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English-Speaking Peoples (1): Rebellion and Subjugation
History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Book 1
Over the next 12 weeks, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn and radio host Hugh Hewitt are discussing Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples in the Hillsdale Dialogues segment of the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Following each discussion, the Churchill Project will offer companion pieces highlighting important episodes and themes in the book covered. Readers will note that our writers focus on aspects of the books which our discussants may not. Such is the depth of Churchill’s History. Every reader may take what they prize most from this vast mine of political wisdom and understanding.
Page references (parentheses) are to Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, vol. 1, The Birth of Britain (New York: Dodd Mead, 1956).
“The most horrible episode”
Though Churchill personally led Great Britain through the darkest days of the 20th Century, he believed the rebellion of 61 A.D. was “probably the most horrible episode which our Island has known.” (26) The slaughter which fell upon the British Isles spared neither Briton nor Roman. Birthed from Roman imperialism and native resistance, it challenged Rome’s military supremacy and governance. It occupies the first of twelve sections or “books” in Winston Churchill’s four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Churchill elucidates that the death which rained upon Roman Britannia came from three military and strategic failures by the Romans. More importantly, however, Churchill argues that unlike the Second World War, the conflict was inevitable. Both sides, he shows, appealed to order and liberty to justify their violence.
The military failings of Rome occasioned the rise of the Britons’ resistance in the cause of British liberty. Under the Emperor Claudius in 43 BC, Rome subjugated Britannia with only 20,000 men, all professional soldiers. (19) This force, though ideally-sized for the rapid conquering of enemy armies, was entirely insufficient to subjugate Britons into a Romanized society. The force proved adequate until 61 A.D. when Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the new Roman governor, began a military campaign against “the populous island of Mona’ [modern-day Anglesey in Wales]. (23)
Mona, home to druids and fugitives of Roman law, had become increasingly resistant to occupation. However, to attack the island, Suetonius required a large invasion force and considerable resources, including boats to cross the shallow strait, now known as the Swelles. Diverting resources to the operation left other areas of Britannia unoccupied by Roman forces. Though Suetonius successfully conquered Mona, his redeployment of troops and resources allowed slaughter to engulf the mainland.
“There was neither mercy nor hope”
Four Roman legions were spread across the vast territory of a discontented populace. As the Roman army pacified Mona, native Britons used their absence to plan their removal. The Britons, led by Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, began a rebellion in Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester). “Encouraged by omens” and rudimentarily-armed, they descended rapidly and gave no quarter. “There was neither mercy nor hope,” Churchill writes. “The town was burned to ashes. The temple, whose strong walls resisted the conflagration, held out for two days. Everyone Roman or Romanized, was massacred and everything destroyed.” (25)
All the while, Suetonius’ army was over a month’s journey west of the onslaught. Suetonius realized that his army could not reach Camulodunum to defend the city, but perhaps could reach Londinium (London) before the savage Britons descended upon the city.
London was then a largely undefended Roman trading port. When Suetonius arrived, “the citizens implored [that he] protect them” with his army. But Suetonius retreated to Lincoln, 160 miles north, imploring Londoners to follow him. (25) When the barbaric Britons arrived, “the slaughter which fell upon London was universal.” Churchill compares the massacre in London to the war “waged between Carthage and her revolted mercenaries two centuries before.” (26)
The death toll fell between 30,000 and 40,000. Romans and their allies were viciously murdered and tortured, sending a message to Britons that aiding the occupiers came at a steep cost.
Roman errors and Churchill’s evaluation
The Rebellion of 61 A.D. showcased three examples of Suetonius’ military ineptitude. First, Rome’s depleted mainland garrison gave little option to pacify new threats. Second, while the Mona campaign was at some level necessary, the army desperately needed reinforcements. From that, Suetonius’ need for resources and human capital was too large, leaving extremely volatile areas undefended. Third and most unfortunately, Suetonius’ dilemma between defending Londinium or Lincoln was an impossible conundrum. His forces were sufficient to defend only one. His decision to abandon Londinium left nearly 40,000 Romans defenseless against the rampage of the native Britons.
