 Ministerialis

Ministerialis (plural ministeriales; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally "servitor" or "agent", in a broad range of senses) were people raised up from serfdom to be placed in positions of power and responsibility.In the Holy Roman Empire, in the High Middle Ages, the word and its German translations, "Ministeriale(n)" and "Dienstmann", came to describe those unfree nobles who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time.