The saga of the 10 forgotten vikings begins in June 793, when an Anglo‑Saxon priest lamented that “heathen men came and miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.” Those raids marked the start of the Viking Age, yet while many Norse marauders have entered legend, a handful of truly terrifying leaders have slipped through the cracks of history.

10 Forgotten Vikings: The Untold Legends

10 Hastein

The Viking chief Hastein had a long and bloody career raiding England and France. But in his day, he was most notorious for his expedition to the Mediterranean in AD 859. After raiding Algeria, the Vikings found an island to wait out the winter. To their astonishment, the Mediterranean remained warm all through the winter months.

Hastein was also surprised to learn he was near Rome. The headquarters of the Church would surely be a glittering prize, and Hastein resolved to plunder it. Sailing down the west coast of Italy, the Vikings came across the greatest town they had ever seen. It was surely Rome.

Hastein knew the walls were too mighty for him to take the city by force. Instead, he pulled ashore and had his men explain that their dying leader wanted a Christian burial. The Italians were touched and agreed to allow Hastein carried through the gates. Of course, the chieftain soon sprang from his coffin and sacked the city.

He sailed away loaded with loot. and it was apparently some time before he learned that he had mistaken a town called Luna for the great city of Rome.

9 Sigurd The Stout

Sigurd the Stout was the Norse ruler of Orkney, a large island on the north coast of Scotland. He extended the power of Orkney over the Hebrides islands and large areas of mainland Scotland.

He was well known for his use of a raven banner, a mysterious pagan totem flown by several Viking raiders. The sagas say that Sigurd’s raven banner was made by his mother (a powerful shaman) and made him invincible in battle.

However, Sigurd was overwhelmed by the Norse king Olaf Tryggvason, who forced him to convert to Christianity and took his son back to Norway as a hostage. The son died, and Sigurd was able to renounce his conversion. He took his raven banner with him to the Battle of Clontarf, where he was killed by the forces of the Irish king Brian Boru.

8 Rider

The Persian philosopher Abu Miskawayh and the Kurdish chronicler Ali ibn al-Athir both recorded a raid on the distant Caspian Sea in AD 943. According to Miskawayh, a powerful Viking Rus fleet ported overland to the Caspian and then rowed up the Kura River to attack the rich city of Barda’a. The leader of the expedition rode a donkey, but the Muslim writers apparently didn’t know his name.

After crushing a force of 5,000, the Vikings looted Barda’a and slaughtered many of the citizens after being pelted with stones. The Persian governor of the region brought up reinforcements and placed the city under siege, but his men were intimidated by the invaders and the Vikings were only forced to retreat after an epidemic of dysentery thinned their ranks.

The donkey-riding chief died in a breakout attempt, but his surviving men were able to slip away at night and made it to the safety of their ships. The locals at once dug up the graves they left behind to retrieve the valuable swords buried with the dead warriors.

7 Traveled

The Vikings returned to the Caspian in the 1040s, when the warrior Ingvar the Far-Traveled led an expedition south from Sweden. After spending a few years with the Rus, Ingvar headed off again in search of plunder.

Georgian chroniclers mention a group of Vikings who helped King Bagrat IV of Georgia in a war against some rebels. These are generally assumed to be Ingvar’s men, especially since the landscape in a saga about him matches up well with the Georgian terrain.

After that, Ingvar is believed to have headed further east, into Muslim lands around the Caspian sea. The sagas and various runestones agree that his entire expedition died of disease there, a rather underwhelming end for such a powerful warrior.

6 Brodir Of Man

After Brian Boru became High king of Ireland in AD 1002, Viking power in the Emerald Island was seriously under threat. The Norse king of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, decided to back a rebellion against Brian. He was encouraged by his mother Gormflaith, who was Brian’s estranged wife.

