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Myth-making and History: The Visual Transformation of Boadicea in Eighteenth-Century History Books

Isabelle Baudino

Résumés

Très peu représentée avant le milieu du xviiie siècle, Boadicée fit son entrée dans la culture visuelle dans les illustrations des livres d’histoire. Cet article explore l’évolution de ses représentations et notamment comment la reine vaincue de la tribu des Icènes se métamorphosa en héroïne néoclassique. Initialement dépeinte comme un personnage de théâtre, Boadicée se métamorphosa en figure ancestrale, célébrée pour sa résilience et sa bravoure, à la faveur du développement d’une nouvelle esthétique néoclassique. Cette réinterprétation doit beaucoup à des artistes comme John Opie, Thomas Stothard ou Robert Smirke qui l’ont ennoblie en la figurant drapée dans des vêtements à l’antique. C’est dans cette tenue et dépeinte comme une oratrice pleine d’éloquence, qu’elle fut bientôt imaginée défendant la liberté britannique. De barbare révoltée, elle devint l’emblème de la nation et de l’idéologie impérialiste britannique, une allégorie de la mission civilisatrice de la Grande-Bretagne et une protectrice de ses institutions. La transformation radicale de ce personnage témoigne de la manière dont les figures historiques peuvent être réinterprétées et du rôle essentiel que joue la culture visuelle dans ces transformations.

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Notes de la rédaction

Article issu d'une communication présentée au congrès ISECS-SIEDS Roma 2023, lors d’une session organisée par la Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles.

Texte intégral

  • 1 About what Miriam Franchina has called the “constellation” of history books published in the wake o (...)

1From the early decades of the eighteenth century, Whig historians, such as John Lockman or Thomas Mortimer, meticulously crafted a version of the past selectively reconstructed to validate the present and bolster the foundational tenets of the newly created British nation – namely Protestantism, parliamentary monarchy, civic liberties, and commerce. This past was articulated in words and images in numerous publications derived from Paul Rapin de Thoyras’ history, invariably bearing the title “History of England”, designed to nurture cultural patriotism.1 Most histories of Britain published in the first half of the eighteenth century commenced with the Roman invasion of the British Isles. This starting point allowed authors to draw upon esteemed ancient historians for credibility. Yet the absence of written sources on the obscure ages that predated the Roman conquest, and the paucity of material traces from pre-Roman times, left much of Britain’s origins shrouded in fable and fiction. Rapin de Thoyras (vol 1, xv), for instance, referenced with due caution Geoffrey of Monmouth’s theory according to which the name Britain derived from Brutus, the grandson of Aeneas who, fleeing Greece, supposedly landed in England.

2Commencing Britain’s history with the episode of the landing of Julius Caesar’s legions posed challenges because it framed the opening chapter as one of Roman conquest and British submission. Despite authors’ attempts to emphasise Britons’ resistance, the inaugural scene showing the subjugation of the peoples of Britain was especially disquieting at a time when the fear of foreign invasions was very real. Exploring antiquity became both an endeavour of curiosity and a concern for authors seeking to retrace the origins of modern Britain as far back as they possibly could. Touching upon expressions of collective ancestry required addressing issues such as the state of ancient Britain, its interactions with Rome and the very definition of national antiquity. Beyond the statements of impartiality that were rhetorical commonplaces in forewords and prefaces, the invention of a past fit for the Georgian present led all those involved in the publication of history books to tell stories that could be easily understood and shared by an ever-growing number of diverse British readers. Fragmented, inaccessible ancient Britain was thus constructed textually but also visually on book pages that mythicised memorable events and remarkable heroes or heroines.

  • 2 There is no scientific evidence on which name should be used to refer to the Iceni queen. Even thou (...)

3The search for ancient British heroes, for proud embodiments of British resistance, therefore led to the construction of several historical figures presented as models of heroism: Cassivellaunus (also called Cassibelan or Cassibolan) who led the defence against Julius Caesar’s invasion and Caratacus (or Caractacus) who was betrayed by the Brigantian queen Cartimandua and taken captive to Rome where he so eloquently pleaded the cause of his resistance that he was freed by emperor Claudius. Boudica (called Boadicea or Boadicia by eighteenth-century writers2), the Queen of the Iceni tribe who managed to unite the rebellion against the Roman yoke, emerged as a central figure in this resistance. The main elements of her story were quoted from Tacitus’ Annals and Dio Cassius’ Roman History: Boudica was the widow of the King of the Iceni. Alone, she stood up to the Romans who wanted to deprive her daughters of their father’s estate, a resistance for which she was flogged, and her daughters gang-raped by the Romans. In retaliation for these abominations, she united the Iceni with the Trinobantes, led them to destroy Roman garrisons and temples, and went on to burn down the city of London. She then led the British army in a chariot with her two daughters and addressed the head of every tribe telling them that she did not only wish to seek redress for the crimes committed against herself and her daughters but that she wanted to defend British liberty and was thus determined to conquer or perish. And perish she did (killing herself and her daughters by poison according to Tacitus), after eighty thousand Britons were crushed by the Roman legions around 61 A.D.

