THE NOBLEMAN'S PARADISE 175leaving the home estate in the hands of the youngest son on the death of his par-
ents. In consequence, the larger latifundia frequently disintegrated within two
or three generations of their founder's death. Yet disintegration was in the inter-
est neither of the family, nor of the Republic which both stood to gain from the
military potential and economic resilience of consolidated holdings. The Law of
Entail, known in Poland as Ordinaqa or maioratus, was introduced to guard
against it. For the first time in 1589, the Sejm persuaded 'to ordain' the Radziwill
and Zamoyski estates with legal statutes, which fixed their military contribu-
tions to the Republic and at the same time insured them against dispersal.
According to the Ordination, a list of named properties could only be inherited
by the strict rules of male primogeniture, and could not be disposed of by their
owners whether by sale, gift, division, or testament. The ordinatus or 'senior
male' of the family was required to undertake a number of military duties which
included fortress repair, the upkeep of garrisons, the quartering of troops in
winter, and the supply of a fixed quota of regiments in time of war. In return he
was permanently secured in his inheritance. In 1601, similar 'ordinations' were
applied to the Myszkowski estates at Pinczow, and in 1609 to the Ostrogski
estates at Dubno. Later 'ordinations' included those of the Tarnowski,
Chreptowicze, and Sulkowski. Some of them were preserved intact until 1918
and 1939. Others ran into trouble as soon as they were formed.
The staff required to maintain and defend a latifundium was customarily
divided into two distinct categories — the sluga rekodajny, manu stipulates,
or 'noble retinue'; and the czeladz dworska or 'court personnel'. The former,
consisting entirely of gentlemen clients of noble birth, occupied all those
positions of profit and authority which did not involve the stigma of a trade or
profession. They received regular salaries, and as signs of their patron's favour,
the suchednie or seasonal gifts and bonuses. The latter, consisting of non-noble
employees, provided the servants, specialists, craftsmen, and mercenaries.
In time, the inflation of magnatial retinues posed an insoluble problem for the
Republic. The leading families could command far greater respect and obedi-
ence than the state itself. The growth of large numbers of quarrelsome, peacock-
minded clients, sworn to uphold the honour and interests of their patron, and
dependent for their promotion and livelihood on the successful prosecution of
his whims and feuds, gradually undermined the workings of government at both
the central and the provincial level. In the era of the Partitions, the 'Alban Band'
of Prince Karol Stanisiaw Radziwill of Nieswiez - Panie Kochanku or 'the
Darling Lord' as he was known - could field six thousand gentlemen dressed
from head to toe in pure white, and could challenge any state or private forma-
tions of the day with impunity.
The size of magnatial retinues was an obvious measure of wealth and status.
They varied from a handful of tattered old retainers in the image of Sancho
Panza to regiments of trained officers and administrators rivalling those of a
minor principality. In the mid-seventeenth century, Hetman Stanisiaw
Lubomirski of Wisnicz, for instance, retained two Marshals, two chaplains,