Elodie Harper

And so it's possible there was some tension within the family.

And I chose to portray that as the idea that both of them kind of had a favourite out of the two daughters.

So Prasatagus' favourite in my version is

Selina, who is the eldest daughter.

She's a druid.

She's very like her father.

And I made her the main character of the book because I also thought it was interesting if Boudicca's daughter had a more strained relationship with her very famous mother.

And then the second daughter, Belenia, the younger one, I made more aligned to her mother.

Whatever the truth of this family, we know there were these two daughters.

And the reason why some historians think

that there may have been tension within the family itself is the fact that Prasatagus left the kingdom to the daughters and not to his wife, because potentially he thought that that might not go down well with Rome.

Perhaps Boudicca was already known as being quite hostile, or perhaps Prasatagus knew she was quite hostile.

Either way, he left the kingdom to his two daughters on the understanding they would be client rulers for Rome because the kingdom was jointly left to them and the Emperor Nero.

It's hard to see how the Romans took such profound offence at this or whether it was just an excuse for more stealing and financial extortion as to why it provoked this incredibly violent response from the procurator who was the kind of financial admin guy in Britain at this time.

Paulinus was the military and judicial commander who was off

fighting the Druids in Wales.

And Decianus sent these soldiers to rape the two daughters of Boudicca and have her flogged.

And this is what provoked Boudicca into launching the rebellion.

But presumably, the reason why she was able to muster so many enraged Iceni and also Trinovanti's people, so she didn't just

muster troops in her own tribe is because it wasn't just about one family's woes.