Palatinate (Ger. Pfalz), the name for two German states, which were united till the year 1623. They were distinguished as the Upper and Lower Palatinate. The Upper or Bavarian Palatinate, now forming a circle of the kingdom of Bavaria, was a duchy, its capital being Amberg. The Lower Palatinate, or the Palatinate on the Rhine, lay on both sides of the Rhine, with an area of 3150 sq. m., and included, besides the Electoral
Palatinate proper, the principality of Simmern, the duchy of Zweibrücken, the principalities of Veldenz and Lautern, &c., and was bounded by Mainz, Trèves, Lorraine, Alsace, Baden, and Württemberg. Its capital was Heidelberg.
The counts of the Rhenish Palatinate were established in the hereditary possession of the territory of that name, and of the lands attached to it, as early as the 11th century. In 1216 it was granted to the Duke of Bavaria, and with various combinations 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 Bavaria 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 King' 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 Upper Palatinate and all the ancient rights, resumed 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 the Rhine, giving the rest to Bavaria, Nassau, and Hesse Darmstadt. In 1815 the left bank was restored to Germany, the larger part of the Lower Palatinate being granted to Bavaria (Rhenish Bavaria); Prussia got the Rhine Province; Hesse Starkenburg and Rhine Hesse; and Baden Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Mosbach. The palatinate had to change its religion frequently in accordance with the tenets of the reigning prince, being successively Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic again. For the area and population of the modern provinces of the Upper and Lower Palatinate, see the article BAVARIA.