Palatine

In legend, the Palatine Hill in ancient Rome was said to be the one on whose foot the twins Romulus and Remus were deposited when they escaped the flood of the Tiber River. It became the initial center of Rome and retained this importance for most of the life of the later Empire. The Roman emperors designated some of their local officials with the title "palatine" after the name of the hill.

* * *

The medieval Carolingian empire, seeking to soak up a bit of the glory of the past, used the same title, expanding it to "count palatine", which meant an official sent to report on a remote region owned by the crown. Using one of his cronies was a good idea for the monarch as he could be expected to be more loyal to him than to any local ties. But as humans are wont, the "easy" way was sought and soon the counts were getting re-appointed, then they were getting their sons appointeded to the very same jobs and then, before you know it, there they were: local ties. So, under the later German empire of the Saxon and Salian dynasties (919-1125), a further expansion occurred – the counts palatine were now responsible for general administration and dispensing justice.

* * *

Now, along the middle Rhine were lands originally put under imperial control by the Salian dynasty. But after 1235, Emperor Friedrich II, more concerned with Italy than German lands, appointed a count-palatine of the Wittelsbach family which controlled the powerful duchy of Bavaria in return for the duke's support.

With the decline of the monarchy after Friedrich II, administrative rights reverted to local dukes or bishops, in Saxony, Bavaria and other places, but the count palatine of lower Lotharingia who headquartered at the palace at Aachen held onto these powers and kept them for his descendants, who called themselves the Counts Palatine (German: Pfalz) of the Rhine.

Thus it happened that a hill in Italy transformed itself into a job, then into another job, then into a title and finally into the name of one of the leading states of medieval Germany right up until the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).

* * *

Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) is still a state in modern Germany. Considering their modern economies, isn't it a surprise that Italy doesn't ask its northerly neighbor for a few EU's in royalties?
010502

[Next][Previous]