At Gornflaith’s urging, Sigtrygg recruited warriors from all over the Viking world, including Sigurd the Stout. He also sent word to the Isle of Man, which was ruled by two brothers named Brodir and Ospak, who were reputedly powerful sorcerers. Brodir agreed to fight, but Ospak thought that they would lose and he ducked out under cover of darkness to join Brian.

At the Battle of Clontarf, Brodir was said to have cut down dozens of Irishmen. But Clontarf was a bloodbath and Brodir sensibly ran away into the woods when the opportunity presented itself. According to Njal’s Saga, he accidentally ran into the elderly King Brian, who was waiting to hear the outcome of the battle. Overwhelming Brian’s guards, Brodir personally killed the king.

The Saga later relates that Brian’s brother Wulf the Quarrelsome later tracked Brodir down, nailed his intestines to a tree, and forced him to walk around it until they were all pulled out.

5 Raud The Strong

According to the 12th-century Icelandic poet-historian Snorri Sturluson, Raud ran afoul of King Olaf Tryggvason, who was trying to convert Norway to Christianity. Raud refused to convert and openly mocked the Christians.

This infuriated Olaf, who had Raud seized. When the stubborn pagan still refused to be baptized, Olaf had him tied down and rammed a drinking horn down his throat. Then he pushed a snake into the horn and poked it with a hot iron until it crawled down Raud’s throat and into his stomach.

According to Snorri, Raud died when the snake chewed its way out through his side. Since snakes can’t really chew, the story may be worth taking with a grain of salt.

4 Ivar The Boneless

According to Ragnar’s Saga, Ivar the Boneless was the son of the legendary warrior Ragnar Lodbrok, pictured above. That may or may not be true (the same saga has Ivar fighting a magical cow), but we do know that Ivar and his brothers commanded the Great Heathen Army, a mighty force that invaded England in 865.

They overran the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia and did serious damage to the kingdom of Mercia. King Aelle of Northumbria was tortured to death, while Edmund of East Anglia was shot full of arrows in a church. After that, Ivar returned to York and disappears from the record, leaving command of the army to his brothers.

Ivar’s nickname has been the subject of much speculation. The sagas agree that he had to be carried around on a shield, and Ragnar’s Saga claims that he had “only the like of gristle where his bones should have been.” This has led some historians to suggest that he suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that leaves bones fragile and easily broken.

3 Imar

Before Ivar the Boneless appeared in English records, a Viking leader called Imar was active in Ireland, where he took control of Dublin and fought in numerous raids and small wars. After Ivar left England, Imar reappeared in Scotland, where he besieged the great stronghold at Dumbarton Rock.

The siege lasted four months, but the Vikings were eventually able to cut off the water supply, and the fortress surrendered. The king of Strathclyde was taken prisoner and, it took 200 ships to carry away the loot. Imar then returned to Ireland, where he died of a “hideous disease” in 873.

Most historians speculate that Imar and Ivar are the same person, although the Scotch-Irish records never make reference to the “boneless” nickname.

2 Gunderedo

The earliest Viking raid on Spain sacked the Muslim city of Seville in 844. Subsequent attacks on Muslim Spain went poorly, and the largest Viking campaign in Spain focused on the Christian north.

The raid started when Richard of Normandy called in Danish assistance for a campaign in northern France. Once that wrapped up, the Danes raided Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain. They were led by a “sea-king” the Spanish called Gunderedo.

Gunderedo’s men pillaged the great shrine of Santiago de Compostela and killed the bishop in battle. After that, no Galician was willing to challenge the Danes and they ran riot across the countryside for three years. Its not clear why they eventually left, but probably Galicia was too poor to hold their attention for longer.

1 Thorstein The Red

Thorstein the Red was the son of King Olaf of Dublin and his famous queen, Aud the Deep-Minded. Aud’s family ruled the Hebrides, and Olaf had married her in the hope of gaining an alliance. But the islanders continued to raid around Dublin, and Olaf eventually sent Aud and the infant Thorstein home in fury.

