barbarous in the eyes of Anna Comnena and of her father and the effeminate creatures about him ; but they were barbarians as English soldiers at a native court in India may be regarded now by the degenerate representatives of a warlike race. They did their duty as soldiers, despised the men on whose side they had to fight, and the English, at least, among their number kept their resentment for the Normans, against whom they were shortly destined to fight on imperial territor3 In the fourth crusade, as we shall see, they did their best to resist the attack on the royal city.[1]
We may well feel satisfied that the Greek writers repeated- ly point out that the emperors found their greatest safety in the spotless loyalty of those among our kinsmen who guarded them, and among whom were so many who had left England rather than accept a foreign rule.[2]
It is difficult to determine whether Waring, English, or Russian traders continued to settle in Constantinople. It is, however, certain that they soon ceased to be of importance in comparison with the colonists belonging to other races who had found their way to the New Rome.
4. Italian Colonies in Constantinople.
The most important of these colonies consisted of Italians.
- ↑ After the conquest there are several traces of the Warings in the empire. Nikephorus Greg. pp. 187 and 243, ed. Reg. There is a curious mention in Busbeck of what was probably an isolated Waring tribe in the Crimea. Busbeck gives a list of words spoken by these men which are nearly all English, or, as he considered them, German. This was in 1557. The English or Waring guard was probably kept up by constant emigration from Northern Europe. The question of the national weapon, with which the Waring guard was armed, is discussed vol. iv. 518, " Recueil." The Western writers generally speak of it as a Danish battle-axe.
- ↑ Page 120, Ann. Com., ed. Bonn. (
Greek characters). Bryennios agrees with all in praising their fidelity. William of Malmesbury, bk. ii. c. 13, "Dc Gcst. Angl.," calls them English. Saxo Grammaticus and many others call them Danes.
