Imperial count palatine
Open-knowledge reference entry
An imperial count palatine (Latin: comes palatinus caesareus, German: Kaiserlicher Hofpfalzgraf) was an official in the Holy Roman Empire with quasi-monarchical ("palatine") powers. In all, over 5,000 imperial counts palatine were created between the 14th and 18th centuries. The office was hereditary in perpetuity in the legitimate male line.
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 after 774 and under the Ottonians after 961. The Emperor Otto III 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 in Rome was merely symbolic. The Lateran was a former imperial palace under the Roman Empire and was the chief residence of the Popes in the Middle Ages. Its use in the title of a count palatine underlined his imperial and universal commission.
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This entry incorporates text from “Imperial count palatine” 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.