The Warings or Waringhians

The Warings or Waringhians: in Germania, Britain, Russia, Byzantium, and the East, an historical disquisition Author(s): Hyde, Clarke
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RINGS OR
WARING
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ANSI
IN GERMANIA, BRITAIN, RUSSIA, BYZANTIUM AND THE EAST, AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION, BY HYDE CLARKE.
CONSTANTINOPLE, MESSRS. KOEHLER: LONDON, BERNARDQUARITGH. 1861. Review. the From Leyaivt Quarterly ..t Office Grand Pera. 201 PrintedIho Rue,
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IllE WARINGS, or WARANGIIIAN5 BT HYDE CLARKE
[Thispaper is foundedon a lecture deliveredat the Bi itish Lite rary Institution, Constantinople,and in it the references to the several authoritiesare now given.]
The name of the Waranghians is closely connected with Byzantine history, and itis one known to us because our AngloSaxon nobles were associated with the Waranghian enterpriscs. Willi were these Waranghians? what indeed was their true appellation, has frequently occupied historians a id antiquaries. The prevalent opinion of the most learned men in the last cen tury was thai the Waranghians were so called after a Norse word of doubtful existence, said to mean vagabonds and thieves, as if they themselves would use such a term of reproach, or as if Slavonians would so name them in a tongue unknown. The favourite opinion in the present day is that the Waranghians were Scandinavians or Norsemen. The difficulty, however, experienced in the determination of the Waranghians has been in tracing them upwards. Had the attempt been sedulously made to ascertain what had leeomc of those tribes most closely knit with the English, the difficulty would have been long since solved. It happens, how ever, most unfortunately that the early history of our own race has been much neglected, and it is only of late years that atten tion has been devoted to it. Thus the close association of our kinsmen, the Frizians, in our occupat'on of Britain has been fully established, but mu:h remain:, to be done.
1
Ii8
The Wari7igsi
In the course of some enquiries in this branch of history, I was led many years ago to this subject of the Waranghians, and in 1849 I laid some observations before the Antiquarian Society of London, in which I briefly sketched the history of this people, our nearest kinsmen and allies among the tribes of Germania. The first mention of the English is in the Gcrmania of Ta citus, and linked with their name is that of another tribe "Angli et Yarini."(a) Who were the Angli we well know; who were the Yarini That they were a people who had the same laws we know; that they spoke the same language we know, and they lived in the same neighbourhood in Jutland for at least eight hundred years. They were indeed by so many ties so nearly allied, that in many cases they must have been undistinguished from each olher. Thus in the invasion of Britain their name of the Varini is almost as obscure as that of the Frizians, and it is only in Wasringwick (Warwick), that we recognize it. Another name of the tribes of the Varini is however preserved by Ta citus, Ptolemy and Bede, namely the Rugii.(b) To this name wc shall afterwards have to refer. In the second century we find the eountry of Jutland and the Baltic shore occupied by these tribes, the Saxons and Frizians on the shore'of the North Sea, the English on thcBaltic shore of Jutland to the North, and on the South Baltic the Varini or Warings, and the Rugii or Russians. These, however, are scarcely to be called separate tribes or nations, as there was among them little difference of tongue, the English, the Saxon and the Frizian being so closely akin that the English and Saxon were fuzed into one tongue, and even at this day the Germania (a) Tacitus /|0. Germania 43;Ptolemy, 2; AmmianusMarcellinusExc. (h) Tacitus, II. cap. 48; Ilisloiia EcJa V, 9, EcclcbWilicu,
Hi
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149
" Good butter and English and Frizian are proverbially alike, good cheese are good English and good Frieze," alluding to the pronunciation of these words being alike in the two tongues. They consisted of a number of clans, or families forming con federations from time to time under several princes or Com monwealths. Thus the same clans shared in the invasions of Britain, which resulted in the settlement of the common wealths of the East, South and Middle Saxons, of the Southrick or Surrey, and that of the North and Southfolk, now Norfolk and Suffolk, of the East English. The Warings and Russians were therefore identically the same people with the English, the Russians or Rugians, people of Rugen, being a branch of the Warings, and afterwards united with them in Jutland. By Pliny (a) the Warings had been named, but not the English-, by Ptolcmy(b) both are named. In the sixth century the Warings were defeated by Ghildebert,King of theFranks. (c) It is to be obsrved that besides the Warings dispersed in Bri tain, the main body remained in Germania, and so it was withregard to the English. Procopius (tl) often names the Warings, and it is he who tells the story of the bctrothment of Radigcr, King of the Warings, to the sister of the King of the East English. Radiger having broken his engagement and cast her off, the warlike damsel levied an army in England, crossed the seas, and landing in Germania, forced Radiger to marry her. Procopius names Hermegiscles, King of the Warni. The Warni, like the old English, had the custom of marrying the father's widow, (c) Lib. (a) Plinius IV. Cli.111. II. (I)) Ptolomajus, 9, 11. Cliron. XV. (c) Fredcgar, Bcllum B (tl)Procopius, Gothicnni,II. Ch.13,B, III, Cli,33,B, IV,Ch.20, B. (e) Sharon History HI.Cii,7, Turner,