Figure 1: Jann Haworth and (Juliette) Liberty Blake, Work in Progress, 2021-22.

Figure 1: Jann Haworth and (Juliette) Liberty Blake, Work in Progress, 2021-22.

Acrylic on paper collaged panels, 2.44 x 8.77 m, London, National Portrait Gallery. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

  • 3 Work in Progress (2021-22) was commissioned to artists Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake as part of th (...)

4How did the obscure widow of a minor client king of Rome become such a celebrity that she now ranks amongst the greatest females in British history, immortalised on the seven-panel mural, entitled Work in Progress [figure 1], displayed in the recently re-opened National Portrait Gallery in London?3

5Why should a woman who burnt down the city of London and whose rebellion led to a horrendous bloodshed be commemorated and celebrated? This article seeks to explore this tricky issue through the study of Boadicea’s complex visual legacy. I would like to argue that the inclusion of Boadicea on the National Portrait Gallery panel in the twenty-first century, or her monumental presence opposite the Houses of Parliament, owes less to the texts (be they historical or fictional accounts) that were written about her than to the images that were made of her. Through the lens of visual studies, this article emphasises the agency of images (sometimes quite independently of texts) and the importance of visual culture in shaping modern Boadicea’s image, from that of a defeated barbarian queen to a noble classical heroine – a transformation that elevated her to the status of national icon in eighteenth-century illustrated history books and beyond.

Boadicea defeated

  • 4 For an account of the Society’s history see Hudson and Luckhurst.

6During the first half of the eighteenth century, Boadicea remained conspicuously absent from British pictorial creation. Thus, it is intriguing to find her positioned at the top of the list of historical subjects drawn up by the Arts Committee of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in Great Britain (commonly known as the Society of Arts) for its inaugural painting competition in 1759. Through the support of influential aristocrats, the Society’s founder, William Shipley, garnered substantial interest for the premium scheme he initially designed to foster British agricultural, commercial, and industrial development.4 Noteworthy figures such as visual artists (William Chambers, Henry Cheere, William Hogarth, Joshua Kirby, Joshua Reynolds) and men of letters (including James Boswell, David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, John Lockman) also featured prominently among the Society’s members. As active members of the Society’s Arts Committee, visual artists, who were collectively seeking to promote British contemporary arts, advocated extending Shipley’s premium scheme to the fine arts. Following agreement among the members in November 1758 regarding the principle of offering a premium for history painting, the Committee prescribed that the subjects for the history painting contest be selected from a predetermined list of six:

1… Boadicia relating her Injuries to Cassibolan and Paulinus in the presence of her two Daughters

2… Queen Eleonora sucking the Poison out of King Edward’s Wound after he was shot with a poison’d Arrow

3… Regulus taking Leave of his Friends when he departed on his return to Carthago

4… The Death of Socrates

5… The Death of Epaminondas

6… The Birth of Commerce described by Mr Glover in his Poem called London (Royal Society of Arts Minutes 154)

  • 5 The terms “remediate” and “remediation” are used throughout this article to describe processes of a (...)
  • 6 Faithorne’s plate was used to illustrate Sammes (the plate is inserted between pages 227 and 229). (...)

7The wording of the first subject evokes a curious tableau: a wounded, humiliated Boadicea confiding in male characters, British warrior Cassibolan and Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. It prompts readers to envision a vulnerable Boadicea seeking solace from male figures and suggests the Arts committee intended to facilitate a dialogue between the representational arts by encouraging painters to remediate plays (or the memory of staged performances of plays) onto canvases.5 The inclusion of Cassibolan hints at a contemporary source for Boadicea’s story rather than earlier plays. Notably, Cassibolan did not appear in John Fletcher’s play The Tragedie of Bonduca, penned around 1612, the first dedicated to the heroine; he was an addition by Charles Hopkins in his Boadicea, Queen of Britain first staged at Lincoln Inn’s Fields in November 1697. In Hopkins’ rendition, male heroes, particularly Cassibelan, dominate the narrative which also incorporates the rape of Boadicea’s daughters into the play’s action (Nielsen 601). As suggested by its title, Hopkins’ play portrays Boadicea on the stage first and foremost as a queen rather than a fierce martial woman, and this interpretation of her character corresponds to one of her rare early modern visual representations in her static portrayal by William Faithorne [figure 2] where she is represented wearing a crown, holding a spear, with long pleated hair, looking straight at the viewer.6

Figure 2: William Faithorne, Boadicea, c.1676.

Figure 2: William Faithorne, Boadicea, c.1676.

Engraving on paper. Reproduced from Aylett Sammes, Britannia Antiqua Illustrata in the collection of the National Library of Scotland (shelfmark R. 308. c).

