Palatines

Palatines were the citizens and princes of the Palatinates, Holy Roman States that served as capitals for the Holy Roman Emperor. After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the nationality referred more specifically to residents of the Rhenish Palatinate, known simply as "the Palatinate."
American Palatines, including the Pennsylvania Dutch, have maintained a presence in the United States as early as 1632 and are collectively known as "Palatine Dutch". The earliest Palatines settled in the Maryland Palatinate, an American palatinate established by the Calvert family as a haven for Catholic refugees.

Holy Roman Nationality

Paladins

The term palatine or palatinus was first used in the Roman Empire for chamberlains of the emperor due to their association with the Palatine Hill, the home where Roman emperors lived since Augustus Caesar.
After the fall of Ancient Rome, a new feudal type of title known simply as palatinus, came into use. The comes palatinus assisted the Holy Roman Emperor in his judicial duties and at a later date administered many of these himself. Other counts palatine were employed on military and administrative work.
The Holy Roman Emperor sent the counts palatine to various parts of his empire to act as judges and governors; the states they ruled were called Palatinates. Being in a special sense the representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor, they were entrusted with more extended power than 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 royal Holy Roman powers and privileges—and also to the states and people they ruled over.

Holy Roman Empire

Counts palatine were the permanent representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor, in a palatial domain of the crown. There were dozens of these royal palatinates throughout the early empire, and the emperor would travel between them, as there was no imperial capital.
In the empire, the term 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 Holy Roman 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 be rooted for decades into 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.

List of Palatinates

Palatinate of Champagne

King Lothar of France gave Odo I, Count of Blois, one of his most loyal supporters in the struggle against the Robertians and the Counts of Vermandois, in 976 the title of count palatine. The title was later inherited by his heirs, and when they died out, by the Counts of Champagne.

Palatinate of Bavaria

The counts palatine originally held the County Palatine around Regensburg 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.
Palatinate of Lorraine
Wigeric, Count Palatine of Lotharingia and Count in the Bidgau
Gottfried, Count Palatine of Lotharingia and Count in the Jülichgau

From 985, the Ezzonids held the title:

Herman I, Count Palatine of Lotharingia and Count in the Bonngau, the Eiffelgau, the Zülpichgau and the Auelgau
Ezzo, son of Herman I, Count in the Auelgau and the Bonngau, Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1020, married Mathilda of Saxony, the daughter of Emperor Otto II
Otto, son of Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1035 to 1045, then Duke of Swabia as Otto II from 1045 until his death
Henry I, son of Ezzo's brother Hezzelin I, Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1045 to 1060
Herman II, son of Henry I, Count Palatine of Lotharingia from 1061 to 1085, also Count in the Ruhrgau and the Zülpichgau and Count of Brabant

The County Palatine of Lotharingia was suspended by the Emperor. Adelaide of Weimar-Orlamünde, Herman II's widow, remarried to Henry of Laach. Abt. 1087 he was assigned in the newly created office of Count Palatine of the Rhine.

Rhenish Palatinate

In 1085, after the death of Herman II, the County Palatine of Lotharingia lost its military importance in Lorraine. The territorial authority of the Count Palatine was reduced to his territories along the Rhine. Consequently, he is called the Count Palatine of the Rhine after 1085.
The Golden Bull of 1356 made the Count Palatine of the Rhine an Elector. He was therefore known as the Electoral Palatinate.

Palatinate of Saxony

In the 10th century the Emperor Otto I created the County Palatine of Saxony in the Saale-Unstrut area of southern Saxony. The honour was initially held by a Count of Hessengau, then from the early 11th century by the Counts of Goseck, later by the Counts of Sommerschenburg, and still later by the Landgraves of Thuringia:

Adalbero was a Count in the Hessengau and in the Liesgau, Count Palatine of Saxony from 972,
Dietrich, probably a son of Adalbero, was Count Palatine of Saxony from 992
Frederick, Count in the Harzgau and in the Nordthüringgau, was Count Palatine of Saxony from 995 to 996
Burchard I, the first count of Goseck to hold the title, was a count in the Hassegau from 991, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1003, Count of Merseburg from 1004, and imperial governor from 1012
Siegfried, was Count Palatine of Saxony in 1028
Frederick I, a younger son of Burchard I, was Count of Goseck and in the Hassegau and was Count Palatine of Saxony in 1040
William, Count of Weimar, probably Count Palatine of Saxony in 1042
Dedo, son of Frederick I, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1042 to 1044
Frederick II, younger brother of Dedo, Count Palatine of Saxony in 1056
Frederick III, son of Frederick II
Frederick IV, son of Frederick III, Count Palatine in 1114
Frederick V, grandson of Frederick I, Count of Sommerschenburg, Count Palatine of Saxony in 1111
Frederick VI, son of Frederick V, Count of Sommerschenburg, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1123 to 1124
Herman II, Count of Formbach, Margrave of Meissen from 1124 to 1130, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1129 to 1130, married in 1148 to Liutgard of Stade, who had divorced Frederick VI in 1144
Adalbert, son of Frederick VI, Count Palatine of Sommerschenburg from 1162 until his death
Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia from 1172 until his death, appointed Count Palatine of Saxony on the Diet of Gelnhausen on 13 April 1180, abdicated in favour of Herman I in 1181
Herman III, younger brother of Louis III, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1181 until his death, Landgrave of Thuringia from 1190 until his death
Louis IV, son of Herman I, Count Palatine of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia from 1217 until his death
Henry Raspe, son of Herman I, Landgrave of Thuringia from 1227 until his death, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1231 until his death, anti-king of Germany opposing Frederick II and his son Conrad IV from 1246

After Henry Raspe's death, the County Palatine of Saxony and the Landgraviate of Thuringia were given to the House of Wettin, based on a promise made by Emperor Frederick II:

Henry III, Margrave of Meissen from 1227 until his death, Count Palatine of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia from 1247 1265
Albert II the Degenerate, son of Henry III, Count Palatine of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia from 1265 until his death, Margrave of Meissen from 1288 to 1292
Frederick VII the Bitten, son of Albert II, Count Palatine of Saxony from 1280 to before 1291, Margrave of Meissen before 1291 until his death, Landgrave of Thuringia from 1298 until his death

King Rudolph I of Germany gave the County Palatine of Saxony to the House of Welf:

Henry I, Count Palatine of Saxony from before 1291 until his death, Prince of Brunswick-Grubenhagen from 1291 until his death