Nobles (rank)

The princely court arose in the 10th century together with the advent of the privately owned princely household. Initially, he was the closest circle of the prince, who were both dependent and free people who had certain responsibilities. On the structure of the princely economy reports " True Yaroslavich " 70-ies of the XI century. It mentions rural and warlords , “old” grooms , tiuns , firemen . Such people, endowed with administrative powers, were called nobles. This term dates from the 12th century.

In the XII century there is a stratification of the squad . The junior squad joins the prince's court, bringing to it "some warrior principles." The senior squad, consisting of boyars , is feudalized and acquires its own courtyards . However, it should be noted that the terms "squad" and "courtyard" could be used to refer to the closest princely environment (including non-military), and for the Prince's personal army . Nobles are first mentioned in The Tale of the Killing of Andrei Bogolyubsky (Laurentian Chronicle under 1175) as participants in the robberies in the choir and prince's parish after his murder. Nobles are also mentioned in the Old Russian birch bark letter of the XII century, and in Novgorod No. 531 of the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII century, as well as in many later birch bark letters .

In the 12th — 13th centuries, princely courts often acted as military detachments in Novgorod and Northeastern, as well as Southern Russia, but retained administrative functions. In Novgorod, for example, in the 12th and 15th centuries, they played the role of judicial executors.

In the North-Eastern Russia, not only military, but also administrative and financial tasks were also assigned to the nobility. They could be messengers, notify the local population about princely decrees and ensure their execution. They also preserved the functions of managing patrimonies . The princely court as a combat unit is mentioned for the first time in 1380, when the court of Dmitry Donskoy took part in the Battle of Kulikovo . In 1436, the courtyard of Dmitry Shemyaka was mentioned, which was part of Vasily Yuryevich's troops. According to the Yermolinskaya chronicle, the Shemyaka nobles were 500 people, "and the voivode of them was Okynf Volyn." In 1433 the Gosudarev court was first mentioned, formed by the associates of Vasily II . The noblemen at this time called the courtiers of the Grand Duke , and other categories were included in the Sovereign's court — the boyars, the boyar's yard children . Under Ivan III, the Gosudarev court participated in all the most important military campaigns . However, in the Old Russian and Golden Horde periods, the main part of the Russian armed forces were not the nobles, but the city ​​regiments , and from the second quarter of the 15th century - the boyars' children.

Since the 90s of the 15th century, due to the unification of Russia, the influx of princes and non-Moscow boyars to the service of the grand duke increased significantly, which expanded and complicated the structure of the court, and later led to inter-clan conflicts, especially aggravated after the death of Vasily III .

The nobles of the Gosudarev dvor during the formation of the local army constituted one of its categories. They, like the boyars' children, received estates for temporary use, and in the campaigns they were the closest servants of the Grand Duke. However, until the middle of the XVI century, they were in the documents below the boyars' children, yielding to them in local rank . In the middle - the second half of the 16th century, a new category of service people was formed - Moscow nobles , also called courtyards or large nobles ^[1] .

The courtyards of appanage princes and boyars ( courtyards , servants ) also went to the service of the Grand Duke of Moscow , and were used in various penthanes and were assigned to a specific city (not Moscow ). As a result, they were transformed into city noblemen, having lost their dependence on their former princes and boyars. They served as servicemen of the Moscow state and signed up for military service in the cities (Kaluga, Vladimir, Epiphany and others), made up hundreds of noble horsemen with their heads and other primary people . They were divided into articles: elective , courtyard and city. The first constituted the urban nobility, the others were boyars' children.

In the 17th century, the differences between the city nobles and the boyars' children were minimized, so that GK Kotoshikhin mentions them under one article.

Elected noblemen (“the choice of cities”, from the 1630s - city nobles) - one of the status officials of the Sovereign in the Russian state in the middle of the 16th - 1st third of the 17th century. Later - the highest layer of the city corporations of the children of the boyars ^[2] .

In 1550, Ivan the Terrible developed the project “Chosen One Thousand,” which was to be formed from the boyars' children ^[3] . This was the beginning of the formation of elected nobles, who were staffed from the courtyard, and in exceptional cases - the town children of the boyars. With the rank of elective nobles, children of elective and Moscow nobles could also begin service ^[4] .

Siberian nobles appear at the end of the XVII century (since 1684). At first they were only in Tobolsk, and later in other Siberian cities. In Tobolsk nobles, boyar children and elementary people of the senior ranks (heads, chieftains, etc.) were made according to the petitions. This gave the right to seek submission on the "Moscow and Zhiletsky lists", that is, in this way they reached the highest ranks established for servicemen of Moscow Russia.

Peter I made a complete reorganization of the structure of the Russian aristocracy , after which it became known as the nobility.

• I. B. Mikhailova. “Servicemen of North-Eastern Russia in the XIV - the first half of the XVI century.” 2003. ISBN 5-288-03283-1
• A. Chernov, “The Armed Forces of the Russian State in the 15th — 17th Centuries. (From the formation of a centralized state to the reforms under Peter I), 1954.
• Korzinin A. L. Gosudarev court of the Russian state in the pre-primitive period (1550-1565). M .; SPb., 2016. ISBN 978-5-98874-123-7 [1]
• A.V. Bykov . "Novgorod army XI-XV centuries."
• G. K. Kotoshikhin. "About Russia in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich."
• Zimin A.A. The thousand book of 1550 and the Palace notebook of the 50s of the XVI century. M.-L. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. 1950