### royal service people, servant
royal service people People who worked on royal estates, were in the possession of the ruler. They were peasants who cultivated their lands independently. Some of their groups had to perform special duties, and according to these duties they were divided into different groups (e.g.: equerries, stablemen, bison hunters). The origin and early history of this layer is disputed. The collapse of the servant-system took place in the course of the 13th century, partly due to giving away royal estates, partly because the duties of different servant groups became uniform. ZSA servant A person under the authority of the king, a church or a private person. The Slav word 'servant' was used from the 12th century instead of the earlier word - of unknown origin "ín" [also = servant]. The Latin equivalent of both of these words was servus. After the appearance of different types of restricted freedom at the end of the 11th century the word servus referred to people who lived on secular private estates and did not have their own land possession; they were totally subjugated. The servus-layer gradually lost its economic importance by the second half of the 13th century, and the majority of servants joined the layer of free peasant-villein in different ways. Some of them, however, especially who lived on small estates, still depended on their owners till the first half of the 14th century. ZSA