8Throughout the eighteenth century, Boadicea continued to appear as a tragic queen in illustrations which were primarily portraits of famous actresses in the role, for example Mrs Powell portrayed by John Thornthwaite for Bell’s publication of Glover’s play in 1791 (Glover “frontispiece”).

9The reference, in the list submitted to the Society of Arts, to London, or the Progress of Commerce underscores the Committee’s acquaintance with the works of Richard Glover and suggests another contemporary interpretation of Boadicea’s story. Glover, who was one of the founding governors of the Foundling Hospital, a major venue for contemporary art in eighteenth-century London, was also the author of a play entitled Boadicea, staged at Drury Lane by David Garrick in 1753. Although the members of the Society of Arts ultimately rejected the subjects prescribed by the Arts committee and recommended that candidates select their subjects freely from English history (Royal Society of Arts Minutes 155), these references signal a resurgence of interest in Boadicea’s character both in the visual and performing arts.

  • 7 In August 1778, upon the staging of George Colman’s Bonduca at his theatre in the Hay Market, an ar (...)

10At that time, the story of Boadicea featured in popular history books, such as Paul Rapin de Thoyras’ History of England, but it was not visually depicted (Rapin de Thoyras vol 1, 52-55). While Rapin de Thoyras’ narrative became a major source of inspiration for British visual artists (Baudino 19-20), the episode of Boadicea’s resistance and her fight against Roman invaders did not initially feature among the scenes selected to illustrate Roman Britain. Neither the numerous serialised editions of Rapin’s History of England, nor the popular history books for both children and adults derived from it – written by John Lockman, Thomas Mortimer or William Henry Mountague for instance – included a portrayal of Boadicea or a scene from her rebellion. The landing of Julius Caesar or the capture of Caractacus were preferred, giving centre stage to heroic or noble male figures. Historical book plates dedicated to the Roman general, or the British tribal leader, provided appropriate models for representations more attuned to the classical repertoire of history painting. Thus, the initial depictions of Boadicea produced for insertion in British history books testify to the visual impact of her theatrical embodiment by actresses in staged performances of Fletcher’s, Hopkins’ or Glover’s plays.7 The difficulty in imagining Boadicea as anything but a theatrical character is apparent in one of the first historical illustrations in which she appeared [figure 3]. Designed by Thomas Stothard for George Frederick Raymond’s New, Universal and Impartial History of England, it shows Boadicea surrounded by a group of soldiers, caught in action, holding a torch, standing against a backcloth showing a wall engulfed in a blazing fire (the plate is inserted between pages 30 and 31).

Figure 3: Thomas Stothard, Boadicea Queen of the Iceni Burning the City of London, after its being abandoned by the Roman Army under the Command of Suetonius, c.1790.

Figure 3: Thomas Stothard, Boadicea Queen of the Iceni Burning the City of London, after its being abandoned by the Roman Army under the Command of Suetonius, c.1790.

Engraving on paper. Reproduced from George Frederick Raymond, A New, Universal and Impartial History of England. Courtesy of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

11Two soldiers beside her are actively setting fire to a building and the narrative caption confirms that the artist is portraying a group of arsonists: Boadicea Queen of the Iceni, Burning the City of London, after its being abandoned by the Roman Army under the Command of Suetonius. Boadicea’s attitude and her loose hair are reminiscent of Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, who also holds a torch, as painted by Henry Fuseli a few years earlier on a canvas that was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784.

Figure 4: Johann Heinrich Fuseli, Lady Macbeth, 1784.

Figure 4: Johann Heinrich Fuseli, Lady Macbeth, 1784.

Oil on canvas, 221 x 160 cm, Paris, musée du Louvre. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

  • 8 On the misogynistic dismissal of Boadicea, see Steyn (8).

12The visual conflation between the figures of Boadicea and Lady Macbeth highlights the fury and murderous savagery verging on madness of both women. This portrayal also echoes the words of Fletcher’s tragedy where Boadicea is depicted as cruel and dangerous, posing a threat to the patriarchal order.8

Boadicea classicised

  • 9 The original painting by John Opie is an oil on canvas measuring 216 x 162.5 cm, kept in a private (...)

13Stothard’s vertical illustration for Raymond was repurposed into a horizontal format and presented in an octagonal frame in George Courtney Lyttleton’s History of England in 1802 (the plate is inserted between pages 34 and 35). The landscape format allowed for the scene to be stretched on both sides through the addition of a standard-bearer on the right and of a portcullised gate in the London wall on the left. Interestingly, while the wall depicted on the illustration for Raymond looked like a mere piece of flat stage scenery, it is reconstructed in greater details in the Lyttleton plate where a few stone blocks placed in the foreground give a new sense of depth. The subtle refashioning of the plate, and the removal of what looked like a flat theatrical backdrop to the action marked a new departure for Boadicea who gradually left the stage to enter history. Moreover, her depiction as an arsonist remained isolated and she shifted from being depicted as a furious woman rampaging through London driven by revenge to becoming a symbol of resilience and bravery. The ennobling of Boadicea was primarily achieved through the classicizing of her appearance. An exemplary instance is found in a plate [figure 5], dated 1795, engraved by William Sharp and designed by John Opie9 for Robert Bowyer’s illustrated edition of David Hume’s History of England.

