Count palatine
A count palatine, also count of the palace or palsgrave, was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an ordinary count. The title originated in the Late Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages especially and into modern times, it is associated with the Holy Roman Empire, especially Electoral Palatinate.
The office, jurisdiction or territory of a count palatine was a county palatine or palatinate. In England the forms earl palatine and palatine earldom are rare alternative terms.
Importance of a count palatine in medieval Europe
''Comes palatinus''
This Latin title is the original, but is also pre-feudal: it originated as Roman comes, which was a non-hereditary court title of high rank meaning "companion" and connoting the status of peer, the specific part palatinus being the adjective derived from palatium.After the fall of Rome, a new feudal type of title, also known simply as palatinus, started developing. The Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty employed a high official, the comes palatinus, who at first assisted the king in his judicial duties and at a later date discharged many of these himself. Other counts palatine were employed on military and administrative work.
In the Visigothic Kingdom, the Officium Palatinum consisted of a number of men with the title of count who managed the various departments of the royal household. The Comes Cubiculariorum oversaw the chamberlains, the Comes Scanciorum directed the cup-bearers, the Comes Stabulorum directed the equerries in charge of the stables, etc. The Ostrogothic Kingdom also maintained palatine counts with titles such as Comes Patrimonii, who was in charge of the patrimonial or private real estate of the king, and others.
The system was maintained by the Carolingian sovereigns, who increased the power of counts palatine through successive grants of authority. A Frankish capitulary of 882 and Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, writing about the same time, attest to the extent to which the judicial work of the Frankish Empire had passed into the hands of counts palatine.
Instead of remaining near the person of the king, some of the counts palatine were sent to various parts of his empire to act as judges and governors, the districts ruled by them being called palatinates. Being in a special sense the representatives of the sovereign, they were entrusted with more extended power than the ordinary counts. In this way came about the later and more general use of the word "palatine", its application as an adjective to persons entrusted with special powers—but also to the districts over which these powers were exercised.
By the High Middle Ages, the title "count" had become increasingly common, to the point that both great magnates who ruled regions that were the size of duchies, and local castle-lords, might style themselves "count." As the great magnates began to centralize their power over their local castle-lords, they felt the need to assert the difference between themselves and these minor "counts". Therefore, several of these great magnates began styling themselves "Count palatine", signifying great counts ruling regions equivalent to duchies, such as the Counts Palatine of Champagne in the 13th century. See also Royal Administration of Merovingian and Carolingian Dynasties.
Related titles
In early medieval Poland, the Palatinus was next in rank to the King. As he is also the chief commander of the King's army the rank is merged with Wojewoda, with the latter replacing the title of Palatine. During the Fragmentation of Poland each Prince would have his own voivode. When some of these Principalities were reunited into the Kingdom of Poland, the Palatines were infeudated with them, as there was no longer a local Prince to rule on behalf of the King to whom all these princely titles returned. The Principalities are thus made Voivodships. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth the Voivodes sit in the Senate. Throughout its history, the dignity remained non-hereditary, or semi-hereditary. Today voivodes are government officials.As successor to the Byzantine emperor after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultan also claimed the right to bestow the office. Thus Giovanni Bellini was named Comes palatinus by Emperor Frederick III in 1469 and later again in 1481 by Sultan Mehmet II.
Grand Čelnik. The Grand Čelnik was the highest court title of the Serbian Despotate, and the title-holders held great provinces, property, and honours, and Radič was one of the most powerful ones.
Hungary in the Middle Ages: nádorispán or nádor
The term count palatine was not used in the United Kingdom. Just as count always remained reserved for continental territories, even though the equivalence of earl became clear by rendering it in Latin also as comes, earl palatine was the exclusively British title for the incumbent of a British county palatine.
