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Boudicca, Queen of the Celts In the days of Roman Britain, in the 1st century AD, there lived a warrior queen by the name of Boudicca. Flame-haired and proud, she ruled the Iceni, in a time when Rome wanted to rule everything. The lands she governed were located in what is now East Anglia; she had inherited them from her late husband, Prasutagus. When he died, he had left half his lands to Boudicca and her daughters, and the other half to the Emperor Nero, as a sort of payoff to encourage the Romans not to try and take any more -- perhaps not the most ideal package for a grieving widow, but Boudicca was willing to live with it if it meant peaceful coexistence for Romans and Iceni.

The rapacious Romans, however, had other ideas. With a style adopted in the next millenia by tyrants such as Hitler and Castro, the Roman governor stole the remaining Iceni lands, flogged Queen Boudicca, and raped her daughters (adding insult to injury). Needless to say, Boudicca was incensed. She took up weapons and rallied her people. Within a short time they had marched on the Romans -- and defeated them, in battle after battle. The fury of a Celtic people, led by an enraged queen, outmatched even the well-trained, organized Roman military. Boudicca's army was so effective, they burned and pillaged a swath of Roman lands ranging from Colchester all the way to Londinium (present-day London). With 100,000 pissed-off Celts behind her, Boudicca was a force to be reckoned with.

In 62 AD, Boudicca fought her last battle against the Roman scum. For once, Roman military strategy (with perhaps a good dose of luck thrown in as well) outfoxed the queen's forces, and she was defeated. Rather than suffer the humiliation of being led through Rome in the traditional triumphal procession, Boudicca and her daughters killed themselves (an act the Romans could respect, as they held that suicide was often preferable to capture).

Though her final battle was lost, Boudicca had proven that native tribes could sure give the Romans a run for their money. Indeed, the Romans never really conquered all of the British Isles. Scotland was never subdued (Hadrian's Wall was built to make sure the Scots didn't invade the Romans), and they never even set foot in Ireland (though they knew about it, and called it "Hibernia"). And to this day, Boudicca's name is commemorated by the adjective we use to describe a lively, spirited woman: bodacious. Source.