Palatines
people who come from the Palatinate region of Germany
Palatines (German: Pfälzer) 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" (Palatine German: Pälzisch Deitsche). 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 (e.g. Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church) due to their association with the Palatine Hill, the home where Roman emperors lived since Augustus Caesar (and whence "palace").
After the fall of Ancient Rome, a new feudal type of title known simply as palatinus, came into use. The comes palatinus (Count palatine) 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.
The public source identifies “Palatines” as people who come from the Palatinate region of Germany. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Palatines, people and come.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q113758442. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1806 and 1632.
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This entry incorporates text from “Palatines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.