PALATINE 



PALERMO 



711 



Palatinate proper, the principality of Simmern, the 

 duchy of Zweibriieken, the principalities of Veldenz 

 and Lautern, &c., and was bounded by Mainz, 

 Treves, Lorraine, Alsace, Baden, and Wurtemberg. 

 Its capital was Heidelberg. 



The counts of the Rhenish Palatinate were estab- 

 lished in the hereditary possession of the territory 

 of that name, and of the lands attached to it, as 

 earlv as the llth century. In 1216 it was granted 

 to ttie Duke of Bavaria, and with various combina- 

 tions the Rhenish Palatinate and the Bavarian 

 territories were held by members of the Bavarian 

 house and its branches. Sometimes the electoral 

 dignity was alternately exercised by the Duke of 

 Bin-aria and the holder of the Rhenish Palatinate. 

 In 1559 the Rhenish Palatinate and the electoral 

 vote passed to Frederick III., who introduced 

 Calvinism. Frederick V. (q.v.) was the 'Winter 

 Kin;;' of the Thirty Years' War, who in 1623 lost 

 his lands to his kinsman the Duke. Bavaria 

 retained the Upper Palatinate and the electoral 

 dignity ; but the Rhenish Palatinate was in 1648 

 given to Frederick's son, and the eighth electorate 

 created for him. In 1694, during the war of the 

 Spanish succession, the elector received again the 

 I pper Palatinate and all the ancient rights, re- 

 sumed again by Bavaria after the war. During 

 this time the Rhenish Palatinate was repeatedly 

 and cruelly desolated by French armies; and in 

 1801 France took possession of all on the left bank 

 of tin; Rhine, giving the rest to Bavaria, Nassau, 

 anil HIV.N- Darmstadt. In 1815 the left bank was 



to Germany, the larger part of the Lower 

 Palatinate being granted to Bavaria ( Rhenish 

 Bavaria ) ; Prussia got the Rhine Province ; Hesse 

 Starkenhurg and Rhine Hesse ; and Baden Mann- 

 heim, Heidelberg, and Mosbach. The religion of 

 tin; palatinate has been successively Catholic, Cal- 

 vinist, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic again, in 

 aeeordance with the tenets of the reigning prince. 

 For the area and population of the modern Upper 

 and Lower Palatinate, see BAVAKIA. 



Palatine (from Lat. palntium, 'palace'). A 

 <'m/i rv 1'itliilin.us, or Count Palatine, was, under 

 the Frankish kings of France, a high judicial officer 

 (see COUNT), his district being called & palatinate 

 or i-niinh/ palatine. In England Chester and Dur- 

 ham became palatine under William I., doubtless 

 on account of their respective proximity to the 

 frontiers of W r ales and of Scotland. Chester had 

 not only its own courts, judges, constables, and 

 steward, but a parliament, and was not represented 

 in the national parliament until 1549 ; it was assim- 

 ilated by Henry VIII. Durham ceased to be a 

 county palatine under its bishop in 1836. Lancas- 

 ter became palatine in 1451, and yielded its juris- 

 diction in 1873 to the High Court of Justice (see 

 LANCASTER, DUCHY OF). At various dates Kent, 

 Shropshire, Pembrokeshire, the Isle of Ely, and 

 Hexhamshire, were counties palatine, but had lost 

 their special rights by the 16th century. Of similar 

 privileges in early Scotland, the Earls Palatine of 

 Strathearn held the most important. 



Palatine Hill (Mons Palatinus), the central 

 hill of the famous seven on which ancient Rome 

 was built, and, according to tradition, the seat of 

 the earliest Roman settlements. See BOMB. 



Palawan, the most westerly island of the Phil- 

 ippines (q.v.). Area, 2315 sq. in. It is long and 

 narrow, with an axial mountain-chain, ami has ex- 

 tensive and well-protected bays and harbours. The 

 soil is fertile, yielding the products of the archi- 

 pelago. Capital, Puerta Princesa. Pop. 45,000. 



Pale, in Irish history (see IRELAND, Vol. VI. p. 