Figure 5: William Sharp (after John Opie), Boadicea Haranguing the Britons, 1795.

Figure 5: William Sharp (after John Opie), Boadicea Haranguing the Britons, 1795.

Etching and engraving on paper, 48 x 33 cm. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

  • 10 On the symbolism of the neoclassical white muslin dress, see Rauser.

14In this portrayal, Boadicea dons an impeccable classical garb, characterised by a high-waisted neoclassical silhouette adorned with a fashionable sash. Opie’s life-size painted version for Bowyer’s Historic Gallery further accentuates this transformation; while the red mantle draped over Boadicea’s shoulder adds an element of chromatic violence, the composition focuses on the drapery of her dress. Contrasting with Maria Hunter’s exotic portrayal in John Thornthwaite’s plate depicting her playing Glover’s Bodicea, wearing ostrich feathers in her hair and a corselet armour over a gown trimmed and adorned with leopard skin, Opie’s canvas showcases Boadicea draped in white muslin accentuating the three-dimensional form of her tall body, marmorialising her and presenting her as a living statue.10 The shift towards depicting Boadicea as a classical heroine is evident in the discrepancy between the visualisation of the scene and the caption Boadicea Haranguing the Britons. Whereas we are supposed to be looking at a woman making an angry, forceful public speech, we see nothing but “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur”. Boadicea stands erect, her right hand raised akin to the allegory of eloquence, with a dignified and composed countenance and her mouth barely open. The tender gesture towards her daughter, who is sheltering under her left arm, underlines her protective rather than aggressive nature. The faces of the men who are listening to her express emotions of grief and sympathy rather than a fighting spirit. By staging the pathetic appeal of a widow and mother, at a time of renewed interest for such dignified ancient Greek or Roman female characters, Opie’s composition made Boadicea into a perfect subject for British history painting.

15This transformation of Boadicea into a classical heroine unfolds against the backdrop of the rapid development of neoclassical art in Britain. British painters such as Nathaniel Dance or Gavin Hamilton played pivotal roles in formulating and circulating new subjects inspired from Greek and Roman mythology in a new classical style. Angelica Kauffman, a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts alongside Dance, contributed significantly to the idealisation of British history painting in the 1770s. It is particularly interesting to note that Boadicea appeared on the monthly illustrative plate of the Lady’s Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex in April 1775 [see figure 6] while the allegorical frontispiece for the entire 1775 volume, depicting Learning and Beauty adorning a young lady, was designed by Kauffman. Previous and subsequent monthly issues of the Lady’s Magazine included plates dedicated to famous ancient Greek or Roman women showing for example The Separation of Titus and Berenice in November 1774, Penelope Repulsing the Addresses of her Suitors in September 1774 and Cleopatra Seeking the Protection of Caesar released in July 1775. Contrary to the frontispieces adorning the yearly volumes, the monthly plates of the Lady’s Magazine were unsigned.

Figure 6: Anon., Boadicea Addressing Herself to the Army of Ancient Britons, 1775.

Figure 6: Anon., Boadicea Addressing Herself to the Army of Ancient Britons, 1775.

Engraving on paper. Frontispiece to the April 1775 issue of The Lady's Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex. Photographer: Raffaella Losito / Cambridge University Library (Special Collection copy of T900 c.96.6).

  • 11 See Queen Bodicea in her War Carriage, pen and ink wash on paper, NCM 1890-251, Museums and Galleri (...)
  • 12 The plate is in the National Portrait Gallery collection: see Samuel Wale, Boadicea Haranguing the (...)

16The authorship of this illustration remains unidentified but there are reasons to believe that the original drawing may have been by Samuel Wale as it features in the collection of the Museums and Galleries at Nottingham Castle in a folder donated to the Museum by Victorian collector Felix Joseph and containing a majority of original works by Wale.11 Notably, Wale designed, and signed, both the 1774 and 1776 frontispieces of the Lady’s Magazine. Moreover, the 1775 Boadicea plate exhibits many stylistic similarities with the historical illustrations Wale had specialised in since the 1760s and with another similar representation entitled Boadicea Haranguing the Britons signed by Samuel Wale.12 The scene represented on this unidentified plate matches the words from the caption for it portrays an imposing Boadicea addressing a crowd with a spear in her right hand and a hare under her left arm. In comparison, the caption of the frontispiece from the April 1775 issue of the Lady’s Magazine, Boadicea addressing herself to the Army of Ancient Britons [figure 6], appears slightly misleading, as the plate shows Boadicea holding a hare under her left arm, a spear in her right hand, standing, with her two daughters seated on each side, in her carriage drawn by two horses but with only one soldier holding a spear by the carriage and no angry soldiers in sight. The hare alludes to the source of the accompanying text being Dio Cassius’ Roman History (Book LXII, 3-5) which reports, as recounted in the magazine (178) that after haranguing her troops she released a hare as an offering to the goddess of war.

