page_title: Medieval Serbian nobility
section_title: Kingdom of Serbia
hierarchical_section_title: Medieval Serbian nobility / History / Kingdom of Serbia
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Ожалошћени племићи, детаљ са фреске из Сопоћана са представом сахране краљице Ане Дандоло. English: Mourning nobility at the burial of Anna Dandolo, detail from a fresco in Sopoćani
context_page_description: In the medieval Serbian states, the privileged class consisted of nobility and clergy, distinguished from commoners, part of the feudal society. The Serbian nobility were roughly grouped into magnates, the upper stratum, and the lesser nobility. Serbia followed the government model established by the Byzantine Empire.
  The nobility possessed hereditary allodial estates, which were worked by dependent sebri, the equivalent of Byzantine paroikoi; peasants owing labour services, formally bound by decree. The nobility was obliged to serve the monarch in war.
context_section_description: The hierarchy of the Serbian court titles was the following: stavilac, čelnik, kaznac, tepčija and vojvoda, the supreme title.
  In the Dečani chrysobulls, King Stefan Dečanski (r. 1321–1331) mentioned that the court dignitaries present at the Dečani assembly were the kaznac, tepčija, vojvoda, sluga and stavilac.
caption: Mourning nobility at the burial of Queen Anna Dandolo.
exif: {}