 204 ), means that portion of the kingdom over which 

 the English rule and law was acknowledged. It 

 varied very greatly at various dates, but for a long 



period meant generally Dublin and the greater part 

 of the adjoining counties. 



Paleill'bang. capital of a residency ( formerly 

 an independent kingdom) near the south end of 

 Sumatra, stands on the river Musi, 50 miles from 

 its mouth ; the houses of the town are built on 

 great log rafts on either bank. Manufactures, 

 trade in silk goods, carved wood, ornaments in gold 

 and ivory, and krises, as well as shipbuilding, are 

 carried on. In the middle ages Palembang was one 

 of the most important centres of Arabian trade 

 with China. Pop. 43,368 ; and of the residency, 

 627,419. 



Palencia (the ancient Pallantta), a walled 

 city of Spain, in Old Castile, stands in a fruitful 

 plain, 180 niiles by rail NNVV. of Madrid and 29 

 NNE. of Valladolid. The Gothic cathedral was 

 built 1321-1504. The first university of Castile 

 Mas founded here in 1208, but was removed to 

 Salamanca in 1239. Blankets and coarse woollen 

 cloths are manufactured. The vine is cultivated, 

 and there is a good trade in wool. Pop. 14,505. 

 The prorince of Palencia has an area of 3256 

 sq. in. and a pop. (1887) of 188,954. 



PalciHinc, RONS OF, lie between the Michol 

 and Chacamas rivers, in the north of the Mexican 

 state of Chiapas, 6J niiles E. of the village of 

 Santo Domingo de Palenque. The ruins extend 

 over 20 to 30 acres, and are buried in a druse 

 tropical forest ; trees grow over and about the 

 buildings, and rise even from the tower. The 

 ruins consist of vast artificial terraces, or terraced 

 truncated pyramids, of cut stone, surmounted by 

 edifices of peculiar nnd solid architecture, also 

 of cut stone, covered with figures in relief, or 

 figures and hieroglyphics in stucco, with remains 

 of brilliant colours. Most of the buildings are of 

 one story, but a few are two, three, nnd some 

 may have been four stories. The principal struc- 

 ture, known as the Palace, is 228 feet long, 180 

 feet deep, and some 25 feet high, standing on a 

 terraced truncated pyramid of corresponding dimen- 

 sions ; the front contained fourteen doorways, each 

 about 9 feet wide. The building was irregular, 

 and built in two distinct parts, with double galleries 

 of unequal length running round it, and two large 

 courts, also irregular in shape. Charnay holds that 

 the Palace was a magnificent convent ; Palenque, 

 he says, was a holy city, 'a place of pilgrimage, 

 teeming with shrines and temples, a vast and 

 much-sought burial-place;' in the whole place 

 'there seems to have been nothing but temples 

 and tombs.' 



See Stcphens's Incidents of Travel in Central America, 

 ic., and Catherwood's Views of Ancient. Monument*, &c. ; 

 Charnay's Ani-itnt Cities of the New World ( Eng. trans. 

 1887); also La Kochefoucauld, Palenque et la Civilisa- 

 tion Maya (Paris, 1888). 



Palermo, formerly the capital of Sicily, now 

 in point of population the fifth city of Italy, an 

 archbishopric, and a seaport. It stands in the 

 north-west corner of the island, on a bay that faces 

 east, and at the mouth of a fertile valley called the 

 Conca d'Oro ('Golden Shell'), 120 niiles by rail 

 W. of Messina, and occupies a picturesque site, 

 being backed by mountains on the north by 

 Mount Pellegrino, with a (pilgrimage) potto 

 chapel (1624) to St Rosalia, whose festival is one 

 of the great annual events of the city. The streets 

 are for the most part handsome, and there are 

 many fine old houses. The oldest public buildings 

 date from the Norrnan period, and belong to two 

 styles of architecture Saracen and Byzantine. 

 The most conspicuous of them all is the cathedral 

 of St Rosalia, built (1109-85) by an Englishman, 

 Archbishop Walter ; it contains sepulchral monu- 

 ments to Roger I., the emperors Henry VI. and 