ISO
The Warings
In GB9 the Rugians or Russians, who arc ranked by Bcdo among the tribes of English kin, are lccognized as a people then subsisting in Germania. (a) Jornandes names Ulmc-rugi and Ethel-rugi. But whether these are suhtribes I cannot now determine. A passage in Bede has been underwood as deciding that the English and their kinsmen in Jutland had died in his lime lie says, "From the English, that is the country which is named Angeln, and which is said from that lime,rto remain desert to this day, between the provinces of the Jutes and Saxons, came the East English etc". This King Alficd repeats in the next century in his translation, and it has been taken generally as stating that the English wholly icft Jutland, where, as the meaning cannot go farther than that the part called Angcln was emptied of its people, for Alfred himself in his Orosius expressly names Frysland, Angli, Sillende, and Dena as in that country. It appears likewise that there were remains of Vandals(b) and Burgundians, and perhaps of Lombards, in those countries, of whom some portion may have shared in the invasion of Britain, and of whom those enumerated by Alfred may have performed their last national feat under the banner of Rune. The Warings were not so succesful as their brethren in se curing some share in the spoils of the Roman Empire, but a higher lot awaited them. After the eighth century when the settlement of Britain made less calls upon them, they seemed to have turned their attention to expeditions on the Baltic, to which we have stray references in the Sagas. They were how ever from these drafts on their strength, dwindling in num bers; the Slavonians slowly passed their borders on the east in are the a (a) The Hunsmentioned tins passage doubtless Utilising,great of as branch theFiizians, theRugians of the"\\ weie IicUc mings.BcdaILstoiU V. siastica on 115. Kuci \h, Ltngebeck rvo'.e theChrouicon Regis,
Or Warantjhians.
151
and south, took the island of Rugen, and settled in Meck lenburg, while the High Dutch advanced from the we<t and Scandinavians or Norsemen from the north. Thus in time, on the extinction of the old English races, the south of Jutland became as it W now High Dutch, and the north Scandinavian, the Danes, formerly akin to the English, becoming a Norse speaking people, the Saxons being extinguished by a High Dutch population, and of all the famous tribes of Jutland, a few Frizians alone remaining on the main, and on the Holy Island of our race, Heligoland, at the mouth of the Elbe, now under our sway; a curious circumstance, by which this national temple of twenty centuries is preserved to our people. Before the time of Charlemagne the Warings in Jutland had the laws of Wulcmar, the same as the English and Frizians, and it was about the year 800 that Charlemagne confirmed these !aws,(a) which are still preserved and are identical in spirit with the Anglo-Saxon laws of Britain, and the early laws given by our people to Russia. Whether tiic Warings shared in the forays of the sea kings on the coasts of Britain is not yet determined, but in the ninth century we find them most actively engaged in the Baltic, where they held the foremost rank. They took tribute from the Slavonians, notably the Choods, Slaves, Mcrians and Krivilches.(b) They must at an early period in that century have found means to penetrate down the rivers of South Russia into the Black Sea, for in 839 a number of Russians were stopped by Lewis, the son of Charlemagne, making their way home from Byzantium by accompanying an embassy from the Greek Emperor Theophilus lo Lewis.(c) The old Russian Chronicler expressly affirms that there was a regular route for expeditions ct of of the the and (a) SeeimJcr name Angli Werini Collections Leibnitz Lindenbrog. of 850. (b) Chronicle Nestor EertinianiA.D, a:ul B. 530, Luitpraiul V, Ch,6, (c) Aiinalcb
452
The Warings,
from Waringia, on the land of the Warings into Greece. Th Baltic Sea was named by the Slavonians the Waring Sea, as by the alarmed Romans the east shore of Britain was calledt the Saxon shore. The Dwina and the Dnieper were used as channels of communication, the Warings going up the rivers of Slavonia in small barks, and carrying them across from river to river, just as their brethren did in Britain, and Sla vonia was so disorganized that the people were un able to resis these rovers. They seem to have sold Welsh, Irish, French and other slaves to the Byzantines, bringing back Slavonian furs and Byzantine gold. Novgorod in North Slavonia was the great seat of this trade. That the Warings penetrated into the countries in the neighbourhood of the Caspian by the Wolga is most likely, for Nestor refers to this route. By the middle of the century the Slavonian countries were