now harming her people, the Iceni tribe.

In particular as well she's angry, because she's being attacked herself.

And so Boudicca decides to get revenge.

And what she does is she gathers nearby tribes to join her army, because nearby tribes are also very angry with the Romans.

Because many of the people from those tribes, the Romans forced them into slavery.

So they joined Boudicca's force and they choose her to be their leader.

And what's the first thing they do, you ask her? Well, they travel to the city of Colchester, which was a Roman city.

Remember, the Romans had started to build large towns and cities with building similar to those in Rome.

And when they arrive in Colchester, they kill all of the Roman soldiers there and they burn the entire city to the ground.

So Boudicca has got revenge.

And will she stopped there? Well, we will find out in a minute or so.

First things first though, I'd like you to complete this task, based on the information that we've just gone through.

So look at these sentences and decide which of these sentences are true or false.

Pause the video when you're ready to complete this task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay, how did you do? Hopefully that wasn't too challenging for you.

We'll go through them together now.

Sentence A, after Prasutagus died, the Romans did not keep their promise to share his land.

Well, let's think.

Boudicca was quite angry about something.

What was she angry about? Oh yeah, the Romans did not keep their promise.

So that sentence is absolutely true.

B, Boudicca decided to get revenge on the Romans without the help of other tribes.

What did you get for that one? Absolutely right, it is false.

Remember, she gathered the other tribes, because she knew the other tribes were also pretty angry with the Romans.

So they joined her force, chose her as the leader.

And then sentence C, Boudicca and her army destroyed Colchester.

Well, I seem to remember Boudicca's army they killed all the Roman soldiers, and then after that, what did they do? That's right, they burned the entire city to the ground and therefore that sentence is true.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

In this final part of the lesson, we are going to explore how Boudicca continued to fight back against the Romans.

And so after the shocking events of Colchester, the Romans were really concerned about Boudicca and her army.

And so they gathered an army called the Ninth Legion to try and stop her, but again, they were easily defeated by Boudicca's army.

Boudicca and her army then continued on to two cities, Londinium, which is where London is now and Verulamium, which is somewhere in London now called St Albans.

Boudicca at this point has 100,000 troops in her army.

And in those two cities Boudicca manages, well Boudicca and her troops kill 70,000 Roman troops and the Britains were fighting with them.

So this is fighting on a very, very large scale.

The Romans now, they obviously want revenge themselves.

And so Paulinus, do you remember who Paulinus was? If you've just said Paulinus was the Roman Governor Mr. Barber, well done, you're absolutely right.

Paulinus the Roman Governor, he begins to gather an army himself, an army of only 10,000 men.

And they meet Boudicca's army at a place called Watling Road, which is in the West Midlands.

And in that battle, the Romans use their superior tactics, remember tactics are way of doing things.

And so the Romans were very well trained, well organised.

They used their superior tactics to defeat Boudicca's army and kill 80,000 people in Boudicca's army.

So the Romans were very successful in that battle.

Boudicca does not want to get captured by the Romans.

That would have been very bad situation for her.

So to avoid being captured, she poisons herself at Watling Road and thus Boudicca's revolt comes to an end.

Based on the information we've just gone through together, you are going to complete the following task.

Create a timeline by placing these events in the correct order.

So these colourful boxes, they are all key events that we've just discussed about Boudicca's war with the Romans.

What you should do first is decide what is the correct order and once you are happy with the order, then write out the descriptions in the correct order as a timeline.

And it's up to you how you present that, just make sure you produce something that you'll be proud of at the end.

So pause the video now to complete that task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay, so hopefully you've produced something that you're really proud of.

Let's go through those events together now.

So the first thing that happened was that after Colchester, the Ninth Legion tried to stop Boudicca, but her huge army defeated them.

Next, Boudicca's army continued to attack the Roman cities of Londinium and Verulamium.

After that, Paulinus, do you remember what Paulinus' job was? That's right, Roman Governor.

Paulinus gathered together 10,000 Roman soldiers at Watling Road in the West Midlands.

Next, the Romans used effective tactics to kill about 80,000 of Boudicca's army and win the battle.

And lastly, Boudicca poisoned herself to avoid being captured and thus Boudicca's war with the Romans came to an end.

And what you might find useful is pausing the video, just double check you've got everything and then the final parts of the lesson.

Well done on all the fantastic learning that you've done today.

Before we finish, there are just two things that you need to do.

Please remember to write down three key things that you remember from today's lesson.

That's going to be really helpful in solidifying the historical knowledge in your brain.

And then lastly, make sure you complete the final exit quiz.

Again, that's really helpful at solidifying knowledge and also you'll be able to see how much fantastic progress you're making.

So thanks again and I look forward to teaching you again soon.