The Vikings, known to us as the intrepid explorers from the north. They have left a profound
impact not only in their native Scandinavia, but also in lands like Russia, France, and
the British Isles. However, there exists a lesser known piece of the Viking legacy, where
the Norsemen established themselves not as conquerors, but as fiercely loyal bodyguards
to the Emperors of Eastern Rome. These elite mercenaries are regarded as some of the fiercest
warriors in Medieval history, and became known across the Mediterranean world for their honour,
loyalty and fearlessness. In this video, we will talk about the Varangian guard, covering
its origins and evolution, as well as telling the story of the warriors who became legends
in its employ.
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So, what was the Varangian Guard? In simple terms, it was a mercenary unit, comprised
mostly of Norsemen, that served as the personal bodyguards and elite troops of the Eastern
Roman Emperor in Constantinople from the 10th to the 14th centuries. The Varangians were
never far from the Emperor’s person; they stood before his bedchambers while he slept,
and around him in his reception hall while he addressed his aristocracy. They also guarded
the royal treasury and were wardens in Imperial prisons. With that said, the Varangians’
duties often took them outside the Capital, as there are accounts of them fighting in
Byzantine military campaigns from Italy to Iraq.
Loyalty was the core value of the Varangians. Once the Emperor had paid them, he had won
their undying allegiance. An example of this occured in 1176, when Emperor Manuel Komnenos
led an army into Anatolia to face the Seljuk Turks. He was ambushed, and his army was massacred.
The Emperor only managed to escape because his Varangian bodyguards held off the Turks,
sacrificing themselves to the last man. Honour was another key virtue of these mercenaries.
The integrity of the Varangians is displayed in a famous tale, where one of the mercenaries
tried to violate a Thracian woman. The woman struggled, and managed to kill her assailant.
Rather than being vengeful, the other Varangians praised this woman for her bravery. They gave
her all of the dead man’s possessions, and buried the assailant in an unmarked grave
like a common criminal. On the field of battle, the Varangian Guard
were highly effective shock troops, charging into battle ahead of the main line as a deadly
Vanguard. They were heavily armoured, adorned in mail hauberks, vambraces and iron conical
helmets, as well as norse-style round shields for protection. They were iconic for their
main weapon- the daneaxe. Infact, contemporary Byzantine writers often referred to the Varangians
as pelekyphoroi barbaroi: axe-wielding barbarians. Some sources also claim that the Varangians
had red rubies set into their ear to identify themselves. They had their own banner, featuring
drakonarioi, a bronze dragon head, which they emblazoned upon their armour.
So how did the Varangian guard come to be? To answer that, we must go back 1200 years,
to the beginning of the Viking Age. The countries of Scandinavia were cold and rugged, and fertile
farmland was a rare commodity. Towards the end of the 9th century, overpopulation in
these regions had become a major issue, and there was not enough good land to go around.
A harsh climate breeds hardy men, and in response to the situation at home, many adventurers
set out in their longboats to search for richer lands overseas. The Danes went west to England,
while the Swedes travelled east. In the year 862 AD, the Norse Chieftain Rurik
reached the land of the Slavonic peoples, founding a settlement there that would later
become the great city of Novgorod. Rurik and his descendants formed the Rurikid dynasty,
a line of Kings that ruled the region known as the Kievan Rus. Over the next century,
many more migrants would travel from Scandinavia to the Rus to serve the Rurikid Kings, integrating
and merging their culture with the local Slavic peoples. Some of these norsemen travelled
southward, where they’d heard of a land of great riches. They were awed by Constantinople,
and called it Miklagard- literally “The Great City”.
By 988 AD, the Kievan Rus was prospering under the rule of Vladimir I of Kiev. However, the
situation in Byzantium was not so stable. Emperor Basil II of Eastern Rome was embroiled
in a civil war with a rebellious general, Bardas Phokas. With the Bulgarians threatening
the Romans’ northern border, and the Fatimid Caliphate to the south, Emperor Basil was
stretched thin, and desperately needed foreign intervention.
King Vladimir saw the situation, and smelled opportunity. Long had the slavo-viking ruler
coveted Emperor Basil’s daughter, Anna. In exchange for her hand in marriage, Vladimir
converted himself and his realm to Orthodox Christianity. More importantly to our story,
he sent 6,000 of his best warriors into the service of the Roman Emperor.
Emperor Basil took his new Rus-Viking soldiers to meet the rebellious Phokas in battle. Upon
seeing the host of Basil’s army, Phokas allegedly suffered a stroke, and died in full
view of everyone on the battlefield. Upon seeing this, his men tried to flee. This was
unacceptable to the Norsemen, for they had come for a battle, and intended to get one.
They chased down the fleeing rebels, and cut them down with cheerful glee.
The Vikings proved themselves to be merciless warriors on that day. It was after this slaughter
that the Varangian Guard became a permanent institution in the Byzantine Empire. Over
time, more and more Norsemen travelled south to enter the employ of the Roman Emperor,
both from Russia and Scandinavia proper. These warriors would be in the service of Emperor
Basil and his successors for the next three centuries.