in miserable straits, through the disunion of their several tribes, and the invasions of the Turkish tribes. The Warings levied regular tribute on theSlavonians of the Baltic. In SCO,861 and 862, these incursions continued. Some of the tribes wished to refuse tribute, but others thought it belter to obtain the " let us seek a Warings as allies. They said, prince who can and speak to us according to justice." Accordingly govern us, as Yortigern, King of Britain, had done before, the Slavonians sent an Embassy to Jutland, consisting of Choods, Slaves, Kriviches and others. They said to the princes of Jutland, "Our country is great, and everything is in abundance, but order and justice are wanting, come and take possession of the soil and govern us." As Hengist and Horsa, had done before with three keels or ships, three brothers, likewise of the godlike and kingly race of Weden, Ruric, Snow and Troovcr agreed to do, and to take partin the expedition to Slavonia, for which they levied their forces. These brethren belonged, says Nestor, to the kind of Warings, called Russians, as others are called Swedes, Northmen, English and Goths. This was about
Or Waranghians.
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862, according to Nestor. It is likely, although the date of Nestor varies thirteen years in another case, that this is about the right date, for I am inclined to consider Ruric to be the same Ruric, a great sea king, who ravaged the continent(a) in 850 and 857, and who appears to have been a relative of Heriold. (b) They landed among the Slaves and built the town of La doga, (c) a site as famous in our annals as that of the landing of Hengist and Horsa in the Isle of Thanct, and of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England, and fraught with consequences as im portant. Ruric, the eldest brother settled on the banks of the Ladoga river, Snow on those of the White Lake, and Troovor at Isborsk. Two years after the two younger brothers died, and Ruric swayed alone. He conquered most of Slavonia, and divided it among his aldermen, who built many towns and settled Warings in them. It was these successive settlements, which drained away from Jutland the remainder of the Old Eng lish, the Warings and Saxons. Two chieftains, Oskold and Dir, men of noble blood, but not of the race of Weden, formed an expedition on their own account to attack Constantinople, but on their way made them selves mastcrs'of the town of Kieff and the country of the Polanians. In 865, 864, 863 and 866, according to Nestor, they were engaged in plundering the Greek Empire, but in 851, according to the Byzantine historians. This was the first of a series of four attempts made to plunder the treasures of this city of Constantinople within a period of one hundred and ninety years, (d) expeditions, which from their boldness, are among the most remarkable facts of the English race. They of A. A. (j) Annals Fulda, D. 830, 857,882; Ann.Mett. D. 850,857; Ann. A. Bcrtiniani, D. 850,855,807,870,874and882. of A. (b) Annals Fulda D. 852. of was found coinIu a (c) Dr.Henderson thaton thebanks theLidoga says " srribed Etiielrad, Anglorum," Rex Sharon B. Turner, YI.Ch.9. (d) Gibbon, LV, Chapter,
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The Warings
altickeJ U13greatest city in the world inhabited by a people great in knowledge and wealth, and this they did with tho slightest means. The bottom of their bark^ was made of the long stem of a beech or willow, and on this foundation, the sides were raised with planks, till the height reached twelve feet and the length sixty. The boats were without a deck having a mast and two rudders and made to move cither by sails or long sweeps. They carried from twenty to forly men, their arms, fresh water and saltfish, or meat. The Warings began with a fleet of two hundred ships, but towards the end they got together a thousand. After plunder ing the north shore of Anatolia, Oakold and Dir passed the Bosphorus, and occupied the port of Constantinople, here in the Golden Horn. The Emperor Michael, son of Theophilus, hast ily returned. He was an impious and dissolute prince, who was accustomed to parade the city with his buffoons, dressed as bishops mounted on jackasses, and with such companions had assaulted the patriarch and his bishops. Wken the Wa rings assailed the city, his chief resource was in superstition, for he repaired to the Church of the Virgin Mary at the Blachcrnfe and under the advice of the patriarch took from it her under garment, a precious relic, and dipped it in the sea. This being followed by a tempest, which shattered the Waring fleet, and compelled their retreat, the glory was attributed to the Virgin Mary. The Warings had, however, got considerable plunder from Anatolia, so that in 90k Olcg or 0,'af, the regent of the young king, was encouraged to make another attack. He got together two thousand ships and a great body of Warings, English and Norsemen, and of Slavonians, and approached Constantinople. The Warings attacked the open country, and the Greeks hav ing closed the Bosphorus againsHhc ileet, he carried it over land, as Mahomet the Second is said to have done afterwards, and assailed the gales of the City. The Greeks having made
Or Waringhians.
