Count Palatine (Imperial)

The Imperial Hofpfalzgraf ( palatine, palatine Comes Caesareus ) is a Charles IV renewed dignity, continued the old position of the Count Palatine in the High Court.

Had the Hofpfalzgrafen the power of attorney ( comitiva ) in certain cases of voluntary jurisdiction ( legitimation of illegitimate children, emancipation, adoption certification, authentication, the construction of wills, etc.), royal for certain acts of mercy and for example, the ceremony of nobility letters, crest letters, academic honors, the appointment of notaries as well as the making of a poet coronations.

The Hofpfalzgrafen were appointed by the emperor for the individual territories, but sometimes this dignity was also the sovereigns themselves with comitiva major grants (so-called "Big Palatinate " ), that is, with the power to carry out these acts on its own initiative.

As the successor of the Byzantine emperor granted after the conquest of Constantinople ( 1453) and the Ottoman Sultan title Hofpfalzgraf. So was Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) not only in 1469 by the Emperor Frederick III. (1415-1493), but also in 1481 by Sultan Mehmet II ( 1432-1481 ) to the palatine Comes appointed.

A Pontifical Hofpfalzgraf ( Comes palatine Lateranus ) with comparable rights as they possessed the imperial Hofpfalzgrafen, could also be appointed by the Pope and to truly special papal legate. Pope Leo X in 1514 appointed all curial Kanzeleischreiber to " Comites aulae Lateranensis " and gave them the rights of Hofpfalzgrafen.

A Hofpfalzgraf who had the imperial and papal appointment was " Comes palatine imperiali et papali auctoritate " ( Hofgraf due to imperial and papal authority ).

Economically, the appointment as Hofpfalzgrafen was significant because for the performance of official acts fees could be charged.

Gradually lost Hofpfalzgrafenamt its meaning and was extinguished with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, 1806.