Counties PALATINE in England.—Chester, Durham,
and Lancaster, are called counties palatine. The two
former are such by prescription, or immemorial custom;
or, at least as old as the Norman conquest: the latter
was created by King Edward III. in favour of Henry
Plantagenet, first earl and then duke of Lancaster;
whose heiress being married to John of Gaunt the king's
son, the franchise was greatly enlarged and confirmed
in parliament, to honour John of Gaunt himself, whom,
on the death of his father-in-law, the king had also cre-
ated duke of Lancaster. Counties palatine are also cal-
led à palatio; because the owners thereof, the earl of
Chester, the bishop of Durham, and the duke of Lan-
caster, had in those counties jura regalia, as fully as the
king hath in his palace; regalem potestatem in omnibus,
as Bracton expresses it. They might pardon treasons,
murders, and felonies; they appointed all judges and
justices of the peace; all writs and indictments ran in
their names, as in other counties in the king's; and all
offences were said to be done against their peace, and
not, as in other places, contra pacem domini regis. And
indeed by the ancient law, in all peculiar jurisdictions,
offences were said to be done against his peace in whose
court they were tried; in a court-leet, contra pacem do-
mini; in the court of a corporation, contra pacem balli-
vorum; in the sheriff's court or tourn, contra pacem vi-
cecomitis. These palatine privileges (so similar to the
regal independent jurisdictions usurped by the great bar-
ons on the continent during the weak and infant state
of the first feudal kingdoms in Europe) were in all pro-
bability originally granted to the counties of Chester and
Durham, because they bordered upon enemies countries,
Wales and Scotland: in order that the owners, being
encouraged by so large an authority, might be the more
watchful in its defence; and that the inhabitants, having
justice administered at home, might not be obliged to go
out of the county, and leave it open to the enemy's in-
cursions. And upon this account also there were for-
merly two other counties palatine, Pembrokeshire and
Hexamshire, the latter now united with Northumber-
land: but these were abolished by parliament, the for-
mer in 27 Henry VIII. the latter in 14 Eliz. And in
27 Hen. VIII. likewise, the powers before mentioned of
owners of counties palatine were abridged; the reason
for their continuance in a manner ceasing; though still
all writs are witnessed in their names, and all forfeitures
for treason by the common law accrue to them.
Of these three, the county of Durham is now the on-
ly one remaining in the hands of a subject. For the
earldom of Chester, as Camden testifies, was united to
the crown by Henry III. and has ever since given title
to the king's eldest son. And the county palatine or
duchy of Lancaster was the property of Henry of Bol-
lingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, at the time when
he wrested the crown from King Richard II. and assum-
ed the title of Henry IV. But he was too prudent to
suffer this to be united to the crown; lest, if he lost one,
he should lose the other also. For, as Plowden and Sir
Edward Coke observe, "he knew he had the duchy of
Lancaster by fure and indefeasible title, but that his title
to the crown was not so assured: for that after the de-
cease of Richard II. the right of the crown was in the
heir of Lionel duke of Clarence, second son of Ed-
ward III.; John of Gaunt, father to this Henry IV.
being but the fourth son." And therefore he procured
an act of parliament, in the first year of his reign, or-
daining that the duchy of Lancaster, and all other his
hereditary estates, with all their royalties and franchises,
should remain to him and his heirs for ever; and should
remain, descend, be administered, and governed, in like
manner as if he never had attained the regal dignity:
and thus they descended to his son and grandson Hen-
ry V. and Henry VI.; many new territories and privi-
leges being annexed to the duchy by the former. Hen-
ry VI. being attainted in 1 Edw. IV. this duchy was
declared in parliament to have become forfeited to the
crown, and at the same time an act was made to incor-
porate the duchy of Lancaster, to continue the county
palatine (which might otherwise have determined by the
attainer), and to make the same parcel of the duchy:
and farther to vest the whole in King Edward IV. and
his heirs, kings of England, for ever; but under a se-
parate guiding and governance, from the other inheri-
tances of the crown. And in 1 Hen. VII. another act
was made, to resume such part of the duchy lands as
had been dismembered from it in the reign of Edw. IV.
and to vest the inheritance of the whole in the king and
his heirs for ever, as amply and largely, and in like
manner, form, and condition, separate from the crown
of England and possession of the same, as the three Hen-
ries and Edward IV. or any of them, had and held the
same.
The isle of Ely is not a county palatine, though some-
times erroneously called so, but only a royal franchise:
the bishop having, by grant of King Henry I. jura reg-
alia within the isle of Ely; whereby he exercises a ju-
risdiction over all causes, as well criminal as civil.
PALATINE