Other forms: boyars
A boyar was an Eastern European noble who served under a prince. Russian boyars were leaders in government and the military, as well as acting as advisors to the prince.
As members of the aristocracy and wealthy landowners, boyars had considerable power and status in the ruling nobility. They were second in the royal hierarchy, just under the prince or the tsar, in Bulgaria, Russia, and several other Slavic countries from the tenth to 17th centuries. In Russia, the position was eliminated by Peter the Great in the 1600s. Boyar is from a Slavic root, bol-, or "great."