History of England - Roman Britain

Roman Britain

After Caesar's expeditions, the Romans began their real attempt to conquer Britain in 43 CE, at the behest of the Emperor Claudius. They landed in Kent, and defeated two armies led by the kings of the Catuvellauni tribe, Caratacus and Togodumnus, in battles at the Medway and the Thames. Togodumnus was killed, and Caratacus fled to Wales. The Roman force, led by Aulus Plautius, then halted as Plautius sent for Claudius to come and finish the campaign. When Claudius arrived he led the final march on the Catuvellauni capital at Camulodunum, before returning to Rome again for his triumph. The Catuvellauni at this time held sway over the most of the southeastern corner of England; eleven local rulers surrendered, a number of client kingdoms were established, and the rest became a Roman province with Camulodunum as its capital.

Over the next four years, the territory was consolidated and the future emperor Vespasian led a campaign into the Southwest where he subjugated two more tribes. By 54 CE the border had been pushed back to the Severn and the Trent, and campaigns were underway to subjugate Northern England and Wales. In 60 CE however, under the leadership of the warrior-queen Boudicca, the tribes rose in revolt against the Romans. Camulodunum was burned to the ground, as well as Londinium and Verulamium, there is some archaeological evidence that the same happened at Winchester as well, and the Second Legion Augusta, stationed at Exeter, refused to move for fear of revolt among the locals there as well. The governor however, Suetonius Paulinus, marched back from his campaign in Wales to face Boudicca in battle. There was a substantial engagement, somewhere along the line of Watling Street, at the end of which Boudicca was utterly defeated. The province was pacified once more.

Over the next twenty years the borders expanded but little, but the governorship of Agricola saw the last pockets of independence in Wales and Northern England finally incorporated into the province. He also led a campaign into Scotland, but from these conquests he was recalled by the Emperor Domitian, and the border gradually solidified along the line of the Stanegate in Northern England. Hadrian's famous Wall was built along this line in 138 CE; apart from a number of temporary forays into Scotland, this was now the border. The province of Britannia had taken shape, and England was in it. The Romans, and their culture, were here to stay; and over the course of their three hundred and fifty years in charge, England's landscape would become ubiquitously impregnated with traces of their presence.