Olaf’s power grew, and he took control of the Hebrides, forcing Aud to flee to Scotland with her son. Thorstein grew up into a fierce warrior, who raided across Scotland and “was ever victorious.” The desperate Scots even granted him an independent kingdom in the northern tip of Scotland.

But Thorstein wanted more, and the Scots conspired to have him murdered in AD 900. Heartbroken, Aud took her followers to Iceland, where she became the ruler of a powerful clan. She was buried on the beach, so that the tide would always wash over her grave.

When we talk about the 10 barbarian tribes that rattled the foundations of Europe, the usual suspects—Huns, Vikings, Mongols—often steal the spotlight. Yet a whole host of lesser‑known peoples waged relentless campaigns that reshaped borders, cultures, and empires. Below we dive into each of these fearsome groups, unpacking their customs, battles, and the legends that still echo today.

Introducing the 10 Barbarian Tribes

From the misty highlands of Scotland to the sun‑baked coasts of North Africa, these tribes and marauders left a trail of blood, fear, and folklore. Their stories are stitched together by fierce warriors, cunning strategies, and a relentless drive to dominate the lands they encountered.

10 The Chatti

As Rome pushed its legions beyond the Italian boot, it bumped into a host of fierce peoples. Among the most formidable were the Germanic groups, which the Romans began to differentiate from the Celts during Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars. Roughly a century later, the Chatti emerged as a nightmare for Rome in the first century AD.

Roman historian Tacitus, in his seminal work Germania, paints a vivid portrait of the Chatti: “hardy bodies, well‑knit limbs, fierce countenances, and unusual mental vigor.” Their initiation rites were equally brutal. New‑made men were expected to grow unshorn hair and beards as a vow to valor, only shedding them after slaying an enemy. Standing over a freshly‑taken corpse, they would reveal their faces, a terrifying declaration of triumph. Those who refused to fight were forced to remain unshorn, a living reminder of cowardice.

According to Tacitus, the Chatti’s veterans were always at the vanguard, forming the first ranks of any battle line. Even in peacetime they bore a grim, war‑ready expression, fighting “until old age leaves them without enough blood in their veins for such stern heroism.” By the third century AD, the Chatti had merged into the Frankish coalition, their legacy living on through the emerging Frankish power.

9 The Harii

To the east—covering modern Czechia, Slovakia, southern Poland, and western Ukraine—the Harii operated on the fringes of the Roman world. Documentation on them is sparse, but their warfare style is strikingly distinct. While the Chatti relied on raw ferocity, the Harii turned to camouflage and psychological terror.

Tacitus records that they “blackened their shields and dyed their bodies, choosing pitch‑dark nights for battle. The shadowy, awe‑inspiring sight of such a ghoulish army sparked mortal panic; no enemy could endure the horror of that vision, and defeat began with the eyes.” Scholars debate their exact identity: some view them as a small Germanic tribe within the Lugii federation of the larger Suevi confederation; others argue they were Celtic peoples predating Germanic migrations.

There’s even a theory that the Harii weren’t a tribe at all but a specialized elite force devoted to Woden (Odin). They supposedly modeled themselves after the mythic Einherjar—ghostly warriors chosen by Odin for the final battle of Ragnarok—adding an almost mythic aura to their night‑time raids.

8 The Picts (Caledonians)

The Romans labeled the northern Scottish peoples as Caledonians, a term that eventually morphed into “Picts,” meaning “painted ones”—a nod to their habit of body‑painting or tattooing. By the seventh century AD, they began self‑identifying as Picts, inhabiting what is now northeastern Scotland.

When Julius Agricola launched a campaign into Scotland around 80 AD, the Romans claimed victory at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Yet they never pursued the Picts further, and the historical record suggests the battle may have been exaggerated. Instead of full conquest, Rome erected defensive structures: Hadrian’s Wall in 122 AD and the Antonine Wall in 142 AD, effectively containing the Pictish threat.

