4. Vikings in Constantinople
The Viking reputation for ferocity made them ideal mercenaries. Mercenary units tend to be ad hoc affairs of adventurers from all over, gathered together under a captain for a specific mission, campaign, or war. As such, mercenary units seldom last for more than a few years before they are disbanded, once the conflict that gave rise to their creation is concluded. The Varangian Guard were an exception. Their history as a mercenary unit lasted for hundreds of years, from the early tenth to the fourteenth centuries. As seen above, Viking adventurers from what is now Sweden had penetrated deep into what are now Russia and the Ukraine in the ninth century. By 850, they had formed their own principalities in Kiev and Novgorod. From there, they dominated the region’s Slavs as a ruling caste of a new civilization that came to be known as Kievan Rus.
Rus princes often hired new Viking fighters from Scandinavia, who were known as Varangians. The term means a stranger who had taken military service, or a member of a union of traders and warriors. By the early 900s, some of these Varangians had ventured further south, sailed across the Black Sea, and raided Constantinople and the Byzantine lands. Some, however, took service with the Byzantine emperors as mercenaries. As early as 902, contemporary records describe a Viking force of about 700 Varangians that took part in a Byzantine expedition against Crete. In 988, Byzantine Emperor Basil II sought military aid from his ally, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev. The Rus ruler sent 6000 of his most unruly Viking warriors, whom he had been unable to pay anyhow. The emperor put Vladimir’s discards to good use against his enemies, then organized them into what became the nucleus of the Varangian Guard.
As foreigners, the Vikings had no local ties, and thus few political links that could enmesh them in the Byzantine court’s intrigues and cabals. That made them suitable as bodyguards. They were not just palace soldiers, however. They accompanied the emperor on campaign, and formed the Byzantine army’s shock infantry. The Varangians proved themselves in battle time after time, and their unit became an elite outfit whose members received higher pay than the rest of the army. In addition to higher pay, they were often granted the privilege to loot first after victory. Another informal privilege, which fell into their lap as the main armed force in the imperial palace, was the privilege to plunder the emperor’s possessions after his death.
