Cartimandua of the Brigantes

Cartimandua was the leader of the Celtic Brigantes tribe, who occupied the land then-known as Brigantia. The Brigantes territory was the largest section of Northern England, mainly based around modern-day Yorkshire. The only source we have for this Queen comes from the Roman historian an politician, Publius Cornelius Tacitus; most of the surviving information about the Celtic times of Briton stems from a select few people, Tacitus being one of them. Strangely enough, though Cartimandua was heavily influential in early Roman Briton, Tacitus paints her in a largely negative light. However, this could easily be attributed to the misogyny prevalent in Rome. Whereas the Celts did not have any restrictions on women and their societal roles, with many being clan leaders and women making the fiercest warriors, Ancient Rome displayed the same misogyny we see weaved throughout the majority of history.

 

When Rome successfully invaded the British Isles in 43 CE, Cartimandua was already the leader of her tribe. Though the Celts did not have hereditary leaders and in fact generally chose their leader, some Chieftains passed on their societal role to their children; this seems to have been the way for Cartimandua, as there is surviving evidence to suggest she was the hereditary leader of her tribe. Tacitus, in one of the only pleasant things he had to say about her, described Cartimandua as being of "illustrious birth," which would imply that she was the daughter of the previous tribe leader.

However, she did not rule alone. She shared power with her husband, Venutius and they ruled the Brigantes jointly.

 

As the Roman conquest raged on, tribes had to make a choice, whether to join Rome and live in relative peace, or fight for the freedoms they had always known. The Brigantes were one such tribe who knelt to Emperor Claudius, the reigning Emperor of Rome at the time, and surrendered. Eleven tribe leaders surrendered to the Romans without a fight and were rewarded by being able to keep their lands and possessions and even their power; they would rule as "client Kings".

Cartimandua, therefore, became a client Queen and is the only Queen recorded in early Roman Briton. Tacitus referred to Cartimandua as Regina (Queen) in his works, a title that was not afforded to another well-known Celtic leader, Boudica.

 

The reason Cartimandua is remembered today and is in the records at all, in fact, is due to the notoriety surrounding her involvement in the capture of Caractacus, the Chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, in 51 CE. Catuvellauni land was South of the Iceni, the tribe led by the famous Celtic warrior Boudica, and East of the Trinovantes, a tribe that later joined Boudica's in battle against the Romans.

When the Romans invaded, few of the Celts took this lying down. The first Roman invasion had been under Emperor Julius Caesar in 55 BCE and while the Romans did not give up trying to obtain Briton into their Empire, it was almost a century later before they succeeded in conquering the land. While some tribes, like Cartimandua's Brigantes, made peace with Rome, Caractacus and his Catuvellauni tribe refused to submit to Roman rule. Instead, he joined forces with the Silures tribe, who occupied much of South-Eastern Wales, and together they fought back against the Romans using guerrilla tactics, proving themselves to offer a fierce resistance. However, in 51 CE, they were defeated and Caractacus fled from the battlefield, finding himself in the heart of Cartimandua's territory.

Caractacus knew of Cartimandua's submission to Rome, but nevertheless he appealed to her to provide aid against the invaders. Cartimandua, however, was eager to show her loyalty to her new Roman allies and had Caractacus put in chains, handing him directly over to Rome.

While Cartimandua was rewarded with great wealth for Caractacus' capture, he and his family were taken to Rome and featured in a victory parade through the capital of the Empire. He managed to escape execution by offering Emperor Claudius an impassioned speech and was pardoned and allowed to live a prosperous life in Rome.

 

Tacitus called Cartimandua's actions treacherous, because she had betrayed someone who had sought her protection. Celtic tribes often fought between themselves, but when Rome invaded some banded together to fight back. However, how the Brigantes felt about Cartimandua choosing the Roman invaders over one of their own Celtic neighbours is not recorded.

 

It is not until 57 CE that Tacitus recorded any kind of threat to Cartimandua's leadership.

According to Tacitus, Cartimandua's husband, Venutius, rose up against her after their marriage failed and was brought to an end. Tacitus claimed that Venutius despised her "unnatural" rule, due to the fact that she was a woman and sought to end her reign. As we have already discussed, the Celts did not harbour such misogynistic views on gender roles and thus this argument is likely a falsehood on Tacitus' part. What actually occurred, as far as we know, was that Cartimandua and her husband quarrelled often and they ended their marriage after they could no longer resolve their differences. Cartimandua, as the hereditary ruler and client Queen, maintained the leadership of the tribe and Venutius' demotion in rank may have been the cause of the uprising. However, this is just speculation. It may have had something also to do with the fact that Cartimandua had Venutius' brother and some other relatives as her hostages, though they may have been taken after he began his quest to usurp her.

When Venutius tried to seize power for himself, Cartimandua called upon her allies in the Roman army. She had made use of the Roman soldiers previously during a disturbance within the tribe and once again they came to her aid. The rebellion was quickly put down by the Romans, who had already anticipated that Venutius would try to take her down and sent cohorts to protect her.

 

In 69 CE Cartimandua again faced rebellion against her rule, when she remarried, this time to a man named Vellocatus, who had previously been Venutius' armour-bearer. Tacitus condemned her for this act, in his writings, as he viewed it as sexual impropriety that she rejected her first husband and took as her next husband a commoner. Of course, in Celtic society, there was not the strict hierarchical structure that later centuries would have, so it is unlikely that this particular fact would have rattled her tribespeople. However, we do know that something about this second marriage increased the hostility against her within the Brigantes.

Due to the instability in the Roman capital that year, when Rome would be ruled by 4 different Emperors within the year, Venutius was able to try again to seize her title. The Brigantes were less favourable of Cartimandua by this point, but the Romans once more went to defend their client Queen. Unfortunately for Cartimandua, the instability in the capital had had a knock-on effect for the Roman soldiers stationed in Briton at the time and they did not have the numbers to save her. They did, however, manage to evacuate her safely; Cartimandua was rescued from the rebels, but she would never be a Queen again.

Venutius succeeded her as the next Chieftain and led the Brigantes to fight back against their Roman occupiers.

 

Cartimandua did not appear in the records again so, after her flight from Brigantes territory, she is lost to history.

It has been suggested that she was taken safely to Rome and was able to enjoy a prosperous retirement there, as an ally of the Empire, but while I would certainly like to think she had a nice Roman retirement, there is no evidence for this.