The Collaborative International Dictionary
Palatinate \Pa*lat"i*nate\, prop. n. Either of two regions in Germany, formerly divisions of the Holy Roman Empire; the Lower Palatinate or Rhine Palatinate is now within the Rhineland-Palatinate; the Upper Palatinate is now within Bavaria. It is usually referred to as the Palatinate.
Note: Palatinate The (p[a^]*l[a^]t"[i^]*n[asl]t). [F. Palatinat, G. Pfalz, ML. Palatinatus, the province of count palatine, from palatinatus, palatine.] A former German State. Its territories were originally in the region of the Rhine, and from the 14th century to 1620 embraced two separate regions, the Rhine (or Lower) Palatinate (distinctively the Palatinate), and the Upper Palatinate (see below). The palsgraves on the Rhine, whose original seat was at Aix-la-Chapelle, were important princes of the empire as early as the 11th century. Early in the 13th century the Palatinate passed to the Bavarian dynasty of Wittelsbach, which soon after branched off into the Bavarian and palatine lines. The Palatinate was enlarged early in the 14th Century with a part of Bavaria (the Upper Palatinate). The Golden Bull of 1356 designated the Palatinate as one of the seven electorates. In the 16th century Heidelberg, the capital of the electors palatine, became a great center of Calvinism. The elector Frederick V., having accepted the Bohemian crown in 1619, and having been overthrown in 1620, was stripped of his dominions. The electoral dignity was transferred to Bavaria in 1623, and the Upper Palatinate was annexed to it. By the treaty of 1648 the Rhine Palatinate was restored to its former rulers, and an eighth electorate created for it, the Upper Palatinate being confirmed to Bavaria. The Rhine palatinate was terribly ravaged by the French in 1674 and 1689. The Palatinate and the Bavarian lands were united in 1777. In 1801 the Rhine Palatinate was divided: all west of the Rhine was ceded to France; Baden received Heidelberg, Mannheim, etc.; and the rest fell to Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, etc. By the treaties of 1814-15 the French portion west of the Rhine was restored to Germany: Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt received portions, but the greater portion fell to Bavaria. This part is the present Rhine Palatinate, or Lower Palatinate (G. Rheinpfalz or Unterpfalz): it is bounded by the Rhine on the east, and borders on Hesse, Prussia, and Alsace-Lorraine. It forms a "Regierungs-bezirk" of Bavaria, with Spires as Capital. It is traversed by the Hardt Mountains, and produces grain, wine, coal, etc. Area, 2,289 square miles. Population (1890), 728,339. The Upper Palatinate (9. Oberpfalz) forms a "Regierungs-bezirk" of Bavaria under the title Upper Palatinate and Ratisbon (Regensburg). It borders on Bohemia. Capital, Ratisbon. It has extensive forests and flourishing industries. Area, 3,729 square miles. Population (1890), 537,954.
Usage examples of "the palatinate".
He was the chief general for the Bavarian forces in a number of battles in the first half of the war, including the Battle of the White Mountain in 1621 which routed the Protestants rallied under the banner of the Elector of the Palatinate, King Frederick of Bohemia, and returned control of Bohemia and Moravia to the Austrian Habsburgs.
The counts of the Palatinate had been mercantilists before mercantilism, so to speak.
If I have received no word from the Palatinate by tomorrow I shall have little choice but to strike out on my own, though I have no idea how to manage it.
Although the Wettin family were natives of Thuringia and Saxony rather than of the Palatinate, there was little doubt in Bö.
This second part of the Palatinate was the center of the south German iron trade.
A product of the late humanist circle at the University of Heidelberg, he had fifteen years of experience as a propagandist for the Palatinate, after all.
Episodes caused, largely, by the suspicion of the owners that the rulers of the Palatinate would be quite happy to impose monopolistic controls on the iron trade, to their own profit.
My folks come over from the Palatinate back during King George's war.
The third stroke of fortune is the entry of a victorious army into the enemies country and feeding itself through foreign requisitions, in Belgium, in the Palatinate and on the frontier provinces of Italy and Spain.
Well I remember in the Palatinate how I clove to the chine even such another--the Baron von Slogstaff.
He foresaw that his snug, well-governed, little corner of Germany would some day be torn apart by feuding cousins from Denmark and Holstein, as Juelich and Cleves had been by cousins from Brandenburg and the Palatinate.
Ingenious, is it not, using the King of Spain's own money to snatch back Bohemia and the Palatinate?
All of them were refugees from the Palatinate, who had found a sanctuary in Jena.
She's from the Palatinate, also driven into exile when the war struck.