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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Renatus wrote:

Do not be deceived! The significant words are "on Watling Street". I still favour a western site but, as I may have mentioned before, if one has to go up Watling Street, Dunstable seems to be the best option.

I too have always thought that a Western route was the most logical and taking into account the typical valley scenario described by Tacitus the Kennet Valley and its tributaries offer a number of sites.

The only problem is the distance from London and the length of time that it would of have taken the “horde” to have reached Silchester let alone Cunetio.

The other point is that if he had wanted to SP could have easily withdrawn safely and linked up with his other legions (Twentieth and the Second) in the West and then regrouped.
That he did not even try to do this speaks volumes.

Here is another option that we haven’t considered (at least as far as I can tell) that takes part of the description of SP’s army that gets to London as being a “small army”.

If we assume that after Anglesey the Fourteenth plus the Batavian auxiliaries marched down Watling Street with SP (of course a vexillation of the Twentieth could have been attached but we have no proof of that).

By the time SP got to St Albans he must have suspected that the Ninth were not around, known that Colchester had been destroyed and that the Eastern Brythons were on the rampage.

If SP was expecting to mount a 3 pronged pincer movement from Longhtorpe (Ninth), Braughing (Fourteenth) and London (Second) to bring the Brythons to battle, he now had to change his plans as the Northern part of the pincer had gone.

The Second still hadn’t arrived in London but even at this juncture perhaps SP was still expecting them. He needed troops for the Northern pincer but needed re-inforcements.

The only other Legion available was the Twentieth who were guarding the Western borders but 2 thousand troops would make up the lost Ninth. Perhaps these were sent for to meet SP at St Albans.

If he was to go to London it would have been prudent to leave a force at St Albans to protect his back from Brythons coming down the Icknield Way and then Watling Street and to prevent him being outflanked by Brythons from Colchester where there was a direct route to St Albans.

It would have suited SP to take the Batavians (or at least part of them) to London for scouting purposes, to see the lie of the land and perhaps to ascertain exactly where the Brythons were and how were the forces massed against him and their composition.

We know that SP went to London perhaps to see his Procurator, meet the Second and scout the Brythonic progress and to finalise the battle plans.

Perhaps he left the bulk of his army at St Albans to guard the municipium and the Roman citizens as well as the protecting his rear. Also there was food there for the army.

When SP arrived in London and was confronted with a town which no longer had its Procurator, many of its richest citizens who would have fled or the Second Legion without which the town itself was not defendable.

It had to be abandoned but SP decided to take any refugees (possibly Roman citizens as well) who could or wished to travel with him, the food and weapons that could be carried and burned the Warehouses at Southwark that had any remaining food or ordanance not required by the defenders.

There was no time to take anything else and those who wished to defend their homes or could not travel were left behind.

SP needed to link up with his main army, travelling Northwest along Watling Street with the refugees at about 10 miles a day and could have spent the night at Brockley Hill after which they would have arrived in St Albans in 2 days.

Verulamium was not the best place to defend so SP would have to go to a place that could be defended by a small force against a much larger force and accommodate both refugees and an army.

What he does appear to have done is to have chosen a battle site to invite an attack.

Even at this stage and with the refugees he could have escaped.

In order to have done this he had to ensure that the Brythons followed and attacked him.

Although the Brython's leaders would have wanted to have destroyed the Roman Army with their numerically far superior forces they would have also realised that the Roman army could easily outpace them.

So how could SP allay their fears? How could he travel at a speed that didn’t take him out of reach of the slower Brythons – yet allow him and his army to escape if necessary.

He could burden himself with refugees from London, which had the dual effect of slowing his army down but also of giving the impression that Rome was retreating – the Procurator had already fled and now the Roman army and civilians were retreating.

He still had the option of leaving the refugees and withdrawing quickly to the west if necessary.

From a distance point of view Dunstable is certainly a possibility but I believe that it has two distinct flaws.

Although it is set in a valley setting it clearly does not fit the description of the sides being like a “rampart” and if the army was placed at this point with Dunstable behind it the Icknield Way is behind the Roman army and consequently Brythonic forces from Thetford etc. could have attacked from the rear and the position can be outflanked.

Perhaps this may be regarded as a small risk but from what we are led to believe SP was a thorough and careful General.

We also know that SP was a mountain specialist (as were a number of later Governors of Britain) and would therefore possibly look for a mountainous terrain to defend from.

The refugees would have wanted to go away from the conflict area and that way was the West.

Did SP abandoned St Albans and took the remaining citizens destroyed the granaries and left. From St Albans Akeman Street led West to Bicester and then on to Cirencester and Gloucester where the Twentieth were based?

Did the veterans of the Twentieth combined with cavalry units based at Cirencester and the local auxiliaries from St Albans and Bicester join SP?

Fifteen miles away from St Albans, Akeman Street crosses the Icknield Way at Tring, one of the main ancient roadways and a direct route into or from the Iceni territory.

At this juncture there is a remarkable natural feature at Wendover and Parvis Woods with at least three natural valleys with almost ravine like sides and heights up to 870 feet.

The present day water courses are man made but the area has natural springs which could be easily controlled by whichever arrived first.

So why should I now recommend this site?

It fits the descriptions of Tacitus, it is on a Roman Road to the West where the re-inforcements from Cirencester could process, it threatens the main artery across Britain for the Brythons and has an adequate and controllable water supply (but no river).

The valleys open up to a plain and if the wagons of the Brythons were parked along the access routes they would have had the effect of cutting off the retreat of the Brythons.

It also fits the reasoning behind the Dunstable and Church Stowe sites whether the Iceni came directly from their homelands or from London.

One site that fits all the requirements - surely it is worth investigating?

Kind Regards - Deryk
Deryk
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Deryk - 02-24-2013, 09:58 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM

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