Many of these strove to either strengthen their territorial position or even achieve the imperial title themselves. A popular scapegoat is Frederick I Barbarossa, with his expensive Italian campaigns and construction (Kyffhauser castle was the most expensive and largest castle in Europe at the time), and others are Frederick II and Henry VII, who also waged Italian wars. There are a few trends regularly given as being responsible for the decline (I am doing this on memory, so it may well be incomplete): And a paradox remains when it comes to the political constellation of medieval Europe: the empire is prominent, but most history books spend, at least in the high and late middle ages, more time on the kingdoms of France and England. The causes for this decline and anti-climactic fall are often kept somewhat vague regularly, the decline is noticed, but not analysed. Yet, despite this, the empire lived on in the house of Habsburg, who remained a strong European power until the 19th century.

From being, in the time of Charlemagne and Otto I, the principal political power of Europe, it steadily decomposed, as it were, into a number of semi-independent states. The Holy Roman Empire occupies a peculiar position in high and late medieval history.

Medieval 2 total war holy roman empire