Boudicca: the Celtic Queen who fought against Rome

Queen Boudica

Boudicca was the Celtic Queen of the Iceni tribe of modern-day East Anglia, Britain, who led a revolt against Rome in 60/61 AD. 

The Iceni King, Prasutagus, an independent ally of Rome, divided his estate between his daughters and Emperor Nero of Rome. When Prasutagus died, however, his lands were taken by Rome and the Iceni lost their status as allies. When his wife, Boudicca, objected to this action she was flogged and her two daughters raped. She mounted a revolt against Rome which left the ancient Roman cities of Camulodunum ( Colchester, today ), Londinium ( London ) and Verulamium ( modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire ) in ruins and over 80,000 Roman citizens of Britain dead. 

She was defeated at the Battle of Watling Street by the Roman Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Boudicca is said to have committed suicide by poisoning herself after her defeat.

The primary sources of the story of Boudicca's revolt are the Roman historians, Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56-117 AD) and Cassius Dio (150-235 AD). These two offer different versions of the story in that Tacitus claims the revolt sprang from the ill treatment of the Iceni following Prasutagus' death while Dio writes that the cause of the uprising was a dispute over a loan.

Tacitus' account is generally accepted as being more factual because his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40-93 AD) was the governor in Britain chiefly responsible for the successful conquest of the region and served as Tacitus' primary source of information. There is no doubt of Agricola's participation in the suppression of Boudicca's revolt.

Boudicca first struck the city of Camulodunum (modern Colchester) where she massacred the inhabitants and destroyed the settlement. Governor Suetonius and imperial agent Catus Decianus sent a lightly armed force of 200 men of The Ninth Roman Division, led by Rufus, marched to relieve the settlement.

Suetonius, returning from Mona, marched to Londinium (modern London) but, Boudicca's army sacked Londinium and, as before, massacred the inhabitants.

Suetonius had offered the people of the city safe passage with his army and it seems many accepted this offer. However, Tacitus writes, "but those who stayed because they were women, or old, or attached to the place, were slaughtered by the enemy. Verulamium suffered the same fate."

While the Britons were destroying Verulamium (modern St. Albans) Suetonius decided to destroy them in a final battle: the Battle of Watling Street. Boudicca's superior numbers were of no advantage in the narrow field Suetonius had chosen.

While the site of the battle is unknown, it is referred to as The Battle of Watling Street and suggestions as to precise location range from King's Cross, London to Church Stowe, Northamptonshire. Following Boudicca's defeat, Suetonius instituted harsher laws on the indigenous people of Britain until he was replaced by Publius Petronius Turpilianus who further secured the south of the region for Rome through gentler measures. 

Other, smaller, insurrections were mounted in the years following Boudicca's revolt but none gained the same wide spread support nor cost as many lives. The Romans would continue to hold Britain, without any further significant trouble, until their withdrawl from the region in 410 AD.

Though she lost her battle and her cause, Boudicca is celebrated today as a national heroine and a universal symbol of the human desire for freedom and justice.

The Weeping Woman

BY ALEXANDRA SALAZAR
The Weeping woman, the woman ghost that crosses the streets of the cities in search of his children. This personage of legend, which presence frightens not only the children, but also to the major persons, is known in the whole world. In our land, the fable counts that a woman of company, young woman and beautiful, I marry a major, good, responsible and affectionate man, who was consenting her as a girl, his only fault ... that not tape-worm fortune.

But he knowing that his young woman he liked to alternate woman in the company and " to climb heights ", to work without rest to be able to satisfy the economic needs of his wife, that feeling spoiled to squander everything what his husband was giving him and demanding him every day mas, to be able to be at a height of his friends, which he was dedicating tim

Marisa Lopez de Figueroa, had several children; these were educated by the servitude; whereas the mother was devoting herself to trivial things. This way several years happened, the marriage Figueroa Lopez, it had four children and a difficult life, for the lady of the house, who was rejecting the home and I never occupy of the children. The years happened and the husband it fell ill seriously, to a little time died, taking to him " the key of the pantry ", the widow remained without a cent, and at the head of his children who were asking him that to eat. In a time the lady of Figueroa began to sell his furniture. His jewelry; with what was spending it.e to holidays and constant walks

Few ones were the resources that already he still had, and on having felt useless to work, and without a cent to support his children, he thought it very much, but one day assembled them saying to them that it was going to take them of walk to the river. The children were jumping of happiness, since it was the first time that his mother was taking them of walk to the field. It raised them to the carriage and went out from his house to demolished, as if it was bringing great he treads for coming. It came to the river, which at the time was mighty, down the car, which she itself was guiding and was fanning one to one to the small ones, which with the skilful persons were doing to him signs of which they were suffocating.