17In the Lady’s Magazine plate [figure 6], as in Opie’s grand scale painting and in the reproductive engraving made of it [figure 5], Boadicea is depicted wearing standard classical drapery, as are her daughters. Another unsigned visualisation of the British heroine, likely designed by Daniel Dodd (a follower of Samuel Wale), portrays her in a similar attire. The plate [figure 7], entitled Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their Liberty was issued in a set of historical illustrations for Charlotte Cowley’s Ladies History of England around 1780.

Figure 7: Anon., Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their Liberty, c.1780

Figure 7: Anon., Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their Liberty, c.1780

Engraving on paper. Reproduced from Charlotte Cowley, The Ladies History of England, from the Descent of Julius Cæsar, to the Summer of 1780, London: Bladon, 1780. Public domain via Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund.

18Portraying Boadicea as a queen, it depicts her wearing a crown and a draped classical dress with a mantle over her shoulders. Although she is holding a spear in her left hand, she is the very picture of eloquence, with the structural lines of the composition emphasising her raised right hand. While not as statuesque as on Opie’s canvas, Boadicea appears composed even with her half-naked breast. Significantly, the plates engraved for the Lady’s Magazine [figure 6] and the Ladies History [figure 7] primarily targeted female viewers. Cowley made it clear both in the epigraph and the dedication of her book that her focus was on “illustrious women” whose “worth” she intended to “paint” (front page and unpaginated dedication to Princess Charlotte Augusta Matilda). Cowley’s inclusion of Boadicea in a history book intended for an educated female audience thus underscores her belief in Boadicea’s place among the female worthies whose life stories could instruct her readers. Like the author of the Lady’s Magazine text, Cowley draws her account of Boadicea’s story from Dio Cassius’ Roman History, quoting it explicitly. While previous British historians had not dwelled on Boadicea’s physical appearance, Cowley found in Dio lively physical details to flesh out her character:

Boadicea’s body (says he) was big and burly, or rather huge; which some translating the Greek into Latin, not thinking to be a fit parcel in the bill of a lady’s praise, have turned tall. Her face, naturally good, and full of dignity, was of purpose set to the quality of the present service, after a most severe and serious manner; which moved famous Dio to hang and epithet of such an ambiguous sense upon her countenance, as like a double picture represents her diversely to diverse understandings, excellently comely, or incomparably terrible. Her complexion very fair, which, who will wonder at, in a lady born in Briton? her copious tresses, dangling in compass far beneath the waist, were of a more bright yellow. And though by her colour, her constitution might seem to be cold, yet her doings declared, that choler has the mastery in her, even unto deceit and adustion. Her looks most eager, sharp, and piercing, an argument perhaps, that her eyes were disproportionately small; and that was a sign, if artists err not, of fraud and cruelty. Nature, finally, to make the comfort of her properties compleat, furnished her with an alarum bell for the country, and a deadly knell for thousands, a tongue as harsh and rolling, as herself was high and great. – In Dio she doth not appear old or decayed, but a strong and perfect woman. Her picture hangs up there in such words, as shew the person of some martial bosse, or amazonian giantess. (13)

19Cowley emphasises the ekphrastic quality of the ancient text, suggesting that Boadicea had always been a latent image, awaiting manifestation by artists and materialisation as a picture. The extensive depiction of Boadicea’s appearance and character pauses the action told in both Cowley’s and Dio’s texts, captivating the readers’ imagination and leading them to engage with the character before learning about the sequence of tragic events that led to the defeat of her rebellion. Similarly, the historical illustration facing Cowley’s text provides a visual pause. The representational choices indicate that the artist aimed to visualise the exact words of the text since he depicts Boadicea addressing her troops perched on a mound, thus imaging Cowley’s words that were directly borrowed from Dio who explained that she addressed the warriors from a tribune made of earth in the Roman fashion (Cowley 13, Dio Book LXII, 2-3). The depiction of Boadicea not as a “big and burly […] giantess” but as a rather elegant neoclassical figure is underscored by Cowley’s presentation of the heroine as a “lady”. Cowley’s gloss on Dio’s portrayal stresses that Boadicea’s fair complexion was no surprise because she was a British lady. The remark takes the form of a rhetorical question highlighting the connection upper-class British female readers were supposed to feel with the author. Cowley’s emphasis on Boadicea’s pale skin serves as a signifier of class that promotes the strong Iceni woman among the ranks of the British aristocracy. Classicised through her dress, Boadicea is further ennobled through her portrayal as a fair lady. A naturalised Boadicea is monumentalised when, echoing a seventeenth-century conjecture (Bolton 182-183), Cowley adds that Boadicea’s battle was probably fought on Salisbury Plain and that Stonehenge was a monument erected to her memory (13). At a time when racial theories were predicated upon the notions that dark skin represented ugliness, savagery, and inferiority while white skin stood for beauty, civility and superiority, white-skinned Boadicea in her immaculate neoclassical dress triumphantly enters the gallery of worthy British female ancestors. Boadicea’s membership of the fair club of Cowley’s readers thus helps to whitewash the ancient heroine’s problematic savagery and prepares her for an even more glorious role.

