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After the Norman Invasion of 1066, Englishmen unwilling to serve their new masters turned to King Sweyn of Denmark. When hopes of an invasion came to nothing, many left the country, some for as far afield as Constantinople and the Roman Empire, where the Emperor Alexius welcomed them into his armed forces.

Out in Anatolia, the English found that Emperor Alexius’s chief enemy was no less than Robert Guiscard, a Norman nobleman. The English were welcomed with open arms by the Greeks, who set them to guard the royal palace and treasury. Mutual respect ripened quickly, and at the time Orderic was writing the bond was still a strong one.

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Norman Era (14) Orderic Vitalis (4) Roman Empire (5) King William I (the Conqueror) (6) Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) (6) Constantinople (14) Anglo-Saxon Era (72) Mediaeval History (150) British History (377) History (777)

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