What is "county palatine"

palatine \pal"a*tine\, a. [F. palatin, L. palatinus, fr. palatium. See Palace, and cf. Paladin.]

1. Of or pertaining to a palace, or to a high officer of a palace; hence, possessing royal privileges.

2. Of or pertaining to the Palatinate.

3. Of or pertaining to a Palatine[1].

   Count palatine, County palatine. See under Count, and County.

   Palatine hill, or The palatine, one of the seven hills of Rome, once occupied by the palace of the C[ae]sars. See also Palatine Hill in the vocabulary, and Palace.

County \Coun"ty\ (koun"t[y^]), n.; pl. Counties (-t[i^]z). [F. comt['e], fr. LL. comitatus. See Count.]

1. An earldom; the domain of a count or earl. [Obs.]

2. A circuit or particular portion of a state or kingdom, separated from the rest of the territory, for certain purposes in the administration of justice and public affairs; -- called also a shire. See Shire.

   Every county, every town, every family, was in agitation.
   --Macaulay.

3. A count; an earl or lord. [Obs.]
   --Shak.

   County commissioners. See Commissioner.

   County corporate, a city or town having the privilege to be a county by itself, and to be governed by its own sheriffs and other magistrates, irrespective of the officers of the county in which it is situated; as London, York, Bristol, etc. [Eng.]
   --Mozley & W.

   County court, a court whose jurisdiction is limited to county.

   County palatine, a county distinguished by particular privileges; -- so called a palatio (from the palace), because the owner had originally royal powers, or the same powers, in the administration of justice, as the king had in his palace; but these powers are now abridged. The counties palatine, in England, are Lancaster, Chester, and Durham.

   County rates, rates levied upon the county, and collected by the boards of guardians, for the purpose of defraying the expenses to which counties are liable, such as repairing bridges, jails, etc. [Eng.]

   County seat, a county town. [U.S.]

   County sessions, the general quarter sessions of the peace for each county, held four times a year. [Eng.]

   County town, the town of a county, where the county business is transacted; a shire town.

n. the territory of a count palatine

A county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman possessing special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom or empire. The name derives from the Latin adjective palatinus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palatium, " palace". It thus implies the exercise of a quasi- royal prerogative within a county, that is to say a jurisdiction ruled by an earl, the English equivalent of a count. A duchy palatine is similar but is ruled over by a duke, a nobleman of higher precedence than an earl or count.

The nobleman swore allegiance to the king yet had the power to rule the county largely independently of the king. It should therefore be distinguished from the feudal barony, held from the king, which possessed no such independent authority. Rulers of counties palatine did however create their own feudal baronies, to be held directly from them in capite, such as the Barony of Halton. County palatine jurisdictions were created in England under the rule of the Norman dynasty. On continental Europe, they have an earlier date.

In general, when a palatine-type autonomy was granted to a lord by the sovereign, it was in a district on the periphery of the kingdom, at a time when the district was at risk from disloyal armed insurgents who could retreat beyond the borders and re-enter. For the English sovereign in Norman times this applied to northern England, Wales and Ireland. As the authority granted was hereditary, some counties palatine legally survived well past the end of the feudal period.