The image ofBritannia (/brɪˈtæniə/) is thenational personification ofBritain as a helmeted female warrior holding atrident and shield.[1] An image first used by the Romans inclassical antiquity, theLatinBritannia was the name variously applied to theBritish Isles,Great Britain, and theRoman province of Britain during theRoman Empire.[2][3][4] The Roman Britannia was typically depicted reclining or seated, with not a trident but a spear and shield, appearing on Roman coins of the 2nd century AD. The classical allegory was revived in theearly modern period.[3] Oncoins of the pound sterling issued byCharles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Britannia appears with her shield bearing theUnion Flag.[3] To symbolise theRoyal Navy's victories, Britannia's spear became the trident in 1797, and a helmet was added to the coinage in 1825.[3]
By the 1st century BC, Britannia had replacedAlbion as the prevalent Latin name for the island ofGreat Britain.[5][6] After theRoman conquest in 43 AD,Britannia came to refer to theRoman province that encompassed the southern two-thirds of the island (seeRoman Britain). The remaining third of the island, known to the Romans asCaledonia, lay north of theRiver Forth in modernScotland. It was intermittently but not permanently occupied by theRoman army.[7] The name is aLatinisation of the nativeBrittonic word for Great Britain,Pretanī, which also produced theGreek formPrettanike orBrettaniai.
In the 2nd century, Roman Britannia came to bepersonified as a goddess, armed with a spear and shield and wearing aCorinthian helmet. When Roman Britain was divided into four provinces in 197 AD, two were calledBritannia Superior (lit. 'Upper Britain') in the south andBritannia Inferior (lit. 'Lower Britain') to the north. The nameBritannia long survived theend of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century and yielded the name for the island in most European and various other languages, including the EnglishBritain and the modern WelshPrydain. In the 9th century the associated termsBretwalda andBrytenwealda were applied to some Anglo-Saxon kings to assert a wider hegemony in Britain and hyperbolic inscriptions on coins and titles in charters often included the equivalent titlerex Britanniae. However, when England was unified the title used wasrex Angulsaxonum ('king of the Anglo-Saxons'). Britannia derives from the P-Celtic name Pritanā.
After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during theEnglish Renaissance as a rhetorical evocation of a British national identity. Especially following theActs of Union in 1707, which joined the Kingdoms ofEngland andScotland, the personification of the martial Britannia was used as an emblem of British maritime power and unity, most notably in the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!".
A British cultural icon, she was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008, and still appears annually on the gold and silver "Britannia" bullion coin series. In 2015 a new definitive£2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia. She is also depicted in theBrit Awards statuette, theBritish Phonographic Industry's annual music awards.
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The first writer to use a form of the name was theGreek explorer and geographerPytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred toPrettanike orBrettaniai, a group of islands off the coast of North-Western Europe. In the 1st century BC,Diodorus Siculus referred toPretannia,[9] a rendering of the indigenous name for thePretani people whom the Greeks believed to inhabit theBritish Isles.[10][11] Following the Greek usage, theRomans referred to theInsulae Britannicae in the plural, consisting ofAlbion (Great Britain),Hibernia (Ireland),Thule (possiblyIceland orOrkney) and many smaller islands. Over time, Albion specifically came to be known asBritannia, and the name for the group was subsequently dropped.[9]Although the creation and unification of the province of Britannia is commonly attributed to the emperorClaudius in 43 AD,Julius Caesar had already established Roman authority over the Southern and Eastern Britain dynasties during his two expeditions to the island in 55 and 54 BC.[12] Just as Caesar himself had been anobside, hostage,[13] in Bithynia as a youth, he also had taken the King's sons back to Rome asobsides and to be educated.
