A foreign guard for a Roman emperor
The Varangian Guard was an elite unit of foreign soldiers who served as bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. They are among the best-known soldiers of the medieval Mediterranean, partly because they brought together two very different worlds: the ceremonial court of Constantinople and the warrior culture of northern Europe.
“Varangian” comes from a word used in Greek and in Old East Slavic, which is related to Old Norse terms for Scandinavians who traveled east. In the Byzantine sources, it came to mean the northern mercenaries serving the emperor, especially those from the Rus lands and Scandinavia.
Origins
Northern traders and raiders had been visiting Constantinople since the 800s. The Rus attacked the city in 860 and again later, and also signed treaties with the emperors that allowed them to trade. Some Rus and Scandinavians served as soldiers in the imperial army well before the guard existed. This was part of the wider Viking Age movement along the rivers of eastern Europe.
The guard as a distinct unit is usually dated to the reign of Basil II, around 988. Tradition says that Vladimir, the ruler of Kyiv, sent a force of about six thousand men to Basil in return for the hand of the emperor’s sister Anna in marriage, and that Vladimir was baptized in the same period. The number is often repeated but may be rounded or exaggerated, and historians are cautious about it. What is clear is that, from around this time, a body of northern warriors served close to the emperor and was clearly distinguished from other troops. The conversion of Rus and the creation of the guard are often discussed together.
Why use foreigners?
The emperors had good reasons to rely on outsiders for personal protection. Palace politics in Constantinople were dangerous, and plots to depose emperors were common. A bodyguard drawn from the local aristocracy might be tied to the very families who wished to seize the throne. Foreigners had no local connections, and relied on the emperor’s pay and favor. They were also known for loyalty to their oath, and for toughness in battle.
The guard was paid in gold and could earn extra from donatives, the gifts distributed at coronations and other events. Medieval sources also say that guardsmen had the right to take a share of treasure in the palace when an emperor died, a custom that probably encouraged some to serve for the money. Accounts of this privilege are late and should be treated with care.
Weapons and appearance
Byzantine writers often describe the guardsmen as “axe-bearers,” from the heavy long-handled axe they carried, and sometimes with swords as well. They were typically heavy infantry, and wore mail. At ceremonies they stood close to the emperor in the palace and the church, and escorted him in processions. In battle they often fought beside the emperor or protected his camp.
In war
The guard took part in numerous campaigns. Under Basil II they fought in Bulgaria and in Syria. They are known for their role at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081, when they fought the Normans under Robert Guiscard. According to the Byzantine writer Anna Komnene, the Varangians fought fiercely but were exhausted and overrun after they advanced too far. Sources give mixed details, and some of her account is rhetorical.
One famous member of the guard was Harald Hardrada, later king of Norway. He served in Constantinople in the 1030s and 1040s, according to the Norse sagas, which are lively but are not always reliable on details. He returned north in the 1040s with considerable wealth and died at Stamford Bridge in 1066.
English exiles
After the Norman takeover of England in 1066, some Anglo-Saxon nobles and soldiers left England. Several sources, including late ones, suggest a number of them found service in Constantinople, and from the later 1000s and the 1100s the guard included many English and Danish men. Later medieval writers described the guard as “English” at times. Details about particular individuals and numbers are hard to confirm, and the story that they founded a settlement on the Black Sea comes mainly from a single saga account.
Decline
The guard continued to serve the Komnenian emperors in the 1100s and was said to be present when crusaders took the city in 1204. After the empire’s recovery in 1261 it seems to have survived, but in a smaller and more ceremonial form. The sources become thinner in the 1300s, and the composition shifted as fewer recruits came from the north. By the last years of the empire, the unit was not the force it had been, and it is not prominent in accounts of the final siege.
Why the guard is remembered
The guard has become a popular subject in books and games, and it is easy to find an overly romantic version of the story. A more modest account is also interesting: it shows how widely the Byzantine court recruited, how emperors managed the risk of coups, and how the Viking Age connected the Baltic, the Russian rivers and the Mediterranean in a single network of travel and trade.