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overtures of peace, first tried to destroy the troops with poisoned wine and provisions. The Greeks were compelled to pay an enormous sum to the 80,000 troops of the fleet, and negotiate a treaty. The names of the Waring ambassadors include those of Carl or Charles, Pharwolf, Veremond, Ingild, Good, Ruald, thorough northern names. By this treaty provision was made for mutual inter course between the Warings and ,Grceks. Vessels wrecked on the Waring coast were to be sent back, prisoners were to be exchanged on paying ransom ; the Warings, being largely en gaged in the slave trade, had a right to reclaim fugitive slaves-, criminals were to be restored, Waring workmen i.i Constanti nople or elsewhere were to be subject to English law, and their property after death was to be sent to their own country. This is an early instance of capitulations in Constantinople. Olaf required of the Greeks to find silk sails for the Warings and cotton sails for the Slavonians, and raised his shield above the gate of the city in token of victory. The scene of these events was most likely near the Adrianople Gate. From 935 to 941 Igor, the king of the Warings, was engaged in preparations for war, or in war, with the Greeks. He raised a large fleet, and began by attacking Bythinia, and wasting Pontus as far as Heraclea, and Paphlagonia and Nicomedia, bearing fire and sword everywhere. The Greeks in 941 de feated Igor in battle with great slaughter, and attacked his fleet with Greek fire. On both sides great atrocities were committed. In the next spring the Warings got together new troops, and sent beyond sea to the old Warings and their kinsmen to join him. In 944 Igor led a large army by land and sea against the Greeks, having with him a considerable body of Patzinag Turkomans, an early instance of alliance between the two races. The Greek emperors bought off this war with a large dancgeld, and the Patzinags were let loose on the Bulgarians. Iu 945 a new treaty was made between the Greek emperors
l."6
The Waring*,
Romanus and Constantine, and the Warings. This treaty was signed by many Warings, among whom are to be recognized Wolf, H.ilfdan, Alphad, Bromwald, Thorfred, Thorwen. Ingeld, Ruahl, Grim, Hakon, Frodi, Adon, Adolf, Anttwald, Furst, and Swain. One of them is named as a merchant. By this treaty free trade was allowed to the Warings throughout the Greek empire, but they were to have passports. The Warings engaged to find auxiliary troops for the Byzantine empire. In 935 the Queen Olgamadea voyage to Constantinople, and was baptised as a Christian under the name of Helena. This caused great dissatisfaction and indignation among the Warings and English on her return. In 964 Swithoslaf or Swalo^laus, the son of Igor, began a new war against the Greeks, but he was led by a present of 1500 pounds of gold or 60,000/. to at tack the kingdom of Bulgaria, for which he levied 60,000 men. He conquered this kingdom, but become involved in a war with the Greeks, in which he advanced to Adrianople, at at the head of a large army of Warings, English, Norsemen, Slavonians and Turks. A newEmperor, however, John Zimisces, a brave Armenian, had succeeded to the Bjzar.tine throne, and advancing against Ihe Warings he beat them, and drove them back, and after a desperate struggle they had to return home. I have not investigated whether the Warings had any share in the invasions of Hungary referred to by Gibbon Ch. LV. Tray, Dissert, VI, VII; Katona. HtstoriaDucum Hung. p. p. 95, 99, 259264, 476, 479, 483. Wc now return to the proceedings ofthe Warings in the land they had conquered. In 822 Olaf the Regent made himself master of Kieff Taking with him a body of warriors in barks, he went up the river, and concealing them in ambush, he sent a message to say that a party of Waring merchants trading to Greece, in the name of Olafand Igor, were staying near Mount Ugor, and would be o Vn\,i h Dir resorted thither, glad to sec their count'-ym^r.
