5fish
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Varangian Guard end... It seems they were a casualty of the Fourth Crusade...
Link: http://www.soldiers-of-misfortune.com/history/varangian-guard.htm
But the Crusades also brought about the end of the Varangian Guard. In 1203 Venice succeeded in using the whole crusader army for the conquest of Constantinople. As a consequence of the usual internal intrigues the only reliable troops on the Byzantine side where the foreigners: the Guard - mostly English and Danish by this time - and the Pisans, who defended their trade privileges against Venice. When the Crusaders managed to enter the city in their first major assault, they suffered heavy losses and were driven back by the Varangians.
As so often happened, the rot started at the top. When Emperor Alexius III snuck away from Constantinople with his treasures, the Varangians were persuaded by the Imperial Treasurer to free the blinded opponent Isaac II from jail. Then Isaac's son, who was the Venetian candidate for the throne was crowned as Alexius IV. Unfortunately he had already made the Crusaders huge promises of land and money. While he tried to raise the necessary money, the Crusaders plundered the surrounding countryside, and in the city a profound hatred of the Latins and their protégé Alexius IV grew. Finally there was a palace coup in which, with the help of Varangians, a new candidate won the throne as Alexius V. He had secured their assistance by explaining to them that they would otherwise be replaced by Frankish knights. Because the prior promises of Alexius IV with the Crusaders were now revoked, the Crusaders started their final assault in April 1204. When they entered the city at various points, the Varangians retreated with the Emperor to the palace. Here they held their ground until the emperor and large parts of the nobility secretly left the city. After negotiations they surrendered to the Crusaders, and one can assume that many of them found further employment there. Afterward, there is no more firm evidence of the use of Scandinavians in Byzantine service. The Imperial Guard was later formed by Cretans.
Another source... wiki... it still seems the came after The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204)
They were prominent in the defence of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Of the role of the guard, it is said that "the fighting was very violent and there was hand to hand fight with axes and swords, the assailants mounted the walls and prisoners were taken on both sides".[13] The latest mention of the Varangian guard is in the Greek version of the Chronicle of the Morea, which states that this unit escorted the Prince of Achaia away to prison after the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259; historian D. J. Geanakoplos suggests they were reconstituted by Theodore I Laskaris to strengthen his claim as the rightful Emperor.[19] People identified as Varangians were to be found in Constantinople around 1400.[20]
Snip... an account as late as 1402, maybe 1453...
In Scandinavia, Russia, and later in England service in the Varangians was considered as both honorable and lucrative; and the Guard drew a steady stream of new men from the north. Their pay rate was extraordinarily high, and pillage and loot were among the remunerative “fringe benefits”. After one battle in 1016, the Emperor gave them a full third of the captured booty; retaining one third for himself and the final third distributed to the rest of the army! Also, at the accession of a new Emperor, the Varangians were granted the privilege of ritually “looting” the treasury: they were allowed to file in and carry off as much coin as they could carry in their two hands. The giant Harald Hardrada, the Norse prince and future king, served as a high-ranking officer in the Guard for many years in the 1030s; during which time he amassed such a fortune that he returned to Norway with the greatest personal wealth ever seen in Northern Europe before.
The Norman conquest of England had a profound and lasting effect on the Varangian Guard. In the years following 1066, the traditional military elite of the Anglo-Saxons found their place taken by the émigré Norman knightly aristocracy. Rendered redundant and unappreciated by William and his heirs, and in any case smarting under Norman rule, many Englishmen migrated away and took service in the Varangian Guard. By 1100, the English outnumbered both Scandinavians and Rus in the Guard.
As late as 1402, the Byzantine Emperor John VII wrote to King Henry IV (first of the Lancastrian kings of England) about the “axe-bearing men of the British race” that guarded both Constantinople and his person. It is likely that the last members of the Varangian Guard died fighting in the breaches of the walls of Constantinople in 1453; attempting to ward the last Emperor of the Romans in his heroic final stand.
