<P> The Varangian Guard (Greek: Τάγμα των Βαράγγων, Tágma tōn Varángōn) were a part of Byzantine Army and personal bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors from the 10th to the 14th centuries . Initially the guard was composed of Varangians who came from Kievan Rus' . </P> <P> The guard was first formed under Emperor Basil II after 988, following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' and union with Vladimir I of Kiev, who sent 6,000 men to Basil as part of a military assistance agreement . Basil's distrust of the native Byzantine guardsmen, whose loyalties often shifted with fatal consequences, as well as the proven loyalty of the Varangians, many of whom served in Byzantium even before, led the emperor to employ them as his personal guard . Over the years, new recruits from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway kept a predominantly Scandinavian cast to the organization until the late 11th century . So many Scandinavians left to enlist in the guard that a medieval Swedish law from Västergötland stated that no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"--the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire . In the eleventh century, there were also two other European courts that recruited Scandinavians: Kievan Rus', c. 980--1060, and London, 1018--1066 (the Þingalið). </P> <P> Composed primarily of Scandinavians for the first hundred years, the guard increasingly included Anglo - Saxons after the successful Norman Conquest of England . By the time of Emperor Alexios Komnenos in the late 11th century, the Varangian Guard was largely recruited from Anglo - Saxons and "others who had suffered at the hands of the Vikings and their cousins the Normans". The Anglo - Saxons and other Germanic peoples shared with the Vikings a tradition of faithful, oath - bound service (to death if necessary), and after the Norman Conquest of England there were many fighting men, who had lost their lands and former masters, looking for a living elsewhere . </P> <P> The Varangian Guard not only provided security for Byzantine emperors but participated in many wars involving Byzantium and often played a crucial role, since it was usually employed at critical moments of battle . By the late 13th century, Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by Byzantines, though the guard operated until at least the mid-14th century, and in 1400 there were still some people identifying themselves as "Varangians" in Constantinople . </P>

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