From Oleg's seizure of the city until 1169 Kiev was the capital of Kievan Rus ' which was initially ruled by the Varangian Rurikid dynasty which was gradually Slavisized.

Later in the 11th Century the Varangian Guard became dominated by Anglo-Saxons who preferred this way of life to subjugation by the new Norman kings of England.

Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the Grand Prince of Kiev in 1019.

In Constantinople, he quickly rose to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, and saw action on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the Holy Land, Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes.

The English became the predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a largely Scandinavian unit, from which the emperor's bodyguard was drawn.

Here, he was assisted by the Varangian Guard, which was at that time led by Harald Hardrada, who later became king of Norway.

Varangian mercenaries joined in the pursuit of the fleeing Normans, but became separated from the main force and were massacred.

In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at Kiev by Askold and Dir, two Varangian chiefs: Two hundred small vessels passed through the Bosporus and plundered the monasteries and other properties on the suburban Prince's Islands.

In 980, the emperor Basil II received an unusual gift from Prince Vladimir of Kiev: 6, 000 Varangian warriors, which Basil formed into a new bodyguard known as the Varangian Guard.

According to the earliest Russian chronicle, a Varangian named Rurik was elected ruler ( knyaz ) of Novgorod in about 860, before his successors moved south and extended their authority to Kiev, which had been previously dominated by the Khazars.

Instead, the Varangian ruling classes of the two powerful city-states of Novgorod and Kiev were thoroughly Slavicised by the end of the 10th century.

The early part is rich in anecdotal stories, among which are the arrival of the three Varangian brothers, the founding of Kiev, the murder of Askold and Dir, the death of Oleg, who was killed by a serpent concealed in the skeleton of his horse, and the vengeance taken by Olga, the wife of Igor, on the Drevlians, who had murdered her husband.

Finally, the Varangian ruler of Novgorod, called Oleg, seized Kiev ( Kyiv ) and established the political entity of Rus '.

The town was first attested two decades earlier, when the Varangian chieftains Askold and Dir, while on their way to Kiev, decided against challenging Smolensk on account of its large size and population.

Oleg gradually took control of the Dnieper cities, captured Kiev ( previously held by the Varangian warlords, Askold and Dir ) and finally moved his capital from Novgorod there.

Among Zuckerman's beliefs and those of others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early 10th century ( rather than 882, the traditional date ), that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.

Igor ( son of the Varangian chief Rurik ) conquered Kiev.

Vladimir, who had recently usurped power in Kiev with an army of Varangian warriors, sent 6, 000 men to Basil as part of a military assistance agreement.

* Turisas's second studio album The Varangian Way is a concept album that tells the story of a group of Scandinavians travelling the river routes of medieval Russia, through Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev, down to the Byzantine Empire.

Its name is derived from the Rus ', a people of Finno-Ugric and Varangian composition who settled in the vicinity to control trade routes leading from Novgorod to Polotsk and Kiev.

Among the beliefs of Zuckerman and others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early 10th century ( rather than 882, the traditional date ), that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.

The Varangian trade stations in Russia suffered a serious decline at roughly the same date.

The Greece Runestones # Ög 81 | Högby Runestone is one of the c. 30 Greece Runestones in Sweden that commemorate members of the Varangian Guard.

He came out with the Patriarch to the Golden Milestone before the Great Palace and addressed the Varangian Guard.

Viking graffiti survive in Rome and at Newgrange Mound in Ireland, and a Varangian scratched his name ( Halvdan ) in runes on a banister in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.

Thus, there was a short-lived eleventh century attempt to re-establish an independent Galatia by native Galatians whose aristocracy and people appealed to Anglo-Saxon and Russo-Norman mercenaries of the Byzantine Varangian Guard and Frankish Crusaders alike in establishing a new kingdom.

Many served as mercenaries, and the famed Varangian Guard, serving the Emperor of Constantinople was drawn principally of Scandinavian warriors.

Perhaps at that time the Varangian warriors were recruited ; their presence is indicated by archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Poznań.

Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century.

According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from Rus ' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862.

Rurik or Riurik (, Old East Norse: Rørik, meaning " famous ruler "; ca 830 – ca 879 ) was a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Russia until the 17th century.

