WI: Reverse Varangian Guard? (Kievan Rus hires Byzantine mercenaries)

What if a sort of inverse Varangian Guard occurred, with advanced Byzantine infantry and cavalry being permanently recruited by the Grand Prince of Kiev as a palace guard?
 
Kievan princes for most of the relevant period had personal finances rather than a state treasury. They'd have to be really rich to afford that, basically.
 
Kievan princes for most of the relevant period had personal finances rather than a state treasury. They'd have to be really rich to afford that, basically.
What if the Byzantine guard was paid in land/fiefdom, then?
 
What if the Byzantine guard was paid in land/fiefdom, then?

Don't know if that's possible considering you had what was a family with so many branches ruling many principalities, I'm not too sure about any expansion under the Kievan Rus to justify their use.
 
The advantage of a Varangian guard was the Emperor could rely on the loyalty of foreigners (who couldn't revolt and depose him, having no local support).

Rus states using Byzantine mercenaries would be an open invitation for the subversion. The Emperor or other political faction in The City bribing said mercenaries, or even providing them, so affect the policies of the prince who 'hired' them. Very dangerous move to open one's guard to foreign, nearby, powerful influence.

Granting them land? Well, then they become locals and have a base of support, and in the next generation you just have to repeat the process, except now you have less land to give.
 
Paying them with land could be interesting, especially if it isn't hereditary (even if it is).

But unless the Romans are actually trying to escape something, it seems unlikely unless they are a reward for being a tributary. That would be cool. Pay tribute to Rome, get Roman-style army to help out. Sort of mercs.

Considering the tribute should easily be enough to cover the costs... that could be an interesting approach if the Romans could build the reputation. The "Tributary Themes" would certainly be an interesting historical note. /muse
 
Granting them land? Well, then they become locals and have a base of support, and in the next generation you just have to repeat the process, except now you have less land to give.

Excellent point.

Compare for example to the Scandinavian mercenaries in Russia who either (early on) 1. settled down, took on Slavic names and became basically your average hereditary gentry or (later on) 2. did none of the above things and were disliked by the population and sometimes targeted by popular revolts.

Same process happened with the Black Hats and Cumans, who, as allies settled within the nominal borders of the various principalities, became an important force in Kievan and Vladimir politics.

In any case, granting foreign (Lithuanian, Tatar, Circassian, but also others - Prussian, Swedish, Greek) warriors and for personal service on a hereditary basis is exactly the solution Russian princes came up with - in the very late 14th c. onwards, around the same time that a similar system developed in the Ottoman Empire. So it's not out of the question, but it happened much later OTL.
 
Excellent point.

Compare for example to the Scandinavian mercenaries in Russia who either (early on) 1. settled down, took on Slavic names and became basically your average hereditary gentry or (later on) 2. did none of the above things and were disliked by the population and sometimes targeted by popular revolts.

Same process happened with the Black Hats and Cumans, who, as allies settled within the nominal borders of the various principalities, became an important force in Kievan and Vladimir politics.

In any case, granting foreign (Lithuanian, Tatar, Circassian, but also others - Prussian, Swedish, Greek) warriors and for personal service on a hereditary basis is exactly the solution Russian princes came up with - in the very late 14th c. onwards, around the same time that a similar system developed in the Ottoman Empire. So it's not out of the question, but it happened much later OTL.

Case in point for 1), the Rurikovichs. Yes, those Rurikovichs. Also known as Rurikids in the English speaking countries.
 
Case in point for 1), the Rurikovichs. Yes, those Rurikovichs. Also known as Rurikids in the English speaking countries.

It's an interesting point but much earlier than any reasonable timeframe for Kiev to import Greek soldiers. I meant later Russian-Scandianavian contacts, from, say, Yaroslav and onwards. If you're talking about the very early period, yes, the Varangians had an outsize impact on East Slavic polities and nobility. But there's a much greater and much more thorough mix of various prince's men (judging by names in the chronicles they're Chud', Black Hat, Hungarian, Slavic, Alan among others) by the time Greeks become a viable recruiting option, I think, and the only Scandinavian-speaking part of the realm is a suburb of Ladoga because of the wedding gift land grant situation. At this point we can comfortably speak about these people being foreign mercenaries as opposed to like, extended kin of local warrior class or something that the very earliest period could have been.
 
Top