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when they were surrounded by the warriors, and Olaf showing them the joung King Igor said to them/' You are neither kings, nor of the blood of kings, here is your lord." At these words they were slaughtered, as having usurped the rights of the race ofWeden, which claimed the sole prerogative of filling the thrones of the North as they then did of twenty kingdoms, at d as their descendants now claim to do of England, Denmark, Russia and Saxony. The end of Olaf sounds like a legend of the Isle ofSheppcy. Olaf had asked a soothsayer, "How shall 1 die," and he answered " Earl, the horse you love, and on which you ride, shall bring you death." Olaf put away the horse, and five years afterwards he sent for his groom, and asked what had become of the horse. The groom answered he was dead. Then: Olaf said " What the soothsayers say is lies, my horse is dead and I live." He went straightway to where the bones of the horse lay, and looking at them said, " That is the beast that was to cause my death," then lie kicked the scull with his foot, but a snake shot forth, and slung him in the fool, giving him a deathly wound. The restless Warings and English were not only engaged in. Slavonia, but they entered the service of thcGreck emperors and the Mussulmankings of the cast. Massoudi, the Arab historian, states that Warings or Russians and Slavonians were in the service of the great Khan of theKhozarTurkomans, and dwelt in his head town of Alcl. In 9i2, with the leave of this prince, they fitted out an expedition with their ships or boats on the Caspian Sea, and wasted Daghcsttn and Shirwan. In 944, says another Arab historian, Abulfeda, they took the city of Barda, the capital of Aran, and 50 miles from Gradja, pro ceeding in their barks by the Caspian Sea and river Corz, and returning the same way. These countries were 'the frequent scene of Waring attacks, for Swithoslaf seems in 964 to have subdued the Yas&esand IheKisso^s, supposed to be the O^cl'u'.ans and the Circassian?.
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The Warings,
Many of the legends of the Warings, as has been already seen, are like those of their brethren jn England. Olga, the wife of Igor, had a deadly hatred against the Drevlians for slaying her husband. Having slain many of Iheir best leaders, she beleaguered their town, of which the houses were thatched and built of wood. After some time the Drevlians made offers of peace with a tribute of honey and fruit. Olga with affected generositydeclined,and asked three sparrows and three pigeons from each house. These being delivered, the queen at night let them loose with lighted matches tied to their tails, and the birds flying back to their nests, set fire to the town in a hundred places, when it was assaulted, and the people slaughtered. The same legend is told of Cirencester (a) thence called Sparowcester, of Wroxeter and of Silchester. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the Warings and English died out in Jutland, and the Waring influence in Sla vonia diminished. In the old country they seem to have been devotedly attached to the national religion, or the worship of Weden. Hence dissensions arose between the old party and those they ^looked upon as degenerate forsakcrs of the great lawgiver of the north. Hence begun those attacks of the sea kings on the English in Britain, followed up by the Norsemen, and as the various expeditions thinned the people, so did the Norsemen preponderate, the scet of Thor acquire domi nance, and the sect of Wcden decline, while ancient nations died out in their old abodes. The same /celing was awakened with regard to Slavonia. In time the Waring or Russian chiefs, few in proportionto the rcstof the population, having intermar ried with the Slavonians, they lost their own language and religion and acquired those of the Slavonians, and at length the name Russian ceased to mean those of English blood, but Slavonians alone, for so long as the national feeling was upheld, Brute, (a) Layamon,
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and the pride of blood swayed, a careful distinction was made between Russian and Slavonian, as between free and serf. The famous Waldemar or Wladimir, king of Russia, sought as his queen Rogneda, the handsome daughter of Earl Rognwald, saying, " I wish to wed thy daughter." " Do you wish Waldemar?" said her father to the lady. "No I will not marry the son of a slave," for Waldemir was not the son of an Eng lishman, but a son of King Swithoslaf, by a Slavonian woman, named Malusha. Waldemar, however, sacked the Earl's town of Polotsk, slew him and his sons, and forced the lady to wed him. At an after time, having sought other wives, Waldcmar neglected the Queen Rogncda, but having gone to see her in her abode near Kief, and there falling asleep, she sought to slab him, but he woke up. He then determined to wreak vengeance on her with his own hand, and he bade her clothe