ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the history of the seventh century Celtic Queen, Boadicea, who was born about 30 ad and has been mythologised in British folklore as a formidable lady in history whose name will never be forgotten. She has a special place, remembered for her courage, the warrior queen who fought the might of Rome, and brought them to ruin, causing them great shame. It turns the lens to suggest how a baby, while viewing the mother with awe and adoration, also sees her as a “mighty woman”, all-powerful for good and bad, invested with desirable and awesome attributes, and the chapter concludes with a composited clinical vignette of how a male analysand might view his powerful mother. She had been queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe. When her husband died in ad 60, he tried to protect his kingdom by leaving it jointly to his daughters and the Roman Emperor, and the regency to his wife, Boadicea.
