WORDS SALLY VARLOW
n an age of celebrities and women’s rights, it is easy to imagine that women have only made an impact on British history in recent years. It was some 30 years ago that Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first
female prime minister. But down the centuries countless women have proved they could make their mark in politics, literature, medicine, social reform and, of course, in the oldest profession in the world. What’s more, whether queens or commoners, they’ve achieved their fame without ruling from behind their men-folk. Some, like Nell Gwyn, have latterly come to epitomise the spirit of their age. Others became national treasures in their own lifetime, including Florence Nightingale, the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, who died 100 years ago in August. As the founder of modern nursing she is sometimes named as our national heroine, though many others might have claimed that title in the past 2,000 years. Here is BRITAIN’s leading line-up:
First comes Boudicca, warrior queen of the ancient Iceni
tribe, who led a rebellion that nearly ended Roman rule in Britain. When the Romans plundered the tribe’s lands in modern-day Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, flogged
Boudicca and raped her two daughters, the Iceni rose up. With other tribes, they wiped out the Romans’ Ninth Legion and sacked their strongholds at Colchester, London and St Albans, taking no prisoners (according to Roman historians) and massacring at least 70,000. But it is Boudicca alone, standing tall and Titian-haired in her chariot, who is remembered among the freedom fighters, and honoured with a dramatic statue, arms raised, by Thomas Thornycroft, near London’s Westminster Pier.
If Boudicca is the feistiest figure from Ancient Britain,
Elizabeth I is surely the most famous in more recent history. She is also the first of three queens not born to rule but nonetheless outstanding monarchs. She escaped the disgrace of her mother, Queen Anne Boleyn (executed by Elizabeth’s father, King Henry VIII), then survived the politically dangerous reigns of her brother, King Edward VI, and her sister Queen Mary. Eventually inheriting the throne herself, she emerged a powerful ruler, adept at boosting her popularity by ‘progressing’ around the country and playing up her image as “the Virgin Queen” – though her closeness to her “sweet Robin”, Lord Leicester,
BRITAIN 25
MAIN PHOTO: BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
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