herself in her wedding dress, and await her dcalh on a rich bed in her richest chamber. She did as she was bid, and the King came into the room to slay her, but was met by their boyish eldest son Isiaslaf, who by his mother's orders, offered Waldemar a drawn sword, and said, " Take this sword and thrust it in my bosom, father, for I the son will not be witness to the death of my mother." " Who thought of seeing thee here?" said Wahlemar, and he threw .way his sword. He then called together his carls, but the Warings refused to coun tenance the death of Rogneda, and he gave her and their eldest son the city of Rognwuld for them to live together. Waldemar, afterwards became a Christian, and married the daughter of the Greek emperor. This state of affairs caused growing dissatisfaction between the half Slavonian kings and the Warings; and though when in difficulties the kings took shelter among the old Warings. as in 977 and 1050, and they drew warriors from them, they consbntlv sought means to lessen their influence. About 980 the
160
The Waring.*;
Warings claimed the tribute of Kicff, which they had con quered, and Waldemar having deluded them, they reproached " him w'.lh it, and said, "We know the road to Greece." Go then" said he, hut Waklcmar sent a letter to the Emperor of Constantinople, to let him know of their coming, warning him against them, and urging him to slay them. The last mention we have of the Warings in Jutland is in 1050, hut most likely some lingered there till the end of the century. In 1018 a large body of them was slaughtered at Novgorod. In 1025 a party of S00 went to Constantinople on the usual errand of seeking service with the emperor, but Basil suspecting them, prevenicd their landing. They accordingly made their way into the Sea of Marmora, heat the admiral of the Greek squadron, and pushed on to Lemnos, where they were attacked by a large force, and surrendering on condi tions were treacherously slaughtered by t'-'e Greeks. There were already however, considerable numbers in the Greek service, and one body of Warings was quartered in Lydia and Phrygia. A Waring having in suited a native woman, she in the struggle got hold of his sword and slew him. His coun trymen coming up, and learning what had happened, said the woman was worthy of reward, and gave her the plunder of the dead man, lo whose body they refused burial. About 1041 the Warings and their dependents, under the name of Russians, were in considerable numbers throughout the Greek empire, not only as warriors, but as merchants, and a quarrel having arisen at Constantinople between some mer chants and the Greeks, a Waring chief was killed. This was used as a plea by Waldemar the younger to lake arms, when a bloody warfare took place before Constantinople, in which the Yvarings at first suffered a very great loss, but afterwards defeated the Greek fleet. In the main object of their expedi tion to ransom Constantinople, lliey failed. reIn Russia, the r'ghts of the Warings as a race were rccog
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ni2ed,and their most curious monuments are their laws. Thcso make a distinction between the Waring and the Slavonian, and they arc framed exactly like the law, of the Angli of; Werriti and the Anglo-Saxon laws of the same time; murder and all other offences being commutable by a weregeld or money fine, the oath of a Waring being received as evidence of inno cence by compurgation, and questions of debt being referred to a jury of 12, "If a debtor shall refuse to pay what he owes his creditor, the suit shall be brought before twelve persons, who shall be the arbitrators," such is defined in the laws of Jaroslaw, and the like in the laws of Isiaslaw, Vzevolod and Swithoslaf, passed al aW.tcnmole. This latter code recites the law of frankpledge and slreetwird. Many of the lands seem to have been held in soccage. The law of succession gave the throne to the eldest male, as among the Eiglish. The alderman or leader of each district in time of war was chosen by the people. Spoil taken in war did not belong to the prince but to the commonwealth of warriors. In 1077 theWaring guard of kingUselaw sent to king Swithoslaf and Vsevold or Oswald, to occupy the city of Kieff, offering to defend it against the Poles, bul threatening that if he did not to set (ire to it, and make their way to Greece. Greece was about to become the last home of the Warings. In Russia their race existed but in name; already large bodies of Greek priests had been introduced, the Slavonian language was cultivated by them, and the nobles having begun by adding Slavonian names to their English names, ended by dropping the English names, and adopting Slavonian and Greek ones, although by the kings the name of Rurick was long upheld. At the end of the eleventh century the settlement of William the Norman on the throne of England, caused great numbers of the nobles of the national party to seek shelter abroad. Some fled to Scotland and founded families there, but many went to Jutland, thence to Russia, and so to Constantinople, where
