Boudicca

Just wanted to clarify that it is NOT known if queen Boudicca committed suicide or not. Essentially all of what we know of the pre-medieval period in Britain and Scotland comes from Roman sources, often written anywhere from decades to centuries after the fact. The legend is she committed suicide rather than allow herself to be taken alive, as it fits into the romantic ideal of the defiant warrior queen. In reality, historians cite that their isn't any legitimate evidence for this. They say she just as likely fell ill and died from her wounds following her defeat.

Ok, thank you for the first and last information. I have heard that as well as the possibility of her dying of her wounds in leiu of commiting suicide, but I did not know that about the king her husband or his willing half the kingdom to Rome. This is interesting and spurs me to go in depth.

The name Boudicca could have different meanings, as each case it is recorded it is spelled differently. Bodicca would mean, She the Wise Cow. Bo meaning Cow, while Dicca is the female of wise, Dice being the male.
Boudicca could mean, She (Who is) wise in victory. Bou Victory and Dicca Wise. The letter A at the end of a name indicates a female.

Boudica (or Boadicea) was the wife of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a British tribe, at a time when Britain was a Roman province. When Prasutagus died he willed half of his kingdom to the Roman empire and half to Boudica and their two daughters, Camorra and Tascal or, according to legend, Voada and Voadicia. British law allowed royal inheritance to be passed to daughters in the absence of male heir, but Roman law did not. The Roman administrator ignored the will and proceded to take over the entire kingdom. Roman historian Tacitus wrote, "Kingdom and household alike were plundered like prizes of war... for a start, his widow Boudica was flogged and their daughters raped. The chieftains of the Iceni were deprived of their family estates as if the whole country had been handed over to the Romans. The king's own relatives were treated as slaves."

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Enraged Boudica joined Iceni forces with another tribe, the Trinobantes, and together they fought back. They attacked and conquered the Roman colony Camulodunum (now Colchester) and burned the temple dedicated to Claudius, the Roman emperor who completed the conquest of Britain. The Romans retaliated against the insurgents by sending a whole division of soldiers, but they were defeated. The insurgents then marched on London, which they sacked, and killed its Roman population, as well as their sympathizers. They did the same at Verulamium (now St. Albans) and other settlements.

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Finally, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain, gathered all the Roman troops in the south of Britain and attacked the British in a narrow valley so that the superior numbers of rebel force would be of no advantage against the smaller Roman army. Tacitus reported that Boudica was seen riding her chariot and inspiring her troops before the battle.

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However, this time the Romans were victorious, and slaughtered the rebel troops. Boudica and her daughters escaped but then poisoned themselves rather than allow capture. Roman retribution for rebellion was swift and cruel but the British kept up the fight for another year, when Suetonius was succeeded by Publius Petronius Turpilianus, who changed the policy toward the native population to one of appeasement, which remained in use for three hundred more years of Roman occupation of Britain.