The earliest recorded Medieval Latin form of the title was comes palatii ("count of the palace");[1] it was preserved in the deed of foundation of the Tihany Abbey, issued in 1055.

[6][10] In Czech and Serbo-Croatian languages, similar expressions (náderšpan and nadršpan) existed, but only as loanwords from Hungarian, in reference to the palatines of Hungary.

[16] According to a scholarly theory, the comes palatii was originally responsible for the administration of the royal household,[17] but primary sources do not contain direct reference to the palatines' economic functions.

[18] Hungarian historians agree that the imperial court of the Holy Roman Empire set the pattern for the organization of the royal household in Hungary.

[14] Historians also concur that the first king of Hungary, Stephen I, who died in 1038, appointed the first palatine, although no primary source mentioned this office during his reign.

[22][23] A decree of King Coloman the Learned stated that messengers sent by the ispáns from the borderlands to the monarch were entitled to "claim the cost of travel and an equal amount for the return journey"[24] from the palatine.

[34][26][35] The same decree also ruled that the "count of the duke" was to pay the same amount if "he judges others besides his own people",[34] which suggests that the head of the "duchy" was also entitled to appoint his own palatine.

[42] For instance, Andrew II sent Denis, son of Ampud on diplomatic missions; Stephen Gutkeled destroyed mills built without permission on the river Rába on Béla IV's orders.

[49] During the interregnum that followed Andrew III's death, many oligarchs were styled palatines, including Amadeus Aba, Matthew Csák and Stephen Ákos.

[51] The Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary of 1455 and 1456 issued the decree "de officio Palatini", which guaranteed the palatine's position as the representative of the king.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the palatine Archduke Stephen, a member of a junior branch of the Habsburgs, was a significant intermediary between the revolutionaries and the imperial court in Vienna.

The Golden Bull of 1222 authorized the palatine to represent the monarch at the great assembly which was customarily held at Székesfehérvár on the feast of King St Stephen in each year.

[31] A decree, attributed to King Ladislaus I, explicitly forbade the palatine from "send[ing] the seal" to anyone "except only to those who are called [udvornici] and to those who come to him voluntarily"[34] while he was absent from the royal court.

[33] On the other hand, the decree also shows that in the second half of the 11th century, the palatine's jurisdiction over the udvornici was independent of his role as the sovereign's deputy.

[52] Around 1100, King Coloman authorized the palatine to hear appeals against decisions of judges from the counties "if a popular outcry arises against them".

Thurzó is the palatine who arrested Elizabeth Báthory, the countess accused for killing numerous girls and young women.

The last palatines at the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century were the Habsburgs Archdukes Alexander Leopold, Joseph and his son Stephen, who resigned in 1848.

Following Stephen's death in 1867 without issue, his half-brother Archduke Joseph August of Austria inherited the title, though the post by that time was symbolic only.