The term aristocratic nation, found in Polish sources from around the mid-16th century (naród szlachecki), denotes a structural characteristic that was prominent throughout the eastern reaches of Central Europe in the Late Middle Ages and the transition to the early modern period: the unusually high degree of aristocratic influence on the construction of the state. Between 1300 and 1500, as estates-based constitutions became consolidated in Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, the nob…