Fourth‑century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described the Picts as “roving at large and causing much devastation.” Their tactics were classic hit‑and‑run: feigned retreats, sudden ambushes from forested cover, and luring Roman cavalry into traps. These guerrilla methods kept the Romans on edge for centuries.

7 The Vandals

The Vandals originated in what is now southern Poland, moving westward under pressure from the Huns in the early fifth century AD. After raiding Gaul, they settled in the Iberian Peninsula by 409 AD. By 429 AD, the Visigoths forced them across the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa.

In 435 AD they became nominal Roman clients, but soon broke the treaty, seizing Carthage and establishing a kingdom. Their naval dominance soon extended over Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, Mallorca, and Ibiza, effectively controlling Rome’s grain supply. The English term for the Mediterranean—”Wendelsæ”—literally means “Sea of the Vandals.”

In 455 AD they sacked Rome, looting its treasures but sparing the city’s structures and populace. This act birthed the modern word “vandalism,” coined during the French Revolution. Their reign ended in 533 AD when the Byzantines launched a swift campaign that crushed the Vandal kingdom.

6 The Avars

Following the collapse of the Hunnic Empire, the Avars rose a century later as a new wave of horse‑lord marauders from Central Asia. Though less famed than the Huns, they left a lasting mark, introducing the iron stirrup to Europe and prompting the southward migration of the Serbs and Croats.

Their first European appearance came under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527‑565 AD), who hired them as mercenaries. After Justinian’s death, they settled in the Pannonian Plain—modern Hungary—mirroring the Huns’ former domain. Led by Khan Bayan I, the Avars expelled the Gepids and even fashioned the Gepid king’s skull into a drinking cup.

Over two centuries, the Avars raided neighboring lands, using subjugated peoples as cannon fodder. Their primary focus was the Balkans, where they even besieged Constantinople in 626 AD. Charlemagne finally crushed them, capturing their capital known as “The Ring” and seizing their treasure hoard for Paris. By 796 AD the Avar Khaganate had vanished.

5 The Drevlians

The Drevlians—literally “forest dwellers”—were an East Slavic group inhabiting present‑day Ukraine and Belarus north‑west of Kiev between the 6th and 10th centuries AD. Unlike most of their neighbors, they practiced monarchical rule alongside the Polyanians (“field dwellers”), sharing a sort of direct‑democratic decision‑making with their prince.

Christian chroniclers were appalled not by their warfare but by their pagan marriage customs. The Primary Chronicle of the Rus’ describes them as “living like cattle, killing each other, eating impure things, and having no marriage—seizing maidens by capture.” This brutal reputation earned them a notorious place in early medieval lore.

Their downfall came at the hands of Olga of Kiev. After her husband, Prince Igor, was assassinated by the Drevlians, Olga exacted revenge: she buried Drevlians ambassadors alive, burned a bathhouse with noblemen inside, and later hosted a feast in Iskorosten where she ordered the city’s populace massacred, set the settlement ablaze, and enslaved the survivors.

4 The Pechenegs

The Pechenegs were a semi‑nomadic Turkic people who terrorized Eastern and Southeastern Europe from the 8th to the 12th centuries. By the 9th century they occupied a vast stretch between the Ural and Volga rivers, constantly clashing with the Khazars and Oghuz.

At the Byzantine Empire’s urging, they pushed west, attacking Kievan Rus and forcing the Magyars across the Dnieper into the Carpathian Basin. In the 10th century they killed Prince Svyatoslav I (972 AD), even turning his skull into a chalice—a grim tradition among steppe nomads. Their raids intensified, culminating in a siege of Constantinople in 1090.

Eventually the Pechenegs were driven out by the Cumans, and a decisive defeat at the Battle of Beroia in 1122 marked the end of their independent existence.

