Hi my name's Kevin Hicks, welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now
today's film or video, call it what you will has been nominated by my Patreon members.
thanks guys. We've called the film, we've titled it the Second Roman Invasion of
Britain. Uh you see somebody had been there before yeah? Julius Caesar 55BC reconnaissance,
a couple of legions, had to go, but he came back a year later 54BC uh five legions,
600 ships loads of men and equipment and he fought the Britons, those Celtic tribes all
the way into Middlesex so I understand. Now the reason he was there was not to conquer Britain,
his reason was to have a go, a pre-emptive strike. You see he was fighting in Gaul, modern
day France, he was having a problem though the Britons were sending reinforcements and supplies
across the channel to their brother Celts so he came over and he gave them a bit of a good hiding,
but today's film is all about the second Roman invasion of Britain, AD43 Claudius,
Emperor Claudius, it's his invasion, but I’ll let you into a secret, he didn't actually invade.
But let's have a look at what happened. So the second invasion of Britain by the Romans,
Claudius’s invasion. But hey, what about the Brits the Britons? You've got Togodumnus
and Caratacus, part of the Catuvellauni tribe, they basically ruled the south of England. These
guys were warriors, their people were warriors. Some of the things I’ve been reading about them,
my ancestors by the way, they enjoyed a good fight and I can understand that for sure. Now the Romans
they're going to land at Richborough uh down on the Kent coast. Nice sloping beach, they're going
to raise a little bit of a fort there. There's going to be no opposition. Now they had 900 ships,
40,000 plus troops, equipment, auxiliaries, cavalry. It's going to take some doing.
They sail from Boulogne in three waves, but there'd been a problem before then
the legions were terrified absolutely terrified of sailing across oceana.
It must have been horrendous for them, the fear, but they were talked around
and they fell in line and the operation went ahead but this was a problem for the Celts,
for the Britons. They had information that the legions had mutinied so many of their men
who'd been standing by ready for an invasion since spring simply had to go home, back to their farms,
they needed to resupply. Then the news arrives because they would have had lookouts on the white
cliffs of Dover there they would have seen these ships, hundreds of these ships so now Togodumnus,
he's got to put his plans into action and this is brilliant, they had riders on fast horses
they had a system so the horses, went the messages went out, they are gathering their forces. The
Romans have landed they organize themselves they will go towards London, they will take
several different routes but keeping to the high ground with the river Thames or the Thames estuary
on their right. That means they can't be out flanked from that side. There was some attempts
by the Britons to delay the Romans but the Roman force had actually put in front of it a screen of
auxiliary cavalry. You've got to understand these four legions that are now in Britain. Legion 9
Hispana, 14 Gemina, the second Legion Augustus, (my favourite) yeah and the 20th Valera. These
legions were tough, well disciplined, incredible fighters. Now their commander, their overall
commander Plautus, he's a senate member and a very good general. Galba, Geta, Vespasian,
those were the other generals so this is quite a force but there's a specialist unit in amongst
these, they fight with the 14th Legion this is the Batavians. Now I didn't know about this
and it's fantastic, every day is a school day isn't it? These guys were trained with the navy
to swim across estuaries, rivers fully armored, fully loaded up but with their horses.
Now I know the legions can get across water I know they can wade, I know they can put their
kit on top of their scutem, their shields and float stuff across in front of them,
pretty much like you see the British Royal Marine Commandos, you'll see them in the in the jungle
with their machine guns on top of their packs going across a river, it's the same kind of thing.
So the Romans had special forces and as they approach London pushing these
Celts, these Britons away from them they're going to come across the wide river Medway
and it is an obstacle because on the other side you have 150,000 Briton warriors waiting for them.
And so it came to the battle of Medway 1st of June AD43. Probably the second most
important battle in the entire history of Britain. The other one being the battle of Hastings 1066,
but that's for another day. So I haven't got thousands of Roman soldiers, 28 mil,
and I’ve got no Celts whatsoever. What I do have is a lone Roman auxiliary sat on
his horse from my collection, gifted to me by my dad, so I thought I’d put him on display
and he can earn his money. What I have done is I’ve made a plan of the battle
and I’m going to put it together for you now and let's see what happens.
