Some very specific images spring to mind when we think about Britain’s female rulers.
Boudica - a fiery warrior spanking the Ninth Legion’s bottoms for calling her ‘ginger’. Mary I - fond of vodka, tomato juice and using Protestants for firewood.
Elizabeth I (or the very ‘wet’ Bella in the latest Twilight films) - deathly white and surrounded by men she could not sleep with.
However, ask the average British person to give their thoughts on Cartimandua and you will most likely get a blank look or the description of a nasty illness. In case you're wondering, Cartimandua was the first British queen that we know about, ruling an area spanning much of the north of England during the mid first-century AD – and yet most people have never heard of her. Why?
History is written by the victors and we only have the accounts of the ‘Roman’ authors to describe the events of the Conquest of Britain in AD 43. Like Darth Vader writing the only surviving history of Princess Leia, Tacitus was probably not terribly keen to extol the virtues of the ‘barbarian’ queen the Empire was forced to deal with, but we do have to thank him for writing anything about her at all, however unflattering and contradictory. But she can now take her rightful place in our collective history and force her contemporary Boudica to share some of the limelight.
Meet Cartimandua, Britain’s forgotten queen...
1: Who Was She?
As far as we know, Cartimandua was the first hereditary queen to rule any part of Britain. Unlike Boudica, she was born to rule and her husbands were merely consorts. It is likely that she was already an established monarch and married to her first husband, the troublesome Venutius, before the Conquest in AD 43.
2: Where Did She Rule?
Cartimandua's Brigantia. © Nicki Howarth
The Brigantes were assumed to be a federation of smaller tribal units, banded together under a single leader. It has been argued that Brigantia (the name of their lands and their goddess) stretched from Birrens in Dumfriesshire as far south as Little Chester, near Derby, and occupied most of this area from east to west. The reality is that territory was probably much more fluid than ancient sources suggest, and tribal borders could have changed because of inter-marriage, treaty, trade or conflict.
3: Stanwick – Cartimandua’s Pad?
Excavations of the fortified site of Stanwick in North Yorkshire suggest that this was once an immense structure designed to impress (with its 5m tall earthworks and a complex spanning almost 3 sq km). The finds of high-status imports (or diplomatic gifts?) such as rare forms of Samian pottery and volcanic glass show that this was the seat of someone who had achieved great importance and was able to command a significant amount of manpower and resources in building such a palatial dwelling during the mid first century AD. A fitting showcase for Cartimandua’s Roman guests, perhaps?
4: The Romans Needed Her to Help Protect Them
Despite the might of Rome and the impressiveness of the Roman legions, they still needed Cartimandua’s help to accomplish their goals in expanding the province. In return for providing occasional bodyguard duties, the Roman advance was protected by the co-operation of Brigantia’s queen. As the legions marched south-west, their flank could not be attacked by any sympathetic northern tribes sending reinforcements, areas of possible retreat were blocked and thus they avoided fighting on several fronts. Cartimandua literally ‘had their back’. An unpatriotic act? Not at all. Britain was not a united kingdom at that time and there is no evidence that Brigantia had any relationship with the neighbouring tribes. It was every woman for herself and her people benefited enormously from Cartimandua’s shrewd decision to exploit the Roman need for her help.
5: She Kept Her Lands Free From Roman Invasion
From the time that the legions came over from Rome with a job-lot of rotting fish paste in AD 43, until she was deposed by her nightmare ex-husband in AD 69, Cartimandua kept Brigantia independent and free from Roman occupation whilst the rest of England was either surrendering or being conquered.
6: Unlike Boudica, She Stood up to The Romans and Won
As a number of rebels were to find out the hard way, Rome was rarely beaten in a pitched battle but there were other ways to take on the Empire. Cartimandua was powerful, shrewd and successful in skilfully playing off potential enemies against each other, surviving during the chaos of conquest for some three decades on the throne. Her people did not lose their lands, their lives or their liberty whilst she was queen.