A national emblem

20The captions of the engravings in both the Lady’s Magazine [figure 6] and Cowley’s Ladies History of England [figure 7] depict Boadicea as an orator. Even though the visual signs may be somewhat ambiguous, the words compel viewers to envision Boadicea delivering a stirring speech to rally her troops before a decisive battle. The caption of the plate for Cowley’s History was duplicated to accompany an illustration in John Baxter’s New and Impartial History of England in 1796 presenting a fresh visualisation that synthesises elements from the previous two plates (the plate, figure 8, is inserted between pages 20 and 21).

Figure 8: Charles Reuben Ryley, Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their liberty, c.1796

Figure 8: Charles Reuben Ryley, Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their liberty, c.1796

Engraving on paper. Reproduced from John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England in the collection of the National Library of Scotland (shelfmark AB.8.203.09).

  • 13 On the description of Boadicea as both Roman and non-Roman see Adler (181), and Gillespie (413-414)

21Designed by Charles Reuben Ryley and engraved by J. Widnell, Baxter’s illustration depicts Boadicea spear in hand standing on her chariot, flanked by her two daughters amidst a sea of troops. The soldier in the foreground holds a sign bearing a radiant sun, reminiscent of the plate from Cowley’s History [figure 7]. Across the three plates Boadicea is portrayed as an eloquent woman whose powerful words incited men to fight, aligning with both Tacitus’ and Dio’s depictions of her as a true Roman orator, thus “Romanizing” her character.13 In the minds of eighteenth-century viewers, Boadicea may also have evoked comparisons with Elizabeth I, another queen who delivered a rousing speech to her troops. The association between the two women was not new since Elizabeth I’s leadership had been paralleled with Boadicea’s in the immediate aftermath of the defeat of the Invincible Armada (Aske 23). Despite the differing outcomes of their speeches, the comparison between the two women focused on their shared ability to incite men to bravery and resistance.

  • 14 On the diverging interpretations of the comparison between Boadicea and Elizabeth I, see Mikalachki (...)

22Whether viewed as contrasting queenship models or complementary figures illustrating women in power, Boadicea and Elizabeth I were often compared to explore the topic of female rule in Britain.14 Carole Levin’s research indicates a resurgence of interest in both women in the seventeenth century; they were then valorised and heralded for their masculine nature during times of disappointment in King James I (58). Similarly, the anxiety about George III’s fitness to rule may have explained the renewed conflation of the two female models in the last decades of the eighteenth century, amidst the challenges of the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars. Notably, new visualisations of Elizabeth I’s speech and triumph proliferated during this period with works by leading painters of the period: Benjamin West, historical painter to George III, painted in 1792 Queen Elizabeth’s procession after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a canvas that was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794 (Exhibition 3). In 1805, Thomas Stothard designed a representation of the English queen delivering her defining speech to her troops on horseback at Tilbury for Robert Bowyer’s Historic Gallery. In the following years, Stothard, who had previously portrayed a mad Boadicea burning the city of London to the ground for Raymond’s New, Universal and Impartial History of England [figure 3], revised his own representation of the Iceni queen on a canvas which seems to have been inspired by Reuben Ryley’s restrained portrayal of Boadicea [figure 8]. Indeed, Stothard recalibrated Reuben Ryley’s vertical book plate onto a horizontal canvas which was presented in a highly decorative semi-circular frame, as recorded on the engraved reproduction made by William Sharp in 1812.

Figure 9: William Sharp (after Thomas Stothard), Boadicea the British Queen Animating the Britons to defend their Country against the Romans, 1812

Figure 9: William Sharp (after Thomas Stothard), Boadicea the British Queen Animating the Britons to defend their Country against the Romans, 1812

Line engraving on paper. 34.1 x 38.6 cm. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

  • 15 See for instance: Craik and Mac Farlane vol 1, 44; Farr and Nolan vol 1, unpaginated frontispiece.

23Reuben Ryley’s visualisation of Boadicea’s vehement address to the Iceni [figure 8] was further circulated thanks to its reformulation by Robert Smirke for Theophilus Camden’s Imperial History of England in 1810 (the plate, engraved by Thomas Milton, is inserted in volume 1 between pages 10 and 11), while Stothard’s elegant version of Boadicea’s speech [figure 9] became a favourite of Victorian publishers who reproduced it in popular history books.15 The eloquent warrior on her chariot carried over into material culture as well: Stothard’s composition was again remediated in 1839 by Charles Meigh who set Boadicea in stoneware. Meigh’s juxtaposition of Julius Caesar’s landing with Boadicea’s battle speech on a fashionable Hanley jug underscores her transformation into a classical heroine while showing the two sides of British antiquity.

