The boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia were the nobility of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The title was either inherited or granted by the Hospodar, often together with an administrative function. The boyars held much of the political power in the principalities and, until the Phanariote era, they elected the Hospodar.
As such, until the 19th century, the system oscillated between an oligarchy and an autocracy with power concentrated in the Hospodar's hands.
History
Origins
During the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in autonomous communities called obște which mixed private and common ownership, employing an open field system. The private ownership of land gained ground In the 14th and 15th centuries, leading to differences within the obște towards a stratification of the members of the community.
The creation of the feudal domain in which the landlords were known as boyars, was mostly through danii ("donations") system: the Hospodars gave away whole villages to military servants, usurping the right of property of the obște. By the 16th century, the few remaining still-free villages were forcefully taken over by boyars, while some people were forced to agree to become serfs (see Serfdom in Moldavia and Wallachia) due to hunger, invasions, high taxes, debts, which further deteriorated the economic standing of the free peasants.
Apart from the court boyars and the military elite, some boyars ("countryside boyars") arose from within the villages, when a leader of the obște (usually called knyaz) swore fealty to the hospodar and becoming the landlord of the village.
Feudal era
The Hospodar was considered the supreme ruler of the land and he received a land rent from the peasants, who also had to pay a rent to the boyar who owned the land. The boyars were generally excepted from any taxes and rents to be paid to the Hospodar. The boyars were entitled to a rent that was a percentage of the peasants' produce (initially one-tenth, hence its name, dijmă) in addition to a number of days of unpaid labour (corvée, locally known as clacă or robotă).
However, not all landlords who owned villages were boyars, a different class existed of landlords without a boyar title, called cneji or judeci in Wallachia and nemeși in Moldavia. They were however not tax-exempt like the boyars. The upper boyars (known as vlastelin in Wallachia) had to supply the hospodar with a number of warriors proportional to the number of villages they owned.
Some boyars were court officials, the office being called dregătorie, while others were boyars without a function. Important offices at the court that were held by boyars included vistier (treasurer), stolnic (pantler), vornic (concierge) and logofăt (chancellor). While early the court officials were not important and often they were not even boyars, with time, boyars started to desire the functions, in order to participate in the government of the country, but also to get the incomes that were afferent to each function.
While the era is often called "feudal" in the Romanian historiography, there were some major differences between the status of the Western feudal lords and the status of the Romanian boyars. While a hierarchy existed in Wallachia and Moldavia just like in the West, the power balance was titled towards the Hospodar, who had everyone as subjects and who had the power to demote even the richest boyar, to confiscate his wealth or even behead him. However, the power for the election of the hospodar was held by the great boyar families, who would form groups and alliances, often leading to disorder and instability.
Phanariote era
After the Phanariote regime was instated in Moldavia (1711) and Wallachia (1716), many of the boyar class was made out of Constantinople Greeks who belonged to the Phanariote clients, who became officials and were assimilated to the boyar class or locals who bought their titles. When coming to Bucharest or Iași, the new Phanariote Hospodars came with a Greek retinue who were given the most important official jobs; many of these Greeks married into local boyar families. In order to consolidate their position within the Wallachian and Moldavian boyar class, the officials were allowed to keep their boyar title after the end of their term.