162
The Warings
they joined the Waring or Waranghian guard of the Empe rors, (a) We now witness the spectacle of a great nation dwindled to a logon, but the spirit of nationality was strongly kept up. Even in the palaces of Constantinople these guards spoke the English tongue, (b) Gibbon says the Waranghians rose each day in confidence and esteem ; the whole body was assembled at Constantinople to performthe duty of guards, and their strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen. " They preserved till the last age of the Empire the inheritance of spot less loyalty, and the use of the English tongue. With their broad and double-edged battle axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek Emperor in Constantinople to the church, the senate and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under their trusty guard, and the kcYs of the palace, the treasury, and the capital were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Waranghians."' To the junction of the Anglo Saxon refugees, and the national characteristics of the Waranghians, Sir Walter Scott has given popular testimony in his Count Robert of Paris, and the Rev. Mr. Curtisreminds me that by one of these exiles a church was erected in Constantinople under the title of St. Nicholas, (c) Of the connection of the Waring Russians with Constantinople, and of the reverence their valour created a well known legend is preserved. As recorded by Gibbon it was attested, and be lieved by the vulgar of every rank, that an equestrian statue in the square of the Taurus in Constantinople was secretly inscri bed with a prophecy showing the Russians in the last days should become masters of Constantinople. This brazen statue was brought from Antioch, and melted down by the Latin crusaders. The legend has been kept up till of de (a) William MalmesburyGestis Vitalis. Hist Lib, Anglorum, II. Odcricus Lib. Ecclesia;, IV.lib.VII.Cedrenus, (b)Codinus. (c) Scarlatub Bjsantinus 12, p.
Or Waranghians,
j(>6
modern times, and seemingly claimed by the Muscovites, but they are not of the blood of the Waring;, though our people are, and if any faith be giyen to old saws, it is we who can claim this one for what it is worth. As we have seen the Waringhians thinned to a legion, sswe trace then to Ihe compass of a village. The twelfth century brought the Warings and En glish in conflict with their old enemies, the Norm ins. Robert Guiscard, Dake of Sicily, invaded Albania, and engaged in the siege of Durazzo. Alexius Comncnus marched to its relief. The main strength of his army consisted of Waranghians, supported by some companies of Franks or Latins. A bloody battle took place before Durazzo; the English burned to revenge their defeat at the battle of Hastings, and led the vanguard, making a deep impression with their battle axes on the Lombards and Calabrians. The Duke and his wife rallied their Norman horse, and attacking the Waranghians on their flunk which was uncovered by the Greeks, turned the fate of the day. After a siege of seven months, Robert took Durazzo, hut the E-'glish'slill defended the country with their feeble strength. They suffered however another loss by the surprise of three hundred of their number in the city of Casteria ; in the end, the Normans [were obliged to withdraw'. In gratitude for the exertions of the Warings, Alexius gave them a domain in the neighbourhood of Durazzo, which is called Biringa. The head of the Waringhian guard was a great officer of the Court, and was styled the Acolyth. In the defence of Con stantinople against Latin Crusaders it is expressly stated that the firmest hope of the Greek Enpcror was in the strength and spirit of the Waranghians, among whom Norsemen were then mixed with the English. The Waranghians made a desperate defence, but the city wis surrendered and taken possession of by a conlendingGrcck Emperor and by the Latins. The Latin Ambassadors made their way to the palace of the Ivnpcror Conncnus through.
$6&
The'JVarings, or Waranghians.-
.streets lined on both sides by the battle axes of the Waringhian guard. At an after period they were intrusted with the' treasures left by the Emperor Vataces, which they guarded in a strong castle on the'banks of the llermus, in Anatolia. It was the suffrage of the Waranghians that caused the Imperial crown to de placed on the head of Michael Palcelogus in the cathedral of Nice. With him they returned to Constantinople. Of their career the sketch here given is hut imperfect, be cause my chief object has been to identify them as a nation, and to determine their true origin and their relation to that race which, besides founding the great Empire of Russia, has founded the free commonwealths of England, Scotland, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Holland, Friesland, Norwau, and Liberia.
AS TO THE WARINGS, ON WHICH Tils'; QUOTATIONS ABOVE PAPER IS FOUNDED.
