Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia

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.^[1] 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.^[2]