When we must - we rally behind a symbol - Boudicca - Iceni Queen

I've been reading - as always - reading, reading, reading. And in my reading - it can be rare to find a character that I so wholly bind to. A character - whether flawed or not - lost cause or won - that I can grab onto. I'm not sure if it is so much timing as it is the 'cause' that I get. But through my reading recently I found

Boudicca - Queen of the Iceni. And wow - do I get her. She is a symbol I GET.

I've been researching her history since discovering through my reading what caused her to stand up and FIGHT tyranny - and it was the threat - the injustice and deplorable treatment of not herself - but her daughters.

In my research I came upon an amazing website: http://www.ekatieholm.com/women_warriors.htm

In it - the photographer has created portraits of warrior women we should remember. So - I give you my current 'patron saint as it were' - Boudicca

Boudicca was Queen of the Iceni Celts in what is today Norfolk, England. When her husband King Prasutagus died, Roman Emperor Nero sent his legions to claim the Iceni wealth and fully subjugate them to Roman rule. Boudicca protested the Roman actions, and for her efforts Boudicca was stripped bare and publicly whipped, and her two daughters raped.

Seeking revenge, Boudicca brought together other "free" Celtic tribes who had suffered under Roman rule. This unprecedented action was perhaps the only time in Britain's history that the small warring tribes united for a singular goal. With a force of 230,000 rebels, Boudicca and her army brought a storm of terror and destruction upon the Romans. At Camulodunum, the Roman capitol, they slaughtered everyone, and destroyed the Temple of Claudius. At Londinium, Rome's center of trade, they found the city abandoned by Governor Suetonius. They burned Londinium to the ground, killing all that stood against them. They did the same at Verulamium, and then set forth after Suetonius.

Boudicca and her army had killed an estimated 80,000 Romans. She realized that if Suetonius were destroyed, Britain would be freed from Roman rule. But Suetonius lured Boudicca into a trap. Caught between the advancing Roman phalanx and their own wagon train, the Britons were hopelessly slaughtered. While Rome suffered a casualty of only 400, Boudicca lost nearly half her army.

The final fate of Boudicca and her daughters is unknown, but the Queen is rumored to have ended her life by taking poison, rather than suffer Roman retribution.

For I know - that if ever a person harmed a hair on my child's head - or threatened my family - it would be ON. SO ON.