What went wrong? Why couldn't it work?

>>2985733
Hohenzollern and Habsburg autism ruined it

Decentralised to the point where it was literally a load of 'princes' fighting each other over farm houses

Bordergore

>>2985733
It existed for a longer time than almost any European country that exists right now, exclusing maybe Denmark and Sweden.

Frenchies, prods and turks

>>2985733
the pope, the pope is what went wrong

>>2986250
You mean the reformation

frogs happened

it worked for a while, the reformation ruined its cohesion though

The Franks lost control of it.

>>2986284
it came around after a few centuries of the pope weakening imperial authority

>>2986250
Elevating the bishop of rome was a mistake.

Same thing that will go wrong with the EU

Europeans don't like centralisation, not hive-minded enough