Merovingian and Carolingian Counts palatine
Robertians
- Chrodobertus II, was named comes palatinus on 2 October 678
- Grimbert, probably son of Chrodobertus II, was comes palatinus of Neustria from 691 to 720
- Robert I, grandson of Chrodobertus II, was comes palatinus around 741/742
- Anselm, son of Robert
- Adalard of Paris, comes palatinus in 877
- Cobbo the Younger
Counts Palatine of Champagne
Holy Roman Empire
Pfalzgraf is the German equivalent of the title, Graf being the German term for "count" or "earl", and Pfalz being the German reflex of Latin palatium. The German title has also been rendered as palsgrave in English.Counts Palatine were the permanent representatives of the Frankish king, later of the Holy Roman Emperor, in a palatial domain of the crown. There were dozens of these royal Pfalzen throughout the early Empire, and the emperor would travel between them, as there was no imperial capital.
In the empire, the word count palatine was also used to designate the officials who assisted the emperor in exercising the rights which were reserved for his personal consideration, like granting arms. They were called Imperial counts palatine. Both the Latin form palatinus and the French palatin have been used as part of the full title of the Dukes of Burgundy to render their rare German title Freigraf, which was the style of a bordering principality, the allodial County of Burgundy, which came to be known as Franche-Comté.
During the 11th century, some imperial palatine counts became a valuable political counterweight against the mighty duchies. Surviving old palatine counties were turned into new institutional pillars through which the imperial authority could be exercised. By the reigns of Henry the Fowler and especially of Otto the Great, comites palatini were sent into all parts of the country to support the royal authority by checking the independent tendencies of the great tribal dukes. Apparent thereafter was the existence of a count palatine in Saxony, and of others in Lorraine, in Bavaria and in Swabia, their duties being to administer the royal estates in these duchies.
Next to the Dukes of Lotharingia, Bavaria, Swabia and Saxony, who had become dangerously powerful feudal princes, loyal supporters of the German Emperor were installed as counts palatine.
The Lotharingian palatines out of the Ezzonian dynasty were important commanders of the imperial army and were often employed during internal and external conflicts.
Although a palatinate could belong for decades to one dynasty, the office of the palatine counts became hereditary only during the 12th century. During the 11th century the palatinates were still regarded as beneficia, non-hereditary fiefs. The count palatine in Bavaria, an office held by the family of Wittelsbach, became duke of this land, the lower comital title being then merged into the higher ducal one. The Count Palatine of Lotharingia changed his name to Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1085, alone remaining independent until 1777. The office having become hereditary, Pfalzgrafen were in existence until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The palatinate of Saxony merged with the Electoral Duchy of Saxony. The Palatinate of the Rhine became an electorate, and both were Imperial Vicars.
Counts Palatine of Bavaria
Originally, the Counts Palatine held the County Palatine, and were subordinate to the Dukes of Bavaria, rather than to the king. The position gave its holder a leading position in the legal system of the Duchy.- Meginhard I, Count Palatine of Bavaria in 883
- Arnulf II, son of Duke Arnulf I of Bavaria, constructed Scheyern Castle around 940
- Berthold, son of Arnulf II, Count Palatine of Bavaria between 954 and 976 with interruptions, ancestor of the Counts of Andechs
- Hartwig I, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 977 until his death
- Aribo I, son of Aribo I, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1020 to 1026
- Aribo II, son of Hartwig II, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1026 to 1055
- Kuno I, Count Palatine of Bavaria
- Rapoto I, Count Palatine of Bavaria from to 1093
- Engelbert I, nephew of both of Aribo II's wives, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1099 to 1120
- Otto IV, probably a descendant of Arnulf II, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1120 until his death. He moved his residence from Scheyern Castle to Wittelsbach Castle and founded the House of Wittelsbach.
- Otto V, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1156 to 1180. He became Duke of Bavaria in 1180 as Otto I; his descendants ruled the Duchy until 1918.
- Otto VII, younger son of Otto IV, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1180 until his death
- Otto VIII, son of Otto VII, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1189 to 1208, infamous for murdering King Philip of Germany in 1208
- Rapoto II, brother-in-law of Otto VIII, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1208 until his death
- Rapoto III, son of Rapoto II, Count Palatine of Bavaria from 1231 until his death. He was the last Count Palatine; after his death the Duke of Bavaria assumed the rights and possessions of the Counts Palatine.