Plinius, Hist. Nat. IV 14 Tacitus, Germania 40 Ptolemy II 11 Procopius, Bellum Gothicum II 15, III 35, IV 20 Jornandcs Nestor, Chronicle of Russia Fredegarins, Chronicle XV. Johannes Cantacuzcnus 141, II 15r 40 Alberlus IV. 20 Cinnamus Book I Pachymeres Book VII Briennius I 20 Ordericus Vilalis Villehardouin Scylilza, Curopalata Leo-Ost. II Chronicon Cassin. cap. 58 Chronicle of Moissac AD. 804 Cedrenas 7 Codinus Nicetas Anna Comnenn, Alexiad, Books II, IV, Saxo Gramniaticus, Historia D.iniaj Ducange, glossary word Bariggoi Snorro StuHeson Pertz 4 p. 328 Scarlalus Byzantius p. 129 Gibbon passim Lindenbrog, Leges Rerum Brunsvicensinm Ip, 8l LeibnilZj Scriptorcs
m Transactions ofthcAnliquarian Society, Hyde Clarice Sharon Turner Anglo Saxon History HI 7, V19 Topographical Nomen Hyde Clarke, Anglo-Saxon. clature, Quotations as to Rugii and Ruliclii Tacitus, Germania, cap. 43 Ptolemy 11 2 Ammianus Marcellinus, Exc48 Jornandcs Warnefrid II 119 Jieda, Ilisioria Ecclesise V9 Annals of Corby AD 84-4, AD 1H4 Willekind 111 54 Quotations as to Russi 23 Luitprnnd, Autopodosis 1 11, VII; Legal. Trac. 484 Prudentius, Chronicle of Moissac AD 804 Annals of Qucdlinburg AD 960, 1009, 1018 of Hildesheim AD960, 992 of Augsburg AD 1089 Cent. Reg. AD 959, 960 P. Damian Lamb. Ann. AD 973 V. S. Rom. AD 109 Leo Grammalicus, Chronicle Tbietmar, Chronicle Cedrenus M. Glycas G. Monach. VI 55, VII 48, VIII IS Constantinns Porphyrogenctus 1, 3, B. M 90 ,Sym. Logolhctes 40
LITERARYAND SCIENTIFICINSTITUTION CONSTANTINOPLE. SYLLABUS COURSE LECTURE3 OF OF A PRIVATE ON ZOOLOGY, RECENT AND FOSSIL *Y R. F. FOOTEM. D.M, R. C. P, LONDON. To commenceis October,1861. ANIMAL, TtiSi SiiNtiOOM CONSTAINSFIVE DIVISIONS CALLED FIRST SUB-KINGDOMENCEPnALATA (Grant) Vistebrata Cuvier ot Mammalia as fit Class. Man,Quadrupeds. Aves > 2nd Birds. "Reptilia 3id Reptiles. Amphibia 4th Frogs. Pisces 8;h Fishfts. SECONDSUB-KINGDOMCyclogangliata (Grant) OR Molldsca (Cuvier) as Cephalopoda the Nautilus 6th Class. Pteropoda ClioBortaiis 7th Gasteropodad 8th Snail 0th Cokcuifera Oyster Tdnicata 10th Salpa THIRD SilB-EINGDOM DlPLOGANGLlATA ; (Gl'JUl) OR Articulat4 (Cuvier) Crustacea as Lobsters 41th ClassArachmda I2ih_ Spiders Insecta Insects 13lh Mtriapoda 44th Centipedes FOURTH SUB-HXWGBOMDiplokeurosa (Grant) OR Helhikthoida. (Cuvier) 15thClass. Annulida as Red Worms 16ih Cirrhopoda Barnacles 17th Suctoria TapeWorms 1 llh Rotifera Wheel Aniinaoules 49tli Poltcistica Infusorial Aniraacule* FIFTH SSTBKIKGDOMColokkurosa (Grant) or Zoophyta (Cuvier) 20th Class as Echthodermata StarFislu 21st Acalapha Sea Nettles 22nd I'olipifera Corals 23rd Porifera Sponges Gentlemen to are to with wishing jointhisClass requested communicate the LacruiiEU.Noticehe directed will to of specially the distinction speciesas asa separate showing Creation. man,
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The Warings or Waringhians

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The Warings or Waringhians: in Germania, Britain, Russia, Byzantium, and the East, an historical disquisition Author(s): Hyde, Clarke

Digitization of this work funded by the JISC Digitisation Programme.

IllE WARINGS, or WARANGIIIAN5 BT HYDE CLARKE

AS TO THE WARINGS, ON WHICH Tils'; QUOTATIONS ABOVE PAPER IS FOUNDED.

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