This dilemma fascinated Winston Churchill as a statesman. His personal opinion on this gruesome combat shows his characteristic level of nuance and the requisite difficulty in determining whose fight was the just one.
Churchill argues that the slaughter of Rome’s “higher civilization” was “crude and corrupt.” (27) He clearly believes the Britons were a ferocious bunch and that their society represented an inferior way of life. Even while acknowledging the superior Roman order, however, Churchill grants the Britons and all men “the primary right… to die and kill for the land they live in, and to punish with exceptional severity all members of their own race who have warmed their hands at the invaders’ hearth.” (27) Thus Churchill defends Britons’ right to liberty, self-determination, and justice.
The inferiority of native society never granted Roman forces the right or justification for utter domination over the British Isles. Churchill’s understanding demonstrates clearly his dual-focus on order and independence. In the great rebellion of 61 A.D., both Britons and Romans appealed to fundamental truths, which Churchill’s writings seek to balance.
Revenge and subjugation
The final tragedy encompassed in the rebellion of 61 A.D. came with Suetonius’ revenge against the Britons. After the massacre in London, and “at heavy adverse odds,” Suetonius’ army defeated the rebellion once and for all. (27) Having regained Roman imperium over Britannia, Suetonius imposed a cruel rule upon the populace. His troops were ordered to destroy “all hostile or suspect troops…with fire and sword.” The result was widespread death and famine across the island. (28)
Suetonius seemed bent on “the extermination of the entire ancient British race” without regard to their status during the rebellion. (28) His actions were decisive and swift, but his rash ambition caused his own undoing. His cruelties, and fear of another rebellion, caused Emperor Nero to send in a new governor. Following several years of continuous bloodshed, the new governor desperately attempted to make peace with the Britons, “which enabled their blood to be perpetuated in the Island race.” (28) It was from this mélange of Briton and Roman blood that the British race was born. Ultimately, through the reunification of Romans and Britons, the British people became a thriving race, and the conflicts between them became lessons for future generations.
How the rebellion defined Churchill
The conflict between orderly Roman society and the native tribes’ efforts to preserve their homeland produced a distinctly British character over the coming centuries. In part, the rebellion and continued struggle came to define Churchill, himself nearly 1900 years later. In 1940, he found himself presiding over a period nearly as tumultuous as the rebellion of 61 A.D. Now he was forced into a position similar to that of the ancient Britons.
Though the Nazi force that threatened the British Isles was neither moral nor upright, their military emphasized order and discipline. Their might seemed entirely capable of threatening British existence. Churchill’s response, like that of all good leaders, was vigorous defense. Through this fraught period with the nation’s existence at stake, Churchill learned from Suetonius, too.
Suetonius’ revenge after the Battle of London brought not only his own downfall, but death to Romanized citizens and tribal Britons alike. His example was paralleled after the First World War, and the multitude of factors that led to Hitler. After the Second World War, Churchill and the Allies rejected a vengeful peace. Rather, Churchill would focus on the creation of order at a global level.
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During the ensuing Cold War, Churchill paralleled Roman virtue in his dealings with Russia and America. He acknowledged that capitalist society was better and more ordered than that of the Soviets. Nonetheless, he sensed, pacifying the Communists by force confronted their right to defend themselves. The rebellion of 61 A.D. qualified Churchill’s thoughts about a postwar world order.
Britain’s tribulations during the rebellion informed Churchill both on military and social matters. The failures of the Romans occasioned death and destruction that Churchill was right to fear. The lessons taught by Rome’s blunders offered sound advice on military strategy, but it was the conflict between the imposition of order and of every peoples’ right to defend their homeland which reverberates most in Churchill’s time. For him these two priorities reigned supreme, and it was their conflict that he sought to balance.
The author
Mr. Sturdy is a George Washington Fellow at Hillsdale College and a member of the Class of 2024. He is studying for a B.A. in Politics and French with a Minor in Music, and is president of the Pi Delta Phi Honorary French honor society.
How do we get the second week of this? This is good, Tom TAMU ‘63
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Thanks for the kind words. There will be 12 podcasts, running on each Friday into December. (Part 2 on Magna Carta will be posted today, 7 October.) They can be found on many podcast apps, or click here and bookmark the URL.
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