  • 16 On the transformations of Britannia over the 19th and 20th centuries, see Millat.

24In 1843, visual artist Henry Courtney Selous depicted Boadicea’s harangue, submitting his work to the Royal commission of the Fine Arts overseeing the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament. Selous’ work featured among the 140 cartoons selected for exhibition at Westminster Hall that summer. Selous’ Boadicea Haranguing the Iceni was further distinguished earning a place on the shortlist of twenty-one cartoons that were awarded premiums (Boase 319-358). Though ultimately not selected to be transferred onto Westminster’s walls, Selous’ cartoon was considered as potentially appropriate by a commission whose secretary was Charles Eastlake, the then keeper of the National Gallery, and which was chaired by Prince Albert. Reviews praised Selous’ mastery and even his handling of the subject while Henry Clarke, who wrote the guide to the Westminster exhibition, lamented that Boadicea lacked “the indignation of offended pride” and that her daughters did not look sufficiently modest (25). Clarke’s critique, possibly reflecting Victorian prudishness, was informed by earlier images of the queen and, above all, by the classicizing of the heroine achieved by visual artists in the last decade of the eighteenth century. By then, neoclassical Boadicea had evolved into a more adaptable symbol aligning with the burgeoning imperial narrative. Originating from a dark place requiring civilisation, she was ennobled by her powerful oratory – the only episode that was retained from her story. In her speech, drawn from Tacitus and Dio, and echoed by historians like Rapin for instance (vol 1, 53), she rallied her troops to defend liberty unto their deaths, to fall honourably rather than succumb to enslavement. Textual and visual signs combined to represent her as an allegory of the freedom-loving nation, akin to Britannia herself, whose helmet she borrowed in both Opie’s [figure 5] and Smirke’s representations.16 Taking my cue from Richard Warren’s analysis of Selous’ Boadicea (Warren 193), I would argue that the genealogical line that was drawn between ancient Boadicea and modern Britannia outlined how it was possible to combine “native” strength and civilisation. In an era marked by British colonial expansion, Boadicea could thus be construed to justify the brutal repression of colonised people and framed as a symbol of the so-called British civilising mission.

25The capacity of Boadicea to embody and justify imperial ideology explains her further transformation into a protective symbol. Despite not being accommodated in the new Palace of Westminster, Boadicea found her place just outside its doors. Commissioned in the 1850s by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, Thomas Thornycroft’s bronze sculptural group represents Boadicea and her daughters. The monumental piece stands across the road from Big Ben, at the western end of Westminster bridge. Boadicea stands on her chariot, draped in a neoclassical gown, a spear in her right hand and her left hand raised. The sculpture immortalises the fierce queen in the attitude and with the attributes that had defined her since the end of the eighteenth century. The destructive savage woman who had burnt the city of London to the ground stands triumphant, symbolically defending the capital from potential attackers coming up the Thames.

  • 17 See the article in The Guardian, April 2, 2023 and entitled “Boudicca returns as a 21st-century fem (...)

26Boadicea’s journey from historical obscurity to national iconography exemplifies the complex interplay between history, myth, and visual culture. Her paradoxical portrait evolved from that of a marginalised historical figure to a celebrated national icon, from a victimised widow defined by her failed attempt to liberate Britons from the Roman yoke to a heroic leader embodying the spirit of British defiance and independence. Visual representations in which artists imbued her with classical dignity were instrumental in shaping positive public perceptions of Boadicea and reinforcing notions of national identity. The inclusion of Boadicea in contemporary visual culture, such as her presence in the National Portrait Gallery’s panel of inspirational women [figure 1] underscores the enduring power of imagery to shape collective memory. Ultimately, the celebration of Boadicea as a national icon transcends mere historical accuracy; it speaks for the enduring legacy of visual storytelling. The latest twist in her story is her current reinvention as an empowering figure for contemporary women and an emblem of proud resistance to male sexual violence.17 As we continue to commemorate and celebrate figures from the past, Boadicea’s fate exemplifies how history is constantly reimagined in the present.

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Bibliographie

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Camden, Theophilus. The Imperial History of England. 2 vols. London: Stratford, 1810-11.

Clarke, Henry G. A Hand-Book Guide to the Cartoons now Exhibiting in Westminster Hall.… London: Clarke and Co., 1843.

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Lady’s Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex. April 1775.

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Notes

1 About what Miriam Franchina has called the “constellation” of history books published in the wake of Paul Rapin de Thoyras’ Histoire d’Angleterre and its English translations, see Franchina (222-223) and Baudino (7-10).

2 There is no scientific evidence on which name should be used to refer to the Iceni queen. Even though she is nowadays often referred to as “Boudica” or “Boudicca”, the spelling “Boadicea” is mostly employed in this article to reflect its wide use during the period under study and in the sources examined here.

