This article chiefly concerns the Palatine counties of England. For the German Palatinates, see Palatinate

A County palatine is an area ruled by a count or earl with special authority and autonomy from the rest of the kingdom. In feudal times, palatine counts exercised royal authority, and ruled their counties largely independently of the king, though they owed allegiance to him. In England today there are three counties which are formally palatine counties, namely, County Durham, Cheshire and Lancashire.

History

The Counties Palatine of Durham and Chester, ruled by the Prince-Bishops of Durham and Earls of Chester respectively, were established by William the Conqueror. Cheshire had its own parliament, consisting of barons of the county, and was not represented in the Parliament of England until 1541, while it retained some of its special privileges until 1830. The earldom of Chester is traditionally vested in the Sovereign's eldest son upon his crowning as Prince of Wales.

As well as having spiritual jurisdiction over the diocese of Durham, the Bishops of Durham retained temporal jurisdiction over County Durham until 1836. The bishop's mitre which crowns the Bishop of Durham's coat of arms is encircled with a gold coronet which is otherwise used only by Dukes, reflecting his historic dignity as a palatine earl.

Lancashire was made a county, or duchy, palatine in 1351, and kept many of its special judicial privileges until 1873. Although the dukedom of Lancaster merged into the Crown in 1399, it is to this day held separate from other royal lands, and managed by the Duchy of Lancaster.

The king's writs did not run in these three palatine counties until the nineteenth century, and until the 1970s Lancashire and Durham had their own Courts of Chancery.

"There are two kings in England, namely, the lord king of England wearing a crown...
 and the lord bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown..." - William de St Botolph , 1302

Other counties

The county of Cornwall, although not normally reckoned a palatine county, has a similar status to Lancashire, in that royal lands in Cornwall are held by the Duchy of Cornwall, which belongs to the Sovereign's eldest son, who inherits the title of Duke of Cornwall at birth, or at his father or mother's accession to the throne. At various times in history the following areas had palatinate status: Shropshire, the Isle of Ely, Hexhamshire in Northumberland, and Pembrokeshire in Wales. There were also several palatine districts in Ireland.