Counts and Count Palatine.
I am new on here, but just replying on your messages about counts and count palatine in Italy. My family is from Italy. We do have a crest in our family which states that our family was of noble blood and already had the title of Count
(Conte) in Cingoli in the late 1700/early 1800's, but also the title of Count Palatine given by Pope Pius IX, in 1854,
I believe. Both titles were handed down to the first male child of the line, and so forth. So it is, or was, used in Italy until a certain time.
some info I've read:
8.4. Count-Palatine.
"Palatine" refers to extraordinary powers granted to a noble. The English word "palatine" means a region under the authority of a noble where the king's writ was suspended. While the noble owed allegience to the king (or Holy Roman Emperor), the holder of a palatine had absolute authority, including the right to grant titles of nobility, create knights, raise armies, coin money -- i.e., powers normally reserved to a sovereign. There were palatinates in British history, in both England and in Ireland, and could be given to either lords temporal or spiritual. There was a case of a "bishop-palatine"; Louis Epstein reports "the English Lords Bishop of Durham used to rule a 'county palatine'".
"The Palatinate", however, refers to the Rhineland Palatinate in Germany, or in German, "Rheinland-Pfalz" (as with the state in the modern Federal Republic of Germany). There was also the "Upper Palatinate", or "Oberpfalz".
The Counts-Palatine of the Rhineland Palatinate (in German, "Pfalzgraf, Pfalzgräfin"), were one of the premier noble houses of the Holy Roman Empire, and were electors, i.e., the Elector-Palatine.
I am new on here, but just replying on your messages about counts and count palatine in Italy. My family is from Italy. We do have a crest in our family which states that our family was of noble blood and already had the title of Count
(Conte) in Cingoli in the late 1700/early 1800's, but also the title of Count Palatine given by Pope Pius IX, in 1854,
I believe. Both titles were handed down to the first male child of the line, and so forth. So it is, or was, used in Italy until a certain time.
some info I've read:
8.4. Count-Palatine.
"Palatine" refers to extraordinary powers granted to a noble. The English word "palatine" means a region under the authority of a noble where the king's writ was suspended. While the noble owed allegience to the king (or Holy Roman Emperor), the holder of a palatine had absolute authority, including the right to grant titles of nobility, create knights, raise armies, coin money -- i.e., powers normally reserved to a sovereign. There were palatinates in British history, in both England and in Ireland, and could be given to either lords temporal or spiritual. There was a case of a "bishop-palatine"; Louis Epstein reports "the English Lords Bishop of Durham used to rule a 'county palatine'".
"The Palatinate", however, refers to the Rhineland Palatinate in Germany, or in German, "Rheinland-Pfalz" (as with the state in the modern Federal Republic of Germany). There was also the "Upper Palatinate", or "Oberpfalz".
The Counts-Palatine of the Rhineland Palatinate (in German, "Pfalzgraf, Pfalzgräfin"), were one of the premier noble houses of the Holy Roman Empire, and were electors, i.e., the Elector-Palatine.