According to the Primary Chronicle Rurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, English and Gotlanders.

The term Varangian remained in usage in the Byzantine Empire until the 13th century, largely disconnected from its Scandinavian roots by then.

In 862, the Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled against the Varangian Rus, driving them overseas back to Scandinavia, but soon started to conflict with each other.

The disorder prompted the tribes to invite back the Varangian Rus " to come and rule them " and bring peace to the region.

Apart from Ladoga and Novgorod, Gnezdovo and Gotland were major centres for Varangian trade.

In contrast to the intense Scandinavian influence in Normandy and the British Isles, Varangian culture did not survive to a great extent in the East.

This was known as the Varangian Guard.

The word " Varangian " may have originated in Old Norse, but in Slavic and Greek it could refer either to Scandinavians or Franks.

After the death of Ahmad Shah in about 1772, his son Timur Shah became the next ruler of the Durrani dynasty who decided to make Kabul the new capital of the empire, and used Peshawar as the winter capital.

Later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine, flourishing especially during the Severan dynasty ( 3rd century ).

The Brooke dynasty ruled Sarawak for a hundred years and became famous as the " White Rajahs ".

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur ( 14 February 148326 December 1530 ; sometimes also spelt Baber or Babar ) was a conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty in the Indian Subcontinent and became the first Mughal emperor.

It was the first dynasty to embrace the philosophy of Confucianism, which became the ideological underpinning of all regimes until the end of imperial China.

* then to Henry III of Navarre, who became Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty.

This theory became popular during the Zhou dynasty.

Shah Shujah Durrani | Shah Shujah became the last Durrani dynasty | Durrani ruler, who first reigned between 1803 and 1809, and again from 1839 to 1842.

Hitherto ruled by a monarchical dynasty, Egypt became a republic on 18 June 1953, in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

This gave rise to the saying " Let others wage wars, but you, happy Austria, shall marry ", which became a motto of the dynasty.

It became a secundogeniture of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, who were deposed for the Bourbon-Parma in 1801, themselves deposed in December 1807 when Tuscany was annexed by France.

The Habsburg dynasty became extinct in Spain with Charles II's death in 1700, and the War of the Spanish Succession ensued in which the other European powers tried to assume control of the Spanish monarchy.

The Aghlabids dynasty effectively became independent of the Baghdad caliphs, who continued to retain spiritual authority.

Rudolph had become King of Germany / Holy Roman Emperor in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became sovereign ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled for the next six centuries.

In the 10th and 11th centuries, princes often acted merely to confirm hereditary succession in the Saxon ( Ottonian ) and Franconian ( Salian ) dynasties, whereas beginning from the actual forming of the prince-elector class, elections became less secure ( with the election of 1125 ), though the Staufen dynasty managed to get its sons formally elected in their fathers ' lifetimes almost as a formality.

A representative of the House of Wittelsbach became elected for a short period of time, but in 1745, Maria Theresa's husband, Francis I of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, became King ; all of his successors were also from the same family.

It was made independent in 1717 from the Safavid dynasty by the Afghans until 1736 when the Hotaki dynasty was defeated by the Afsharids, which finally became part of the Durrani Empire in 1747.

In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty.

After the Eighty Years ' War, Luxembourg became a part of the Southern Netherlands, which passed to the Austrian line of the Habsburg dynasty in 1713.

St. Mathilda founded many religious institutions, including the canonry of Quedlinburg, which became a center of ecclesiastical and secular life in Germany under the rule of the Ottonian dynasty, as well as the convents of St. Wigbert in Quedlinburg, in Pöhlde, Enger and Nordhausen in Thuringia, likely the source of at least one of her vitae.

* According to Nepali scholar Rishikesh Shaha, the ancient chronicles report that a sage ( muni ) named Ne became the protector ( pāla ) of this land and the founder of its first ruling dynasty.

The Al Said clan became a royal dynasty when Ahmad ibn Said Al Said was elected imam following the expulsion of the Iranians from Muscat in 1744.

During the Zemene Mesafint or " Age of Princes " of Ethiopia, Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, and by the Oromo Yejju dynasty, which later led to 17th century Oromo rule of Gondar, changing the language of the court from Amharic to Afaan Oromo.