and 11
>th centuries. The Czech historian František Graus called them «the grand retinue»
(velkodružína). These professional warriors played a major role during the emergence of the centralized political framework, but have disappeared or degenerated as early as the 12
>th century. Rus'ian records describe them as prosperous in the 11
>th century and allow to trace their degeneration during the 12
>th and 13
>th centuries in great detail.
Chapter IV looks into the makeup of the 10>th century ruling class (based primarily on the 911, 944, and 971 AD treaties between Rus' and the Byzantium vs. data from Constantine Porphyrogenitus' treatises). Special attention is given to the emergence, over the course of the 11>th century, of the class of nobility to which the term boyarin (pi. boyare) has become attached. The 11>th century boyars have become a counterpart of the nobility as it appears in the early medieval European polities: a socially well-defined and recognized group whose members' rank/status is (mostly) hereditary, but statutory privileges are not yet formalized.
The 10>th– 11>th century Rus'ian elite was in flux, and its evolution reflected the complex and dynamic development of the political and social framework of the early medieval gens. In the middle of the 10>th century, it included (i) a small group of leaders/warlords (quasi-rulers), mostly not related by blood; (ii) noblemen related to those leaders/warlords one way or another (usually through service), and (iii) the wealthiest urban citizens. The 11>th century highest political leaders were princes representing the Rurik dynasty only. The nobility (boyare) and wealthy citizens have retained their positions, but were joined by warriors on princes' payroll (otrokí/gríď).
