Sun Fin wrote:They might be remembered but are they remembered favourably? Boudicca probably more so now but for centuries she was thought of as a Barbarian queen and Napoleon may be thought of as a great general but he is also painted as evil despite the fact that many of the ideals his Empire were founding on (meritocracy for example) are now considered mainstream.
I guess Boudicca did gain more respect when she was seen as an influence for Elizabeth I. Napolean is still highly praised though, it'd hard to see past his incredible ability.
Basically, what I was trying to say, but didn't do it so well, is with modern historians, favourable texts seem to be discredited and thus it ends up being that the loser is portrayed fairly well. An example could also be the battle of the Spurs (1513/1514); Henry VIII captured 2 French towns and has the prestige of Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian, fighting under his banner, but recently it's been depicted as rather just a skirmish with no large gain - which is fair.