But she, tendentious and cold, saw the current was taking them to him, doing warbles the water, up to remaining still. To his children I them take the current, in this moment already they would be dead. As automaton I withdraw local, take the carriage, there went out as " soul that the devil takes ", but the remorses made it return to the place of the crime. Useless age the creatures had gone on to better life.

When it realized of what it had done, I throw she also to the river and soon there could be seen four children's corpses and that of a woman who were floating in the river.

He says the legend that from this date, at twelve o'clock in the night, the lady Marisa permission of ultratomb to weeping for his misfortune: it was going out of the cemetery (where they gave to them Christian grave) and it was crossing the city in a carriage, giving screams and shouting Aaaaay my children where my children will be and this way up to coming to the river in Where it was disappearing. All the persons who saw her to go on to midnight for the streets were crossing themselves with reverence on having listened to his groans and shouts. They were swearing that with the moonlight they saw his carriage that there was leading a lady of black who with screams was looking for his children.

Two damned souls

I was in the house,and one day I saw two souls !

I was in my bedroom ,when I saw them.

First,I saw one small soul . He was sitting beside the door.

When I saw one soul digging . He was lying in the carpet .

They were very appealling. then I shouted.

They weren't there .

After that I closed the leafy and when I opened they had disappeared

The next day ,I saw a movie about damned souls and they came out and scared me.
quite short

Haunted house

In a small town, there was a haunted house, in that there was a very bold girl called Ela.

One day she escaped from house to enter the haunted house, when I entered in the house the door closed. She was able to remain calm, but suddenly she heard a strange sound and froze with fright, the sound was coming from the kitchen, she went into the kitchen and saw a corpse sitting on the chair, and she left the house terrified.

The next day she told all friends what she saw,and swear never would return to that house.

The unknown number

Ramon is a child who goes on vacations to the home of his cousins in Ecuador to visit them and he told me a story about some strange things with their phone.

The next day he was walking down the hall and heard the phone. when he picked up the phone, nobody answered. After that, half an hour later , his younger cousin disappeared all there were very sad and yet very concerned.

When they got a letter ponies (not pick-up the phone) but ignored the letter and after five minutes the phone rang and his older cousin answered but not one responded and he disappeared too.

Finally when her two cousin woke up and remembered, nothing appeared and decided to not picking up their phone again.

Nightmare

One day at night when I was at home alone waching TV I was happy and suddenly I heard a noise.

First I saw a shadow on my window,the shadow was very big and I was scared. I went to the window to see, but there was nothing and I went on watching TV.

Then there was a wolf in front on me, I ran and hid in my bedroom. I felt it was approaching, it entered the room and he screamed and I was scared, took my arm and started laughing and suddenly I got up.

The finally I had breakfast with my family and I told them my nightmare.

The ghost in the forest

The summer happened my parents and I were staying in a beautiful house near the lake, to rest from the city stress.

One day while I was walking with a friend by the lake we saw a shadow between the trees. First it scare us and it produced a very strange cry, a scream.

Then we went out running.

The next day we returned to the forest but the ghost wasn't there.
quite short

An arson frightening story

Hi! My name is Joaquin. Last year my parents bought a house next to the cemetery in Scotland.

One night I was in my bed, it was nealy midnight, first I heard strange noises. Then I saw a strange object flying with some yellow lights. Then a ghost was standing up in the cemetery. The ghost was flying.

The next day I was exploring the house, but I didn´t find anything strange. The next night I followed a ghost until the library where it disappared. After that I was reading a story of the house. And I discovered that in my house a crazy woman died because there was an arson.

Finally we had to leave the house and find somewhere else to live. I will never forget those two nights.

The Christmas tree legend

The Christmas Tree Legend

The first people to hear of the birth of Christ were the shepherds of Bethlehem who were watching their sheep. An angel from heaven brought them the joyous tidings and told them to go to the town of Bethlehem where they would find the baby in a straw-filled manger

Then it is no surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The Pilgrims' second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out.

Finally the Santa is Rudolph became an anual television star and a familiar Chistmas image in many of the countries whose own

The Legend of Dunstanburgh Castle

This legend tells the story of that horrible stormy day when the gentleman Sir Guy the Seeker found refuge with his horse in the Dunstanburg castle .

First, the gentleman found a wizard there . The gentleman followed the wizard. Then , the gentleman and the wizard went into a room . In the center of the room there was a glass case. In the glass case there was one girl .

After that , the sorceress became a knight with a sword and a horn . Chosing one things of two things saved the girl . Sir Guy chose the horn sounded, but he took the things that he shouldn't .

Finally , the gentleman was looking the girl many years but he died.

The woman buried alive

One daughter of a family was very ill. One day she was fainting and her parents took her to the doctor and he said she was dying after he checked a lot of analysis.
The parents cried when they heard the bad news and they buried her in a new cemetery.

