BOY AND THE MANTLE, THE. A ballad, among those collected by Bishop Percy, which relates that a youth once eame to King Arthur's Court, bearing a cloak which, he said, only such wives could wear as had always been faithful. It fell to the possession of Sir Craddock, whose wife alone was pore, together with a golden cup "which no cuckold could drink from," and a brawn's head, which no cuckold could cut.
BOYAR, 143-ylie, or 110.1AR (Russ, bowing, originally either (1) lighting man. warrior. from boy, tight, battle. or (2) 'great man,' for bo/yo ring, from Slay. bolshoy. great, grand. The modern Busitian form is baring. estate bold er, nobleman. master). A word originally of the same meaning as Czech, Lech. and Bolgarin—i.e. free proprietor of the soil. The Boyars in Old Russia were the order next to the kniazes or knieses ( ruling prim-es). They formed the im mediate 'following' of those princes, and somewhat the same relation to them as the lesser English and Scottish knights of the feudal ages bore to the great barons. They had their own partisans. who served as a kind of bodyguard. They gave their services to a prince of their own choice, whom, however, they left again at their pleasure; and, in consequence of this, the kniazes could seeure their allegiance only by the bestowal of privileges. They held exclusively the highest military and civil offices, and the most powerful rulers considered it prudent to use this form of expression in their ukases: "The Emperor has ordered it; the Boyars have approved it." Rank
among the Boyars was always proportioned to length of State service, and was rigidly observed. This gradation of rank was called myestintehest vo ( from mycsto. place at the table during Court functions, rank). The institution was peculiar to Slavic life, equally unlike feudalism and mod ern aristocracy, and must be regarded as a strict ly national development. In their housekeeping the Boyars were excessively fond of splendor, and their contempt for the serfs, or 'lower orders,' was immeasurable. In the lapse of time many Chinese customs—as might he expected from their theory of rank—crept into their public life. Their power. and the respect which was paid them, acted as a wholesome cheek upon the otherwise unbridled authority of the princes; in consequence of which the latter became their hitter enemies, and often sought to destroy their power. This was finally done by l'eter the Great, who abolished the order of Boyars, giving them a place among the Russian nobility, but stripping them of their peculiar privileges. The last Boyar, Kniaz Ivan Yurveviteh Trubetskoy, died January T0. 1750. In Rumania Boyars still exist. Consult: Ramband, history• of Rus sia, English translation by Well (London, 'SST) ; Wallace, Russia (London, 1877).