3 Work in Progress (2021-22) was commissioned to artists Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture project. The 8 x 28 feet, seven-panel mural showcases 130 historical and contemporary female figures celebrated for their contribution to British history. The portrait of the Iceni queen appears on panel 3 as a stencilled copy of a seventeenth-century print by William Faithorne in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. On the mural, Boudicca is placed next to pianist Harriet Cohen and football player Lili Parr.

4 For an account of the Society’s history see Hudson and Luckhurst.

5 The terms “remediate” and “remediation” are used throughout this article to describe processes of adaptation from one media to another, see Bolter and Grusin.

6 Faithorne’s plate was used to illustrate Sammes (the plate is inserted between pages 227 and 229). Boudicca’s portrayal on the National Portrait Gallery’s Work in Progress mural is a remediation of this particular illustration by William Faithorne.

7 In August 1778, upon the staging of George Colman’s Bonduca at his theatre in the Hay Market, an article was published in The London Magazine (343) in which Beaumont and Fletcher, Hopkins and Glover were listed as the sources of Colman’s contemporary play.

8 On the misogynistic dismissal of Boadicea, see Steyn (8).

9 The original painting by John Opie is an oil on canvas measuring 216 x 162.5 cm, kept in a private collection.

10 On the symbolism of the neoclassical white muslin dress, see Rauser.

11 See Queen Bodicea in her War Carriage, pen and ink wash on paper, NCM 1890-251, Museums and Galleries, Nottingham Castle.

12 The plate is in the National Portrait Gallery collection: see Samuel Wale, Boadicea Haranguing the Britons, etching, 25.6 x 16.7 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D11264.

13 On the description of Boadicea as both Roman and non-Roman see Adler (181), and Gillespie (413-414).

14 On the diverging interpretations of the comparison between Boadicea and Elizabeth I, see Mikalachki, and Levin.

15 See for instance: Craik and Mac Farlane vol 1, 44; Farr and Nolan vol 1, unpaginated frontispiece.

16 On the transformations of Britannia over the 19th and 20th centuries, see Millat.

17 See the article in The Guardian, April 2, 2023 and entitled “Boudicca returns as a 21st-century feminist – 2,000 years after her death”.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1: Jann Haworth and (Juliette) Liberty Blake, Work in Progress, 2021-22.
Légende Acrylic on paper collaged panels, 2.44 x 8.77 m, London, National Portrait Gallery. © National Portrait Gallery, London.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 280k
Titre Figure 2: William Faithorne, Boadicea, c.1676.
Légende Engraving on paper. Reproduced from Aylett Sammes, Britannia Antiqua Illustrata in the collection of the National Library of Scotland (shelfmark R. 308. c).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 740k
Titre Figure 3: Thomas Stothard, Boadicea Queen of the Iceni Burning the City of London, after its being abandoned by the Roman Army under the Command of Suetonius, c.1790.
Légende Engraving on paper. Reproduced from George Frederick Raymond, A New, Universal and Impartial History of England. Courtesy of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,4M
Titre Figure 4: Johann Heinrich Fuseli, Lady Macbeth, 1784.
Légende Oil on canvas, 221 x 160 cm, Paris, musée du Louvre. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 59k
Titre Figure 5: William Sharp (after John Opie), Boadicea Haranguing the Britons, 1795.
Légende Etching and engraving on paper, 48 x 33 cm. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 4,6M
Titre Figure 6: Anon., Boadicea Addressing Herself to the Army of Ancient Britons, 1775.
Légende Engraving on paper. Frontispiece to the April 1775 issue of The Lady's Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex. Photographer: Raffaella Losito / Cambridge University Library (Special Collection copy of T900 c.96.6).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 7,0M
Titre Figure 7: Anon., Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their Liberty, c.1780
Légende Engraving on paper. Reproduced from Charlotte Cowley, The Ladies History of England, from the Descent of Julius Cæsar, to the Summer of 1780, London: Bladon, 1780. Public domain via Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,5M
Titre Figure 8: Charles Reuben Ryley, Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni animating the Britons to recover their liberty, c.1796
Légende Engraving on paper. Reproduced from John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England in the collection of the National Library of Scotland (shelfmark AB.8.203.09).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-8.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 618k
Titre Figure 9: William Sharp (after Thomas Stothard), Boadicea the British Queen Animating the Britons to defend their Country against the Romans, 1812
Légende Line engraving on paper. 34.1 x 38.6 cm. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/1718/docannexe/image/13942/img-9.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 342k
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Isabelle Baudino, « Myth-making and History: The Visual Transformation of Boadicea in Eighteenth-Century History Books »XVII-XVIII [En ligne], 81 | 2024, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2024, consulté le 11 novembre 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/1718/13942 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/130qi

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Auteur

Isabelle Baudino

Dr Isabelle Baudino is Assistant Professor at the ENS de Lyon, IHRIM. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Lewis Walpole Library, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Her PhD dissertation examined the transformation of history painting in Britain and her current research interests centre on visual culture. Her Eighteenth-century Engravings and Visual History in Britain was published with Routledge in 2023.

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