Page

Page (derivation variously assigned to Gr. pais, 'a boy,' and Lat. pagus, 'a village'), a youth of noble or good birth employed in the service of a royal or noble personage. The practice of employing youths of noble birth in personal attendance on the sovereign existed in early times among the Persians and Romans, and was a special feature of feudal chivalry in the middle ages. The degree of page was preparatory to the further degrees of esquire and knight. The practice of educating the higher nobility as pages at court began to decline after the 15th century. Pages still figure, however, on ceremonial occasions at the chief courts of Europe. The Corps of Pages at St Petersburg is a cadet school for the Russian Guards.