WI: Robert Guiscard founded a Byzantine Dynasty?

Allow me to propose a situation...

The Normans in Southern Italy were originally put into service under the Byzantines as they attempted to reassert control over Naples and Sicily. Unfortunately, court intrigue turned against the general leading the army and the Court stopped funding the mercenaries which led to the Normans to turn on the Byzantines.

So, what if (i) the Normans had continued to be paid what they were due, allowing the Byzantines to consolidate their control on Southern Italy, (ii) Robert Guiscard ends up continuing to serve the Byzantines, getting a Byzantine wife instead of a Western European one and having half-Greek kids, and (iii) his Γυισκάρδος / Gyiskárdos (Hellenized Guiscard nickname) children make a bid for the imperial throne and succeed in doing so?
 
Assuming the Norman conquest of England still occurs and William is successful, then the Varangian Guard may be a less popular job opportunity for fleeing Anglo-Saxons warriors.
 
Assuming the Norman conquest of England still occurs and William is successful, then the Varangian Guard may be a less popular job opportunity for fleeing Anglo-Saxons warriors.

On the other hand, they can just hire more Normans, Russians and Scandinavians
 
What’s the impact on Byzantium of having a half Norman dynasty in addition to having Sicily and Naples under control?
 
How many Normans would Guiscard actually bring with him to the Byzantine Empire proper? I guess the big difference between Constantinople and England is that the Normans are not really displacing the Greeks as the ruling class in this scenario, so Guiscard's descendants and any other Normans in tow are going to quickly give up French and generally have much less of a cultural impact in this new country than the Anglo-Normans did.

In the very near term, how does this impact Turkish expansion into western Anatolia? Would the Byzantine Empire win the analogue to the Battle of Manzikert, or entirely preempt it? I note that there were a few hundred Norman mercenaries fighting for Romanos in that battle IOTL, but he still lost. Might he count on more Normans in this scenario? Enough to make a difference?

In any event, reading about their commander, Roussel de Bailleul, gave me an idea for what a hypothetical Greco-Norman class might be called - Phrangopoulos, or "son of a Frank."
 
How many Normans would Guiscard actually bring with him to the Byzantine Empire proper? I guess the big difference between Constantinople and England is that the Normans are not really displacing the Greeks as the ruling class in this scenario, so Guiscard's descendants and any other Normans in tow are going to quickly give up French and generally have much less of a cultural impact in this new country than the Anglo-Normans did.

In the very near term, how does this impact Turkish expansion into western Anatolia? Would the Byzantine Empire win the analogue to the Battle of Manzikert, or entirely preempt it? I note that there were a few hundred Norman mercenaries fighting for Romanos in that battle IOTL, but he still lost. Might he count on more Normans in this scenario? Enough to make a difference?

In any event, reading about their commander, Roussel de Bailleul, gave me an idea for what a hypothetical Greco-Norman class might be called - Phrangopoulos, or "son of a Frank."

Things such as a ruling class and their effects upon the local power are often very circumstantial to be frank. We have examples that in some scenarios we would imagine the rulers to totally forget their prior society and culture and remain in touch with it, yet others, where when a people might should totally replace the system, they instead affirm themselves to it.
 
How many Normans would Guiscard actually bring with him to the Byzantine Empire proper? I guess the big difference between Constantinople and England is that the Normans are not really displacing the Greeks as the ruling class in this scenario, so Guiscard's descendants and any other Normans in tow are going to quickly give up French and generally have much less of a cultural impact in this new country than the Anglo-Normans did.

In the very near term, how does this impact Turkish expansion into western Anatolia? Would the Byzantine Empire win the analogue to the Battle of Manzikert, or entirely preempt it? I note that there were a few hundred Norman mercenaries fighting for Romanos in that battle IOTL, but he still lost. Might he count on more Normans in this scenario? Enough to make a difference?

In any event, reading about their commander, Roussel de Bailleul, gave me an idea for what a hypothetical Greco-Norman class might be called - Phrangopoulos, or "son of a Frank."

I believe there were several thousand Norman mercs working for the Byzantines before they revolted but I’m not sure.

I think the introduction of Norman castle building might help prevent the Turkish invasion in Western Anatolia? The other aspect of Potential importance is Norman legal concepts mixing with Byzantine ones.

Other than that, I guess some Norman names might become Hellenized due to the Gyaskardos dynasty

Βοημούνδος / Voimoúndos /Bohemond

Ταγκρέδος / Tankrédos / Tancred
 
The Byzantines were not too picky about ethnic background as long as a person adopted the "Roman" language, religion, and culture. Over its history the empire was ruled by numerous emperors with substantial (albeit sometimes conjectural) Armenian, Slavic, Turkic, and Latin ancestry.

Consider the Axouchoi, a family which originated with John Axouch (or Axouchos), a full-blooded Turk who was enslaved as a child, became a childhood friend of Emperor John II Komnenos, attained the position of megas domestikos, and became one of the most powerful men in the empire with close ties to the ruling family. His son Alexios was also a high-ranking imperial commander who married into the Komnenid clan, and Alexios’s son John (known as John Komnenos “the Fat”) launched a failed coup in 1201 which cost him his life. Foreign blood was no obstacle to the family's rise, and there is no reason why a Norman family could not follow a similar path so long as they were willing to fully "Hellenize" (not that the Byzantines would have used that word, of course).

I am unsure of the likelihood that Robert Guiscard himself would follow this path, as he always struck me as a highly ambitious person who may not have been very comfortable as the loyal commander in the model of John Axouch. But speaking more generally, it is entirely plausible that a Norman knight might found an aristocratic Byzantine dynasty so long as he and his successors were willing to adopt the local culture and become "Romans" in all respects.

As far as given names, I suspect that like many "barbarians" who assimilated into the Byzantine culture a Byzanto-Norman noble family is likely to adopt standard Greek names. It's presumably easier to gain acceptance at the imperial court as "Iohannes" than "Tankrédos."
 
The Byzantines were not too picky about ethnic background as long as a person adopted the "Roman" language, religion, and culture. Over its history the empire was ruled by numerous emperors with substantial (albeit sometimes conjectural) Armenian, Slavic, Turkic, and Latin ancestry.

Consider the Axouchoi, a family which originated with John Axouch (or Axouchos), a full-blooded Turk who was enslaved as a child, became a childhood friend of Emperor John II Komnenos, attained the position of megas domestikos, and became one of the most powerful men in the empire with close ties to the ruling family. His son Alexios was also a high-ranking imperial commander who married into the Komnenid clan, and Alexios’s son John (known as John Komnenos “the Fat”) launched a failed coup in 1201 which cost him his life. Foreign blood was no obstacle to the family's rise, and there is no reason why a Norman family could not follow a similar path so long as they were willing to fully "Hellenize" (not that the Byzantines would have used that word, of course).

I am unsure of the likelihood that Robert Guiscard himself would follow this path, as he always struck me as a highly ambitious person who may not have been very comfortable as the loyal commander in the model of John Axouch. But speaking more generally, it is entirely plausible that a Norman knight might found an aristocratic Byzantine dynasty so long as he and his successors were willing to adopt the local culture and become "Romans" in all respects.

As far as given names, I suspect that like many "barbarians" who assimilated into the Byzantine culture a Byzanto-Norman noble family is likely to adopt standard Greek names. It's presumably easier to gain acceptance at the imperial court as "Iohannes" than "Tankrédos."
For your last point, that’s true but it’s not unheard of since Artavasdos didn’t adopt a new name wholesale to replace his Armenian name and simply Hellenized it.
 
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