Showing posts with label English fighting men as Byzantine warriors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English fighting men as Byzantine warriors. Show all posts

Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Varangian Guard - Byzantine warriors - or English? Or Scandinavian?

So OK, I'm zooming from food to fighting - too much caffeine?  Maybe, maybe not.  Book #3 of The Vespers Trilogy, which is being written as we speak (or maybe an hour before we're speaking) has a new character called Arduin, who chooses to serve with the King's Assassin, and was a former Varangian guard.  So I did some more research on the Varangian guards, the elite Byzantine warriors who were feared through the medieval world.  Harald Hardrada, the greatest warrior of his time, served as a Varangian guard.


So I can't resist, one more time, another link.  This is a medieval military website where there just happens to be an article about English warriors as part of the Varangian guard.  Enjoy!!!


http://deremilitari.org/2014/06/english-refugees-in-the-byzantine-armed-forces-the-varangian-guard-and-anglo-saxon-ethnic-consciousness/