3 The Magyars

The Magyars were a blend of Turkic and Ugric peoples who originally roamed western Siberia. By the 5th century they migrated southwest, crossing the Don River north of the Black Sea. Their confederation comprised seven tribes, later augmented by three Khazar‑derived groups known as the Kavars.

After being displaced by the Pechenegs, the Magyars entered the Pannonian Plain in 895 AD, swiftly subjugating local populations, defeating the Great Moravian state (906 AD), and annihilating the East Frankish army at the Battle of Pressburg (907 AD). Over the next six decades they raided from Denmark to Spain, and from the Italian and Balkan peninsulas to western France.

By 970 AD their raids tapered, and in 1000 AD they embraced Christianity, founding the Kingdom of Hungary. Modern Hungarians still call themselves Magyars, derived from the original tribal name. The term “Hungary” stems from the on‑Ogur designation meaning “ten tribes,” later embellished with an H to suggest descent from the Huns.

2 The Cumans

From the 11th to mid‑13th centuries, the Eurasian steppe between the Volga and the Lower Danube was dominated by three powers: the Kievan Rus to the north, the Volga Bulgars to the east, and the Cumans to the south. The Cumans were a loosely organized Turkic confederation, never fully centralized but capable of fielding formidable cavalry forces.

First clashing with Kievan Rus in 1055, the Cumans embarked on a 175‑year war, ravaging territories across the region. Their raids reached the Kingdom of Hungary, the Volga Bulgars, Poland, the Byzantine Empire, and Balkan states. They also acted as kingmakers, helping the Bulgars and Vlachs break free from Byzantine dominance to form the Second Bulgarian Empire, and aiding Georgia against Seljuk encroachment.

Their demise arrived with the Mongol invasions of the 1230s‑1240s. Though they resisted fiercely, the Mongols shattered the Cuman confederation. Survivors either assimilated into neighboring societies—most notably Hungary—or fled, ending the Cumans as a distinct political entity.

1 The Barbary Pirates

Named after the Berber tribes of north‑west Africa, the Barbary pirates ruled the Mediterranean seas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Though piracy existed earlier, the arrival of the famed corsair Barbarossa unified the pirate enclaves of Algeria and Tunisia under Ottoman protection during the 1500s.

These raiders—primarily Berbers but also Arab, Muslim, and even some European Christian recruits—plundered merchant vessels, sacked coastal villages, and enslaved people from Italy, France, the Iberian Peninsula, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, and as far north as Iceland.

By the late 18th century, commerce in the Mediterranean dwindled, prompting the United States to pay tribute to the Barbary states in 1784. This sparked the First Barbary War (1801‑1805) between America and Tripoli, curbing piracy. The final blow came with France’s conquest of Algeria in 1830, which eradicated the Barbary threat.

When you think of the medieval era, you might picture chivalry and castles, but the reality was often far messier. In fact, the continent was peppered with a handful of particularly audacious scoundrels. These 10 notorious rogues left a trail of terror, loot, and legend across Europe, proving that lawlessness could be as organized as any royal army.

Why These 10 Notorious Rogues Matter

Each of these villains exploited the cracks in feudal authority, turning chaos into personal empire. Their stories reveal how mercenary bands, pirate crews, and renegade nobles could rival kings, and why their names still echo in the annals of history.

10 Seguin De Badefol

Seguin de Badefol first surfaces in the chronicles as a hired sword for King John II of France. After the French king suffered defeat at the hands of the Black Prince at Poitiers, a peace treaty forced the dismissal of the royal mercenaries, leaving men of war without pay.

Rather than disperse, the bands simply morphed into marauding gangs. Badefol commanded the Margot, a formidable troupe that could muster up to two thousand men. His signature extortion scheme involved seizing a town, then demanding a hefty “leave‑our‑city” fee from its inhabitants.