7: Freedom Fighters... but Whose Freedom?
Cartimandua has been unfavourably compared to various so-called ‘freedom fighters’: the rebel prince Caratacus, her contemporary Boudica and her ex-husband Venutius, but whose freedom were these individuals fighting for? Freedom for the people or freedom to rule as they saw fit? These three had much in common: they all had status because of their relationship to someone else who wielded power – Caratacus’ father, Boudica’s husband and Venutius’ wife.
Far from being life-long opponents of Rome, the three rebels enjoyed the wealth and power that their relative’s friendship with the Empire provided for many years and only rebelled once these privileges and riches were taken away. The people they led suffered greatly as a result of their attempts to get them back, but Boudica at least had personal grievances to avenge in addition. Freedom may eventually have been sought at any cost but who was footing the bill?
8: You Don't Mess With a Northern Lass
Like readers of modern-day ‘trashy’ magazines, her people really needed to stop being obsessed with celebrity weddings.
It is said that Northerners do not suffer fools gladly and Cartimandua as their queen was no exception. Two men tried to take her throne and suffered the consequences. After leaving his own people and then abandoning the two other tribes he had led into battle against Rome, Caratacus fled to Brigantia, most likely to try to gain further reinforcements.
Like Elizabeth I after her, Cartimandua was not about to lose her throne to a scheming and opportunistic royal. With her own position and the safety and prosperity of her people at stake, she captured Caratacus and handed him over to the Romans in AD 51 – a decision for which she has been universally condemned ever since. However, this is to judge her by modern standards and not by those of the time. She was Queen of the Brigantes and not of Britain – her duty was to protect herself and her subjects from this dangerous and fickle invader who wanted to jeopardise everything she had worked so hard to achieve. It was a necessary act, if not a popular one.
Her second threat came from closer to home. After Cartimandua divorced him, her ex Venutius tried to provoke a rebellion in the 50s AD, forcing her to seize his relatives. Undaunted, he tried to attack the kingdom but was sent packing by Roman ‘doormen’ brought in to aid the queen – his name was not down and he was not coming in.
9: The Ex Factor
The only work dedicated to Britain's forgotten queen.
Like most of the ‘barbarian’ queens in the ancient sources, Cartimandua’s accomplishments as monarch were totally ignored in favour of gossip about her personal life.
Despite ruling successfully and with peace in her lands for the best part of 30 years, the only trouble in Brigantia was linked to Cartimandua changing husbands.
The First Brigantian Rebellion in the 50s AD happened after she divorced Venutius; the Second Brigantian Rebellion occurred after she remarried in AD 69. Like readers of modern-day ‘trashy’ magazines, her people really needed to stop being obsessed with celebrity weddings.
Despite having been divorced for at least 12 years when she remarried her ex-husband’s armour-bearer, Vellocatus, the sources describe her as an adulteress (work that one out). Her first husband clearly had issues about ‘moving on’ and he again timed an attack on her kingdom to coincide with an internal revolt provoked by the ‘scandal’ of her new marriage.
This time Venutius was successful in taking the throne and the Roman ‘doormen’ regretted telling him on their first meeting to ‘come back here if you think you are hard enough’.
Cartimandua was rescued from danger by her Roman allies but lost her throne after decades in power. This was a move her subjects swiftly regretted as their ancestral lands, their freedom, their independence and their prosperity disappeared as soon as their queen did. Venutius, like Caratacus before him, abandoned the people and fled north, leaving Brigantia to be swallowed up into the Empire.
10. Cartimandua as Guinevere?
Much as the fiction of her adultery makes no sense in the light of her earlier divorce, it is for this falsehood that Cartimandua may have been remembered by posterity. Modern sources have suggested that the love triangle of Cartimandua, Venutius and Vellocatus may have inspired the legend of the famous adulteress Guinevere, as told by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Hardly an accurate or satisfactory memorial for such an independent queen, but she at least did not end her days – as Guinevere did – in a convent.
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