Link: http://www.soldiers-of-misfortune.com/history/varangian-guard.htm
But the Crusades also brought about the end of the Varangian Guard. In 1203 Venice succeeded in using the whole crusader army for the conquest of Constantinople. As a consequence of the usual internal intrigues the only reliable troops on the Byzantine side where the foreigners: the Guard - mostly English and Danish by this time - and the Pisans, who defended their trade privileges against Venice. When the Crusaders managed to enter the city in their first major assault, they suffered heavy losses and were driven back by the Varangians.
As so often happened, the rot started at the top. When Emperor Alexius III snuck away from Constantinople with his treasures, the Varangians were persuaded by the Imperial Treasurer to free the blinded opponent Isaac II from jail. Then Isaac's son, who was the Venetian candidate for the throne was crowned as Alexius IV. Unfortunately he had already made the Crusaders huge promises of land and money. While he tried to raise the necessary money, the Crusaders plundered the surrounding countryside, and in the city a profound hatred of the Latins and their protégé Alexius IV grew. Finally there was a palace coup in which, with the help of Varangians, a new candidate won the throne as Alexius V. He had secured their assistance by explaining to them that they would otherwise be replaced by Frankish knights. Because the prior promises of Alexius IV with the Crusaders were now revoked, the Crusaders started their final assault in April 1204. When they entered the city at various points, the Varangians retreated with the Emperor to the palace. Here they held their ground until the emperor and large parts of the nobility secretly left the city. After negotiations they surrendered to the Crusaders, and one can assume that many of them found further employment there. Afterward, there is no more firm evidence of the use of Scandinavians in Byzantine service. The Imperial Guard was later formed by Cretans.
Another source... wiki... it still seems the came after The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204)
They were prominent in the defence of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Of the role of the guard, it is said that "the fighting was very violent and there was hand to hand fight with axes and swords, the assailants mounted the walls and prisoners were taken on both sides".[13] The latest mention of the Varangian guard is in the Greek version of the Chronicle of the Morea, which states that this unit escorted the Prince of Achaia away to prison after the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259; historian D. J. Geanakoplos suggests they were reconstituted by Theodore I Laskaris to strengthen his claim as the rightful Emperor.[19] People identified as Varangians were to be found in Constantinople around 1400.[20]
Snip... an account as late as 1402, maybe 1453...
In Scandinavia, Russia, and later in England service in the Varangians was considered as both honorable and lucrative; and the Guard drew a steady stream of new men from the north. Their pay rate was extraordinarily high, and pillage and loot were among the remunerative “fringe benefits”. After one battle in 1016, the Emperor gave them a full third of the captured booty; retaining one third for himself and the final third distributed to the rest of the army! Also, at the accession of a new Emperor, the Varangians were granted the privilege of ritually “looting” the treasury: they were allowed to file in and carry off as much coin as they could carry in their two hands. The giant Harald Hardrada, the Norse prince and future king, served as a high-ranking officer in the Guard for many years in the 1030s; during which time he amassed such a fortune that he returned to Norway with the greatest personal wealth ever seen in Northern Europe before.
The Norman conquest of England had a profound and lasting effect on the Varangian Guard. In the years following 1066, the traditional military elite of the Anglo-Saxons found their place taken by the émigré Norman knightly aristocracy. Rendered redundant and unappreciated by William and his heirs, and in any case smarting under Norman rule, many Englishmen migrated away and took service in the Varangian Guard. By 1100, the English outnumbered both Scandinavians and Rus in the Guard.
As late as 1402, the Byzantine Emperor John VII wrote to King Henry IV (first of the Lancastrian kings of England) about the “axe-bearing men of the British race” that guarded both Constantinople and his person. It is likely that the last members of the Varangian Guard died fighting in the breaches of the walls of Constantinople in 1453; attempting to ward the last Emperor of the Romans in his heroic final stand.