When the crown finally sent an army in 1362, Badefol cleverly united the scattered companies into a single “Great Company” and crushed the royal force at the Battle of Brignais. The victory gave him free reign over eastern France, and his reign ended four years later when a poisoned quince, intended as tribute from the ruthless Charles “the Bad” of Navarre, claimed his life.

9 Geoffrey Of Mandeville

After King Henry I died without a male heir, the English throne became contested between his daughter, Empress Matilda, and Stephen of Blois. The resulting civil war—known as the Anarchy—left law and order in tatters across the realm.

Amid the turmoil, Geoffrey of Mandeville, a noble from East Anglia, rose to notoriety. Stephen initially rewarded him with the earldom of Essex for his support, but Geoffrey quickly switched sides, accepting Matilda’s promise of near‑unlimited authority over Essex. He later defected back to Stephen, trading his new lands for control of Middlesex and Hertfordshire.In 1143, Stephen attempted to curb Geoffrey’s ambitions, but the earl fled into the marshy fens of East Anglia, establishing a fortified base on the Isle of Ely. From there he launched raids, burning villages and terrorizing the countryside until an arrow struck him during a minor skirmish in 1144, ending his violent career.

8 Robert Fitz Hubert

During the Anarchy, King Stephen bolstered his forces with Flemish sellswords, a group that quickly earned a reputation for cruelty. Among them, the ferocious Robert Fitz Hubert stood out as perhaps the most brutal.

Robert arrived on English soil in 1139, but instead of entering Stephen’s service, he immediately seized Malmesbury Castle for himself. After Stephen expelled him, the mercenary turned to Matilda, offering his band for hire.

Not content with short‑term contracts, Robert slipped away from Matilda’s army and, in a daring nocturnal assault, captured Devizes Castle. He then summoned additional Flemish knights and embarked on a campaign to carve out a petty kingdom between Winchester and London. His ambitions were thwarted when John the Marshal tricked him into a false surrender, only to slam the castle gate shut as Robert entered, leading to his execution by hanging.

7 Eustace The Monk

At the height of his notoriety, Eustace the Monk was whispered about as a sorcerer‑like figure. Originally a monk, he fell from grace, was declared an outlaw, and fled to the English Channel where he became the era’s most infamous pirate.

Eustace proved a master of naval warfare, earning the attention of King John of England, who hired his fleet to wrest the Channel Islands from French control. Using the isle of Sark as a base, he raided the Norman coast and even ventured down the Seine for daring plunders.

In 1212, Eustace switched allegiance to the French, but his fleet met a brutal English counter‑attack in 1217. The English sailors hurled quicklime onto the enemy vessels, blinding crews and forcing a chaotic melee. Eustace was discovered hiding in the bilge of his own ship and was beheaded, condemned as “a traitor to the king and a most wicked pirate.”

6 Owain Red Hand

Owain Lawgoch, known as the “Red Hand,” was the last male‑line descendant of the ancient Welsh kings of Gwynedd and a celebrated warrior of the fourteenth century. Determined to reclaim his ancestral throne, he launched two separate invasions that sent shockwaves through England.

The first fleet was thwarted by a violent storm that prevented a landing, while the second expedition was diverted to aid the French king. When not attempting to seize Wales, Owain fought for France during the Hundred Years’ War, leading a company of Welsh mercenaries against Pedro the Cruel of Castile.

In 1375, he headed the Guglers—an immense mercenary army that marched into Switzerland—only to be ambushed in a night attack by enraged Swiss citizens. His life ended in 1378 when an English undercover agent assassinated him, ending the last hope of a Welsh royal resurgence.

5 Roger De Flor

Roger de Flor began his career as a member of the Knights Templar, but his disgraceful conduct during the Siege of Acre—where he commandeered a Templar galley and extorted exorbitant fees from civilians fleeing to Cyprus—earned him expulsion from the order.

After a stint as a pirate, Roger seized an opportunity when the king of Aragon dismissed thousands of soldiers following a peace treaty in 1302. He recruited roughly six thousand hardened fighters into a mercenary force known as the Catalan Company and secured a lucrative contract with the Byzantine emperor.

