The County Palatine of the Rhine is a protectorate of Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation

The County Palatine of the Rhine (German: Pfalzgrafschaft bei Rhein), later the Electoral Palatinate (German: Kurpfalz), was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire, a palatinate administered by a count palatine. Its rulers served as prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356.

The Electoral Palatinate was a much larger territory than what later became known as the Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz), on the west bank of the Rhine, and is now the modern region of the Palatinate in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate and parts of the French region of Alsace (bailiwick of Seltz from 1418 to 1766). The Electoral Palatinate also included territory that lay on the east bank of the Rhine, containing the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim.