PALATINATE ( palatinal, from L. pal ations, palatine, from Lat. pa/atinus, relating to a palace, or to the Palatine Hill, from palation?, palace. Palatine Dill). A feudal district whose ruler exercised nearly all the prerogatives of sovereignty. l'Uder the Frankish 11Ierovingian kings, a conies ilf//alinus. or count of the palace, was a high judicial 4dlicer residing at Court. After the time of Charlemagne, the office became localized and territorial, and the comes polo tin us ruled in almost complete independence over his own district, often near the frontier. As early as the eleventh eentiny the Count Palatine (Pfalz gmf) of the Rhine appears among the hereditary princes of the German Empire. In the thirteenth century the term palatinate or county palatine was introduced into England from the Continent to designate a jurisdiction whose beginnings eau in some instances he traced back to Anglo-Saxon times. There were three principal counties pala tine in England—Chester. Durham, and Laneas ter—whose origin: and development were no doubt influenced by their proximity to the frontier. The counts or earls palatine ruled over entire counties, so that all the landowners held feu dally of them; they received the whole profits of the courts and exercised all the regalia or royal rights, nominated the sheriffs. held their own councils, and acted as independent princes, except. in the owing of homage and fealty to the
King. The Duchy of Laneaster was a creation of the year 1351, but has since 1399 been united with the Crown in such manner that the King ruled within its borders not as King. but as Duke Palatine of Lancaster. Its legal juris diction has sump 1873 been transferred to the High Court of Justice, but its revenues are still independent of Parliamentary control. Chester was united with the Crown in 1301, and has since, together with the Principality of Wales, been vested in the eldest son of the sovereign. Durhatn ceased to be a separate jurisdiction under the Bishop of Durham in 1836. Other counties palatine were formerly Kent, Shrop shire, Pembrokeshire, the Isle of Ely, and Hex amshire, though the varying extent of their im munities makes it difficult in some eases to de termine whether they were true palatinates. In very early times there were similar jurisdictions in Scotland, the most important of which was that of Strathearn. The Province of Maryland. in .1n:erica. was granted to the Baltimores, on the model of the Palatinate of Durham. Consult: Stubbs, Constitutional History of /lnyffind, vol. i. (6th ed., Oxford. 1897) ; Lapsley, The County Palatine of Durham. (New York, 1000).