In 1155, after the death of the palsgrave Hermann of Stableck, Frederick.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip] Reference

The palsgrave of Lorraine, who had his seat at Aachen, was later esteemed the foremost in rank.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip] Reference

Long, who became palsgrave (1195-1211); in 1211 he resigned it to his son Henry the Younger, who d. childless (1214).    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip] Reference

It derives its name from the title of a royal official in the old German Empire, the palsgrave (Pfalzgraf) or count palatine.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip] Reference

When bound to the stake, two cartloads of fagots and straw were piled up around him, and the palsgrave and vogt for the last time adjured him to abjure.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition] Reference

In the thirteenth century the dignity of palsgrave was raised form its original ministerial character to complete independence, and the count palatine, largely in consequence of the union with Bavaria, became one of the powerful territorial magnates, subsequently the foremost of the secular princes of the empire.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip] Reference

I vaguely knew that the Count or Elector Palatine (an older equivalent is palsgrave), the ruler of the Palatinate, was so called (in the OED's words) "as exercising the sovereign's authority in certain matters, or as having a jurisdiction within a given territory such as elsewhere belongs to the sovereign alone," and I knew that the German equivalent of.    From Wordnik.com.  [languagehat.com] Reference