Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a country in Central Europe. It was a collection of hundreds of semi-independent countries including kingdoms, duchies, principalities and city-states, and whilst they technically owed allegiance to the emperor, the rulers of these territories would act mostly independently until the dissolution of the Empire and the later unification of the German Empire.

History
When the Frankish Empire split into three, East Francia formed into the Holy Roman Empire. As a millennium went by, the Empire saw many territorial changes, wars and noble houses occupy the emperorship, which would end up hereditarily in the hands of the (Austrian) Habsburgs and later the house of Habsburg-Lorraine. During the reign of Francis II, the Empire was dissolved in 1806 as his waning influence over the other nobles was made explicit during the Napoleonic Wars. French Emperor Napoleon I formed the Confederation of the Rhine from the smaller states as a buffer against Austria and Prussia, but after his failed invasion of Russia in 1812, the Confederation collapsed in 1813 as France no longer could maintain its hold over Europe, triggering the War of the Sixth Coalition. After the Congress of Vienna, the German states were once again united into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire, but under Prussian dominance, this confederation too collapsed, after which the North German Confederation was formed and the subsequent German Empire.

Appearances

 * The War of the Bucket
 * The Napoleonic Wars

Trivia

 * The Holy Roman Empire lasted for over 1,000 years.
 * There is a famous quip by Voltaire saying the Holy Roman Empire is "not holy, not Roman, and not an empire."
 * The Nazis considered the HRE to be the First Empire, the German Empire the Second, and their regime the Third, hence the Third Reich.