Byzantine emperors trusted their lives to an elite guard of Viking mercenaries

From the late 10th century, Byzantine emperors recruited their most trusted personal bodyguard largely from Scandinavia, and later Anglo-Saxon England after 1066, forming the Varangian Guard. Outsiders with no ties to Byzantine court factions were prized precisely because they had nothing to gain from joining a palace coup, unlike homegrown nobles. One famous recruit, Harald Hardrada, fought across the Mediterranean as a Varangian commander before returning home to become king of Norway.

— Raffaele D'Amato, The Varangian Guard 988-1453 — Osprey Publishing, 2010
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