or Count Palatine, a title anciently given to all persons who had any office or employment in the prince's palace; but afterwards conferred on those delegated by princes to hold courts of justice in the provinces; and on such among the Lords as had a palace, that is, a court of justice, in their own houses.

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 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 created duke of Lancaster. Counties-palatine are so called à palatium; because the owners thereof, the earl of Chester, the bishop of Durham, and the duke of Lancaster, 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 domini; in the court of a corporation, contra pacem baliivorum; in the sheriff's court or tourn, contra pacem vicecomitis. These palatine privileges (so similar to the regal independent jurisdictions usurped by the great Palatine barons on the continent during the weak and infant state of the first feudal kingdoms in Europe), were in all probability 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 incursions. And upon this account also there were formerly two other counties palatine, Pembrokehire and Hexhamshire, the latter now united with Northumberland; but these were abolished by parliament, the former in 27 Hen. 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 only one remaining in the hands of a subject. For the earldom of Chester, as Camden testifies, was united to the crown by Hen. 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 Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, at the time when he wrested the crown from king Richard II. and assumed the title of Hen. 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 sure and indefeasible title, but that his title to the crown was not so assured: for that after the decease of Richard II. the right of the crown was in the heir of Lionel duke of Clarence, second son of Edward 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, ordaining 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, Henry V. and Henry VI.; many new territories and privileges being annexed to the duchy by the former. Henry VI. being attainted in 1 Edward IV. this duchy was declared in parliament to have become forfeited to the crown, and at the same time an act was made to incorporate the duchy of Lancaster, to continue the county palatine (which might otherwise have determined by the attainder), 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 separate guiding and governance from the other inheritances 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 Edward 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 Eng- land and possession of the same, as the three Henrys and Edward IV., or any of them, had and held the fame.

The Isle of Ely is not a county-palatine, though sometimes erroneously called so, but only a royal franchise: the bishop having, by grant of king Henry the first, jura regalia within the Isle of Ely; whereby he exercises jurisdiction over all causes, as well criminal as civil.

Palatine Games, in Roman antiquity, games instituted in honour of Augustus by his wife Livia, after he had been enrolled among the gods. They were celebrated in the palace, and were confirmed by the succeeding emperors.

PALATINUS Mons, or Palatium, the first mountain of Rome occupied by Romulus, and where he fixed his residence and kept his court, as did Tullus Hostilius, Augustus, and all the succeeding emperors; and hence it is that the residence of princes is called palatium. The reason of the name is variously assigned. To the east it has the Mons Celius, to the south the Aventine, to the west the Capitoline, and to the north the Forum.—Palatinus, the surname of Apollo from this place; where Augustus built a temple to that god, adorned with porticos and a library, (Horace).