efeated the Spanish army and secured the independence of New Granada.

BOYAR (Russ. _boyarin_, plur. _boyare_), a dignity of Old Russia
conterminous with the history of the country. Originally the boyars were
the intimate friends and confidential advisers of the Russian prince,
the superior members of his _druzhina_ or bodyguard, his comrades and
champions. They were divided into classes according to rank, most
generally determined by personal merit and service. Thus we hear of the
"oldest," "elder" and the "younger" boyars. At first the dignity seems
to have been occasionally, but by no means invariably, hereditary. At a
later day the boyars were the chief members of the prince's _duma_, or
council, like the _senatores_ of Poland and Lithuania. Their further
designation of _luchshie lyudi_ or "the best people" proves that they
were generally richer than their fellow subjects. So long as the
princes, in their interminable struggles with the barbarians of the
Steppe, needed the assistance of the towns, "the best people" of the
cities and of the _druzhina_ proper mingled freely together both in war
and commerce; but after Yaroslav's crushing victory over the Petchenegs
in 1036 beneath the walls of Kiev, the two classes began to draw apart,
and a political and economical difference between the members of the
princely _druzhina_ and the aristocracy of the towns becomes
discernible. The townsmen devote themselves henceforth more exclusively
to commerce, while the _druzhina_ asserts the privileges of an
exclusively military caste with a primary claim upon the land. Still
later, when the courts of the northern grand dukes were established, the
boyars appear as the first grade of a fullblown court aristocracy with
the exclusive privilege of possessing land and serfs. Hence their title
of _dvoryane_ (courtiers), first used in the 12th century. On the other
hand there was no distinction, as in Germany, between the _Dienst Adel_
(nobility of service) and the simple _Adel_. The Russian boyardom had no
corporate or class privileges, (1) because their importance was purely
local (the dignity of the principality determining the degree of dignity
of the boyars), (2) because of their inalienable right of transmigration
from one prince to another at will, which prevented the formation of a
settled aristocracy, and (3) because birth did not determine but only
facilitated the attainment of high rank, e.g. the son of a boyar was not
a