Louis I's decree also regulated the legal status of the "knezes", the Romanians' local leaders, by establishing a distinction between "knezes" "brought to" their lands by royal writ whose testimony in court weighed like that of nobles ("noble "knezes""), and others whose evidence counted for less ("commoner "knezes""). This distinction, however, did not mean real nobility and grant them exemption from royal taxes, even for the noble "knezes". Their status corresponded to that of the Hungarian "conditional nobles" whose nobility depended on the specified military services they were to render.