The boyar children, which existed from the end of the 14th century until the Petrine reforms, were one of the key classes of Russian society of their time. Together with the nobles, they were the core of the national army and the support of state power in the country.
First mention
The phrase "boyar children" is found in chronicles dating back to the 13th century, when Russia was fragmented and dependent on the Golden Horde. However, that wording had little in common with the classical concept of this social phenomenon. Interestingly, the boyar sons are mentioned as participants in the Battle of Kulikovo on the side of Dmitry Donskoy.
The term is also found in one of the treaties of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II, dated 1433. In this paper, the authorities confirmed the right of the boyar children to serve their feudal lords, even if their estates were rejected by the war. That is, it is safe to say that these servants until the end of the 15th century were a free estate. They could leave the master without fear of prosecution by law.
The need for a new army
But times have changed, and behind them the boyar children themselves. In the 15th century, the lands of Rus finally united around Moscow. The princes of this city sought to become real autocrats. They hated the weak feudal system of the previous era, which led to the fragmentation and weakness of the country. To completely abandon the previous order, they had to get rid of the small feudal princes and find support for their own power.
If the former was achieved through cunning diplomacy and increasing economic power, then the latter needed a new social class. Its representatives became the boyar children. Mentioning of them in the annals began to appear more often. For example, in 1445, the Russian army, consisting of these subjects of the Moscow prince, went to fight with the Lithuanian squad. In each detachment of children of the boyars there were 100 people. One such formation was led by the governor, who was directly appointed by the prince.
The appearance of the children of the boyars
There are several points of view about the origin of this important military and social class. The first to theoretically consider this issue was the journalist and philosopher of the XVIII century, Prince Mikhail Shcherbatov. He became the founder of the idea that boyar children come from eminent boyar clans. Another theory was proposed by the equally famous historian Sergei Solovyov. He believed that the boyar sons appeared as a result of the stratification of the previously unified younger princely squad, divided into the actual sons of the boyar and free and court servants.
Finally, the third point of view says about the formation of a layer of boyar children due to the decomposition of urban communities of the late XIV century. The lands that belonged to them passed into private hands. Another process that influenced the emergence of the nucleus of the Russian army was the replenishment of the ranks of provincial servants at the expense of immigrants from the princely court. At first, these owners were only small landowners. But already in the 15th century, they began to buy land from the financially weakened urban community. Studies of the pedigrees of these landowners showed that among them were both descendants of noble families and immigrants from other sections of the population, for example, clerks.
Local army
When the nobles and children of the boyars became the core of the new Russian state army, a contradiction appeared between the provincials and immigrants from Moscow. National and local groups of service people were formed. These were Novgorod, Ukrainian and Siberian boyar children. These people grew up on the outskirts of the Russian state. By their origin, they could not break into Moscow. In Siberia, this class was formed at the expense of local Cossacks. Also among the children of the boyars were assigned service units of Tatars, Chuvashs, Mordovians, Mari, etc. This happened after Russia annexed the Volga.
A noticeable increase in the importance of the new estate occurred in the second half of the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan III. The prince was actively distributing estates and estates to the service people who came to him from other masters (from the princes, from Lithuania, etc.). The boyars, the children of the boyars and the nobles were on different steps of the state ladder.
Reforms of Ivan the Terrible
In the sixteenth century, a classical estate of boyar children was formed, which was divided into two main groups - the courtyard (from the supreme aristocracy) and urban (provincial). Tsar Ivan the Terrible at the beginning of his reign was engaged in a lot of state reforms. Then the boyar children felt the changes on themselves. The 16th century became the century when the so-called tenant hundreds appeared.
These formations represented a new category of service people in the tsarist army. Hundreds were made up of the brightest and most capable boyar children. Authorities selected the best of them in the provinces and gave them estates in counties near Moscow. The new military, like ordinary boyar children, had to perform military service for their estates.
When the Romanovs
The troubled times and the inability of the local troops to defend the state made Mikhail Romanov think about changes in the army. The first king of the new dynasty smoldered conflict with Poland. In the 1630s, the boyar children became the basis of the regiments of the new system. They were also called foreign, because, among other things, foreigners were invited there.
During the Smolensk war against Poland, the boyar children were also among the writers - horse regiments, created according to the Western model. In these formations included indiscriminate service people. To manage them, a separate Reitarsky order was even created. In 1682, the detachments of the boyars' children underwent reforms for the last time. Hundreds replaced companies with 60 people each, and 6 companies in total began to make up a regiment. The transformation entailed the abolition of localism - a system of distribution of state military posts according to the degree of nobility of origin.
The estates of boyar children disappeared at the beginning of the 18th century during the reforms of Peter the Great. The monarch was not interested in supporting the old-style troops. He created a new army, organizing it in a European manner. He also increased the importance of the nobility. It was this group of aristocracy that absorbed the children of the boyars.