TheRoman conquest of the island began in AD 43, leading to the establishment of theRoman province known in Latin asBritannia. The Romans never successfully conquered the whole island, buildingHadrian's Wall as a boundary withCaledonia, which covered roughly the territory of modernScotland, although the whole of the boundary marked by Hadrian's Wall lies within modern-dayNorthern England. A southern part of what is now Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-2nd century AD, keeping in place thePicts to the north of theAntonine Wall. People living in the Roman province of Britannia were calledBritanni, orBritons. Ireland, inhabited by theScoti, was never invaded and was calledHibernia.Thule, an island "six days' sail north of Britain, and [...] near the frozen sea", possiblyIceland, was also never invaded by the Romans.[citation needed]
Claudius paid a visit while Britain was being conquered and was honoured with theagnomenBritannicus as if he were the conqueror; afrieze discovered atAphrodisias in 1980 shows a bare breasted and helmeted female warrior labelledBRITANNIA, writhing in agony under the heel of the emperor.[14] She appeared on coins issued underHadrian, as a more regal-looking female figure.[15] Britannia was soonpersonified as a goddess, looking fairly similar to the goddessAthena-Minerva - both are seated and replete with helmet, spear (trident) and shield. Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a beautiful young woman, wearing aCorinthian helmet, and wrapped in a white garment with her right breast exposed. She is usually shown seated on a rock, holding a trident, and with a spiked shield propped beside her. Sometimes she holds astandard and leans on the shield. On another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves: Britain at the edge of the (known) world. Similar coin types were also issued underAntoninus Pius.
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After theRoman withdrawal, the term "Britannia" remained in use in Britain and abroad. Latin was ubiquitous amongst nativeBrythonic writers and the term continued in theWelsh tradition that developed from it. Writing with variations on the termBritannia (orPrydein in the native language) appeared in many Welsh works such as theHistoria Britonum,Armes Prydein and the 12th-centuryHistoria Regum Britanniae, which gained unprecedented popularity throughout western Europe during theHigh Middle Ages.
Following the migration ofBrythonic Celts, the termBritannia also came to refer to theArmorican peninsula (at least from the 6th century).[16] The modern English, French, Breton and Gallo names for the area, all derive from a literal use ofBritannia meaning "land of the Britons". The two "Britannias" gave rise to the termGrande Bretagne (Great Britain) to distinguish the island of Britain from the continental peninsula.
Following theAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, the term "Briton" only referred to thenative British, Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the province; this remained the case until the modern era. The use of the term as an inhabitant of the island ofGreat Britain or theUK is relatively recent.[17]
It was during the reign ofElizabeth I that "Britannia" again came to be used as apersonification of Britain. In his 1576 "General and rare memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation",John Dee used afrontispiece figure of Britannia kneeling by the shore beseeching Elizabeth I, to protect her empire by strengthening her navy.[8]
With the death of Elizabeth in 1603 came the succession of her Scottish cousin, James VI, King of Scots, to the English throne. He became James I of England, and so brought under his personal rule the Kingdoms ofEngland (and the dominion of Wales),Ireland andScotland. On 20 October 1604,James VI and I proclaimed himself as "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland", a title that continued to be used by many of his successors.[18] When James came to the English throne, some elaborate pageants were staged. One pageant performed on the streets of London in 1605 was described inAnthony Munday'sTriumphs of Reunited Britannia:
On a mount triangular, as the island of Britain itself is described to be, we seat in the supreme place, under the shape of a fair and beautiful nymph, Britannia herself...
Britain's first road atlas was updated in a series of editions titled from the early 18th into the early 19th century using the titleBritannia Depicta.
During the reign ofCharles II, Britannia made her first appearance on English coins on afarthing of 1672 (seeDepiction on British coinage and postage stamps below). With the constitutional unification of England with Scotland in 1707 and then with Ireland in 1800, Britannia became an increasingly important symbol and a strong rallying point among Britons.
British power, which depended on a liberal political system and the supremacy of thenavy, lent these attributes to the image of Britannia. By the time ofQueen Victoria, Britannia had been renewed. Still depicted as a young woman with brown or golden hair, she kept herCorinthian helmet and her white robes, but now she heldNeptune's trident and often sat or stood before the ocean and tall-masted ships representing British naval power. She also usually held or stood beside a Greekhoplite shield, which sported the BritishUnion Flag: also at her feet was often the British Lion, an animal found on the arms of England, Scotland and the Prince of Wales.
Neptune is shown symbolically passing his trident to Britannia in the 1847 fresco "Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea" byWilliam Dyce, a painting Victoria commissioned for herOsborne House on theIsle of Wight.
