An imperial count palatine ( la, comes palatinus caesareus, german: Kaiserlicher Hofpfalzgraf) was an official in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

with quasi-monarchical ("

palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

") powers. In all, over 5,000 imperial counts palatine were created between the 14th and 18th centuries.John Flood (2002), "Neglected Heroines? Women Poets Laureate in the Holy Roman Empire", ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'', 84(3): 25–47, at 29. The office was hereditary in perpetuity in the legitimate male line.Paul F. Grendler,
The Universities of the Italian Renaissance
' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), p. 183ff.

History

The office originated in the Lombard kingdom in Italy (c.575–774), where the kings appointed officials with the title ''comes palatii'' (count of the palace) and power to act in the king's absence. The office was retained in Italy under the

Carolingians The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

after 774 and under the

Ottonians The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the ...

after 961. The Emperor

Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

is known to have appointed a large number of counts palatine. The title for a count palatine gradually grew in length, from ''comes sacri palatii'' (count of the sacred palace) to ''comes sacri Lateranensis palatii'' (count of the sacred Lateran palace) to ''comes palatinus sacri Lateranensis palatii'' (count palatine of the sacred Lateran palace). The connection to the actual

Lateran Palace The Lateran Palace ( la, Palatium Lateranense), formally the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran ( la, Palatium Apostolicum Lateranense), is an ancient palace of the Roman Empire and later the main papal residence in southeast Rome. Located on St. ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

was merely symbolic. The Lateran was a former imperial palace under the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

and was the chief residence of the

Popes The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. Its use in the title of a count palatine underlined his imperial and universal commission. This could occasionally be explicit, as in Benedetto Porcellini's title in a 1519 notarial act: ''comes palatinus et sacri Lateranensis palatii apostolicis et imperialis'' (count palatine of the sacred Lateran apostolic and imperial palace). The office of imperial count palatine was hereditary and the emperors seem to have used it to create an Italian aristocratic class loyal to the empire. In 1357, the Emperor Charles IV added the power of conferring licences and doctorates of civil law to those of the counts palatine. Later on, they acquired the power to confer doctorates in general.

Role

In some cases where parties willingly submitted their petitions to them, the imperial count palatine possessed jurisdictional authority (''comitiva'') to settle the matter. Such cases included: the legitimizing children born out of wedlock; appointing guardians for minors; confirming that a minor had come of age; certifying adoptions; attesting documents such as wills; authorizing patents of nobility and

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

; conferring academic honors such as doctorates; appointing of notaries public and judges; and laureating poets. The procedure for receiving a doctorate from a count palatine was less onerous and, since it involved fewer people that needed paying, less expensive than receiving a doctorate from a university. Counts palatine generally required less years of study. The examination was simpler and the ceremony of conferral less solemn. In Italy,

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

preferred to receive their degrees from counts because counts did not require an oath of allegiance to the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. While the emperor appointed imperial counts palatine for individual territories, from time to time the territorial princes themselves would bestow this honor with ''comitiva major'' (German ''Großes Palatinat''), that is with the power to transact these enactments on their own initiative. The appointment as an imperial count palatine was a lucrative post, because the office bearer could levy fees for the execution of official acts. The imperial count palatine gradually lost its importance, and the office ended with the

dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred ''de facto'' on 6 August 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated his title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths ...

in 1806.

History

Role

References

Further reading