The Varangian Guard were an elite military unit used by the Byzantine Empire from the tenth century to the fourteenth century. They mainly served as personal bodyguards for the emperor. The Varangian Guards were mostly Norsemen from Scandinavia but there were also a few Anglo-Saxons from England that joined. In the early medieval times (10th-11th century) they wore an iron conical helmet, a mail hauberk and plain leather boots. Then during the high medieval era (11th-14th century) they wore a metal helmet with a mail face covering, a lamellar cuirrass over a mail hauberk, and metal stripped vambraces and leg guards over leather boots and gloves.
