A Brief History of the Celts (14 page)

Boudicca now emerges as absolute ruler and war leader of the Iceni. ‘This is not the first time that Britons have been led to battle by a woman,’ records Tacitus. Certainly other
tribes
came flocking to her banner. The Trinovantes, the Coritani and the Catuvellauni followed her summons. Boudicca began to march her army on the centre of Roman
administration, Camulodunum, once the Trinovante capital. The Romans had rebuilt it with a great temple to Claudius, regarded as god as well as emperor.

Catus Decianus was in London now but sent 200 legionaries to reinforce the garrison, which was comprised of retired veterans and auxiliary troops. Quintus Petilius Cerialis, then commander of
the IX Hispania Legion at Lindon (Lincoln) in the land of the Coritani, was ordered to hasten south to protect the Roman capital.

Boudicca proved to be a military strategist of exceptional merit. She managed to ambush the IX Hispania – some 6000 legionaries and 500 cavalry. The IX Hispania had a long battle record
and had won their spurs in the Iberian campaigns against the Celts before being sent to Pannonia where the legion had helped in the pacification of the Balkans. Boudicca annihilated this
élite force except for Petilius Cerialis, his general staff and his 500 cavalry who managed to escape back to their fortress at Lincoln. Boudicca had no time for siege work. She turned back
to Camulodunum.

She took the town and burnt it within two days, destroying the buildings raised by the Romans to mark their conquest and domination, including the great Temple of Claudius. Then she turned on
Londinium (London). The population of 20,000 consisted mainly of Roman veterans, traders and civil administrators who had followed the Roman armies in their new conquest. It was the financial
capital of Roman administration and a large trading port. The II Augusta Legion was ordered to march from the south and defend it but the camp marshal, Poenius Postumus, hearing of the fate of the
IX Hispania, refused to march out. He was barely a day’s march from the city. After the news of the destruction of
Londinium, Poenius Postumus took his own life rather
than face court martial.

Verulamium (St Albans) was at that time the third major Roman settlement in Britain, populated also by retired Roman veterans, settlers, traders and merchants. The local Celts appear to have
been driven out into the surrounding countryside. Once again, Boudicca’s army smashed into the city and destroyed it.

The only major Roman force left in Britain was the army of the Roman governor and military commander, Seutonius Paullinus, who had the XIV Gemina and XX Valeria Legions with him. He had been
campaigning in what is now North Wales. He had turned and marched his legions back to the south-east at the news of the uprising. All depended on how he faced the British Celts, for defeat would
mean that the Roman conquest would be turned back.

Roman accounts are to be treated with some degree of scepticism. Suetonius was reported to have 10,000 men. This is reasonable enough, for two legions at maximum strength would number 12,000
men. But Boudicca is credited with 230,000 warriors at her command. Tacitus gives the result of the battle as 80,000 British dead and only 400 Romans. However the figures work out, it was a Roman
victory and appears to have been fought north-west of St Albans.

Little is known of Boudicca and her daughters after this. She did not fall into Roman hands. Tacitus believes she escaped the battlefield and then took poison rather than fall into Roman hands.
Dio Cassius says she simply fell sick and died, and adds that the Britons gave her a rich burial. What a find that tomb would be if it had, somewhere, withstood the ravages of time and grave
robbers. Dio Cassius says that Boudicca was also a priestess of Andrasta, goddess of battle and victory. This seems to be the same goddess as Andarte worshipped by the Vocontii of Gaul.

We have a few more glimpses of powerful Celtic women
from the period. Dio Cassius mentions Veleda, ‘a virgin prophetess among the Celts’ during the reign of
Vespasian. Veleda is clearly a Celtic name deriving from the root
gwel
, to see, a title rather than a name and meaning ‘Seeress’. Veleda was said to arbitrate between rulers
and prevent war. Dio Cassius says that her successor was a woman called Ganna whose name derives from the Celtic word for intermediary. Ganna, according to Dio Cassius, accompanied Masyos, king of
the Senones, of Gaul, on an embassy to the emperor Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian (
AD
81–96). Flavius Vopiscus identifies Ganna as being from the Gaulish tribe
of the Tungri (whence modern Tongres, near Liège, Belgium).