The Catalans achieved modest success against the Turks but quickly turned to looting Byzantine lands and clashing with imperial troops. Roger’s ambitions grew as he plotted to carve out his own kingdom in Anatolia. The Byzantines, branding him a bandit, assassinated him in 1305, ending his turbulent quest for power.

4 The Catalan Company

After Roger de Flor’s murder, the Byzantine Empire dispatched an army to eradicate his mercenaries. Though outnumbered, the veteran Catalan Company turned the tables, crushing the imperial forces at the Battle of Apros in 1305.

Following a rather feeble attempt to blockade Constantinople, the Company crossed into Greece, where the Duke of Athens recognized the threat they posed. He cleverly offered to hire the Catalans, hoping to redirect their ferocity.

The mercenaries seized extensive territories for the duke, but payment never arrived. In a bid to split the Company, the duke promised full wages and land to 500 Catalans who would turn against their comrades. Those 500 accepted the bribe, yet instead of betraying the rest, they secured their own share and delivered a stunning victory over the duke’s larger army, establishing a petty kingdom in Greece that endured for eight decades.

3 Adam The Leper

Mid‑fourteenth‑century England endured a wave of urban crime so severe that even the Black Prince’s servants were once ambushed, beaten, and robbed while buying food. The most infamous gang leader of this era was Adam the Leper, whose crew habitually targeted royal officials and wealthy merchants.

Adam’s most daring caper involved learning that Queen Philippa had entrusted a local merchant with a cache of valuable jewelry. The leper’s band surrounded the merchant’s house, demanding the jewels be handed over.

The merchant, refusing to surrender, fought back fiercely, repelling several assaults. Frustrated, Adam set the building ablaze, forcing the terrified merchant and his family to scramble for escape. In the chaos, Adam’s men held the flames at bay, compelling the merchant to surrender the precious gems. Remarkably, historical records suggest Adam escaped any punishment for this audacious theft.

2 Momcilo

Hajduk Momcilo rose from humble beginnings to become a feared Bulgarian brigand, commanding a personal army of peasants in the rugged Rhodope Mountains. Though he briefly served Stefan Dušan of Serbia, Momcilo truly came into his own during the Byzantine Civil War of 1341‑1347.

His reputation for backstabbing is legendary: he switched allegiances three consecutive years—1343, 1344, and 1345—playing both sides of the conflict to cement his own power in the contested borderlands.

Momcilo’s growing influence alarmed both the Byzantines and the emerging Ottoman Turks, prompting a joint assault on his stronghold at Peritheorion. Anticipating the tide turning against him, the city’s inhabitants locked his forces out of the gates, leading to his defeat and death at the hands of his own adversaries.

1 The Archpriest

Arnaud de Cervole, known as the Archpriest of Velines, abandoned clerical life for the chaotic world of mercenary warfare. After the Battle of Poitiers, he quickly realized that the weakened French crown could no longer contain the roaming bands of soldiers‑for‑hire.

He assembled the first “Great Company,” leading his troops into Provence, a region that had largely escaped the war’s devastation. Within months, his forces turned the once‑peaceful province into a scorched wasteland, even laying siege to Marseille with a force of three thousand men—though the city managed to hold out.

In 1358, the Archpriest cemented his notoriety by effectively holding the Pope hostage: he surrounded the Papal seat in Avignon and demanded a ransom of twenty‑thousand florins to withdraw his men. After extracting the payment, he returned to conventional mercenary work, joining the royal army that later suffered defeat at the Battle of Brignais at the hands of Seguin de Badefol’s raiders.

By 1365, Arnaud was hired to lead a crusade against the Turks—a venture whose true purpose was to remove his unruly band from French soil. During a heated dispute over supplies, he was stabbed to death, ending the career of one of medieval Europe’s most infamous mercenary leaders.