Byzantine Emperors followed the Roman practice and contracted foreigners especially for their personal corps guard called the Varangian Guard.

Michael III's marriage with Eudokia Dekapolitissa was childless, but the emperor did not want to risk a scandal by attempting to marry his mistress Eudokia Ingerina, daughter of the Varangian ( Danish ) imperial guard Inger.

His stepson, Caesar John Doukas, used the Varangian guard to depose the absent emperor, arrest Empress Eudoxia, and proclaim his brother, Michael VII, as emperor.

Other than their fierce loyalty, the most recognizable attributes of the Varangian guard during the 11th century were their large axes and their penchant for drinking.

There are countless stories of the Varangian guard either drinking in excess or being drunk.

The Varangian guard.

The Dane-Axe is also known to have been used by the Varangian Guard, also known as pelekyphoros phroura ( πελεκυφόρος φρουρά ), the " axe-bearing guard ".

He had left Skåne in 978 and served in the Varangian guard of Basil II.

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.

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.

The state of Garðaríki ( " the realm of towns "), which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862 ( the traditional beginning of Russian history ).

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.

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

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.

This was known as the Varangian Guard.

The most eminent Scandinavian to serve in the Varangian Guard was Harald Hardrada, who subsequently established himself as king of Norway ( 1047 – 66 ).

His tutor was a Varangian named Asmud.

A son of the Varangian ( Viking ) Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father ’ s death in 1015.

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.

Some modern historians have suggested that at some point during these years Edgar served in the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire, a unit which was at this time composed primarily of English emigrants, but this is unsupported by evidence.

While the Varangian Guard was primarily meant to function as the emperor's bodyguard, Harald was found fighting on " nearly every frontier " of the empire.

While the campaign was initially successful, Harald and the Varangian Guard were called back to Constantinople following Maniakes ' imprisonment by the emperor and the onset of other more pressing issues.

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

One of the most famous guards was the future king Harald III of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada (" Hard-counsel "), who arrived in Constantinople in 1035 and was employed as a Varangian Guard.

The decisive moment of the battle was when John led the Varangian Guard, largely composed of Englishmen, to assault defensive Pecheneg wagon laager, employing their famous axes to hack their way in.

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.

Rurik ( Rørik in Old East Norse ), a semi-legendary Scandinavian Varangian, was the founder of Rurik Dynasty, which ruled Kievan Rus ', Rus ' principalities and early Russian Tsardom for the next 700 years.

Although his burial mound is still shown to occasional tourists, archaeological excavations of long barrows abounding in the vicinity did not reveal the presence of the Varangian settlement at the site, indicating that Izborsk was an important centre of the early Krivichs.

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

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.

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

* Harald III of Norway, at this time leader of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire, returns to Norway, possibly because of his involvement in Maniaces ' revolt.

However, his elevation had antagonised not only the Doukas family, in particular the Caesar, John Doukas who led the opposition of the palace officials to Romanos ' authority, but also the Varangian Guard, who openly expressed their discontent at the marriage of Eudokia.

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

According to the Hypatian Codex, the legendary Varangian leader Rurik arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital.

By the time of the Emperor Alexios Komnenos in the late 11th century, the Byzantine 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 Varangian Guard not only provided security for the Byzantine Emperors, but participated in many wars involving Byzantium and often played a crucial role, since they were usually used at the critical moments of a battle.

In 989 these Varangian, led by Basil II himself, landed at Chrysopolis to defeat the rebel general Bardas Phokas.

One surviving ivory plaque from the 10th century Constantinople depicts a Varangian holding an axe that is at least as tall as its wielder.

srklant on the Tillinge Runestone raised in memory of a Varangian who did not return from Serkland, at the church of Tillinge in Uppland, Sweden. In Old Norse sources, such as sagas and runestones, Særkland or Serkland was the name of the Abbasid Caliphate and probably some neighbouring Muslim regions.

Notably one of the Ingvar Runestones, the Gripsholm Runestone, raised circa 1040 at Gripsholm, commemorates a Varangian loss during an ill-fated raid in Serkland.