In the classical sources there are references to women as priestesses and prophetesses. Strabo mentions a priestess called Namnites at the Loire. He also says that such women were married but
very independent of their husbands. Aedius Lampridius, one of the authors of
Historia Augusta
, written
c
. fourth century
AD
, has a Druidess foretelling the
defeat of Alexander Severus before he set out on his expedition in
AD
235. Flavius Vopiscus has Gaius Aurelius Diocletia (
AD
283–305) as a
young man residing in the land of the Tungri of Gaul and being told that he would become emperor. Vopiscus says that Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (
c
.
AD
215–275) consulted a
Gallicanas Dryades
(Gaulish Druidess) to ask if his children would reign after him. The answer she gave Aurelian was in the negative.

While historians tend to dismiss all references to Irish history prior to the Christian period and deem the personalities mentioned ‘mythological’, we find among the Irish chronicles
two fascinating references to female rulers. Annals record that in 377
BC
Macha Mong Ruadh became queen of Ireland and reigned for seven years. The traditions of Macha are,
unfortunately, mixed with the traditions of a Celtic war goddess called Macha. Nevertheless, the historical figure and the goddess appear as two distinct entities. This might be said
to be a parallel to Brigit, as an historical Christian saint, taking on the traditions of Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fertility.

The chronicles record that Macha’s father, Aedh Ruadha, was drowned in the cataract at Béal Atha Sennaidh (Ballyshannon), Co. Donegal. He had been ‘King of Ireland’
ruling alternately with his cousins Dithorba and Cimbaeth. On her father’s death, Macha was elected ruler by the
derbfhine
, an electoral college formed from three generations of the
royal family. Dithorba and Cimbaeth disagreed with the decision and wanted to keep the kingship to themselves. Macha promptly raised an army and defeated Dithorba, taking his five sons as hostages.
She made them and the prisoners of war build the ramparts of her new fortress of Emain Macha. She came to terms with Cimbaeth and, it is recorded, married him.

Another queen, who certainly has become a mythological character, is the famous Medb of Connacht. There are several Medbs in Irish records and they seem separate personalities but all seem to
have traditions associated with a goddess of sovereignty. Medb of Connacht is recorded by the Irish chronicler, Tighernach (
c
.
AD
1022–88), abbot of
Clonmacnoise, as an historical figure who died
c
.
AD
70. Some chroniclers say that she succeeded Tinne as ruler and married Ailill, who is stated to be the
commander of the Gamhanrhide or her royal bodyguard. However, the story of the
Táin Bó Cuailgne
, the great mythological epic, has put the historical Medb beyond the reach of
historians.

We know something of the role of women in insular Celtic society in as much as their legal position is clearly marked out in the Brehon Laws, whose first recorded codification was in
AD
438, and the Laws of Hywel Dda of Wales from the ninth century
AD
.

The law text, the
Bretha Cróilge
, on the categories of women, includes ‘the woman who turns back the streams of
war’ (
ben sues srutha
cochta for cula
). This has been interpreted to mean a ‘war leader’. There is also a ‘hostage ruler’ (
rechtaid géill
) whose office has been interpreted
to mean a woman who can legally take hostages or prisoners of war. The Welsh law, which brings us into medieval times, refers to the office of
arglwyddes
or a ‘female lord’ or
‘the chieftainess of a district in her own right’.

What we know of Celtic law before the Christian era is based on the rather biased writings of Julius Caesar. However, he does seem to be echoing the insular Celtic concept of female property
rights when he says of the Gaulish Celts:

So, unlike their Greek and Roman sisters, Celtic women could inherit property.