An undertaker watched all the cemetery, but one day he heard a stranges noises behind the ground, he thought it was an halucination because he drank beer the previous day.
The next day in the morning he recalled the noises last night, he knew what coffin was, and called her family.

When the family arrived, he explained them what happened that night. He asked for the family if he could open the coffin. The family gave the authorization and opened the coffin.
In the coffin there was the girl with the bloody nails, and the coffin was very grated.

Finally the family came to the conclusion that the daughter wasn´t dead, she was just fainted, but there wasn´t any heart beats!!!!

The legend of the seven vampires

Hi!Today I´m speaking about The Legend of the Seven Vampires.In Romania, some vampires were living and they killed people with their teeths.

First, in Siret, in the frontier three soldiers were going with an elderly man to find hay in a wagon. They went to a house of a kind woman.They went into the kitchen and the woman gave them a bowl of corn and she went on doing some things of the house.

Then the soldiers and the elderly man were trying to find the woman but they couldn´t so,they went upstairs to the attic and suddenly, they saw the body of the woman was on the flour!She was dead with other six bodies.

After that the soldiers and the elderly man ran to the street and they were driving when the white and frightening bodies of the vampires were running behind of the men and they killed the soldiers and the man.

Finally, the tradition says that you may meet these vampires in the frontier.

The legends of Birmingham

Before I tell you the most frightening story I have ever lived in my life I must locate the place where it happened. It was in Birmingham, the second biggest city in the U.K., within the English West Midlands.

It wasn't the first time I went to England and I decided to explore some of the haunted tales that I heard we can find throughout this city, where there are famous castles and hidden roads you might not want to drive down on your own.

One day, as usual, I went jogging and ventured into the Boggy Woods, the so-called Edgbaston Park, one of the main biggest parks in the city centre of Birmingham. I was enjoying the music from my MP3 and the bird songs when I saw him, face-to-face.

First I thought he was another athlete from the distance. with a tall, dark figure, standing on a bridge by a small lake in the area. When he realized I was watching him, he disappeared into thin air and left without any sign of wind.

Then, I went on running down Brightstone Road at about one hour later, and even with the music on I could hear noises that resemble screams. I took them off to notice where they came from, when suddenly it was cristal clear for me: it came from the ghost of a young boy who disappeared without a trace and was never located. I tried to approach him, but he vanished away.

After that, of course, I was completeley crossed, but I had to go back my residence, The Alexander House, and I went across Sherburne Road, which is haunted by the ghost of an elderly man, who wears a top hat and period clothing. He has been seen picking up papers along the side of the road. While I was shopping at Kangs Discount Store, I watched quite an unbelievable spectacle. I witnessed a lollipop walk out of the shop without anyone holding onto it. Was it a ghost, an illusion or a fragment of my imagination?

Finally, I reached my room and I spent the shower time thinking about my morning experiences and I resolved to calm down in a short trip. I heard of Dudley Castle and drove my rented car through the mountains towards the famous spot. It is supposed to be the home of numerous ghosts. The most common ghost sightings involve The Grey Lady, The Medieval Lady, The Black Monk, as well as Lady Jane.

The Grey Lady is believed to be the ghost of a woman by the name of Dorothy Beaumont, who passed away from natural causes. It is thought that she lost her life during childbirth. Her ghost is said to wander about the castle steps because her husband did not attend her funeral.

The Medieval Lady has been described as an elderly figure, who can be seen wearing a gray shawl, as well as cloth wrapped around her feet. Her most famous sighting was during a medieval dress competition that was held at the castle during 1983. She won the contest, but disappeared once attention was called to her.

The Black Monk has been sighted by an array of different visitors, as well as by members of the staff.

Lady Jane was a former resident of the castle, but had been beheaded, causing her ghost to roam about the castle grounds, appearing to visitors and employees.

Why don't you visit the castle and try a new experience?

Mysteries and legends in Great Britain

The Mystery of Stonehedge
Stonehedge is an ancient stone circle in Wiltshire in the south of England. It's also a very mysterious place.

People built it about 5,00 years ago, but no one knows why. A lot of people today think that it was a type of calendar because the sun shines on the stones at special times. Others think that it was a religious place.

No one knows how people built Stonehedge. There are three circles of stones and some of the stones are very heavy. These stones didn't come from Wiltshire. A lot of them came from Wales over 100 kms away. People dindn't hve transport in those days, so how did they move them? It's a mystery.

Stonehedge has more than 750,000 visitors every year. It's very popular in the summer months, but autumn and winter are also great times to visit. This is when the stones are really beautiful. The light changes in autumn and winter and the stones appear more mysterious.

WRITE A STORY, MYSTERY OR LEGEND INVENTED OR FROM YOUR VILLAGE, CITY OR COUNTRY.