mestecrii
Mestecrii is the Romanian plural term for the historic landed gentry and minor nobility that emerged in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia from the fifteenth century onward. The word derives from the old Romanian mestecher, which in turn comes from Slavic roots meaning “rank” or “chief.” Unlike the aristocracy of the Habsburg or Ottoman empires, mestecrii were indigenous to the Romanian lands and often possessed only modest estates compared with the great boyars or “măgărici.”
During the late medieval period, the Ottoman suzerainty intensified the need for local administrators. Mestecrii were
The nineteenth century brought profound social change. The emancipation of the Romanian peasantry in 1864, the
Today and in the former Socialist Republic of Romania, references to mestecrii are mostly academic or literary.