New Zealanders adopted a similar personification of their country inZealandia, Britannia's daughter, who appeared on postage stamps at the turn of the 20th century[19] and still features in theNew Zealand Coat of Arms.[20]
Perhaps the best analogy is that Britannia is to the United Kingdom and theBritish Empire whatMarianne is to France or perhaps whatColumbia is to the United States. Britannia became a very potent and more common figure in times of war, and represented British liberties and democracy.
During the 1990s the termCool Britannia (drawn from a humorous version by theBonzo Dog Band of the song "Rule Britannia", with words by James Thomson [1700–1748], which is often used as an unofficialnational anthem), was used to describe the contemporary United Kingdom.[21] The phrase referred to the fashionable scenes of the era, with a new generation of pop groups and style magazines, successful young fashion designers, and a surge of new restaurants and hotels. Cool Britannia represented late-1990s Britain as a fashionable place to be.[22]
Britannia is sometimes used in political cartoons to symbol the United Kingdom's relationship with other countries.[23]
Although the archetypical image of Britannia seated with a shield first appeared on Roman bronze coins of the 1st century AD struck underHadrian, Britannia's first appearance on British coinage was on thefarthing in 1672, though earlier pattern versions had appeared in 1665, followed by thehalfpenny later the same year. The figure of Britannia was said bySamuel Pepys to have been modelled on Frances Teresa Stuart, the futureDuchess of Richmond,[15] who was famous at the time for refusing to become the mistress of Charles II, despite the King's strong infatuation with her. Britannia then appeared on theBritish halfpenny coin throughout the rest of the 17th century and thereafter until 1936. The halfpennies issued during the reign ofQueen Anne have Britannia closely resembling the queen herself.[24] When theBank of England was granted a charter in 1694, the directors decided within days that the device for their official seal should represent 'Brittannia sitting on looking on a Bank of Mony' (sic). Britannia also appeared on thepenny coin between 1797 and 1967, occasional issues such as the fourpence underWilliam IV between 1836 and 1837, and on the50 pence coin between 1969 and 2008.[25] See "External Links" below for examples of all these coins and others.
In the spring of 2008, theRoyal Mint unveilednew coin designs "reflecting a more modern twenty-first century Britain"[26] which do not feature the image of Britannia. The government pointed out, however, that earlier-design 50p coins will remain in circulation for the foreseeable future.[27] Also Britannia still appeared on the gold and silver "Britannia" bullion coins issued annually by the Royal Mint.
A new definitive £2 coin was issued in 2015, with a new image of Britannia. In late 2015, a limited edition (100000 run) £50 coin was produced, bearing the image of Britannia on one side and QueenElizabeth II on the obverse.[28]In October 2020, The Royal Mint released the 2021 Britannia bullion coin range. The original 1987 coin design by Philip Nathan was enhanced with new security features. The Royal Mint claims this makes the Britannia "the world's most visually secure bullion coin." The security features include a latent image, micro-text, surface animation and tincture lines.[29][independent source needed]
In 2021, the Royal Mint issued a new range of commemorative coins featuring a redesigned Britannia as a woman of colour.[30]
A figure of Britannia appeared on the "white fiver" (a five pound note printed in black and white) from 1855 for more than a century, until 1957.[31]
From 1928 "Britannia Series A" ten shilling and one pound notes were printed with a seated Britannia bearing both a spear and an olive branch.[32]
The 25 cents fractional paper currency of the Dominion of Canada (1870, 1900 and 1923 respectively) all depict Britannia.
Britannia also featured on the high value Great Britain definitive postage stamps issued during the reign ofGeorge V (known as 'seahorses') and is depicted on the £10 stamp first issued in 1993.
The Britanniawatermark has been widely used in papermaking, usually showing her seated. An example can be found atpapermoulds.typepad.com
Britannia is depicted in theBrit Award statuette, theBritish Phonographic Industry's annual music awards.[33][34] The statuette of Britannia has been regularly redesigned by some of the best known British designers, stylists and artists, includingDamien Hirst,Tracey Emin,Sir Peter Blake and also the lateDame Vivienne Westwood andDame Zaha Hadid.[33][34]
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The name "Britannia", symbolising Britain and British patriotism, has been adopted for a variety of purposes, including:
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