After the brilliant reign Heinrich von Franken which seen Europe become dominated by the Germans the empires luck ended. In 1090 Heinrichs only son, Rudolf, rose to power. Rudolf was an incompetent man, and to add to his misery, he was cursed with being a hunchback. The many new dukes that joined the kingdom under Heinrichs rule had the chance for revenge. Almost all of border duchies rebelled against the king as soon as he was crowned, this created a landslide of rebellions. The duke of Austria rebelled claiming that if he will not intervene, Germany will fall. This declaration was followed by many other dukes claiming the same thing themselves. Soon all of Germany was in an open revolt.
This was used by Richard de Normandie, king of France. Now 63 years old Richard declared war on the low countries and the lands took from France during Heinrichs rule. Although opposed by his family, Richard went on to lead the armies himself. The dukes were quickly overrun with only the duke of Holland defending itself longer. Richard proclaimed himself king of the Low Countries, or as in dutch of the Nederlands.
The rest of the border was set west of the Rhein. Richard then made his armies march back to France proper. However, he put one more of his plans into live. His army marched a longer route, going near the borders of Aquitaine. The dukes scared that he's getting ready for an invasion offered themselves in vassalage. The southern ones however, decided that anything was better than a french king and joined their Iberian neighbours.
Europe after the fall of Holy Roman Empire
*German colour - The various independent dukes left after the fall
*Green colour in Italy - Various independent Italian dukes and counts
As you can see here, two other nations benefited greatly from the fall. Romanion which took much of Hungary that was taken by Germany, and Poland. The Polish king, Wilhelm Gryf conquered Slovakia, Bohemia and much of the border provinces. He want as far as claiming to be the "King of all Slavs". It was made clear that Russia is next on Polands list.
The two lesser gainer in this were Denmark and Venice. Denmark went on to conquer the german baltic lands while Venice simply bought the counties they were interested in.
In two years all the kings that benefited from the fall of the HRE have consolidated their rule and old sentiments and patriotism were rooted out. And it was then, that on the eve of Christs birth, tha Richard de Normandie awoke one day only to find himself incapable of seeing. The king knowing that what he built would be destroyed if he insisted on staying in power, he abdicated leaving his son Robert "Courtheuse" as king. Richard went on to being a chancellor for his son, but most of his time was spent on completing his journals in which he described his tactics and ways of waging war.
And where is England in all this, you ask? Christian grew even more isolationist claiming that the good of Britain is above the good of anything else. He went as far as disbanding the alliance with the Germans leaving them to their fate.
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Originally Posted by PrawnStar