However, Caesar goes overboard when he says of the British Celts:

This is a total misrepresentation of the polygamous society of the early Celts.

The Romans seemed preoccupied with the ‘liberated’ attitude of the early Celts. Dio Cassius comments on the fact that the empress Julia Augusta criticised what she saw as a lack of
morals in the way Celtic women were free to choose their husbands and lovers and did so openly without subterfuge. The object of her criticism was the wife of a north British
chieftain named Argentocoxos. The encounter took place early in the third century
AD
. According to Dio Cassius, the wife of Argentocoxos turned to the empress and replied
with dignity: ‘We Celtic women obey the demands of Nature in a more moral way than the women of Rome. We consort openly with the best men but you, of Rome, allow yourselves to be debauched in
secret by the vilest.’ It is not recorded how the empress reacted.

In both surviving codifications of Celtic law systems, women certainly enjoyed considerable rights. A girl under the age of seven years of any social class in the Irish system had the same
honour price as a cleric. From seven girls were sent to be educated, just as boys were. They completed their education at the age of fourteen while boys continued to seventeen. However, the
Bretha Cróilge
allowed the girl to continue until the age of seventeen ‘if required’.

Women could inherit property and remained the owner of all property brought into a marriage. They fought alongside men until Christianity abolished the practice with the introduction of the
Lex Innocentium
at the Synod of Birr in
AD
697. In Irish and Welsh law there were nine types of marriage, which corresponded to the eight types found in the Hindu
Law of Manu. Hindu law closely parallels Celtic law, and many of the same principles can be found in the Irish and Hindu texts. Divorce was permitted for a variety of reasons, and men and women had
equal rights to divorce each other. One reason a woman could divorce in Irish law was if her husband snored. In Welsh law, if a wife found her husband committing adultery, she was exempt from any
legal punishment if, in a fit of jealousy, she attacked him, his mistress or even members of their families. The exemption was limited to a period of three days from the time of learning of her
husband’s affair. By that time, so the Welsh law-givers reasoned, the woman would have recovered from any shock which might cause such ‘irrational acts’.
After that, the matter was deemed to be cold-blooded vengeance.

In both law systems women were protected from rape and, indeed, from sexual harassment. In Ireland, the laws are clear that physical or even verbal harassment was punishable by a whole series of
fines.

As the Celts emerged into the Christian period, it is to be remarked upon that many of the leading Christian proselytisers among the Celts were women. Female Celtic saints are numerous and out
of all proportion to females active in the early Church in other cultures. It is not the task of this book, on the ancient Celtic world, to deal with the subject, but it is perhaps right that we
end with a brief glimpse of a most extraordinary Celtic woman of the fourth century
AD
.

Elen Luyddog, or ‘Elen of the Hosts’, was the daughter of a British chieftain or king named Eudaf who ruled from Segontium (near Caernarfon). She became so powerful that, in many
traditions, she is said to be the wife of Myrddin (Merlin) of Arthurian fame. She actually married a Romanised Celtiberian named Magnus Maximus, known in British Celtic tradition as Macsen Wledig
(
gwledig
, a ruler). He served in the Roman army in Britain and in
AD
382 defeated a combined army of Irish and Caledonians. The army in Britain, during a time of
instability in Rome, declared him emperor and he took his army to Gaul to defy the emperor Gratian who was captured and slain. Theodosius, the eastern emperor in Constantinople, acknowledged him as
co-emperor.

Martin of Tours, father of Celtic monasticism, was a frequent visitor to Magnus’ court. Martin became a close friend of Elen Luyddog and is said to have converted her to Christianity,
according to Sulpicius Severus in
Dialogues
. Elen not only became a leading figure in the intellectual life of
the court but was the mother of many children of the
new western emperor.

When Magnus crossed the Alps to Milan in
AD
387, the eastern emperor, Theodosius, saw him as a threat to his empire and took the field against him. Magnus was defeated,
captured and put to death on 28 July
AD
388.