PALATINE COUNTIF.A. Three of the English counties, Chester, Laos ter, and Durham are counties palatine, by prescription. The cause of Pembroke. in Wales, was also a oountv ealatine, till the Mantis' 27 Henry VIiI., a26. The archblahop oi York, previously to the reign of glimbeth, claimed to be a count palatine within his pas.eeaoos of Ilexham and I lexhant shire, in Northumberland, and is so termed to some ancient statute.; this was put an end to by the stets 14 Elis-s c. 13.
Counts palatine are of fends.' origin ; and a reference to their history will clearly explain the meaning of the title, and many of the incidents of those territorial dignities. Seklen says, "the mane was received here doubtless out of the use of the empire of France, and in the like notions as it had in that eras " (' Titles of / lenour,' part IL). In the court of the ancient kings of France, before the time of Charlemagne, there was • high judicial othoer, called the Comes Pahitii, a kind of maser of the household, whose functions' nearly resembled thou of the Pierfsertua Pnetono in the elder empire. This officer had supreme Judicial authority in all causes that came to the king's immediate andienoe. ('Tit. of Hon.,' pert IL, chap. 33.) When the 'seat of empire was transferred to France, this title and office still continued, but the menial dignity, as well as a degree of jurisdiction and power analagons to thorn of the ancient functionary, were also given to a different class of persons. When the sovereign chose to confer a peculiar mark of distinction upon the bolder of a certain fief or province, be expressly granted to him the right to exercise the same rank, power, and juris aicuon within his fief or prevince as the comes lsIaIff exercised in the palace. Hence he also obtained the tame of comes palatii or peletinus, and by virtue of this grant he enjoyed within his territory a supreme and peculiar jurisdiction, haring royalties, or jura imperil, by which he was distinguisheel from the (solitary comes, who had only an in ferior and dependent authority within his district or county. This was the origin of the distinction between the Pfalzgraf and the Graf in Germany, and between the count palatine and the ordinary count or earl in England. Seiden says that ho had not observed the word " palatine " thus used in England until about the reign of Henry II.
In conformity with this view, the counts palatine of England had jurs regalia within their counties, subject only to the generel superi ority of the Crown 'sovereign ; or, as Braxton expresses it (lib. iii. cap. 8), "regales babent potestatem in omnibus, salvo dominio Domino Regi Scut principl." They had each a Chancery and Court of Common Pleas; they appointed their judges, and magistrates and law officers; they pardoned treasons, murders, and felouiee; all writs and judicial proceedings issued and were carried on in their names; and the king's writs were of no force within their counties. Many of these powers,
such as the appointment of judges and magistrates and the privilege of psrlesang, were abolished by the etat. 27 Henry VIII. c. 24, which also provided that all writs and process in counties palatine should from that time beer the kings name. The statute, however, expressly rtipulates that writs shall be always witnessed iu the name of the count palatine.
The county of Chester is is county palatine by prescription, being comtnonly supposed to have been first given with regal jurisdiction by William I. to Hugh d'Avranchen. e Tit. of Hon.,' part ii.) It was annexed to the crown, by letters patent, in the reign of Henry III., and since that time it has always given the title of Earl of Chester to the eldest son of the sovereign, being preserved in the crown as a county palatine when there is no l'rinco of Wales.
Lancaster appal-s to have been first made a county palatine by Edward III., who, in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, in his patent of crea'ion of Henry, the first duke, granted him the dignity of a count palatine, and afterwards, in the fiftieth year of his reign, granted the mine dignity by letters patent to his eon John, Duke of Lancaster. henry I V. was Duke of Iencester, by inheritance from his father John of Gaunt, at the time of his usurpation ; but he avoided the union of the duchy with the crown by procuring an act of parliament, which declared that the duchy of Lancaster should remain with him and hia heirs for ever, In the same manner as if he had never been king of F:ngiand. Upon the attainder of his grandson Henry VI., soon after the accession of Edward IV., the duchy became forfeited to the crown, and an act of parliament paged to Incorporate the county palatine with the duchy of Lancaster, and to vest the whole in Edward I V. and his heirs, kings of England, for ever. Another act of parliament plumed in the reign of Iienry VII., confirming the duchy to the king and his heirs for ever ; and from that time to the present it baa continually been milted to the crown.
Durham. like Chester, is a connty palatine by prescription ; but it is probable that the palatine jurisdiction did not exist long, if at all, before the Norman t'onquaits (Surtee's' History of Durham,' Introd., p. 15.) "There is colour to think," zap Selden (' Tit. of lion.,' part c. 8), " that the palatine jurisdiction began then In Bishop 'Welcher, whom king William I. mule both episcopue and dux previnehe, that he might fnenare rebs1Iiensn gentle et reformat° mores eloquio, ae NVIIIDM of WilIDO4bOry Durlutin continued as a county palatine In the hands of a subject till 1836, the bishop being prince palatine, and possessing jura regalia. By stat. 6 As 7 1t'aL IV., c. 19, palatine jurisdiction wan tnuoderred to the crown, subject to certain restrictions which have been remove' by later statutes.
l'ALI. [Sa.escarr LAYGVAGE •ND LITERATURE-]