Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia
[2] During the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in autonomous communities called obște which mixed private and common ownership, employing an open field system.
[3] The private ownership of land gained ground In the 14th and 15th centuries, leading to differences within the obște towards a stratification of the members of the community.
[3] The creation of the feudal domain in which the landlords were known as boyars, was mostly through danii ("donations") system: the Hospodars gave away whole villages to military servants, usurping the right of property of the obște.
The boyars were entitled to a rent that was a percentage of the peasants' produce (initially one-tenth, hence its name, dijmă) in addition to a number of days of unpaid labour (corvée, locally known as clacă or robotă).
Important offices at the court that were held by boyars included vistier (treasurer), stolnic (pantler), vornic (concierge) and logofăt (chancellor).
[14] However, the power for the election of the hospodar was held by the great boyar families, who would form groups and alliances, often leading to disorder and instability.
[17] While the official functions were often given to both Romanians and Greeks, there was an exception: throughout the Phanariote era, the treasurers were mostly local boyars because they were more competent in collecting taxes.
[19] The process that began during the feudal era, of boyars seizing properties from the free peasants, continued and accelerated during this period.
[21] Many boyars used large sums of money for conspicuous consumption,[22] particularly luxurious clothing, but also carriages, jewelry and furniture.
[1] Cuza's Constitution (known as the Statut) of 1864 deprived the boyars from the legal privileges and the ranks officially disappeared, but, through their wealth, they retained their economic and political influence,[26] particularly through the electoral system of census suffrage.
[27] Most of these boyars no longer took any part in managing their estates, but rather lived in Bucharest or in Western Europe (particularly France, Italy and Switzerland).
The quality, type, and color of material used in boyar costumes and headwear was indicative of one's rank in the social hierarchy.
[32] Tensions frequently mounted between native boyars and their Greek counterparts, but the ethnic admixture of both groups was complex.
[35] On the other side of the political spectrum, Marxist thinker Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea thought that the reforms didn't go far enough, arguing that the condition of the peasants was a neo-serfdom.