Perhaps the most famous of men to serve in the Varangian Guard was Harald Sigurdsson,
known also as Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway - a man known for his role as a contestant
to the English throne, and for bringing about the end of the Viking age with his defeat
at Stamford Bridge in 1066. However, years before his final demise at the hands of the
Saxon army, Harald Hardrada had earned a legendary reputation as a Varangian warrior in service
to Emperor Michael IV. Harald was born in 1015 as the half brother
to Olaf Haraldsson, the reigning King of Norway. In 1028, Olaf lost the throne to Cnut the
Great, and two years later fought to reclaim his lost title. Harald fought alongside his
brother at the battle of Stiklestad. They were defeated by the forces of King Cnut,
and their family was sent into exile. Harald fled to the Kievan Rus, entering the
service of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Novgorod. In 1035, he made his way down
to Constantinople with 500 of his men, seeking fame and glory as a Varangian of Rome. Harald
was given a mission by Emperor Michael as soon as he arrived in Constantinople. He was
appointed to a fleet of Byzantine Galleys sent to destroy Arabic Pirates in the Aegean
sea. There he gained a decisive victory, destroying many pirate ships, while sending their crews
off to be enslaved or executed. Hardrada had initially tried to keep his royal
blood a secret, for the Byzantines tended to look down on those of high birth becoming
mercenaries. But he was well known, and word of who he was soon spread. Instead of being
scorned, he was appointed as the commander of the Varangians at the tender age of 21.
A norse poet said this about Hardrada: “The war-brave lord reddened his sword in battle
and entered the Emperor's service; then every year afterwards a fight began where he wanted
to have one.” And indeed, the young norwegian warlord served on all frontiers of the Byzantine
Empire, becoming a scourge to all the enemies of Eastern Rome. He went inland, helping to
push the Arabs out of Anatolia. He and his ferocious warriors fought as far east as Mesopotamia,
where the skalds claimed he captured over 80 Arabic fortresses.
Hardrada remained in Imperial service until 1041, fighting against foes as diverse as
rgw Lombards, Normans and Bulgars. He had amassed bountiful riches during his nine years
of service. He returned to Kiev, to be welcomed heartily by his old friend Grand Prince Yaroslav.
Seeing the fame and wealth Harald had to his name, Yaroslav offered him his daughter Elizaveta’s
[eli’za’vyeta] hand in marriage. Harald then returned to Norway, and in 1045
managed to seize the throne. He ruled as king there for the next 21 years, with the reputation
he had earned in Byzantium affording him respect throughout his reign.
It should be noted that most of Harald’s exploits as a Varangian were written by the
icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson, over a century after his death. They are considered broadly
accurate accounts, that should nevertheless be taken with a grain of salt. Either way,
he is widely regarded as the most successful and famous of all the Varangians of Byzantium.
Now, we must shift our attention west, to the British isles. In the year 1066, Duke
William of Normandy defeated a host of Englishmen at the battle of Hastings, killing the Saxon
King Harold Godwinson. England came into Norman hands, and in the fallout, many Saxon warriors
fled from the Island, seeking a new beginning in foreign lands. Many of these men made it
to Constantinople. These were sturdy, experienced warriors. As such, the Byzantine Emperor offered
them wealth and opportunity in the Varangian guard. Over the next decade, the ethnic makeup
of the Varangians shifted from predominantly Scandinavian, to largely Anglo-Saxon.
In an ironic twist of fate, these English mercenaries would find themselves once more
fighting against their old foe, the Normans. The warlord Robert Guiscard had pushed the
Byzantines out of their holdings in Southern Italy, and now marched his army of Norman
warriors into the Balkans. Emperor Alexios Komnenos I led a force of 20,000 men and 1000
Varangians northwards to meet the Invaders. The two armies met outside the town of Dyrrhachium.
Here, the Varangians were put in the Roman vanguard, where they were most comfortable.
Many of the Varangians were veterans of the battle of Hastings, and yearned for vengeance
against the Normans. The Saxons fought with more brutality than the rest of the Roman
army, advancing faster than the Byzantines could keep up with. They charged ahead and
cleaved into the enemy’s right flank with their massive daneaxes.
However, they soon found themselves overextended, and a contingent of Norman spearmen and crossbowmen
managed to surround and isolate them from the Byzantine Army. The Varangians sustained
heavy casualties, and retreated up to a Church on a hill. The Normans simply set this church
aflame, and all the surviving Varangians perished in the blaze. Still, it should be noted that
even in this losing effort, the Turkish and Serbian allies of Emperor Alexios abandoned
the fight, while the Saxon mercenaries remained true.
The Varangians would regain their prestige at the battle of Beroia in 1122, against a
centuries old enemy to the Romans: the Pecheneg horde. The Byzantine host was unable to advance
upon the waves of Turkic horse archers, until a contingent of 480 Varangians were deployed.
The mercenaries did what they did best, proving their value as shock-troopers and smashing
through the Pecheneg lines, destroying the wagon fort they had rallied around. So decisive
was this battle, from that point on, the Pechenegs disappear almost entirely from historical
records. The last great hurrah of the Varangians came
in the year 1204, when the Latins of the Fourth Crusade laid siege to Constantinople. The
Norsemen and Saxons were the only defenders who put up a real fight against the invaders.
In the initial assault, they managed to repel the Venetian forces from both the city’s
land and sea walls. However, following a series of palace coups, the Varangians were left
with no one to serve. The new Emperor Mourtzouphlos had not the wealth to pay them, so the Varangians
abandoned the siege, and left Constantinople to be sacked by the Latins.
After the sack of Constantinople, historical records mentioning the Varangians begin to
grow thin. The Byzantines eventually reconquered their capital, but their northern mercenaries
never fully regained the prominence they once had, both on the battlefield and by the Emperor’s
side. By 1281, the Varangian’s role had been reduced to a largely ceremonial capacity.
It is safe to say that when the beleaguered Empire finally fell to the Ottomans in 1453,
whatever remained of the once proud mercenary order was snuffed out.
Nevertheless, the Varangian guard left an undeniable mark on Byzantine history. Their
centuries long tenure as both the most feared warriors and trusted bodyguards of the Roman
Emperor cements their legacy as some of the most successful mercenaries of all time, and
only makes the Viking’s cultural and economic reach across the world all the more awe-inspiring.
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