So, I hope you like my model. It's amazing what you can do if you have some card, a computer,
a good printer then complete with toothpicks we have a Celtic Briton army and legions of
the Roman army. So 1st of June AD43 it's the battle for the Medway. So the Celts completely
cover the other side of the Medway, from what I understand 150,000 warriors, wow! Now the legions
40 to 45,000 men. So how does it all unfold? Well the Brits have got their chariots, their war
chariots here. What a weapon these are fast-moving with a warrior on the back who's got javelins and
the like. Their army is led by Togodumnus and Caratacus, these are the Catuvellauni tribe,
my ancestors, but these guys are brothers, they're gonna fight to the bitter end. So the Romans have
got a real problem. There's a fast moving tidal river, the old town of Rochester is just down, I
know this area quite well my brother-in-law lives there. So they will survey it, they will watch,
they will look. These are professional Roman soldiers led by professional officers, they
know their job so they will probe, they will look and they're going to move fast but most important,
what we have here are the Batavians, the auxiliary cavalry been attached to the navy, now to the
Legion 14. These are experts at getting across a river and it's amazing. If they've got time
they will swim their horses across dragging their shields behind with all their equipment on it
floating on a reed float that they make, but this is an assault and it's different. The
Batavians are going to kick this whole business off. But before I go into this, let's have a
look. You've got auxiliary cavalry both on the right and the left flanks, so if all of a sudden
the Britons came across the river, their flanks are actually protected yeah? Now here we have
Legion 9, Hispana, next are the Batavians, then you have headquarters under Plautius
then you've got Legion 14, now Gemina or Gemini. Then you have Second Legion Augusta with Vespasian
and then 20th Legion Valeria. 20th Legion are the weakest so they're down on the left flank there.
They're pretty well protected. We've got war elephants here because there were four
elephants involved in the invasion of Britain with uh Claudius, but actually they weren't there,
they're going to come a bit later it's for show. But can you imagine though being a Celt
and seeing an elephant coming over the horizon with blokes on the back who could shoot you,
it would be terrifying, but at this stage I don't think they're here. And there's an
interesting thing about it, they never went back to Rome so I understand. Where are they? Deepest,
darkest Kent, is there an elephant graveyard? Well let's see what happens. The Batavians literally
assault the river as fast as they can and they break through the Celtic line.
They swing through and then left and attack
the chariots.
They hamstring the horses. In one fell swoop, this feared weapon of the Celts, these chariots,
are no more. All of a sudden the Celts have Romans on their side of the river
and they have no chariots. Meanwhile horses wade out into the river against the stream to break the
power of the water so this is downstream but if the tide's coming in or flowing you've got these
heavy horses on both sides. Now if the current is flowing this way it'll be broken by these
horses and these men and these horses will pick up anybody who slips or gets washed away, wow!
This is normal for them. Then the second legion attack, wading through the river
and they hit the Celts so hard that in no time they'd captured the island.
But that's fine, now they've got a fight on land,
but the Celts fight back. This is not a pushover, the Celts fight hard and furious
but the Second Legion is too strong. They will push the Celts, they will breach the Celts,
but it will take them all day, hard fighting. At the end of the day they have to hold their ground
till the next day and what happens the next day is, is quite something.
The 14th Legion simply follow through.
Now there is a fight for the mainland.
Now I thought at first, why don't they do a second crossing? But I’ve learned something. Every day is
a school day isn't it. As they mount their major attacks and swing to the right and to the left,
they allow the Celts to run. But the Celts themselves, they make a stand
on a bit of high ground. Togodumnus he makes a stand against the Roman legions, no chariots.
Men behind him they don't stand a chance because the Romans send out
their cavalry push them away. What happens next as the Celts make their final stand,
Togodumnus is killed. His brother Caratacus is allowed to escape, and I kind of asked the reason
you know, why are they going to let him escape? Well it's quite straightforward,
once Togodumnus and all of his men on the hill are killed,
the Romans can bring their entire legions over but then they can send their cavalry
after the fleeing Celts and they can kill as many as possible. This is part of their
tactics. I didn't realize this. Why encounter all of those 150,000 men in one major battle,
why not break through kill many as you can there? Form up your legions,
get them ready and then march on, and march on they did. Their cavalry killed
thousands on the approach to London but when the legion's actually arriving on the southern
banks of the river Thames there's not going to be a major battle the Celts have gone beyond
but they mustn't enter London they've got to wait. There's somebody missing.
The Emperor Claudius, Emperor of Rome he's not here, he's standing by though. He's going to
sail across with his four war elephants and he's going to make his triumphant entrance
into London. This is his big deal and it was, it made him for sure. As for Caratacus,
he fought on for years. What a guy, he was eventually captured up in Wales
and taken to Rome where he was presented to Claudius, Emperor of Rome, who forgave him.
He was pardoned, and you know what? He finished his days, Caratacus, living quietly in Rome.
And that's the whole business of this, but what it begins is 400 years of conquest and of occupation
but the rest of it is another story. Well I hope you enjoyed that video, if you did
thumbs up, like, share and subscribe and don't forget to turn on the notification button so that
you know what's coming next. But before I finish, a quick shout out to some of my Patreon members.
I have to read them so we've got Dan de Lench, Michael Anderwald and Sandy Higgins,
thanks for your support guys yeah, it is much appreciated. See you soon.