If you've got ancestors from a 'petty noble' settlement in the areas of the old Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, modern Belarus, near Lithuania - and an ancestor is registered from the 16th Century as a 'boyar' who was armed/armoured, had a warhorse, but didn't have a retinue with him, what kind of noble would such an ancestor be, and what is meant by petty nobility in a Polish context? Poor szlachta? Is his western equivalent a man at arms? Minor knight?Can a Pole, Belarusian or any Slav plz explain? Am I correct in thinking he'd be a Pancerny? And the 'petty nobility' village recent relatives in the 20th century were impoverished knights/a fallen off military family?What kind of life would this class of people lead?
>>18666445if your father was a noble then you were also a noblethis happened even without landso quite often a dirtfarmer was in fact a nobleman because his greatgreat grandpa was one
>>18666493yeah his family owned the farm but were basically just farmers. When did they stop being a warrior class? I've got records from the 18th century that show their family were still turning up for musters with horses, sabres, pistols, etc
>>18666445>>18666574>When did they stop being a warrior class?I can't give you any details about the social station of such a family within the PLC but nobles falling on hard times and being unable to afford their lifestyles (both courtly and martial) wasn't that uncommon. Especially in the late medieval period and early modern age the martial obligations of many minor nobles were very high and many simply chose to pay a "penalty payment" (there is an english term for that but I forgot it) towards their liege to have those obligations waved. And if one is even unable to do that then they would fall ever deeper the social ladder - without actually loosing their title (that could still occur).>an ancestor is registered from the 16th Century as a 'boyar'According to Wikipedia Boyars were the highest, non royal rank of nobles in parts of Eastern Europe. Do you think this registration is trustworthy?
>>1866662216th century Lithuanian boyar. he's registered as such on a roll
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