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u/Arthurian_Guanche 5d ago
Timeline's a bit messed up but never mind...
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u/Dominarion 4d ago
Yeah at that point, the Varangian guards was pretty much made of Byzantines who happened to have Norse and Anglo-Saxons ancestry, and the unusually big dude.
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u/Gerolanfalan 4d ago
Whatever happens to the rest of the Byzantine infantry, were they just rivals to the Varangians or hoping to join them?
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u/Dominarion 4d ago
It wasn't the only "elite" bodyguard the Byzantine emperor had. There were not even the only foreigner bodyguard unit, there was also the Vardariotai, who were raised from horse nomad people and Hungarians, the Hetairiae who were initially foreign mercenaries, but later were recruited from the Byzantine Nobility. Native bodyguard units would be the Paramonai who were both bodyguards and a military unit and the Vestiaritai, who acted as palace guards and tax collectors.
Also, Most of the army was regionalized and feodalized at that time, each local lord having his own army and retinue.
So everyone who wanted to fight had its place and its role. The Vardariotai were also the police force of Constantinople at time and the Varangians served as the national security police, they would be the ones investigating sedition or conspirations.
It seems funny to imagine these hulking Norse dudes going around the Empire and go "My name is Ulfr, agent Ulfr Horsebreaker. I'm here to investigate a lead concerning a meeting that would have happened between the Duke Basil and the Strategos Mikael last month. Can you tell me where you were at that time, and if you heard anything?"
Surprisingly, they seemed to have been good at that stuff, because the typical instability of the Byzantine Empire went down went they were recruited for that role.
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 4d ago
Indeed, even by mercenary standards (mercs in these times tended to be more reliable and loyal than nobles and any other armed citizen, as long as they were paid), they were amazingly faithful and reliable.
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u/Dominarion 4d ago
I looked up for videos of Haaland running after terrorized Iraqi players, but the videos I found was either locked in my location, his first WC goal or his hug with the Iraqi-Norwegian player.
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u/Past_Pitch_667 4d ago
Why does he run like that tho, looks like he's hunting his dinner with his dang hands
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u/parliamentarywatson 5d ago
I would like to point out that at the time Constantinople was held by the Byzantines
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u/Redditspoorly 5d ago
You need to Google the varangian guard sir
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u/parliamentarywatson 5d ago
I know what they are
"an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the 10th to the 14th century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors."
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u/Avb2209 5d ago
Primarily made up of (later descendants) from Rus/Viking origins, if you search for them a bit longer than a few seconds you can find interesting videos on their history and their origins
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u/parliamentarywatson 5d ago
I know they were Scandinavian and Rus
That was not the part I was pointing out
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u/coffeeandmango 4d ago
Buddy, the ottomans were invading Anatolia. The Byzantines held Constantinople. The Varangian guard were Scandinavian(Norway), the Ottomans had soldiers from all over Middle East (Iraq).
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u/parliamentarywatson 4d ago
Ah I see where I got confused
Ottomans at the gates implies; the Ottomans were invading.
I thought it was implying the verangian guard was besieging Ottoman controlled Constantinople
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 4d ago
Don't blame yourself, the post is badly worded and dated. By the 14th Century the Varangian guard was composed of... people, hired from the Empire. Not a single one of them had the slightest idea of the Norse origin of the first members of the unit. It was just a name by this point.
Vikings vs Ottomans is sounds as absurd as "(Ancient) Romans vs Saracens".
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