ABSTRACT
Aristocracy is a well-known category of historical analysis and discourse and is usually understood as the top layer of the political elites, namely, the relatively closed group participating in decision-making either as the senatorial class in the Roman republic and empire or as conviva regis in the Merovingian kingdoms. In the later period, the aristocrats are the close members of the princely or royal councils. The criteria used to identify this group of people are usually those of a distinguished origin or pedigree (the credit earned for a member of the elite by previous generations of ancestors occupying high offices), landed wealth, office holding in the royal council proximity to the ruler (a criterion to which German scholars refer as Königsnähe), recognition of peers, and lifestyle. 1 This chapter will attempt to describe the evolution of this social and political category in the East Central and Eastern Europe in light of the available sources. To be sure, there is much variation, both regionally and chronologically, in the information regarding the social structures and the consolidation of a layer of individuals distinguished among others by their access to the exercise of power and, together with it, to possibilities of enrichment.
