the inevitable development of the peasant class or smerds. Smerds were free peasants who found work by laboring for wages on the manors which began to develop around 1031 as the verv' began to dominate socio-political structure. Smerds were initially given equality in the Kievan law code, being theoretically equal to the prince, so they enjoyed as much freedom as can be expected of manual laborers. However, in the 13th century they began to slowly lose their rights and became less equal in the eyes of the law. Contrasts between European feudalism and Kievan manorialism The major difference between the Kievan manorial system and European feudalism consists in the fact that lands granted by a prince to a knight held no obligation; that is to say if the knight wished to leave the service of the prince, who usually expected loyalty, he was able to do so with no obligation whatsoever and was also able to retain possession of the granted land. Therefore, the political structure created by Western European feudalism was not transferred to the Rus' by its manorial system. Rather, the manorial system was more of an economic control. The manor owners in Rus' usually relied on direct production from their land and chose not to rent it out, which proved a stark contrast to feudal Europe in which by the High Middle Ages most of its land was claimed by monarchs, who in turn parceled it to vassals who rented the land to serfs. Even though it became increasingly common for one knight to have landholdings in several different princedoms, due to the use of direct production, the land of the Rus' was still largely in the hands of the peasants during the 12th century. By 1100 it started to become more apparent that the smerds were considered lower than their totally independent counterparts in Europe (free traders); however, it is important to note the smerds still had much more freedom than the growing peon/serf class of Europe. Even though this indentured class grew greatly in numbers, the economy of Kievan Russia blossomed until 1125, the year of the death of Prince Vladimir Monomakh. Through its history, the Kievan coalition inherited a tradition of lateral succession to the princedom; that is to say, that when a prince died, he was replaced by his brother, then he by the next brother, etc. with this repeating until the last