Holy Roman Empire (of German Nation)

The treaty of Westphalia made it a loose confederation with no single ruler

>>3337325
It wasn't really united even before that.

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>HOLY

>crowned by Pope (Holy) as a Roman Emperor (Empire)
Yeah.

Totally different processes between the three nations.

France became highly decentralized and paralyzed by uber-vassals relatively early on, only for the King of France to pry back control through inheritance or conquest (thanks Hundred Years War).

England began as 7 kingdoms, reduced to five, and then coalesced under Wessex and maintained strong central authority for the rest of its feudal period.

The HRE began as a more centralized entity than France, and centralized further relatively early on. However, German inheritance law remained in favor of dividing up lands between sons, including the titles. This is why several of the tiny states have the same name, say Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Cassel. In the East, however, the lords quickly favored singular inheritance, hence the relatively large states of Austria, Saxony, and Brandenburg. It's with the Hohenstaufens that things began to go out of control and central authority degraded; the Habsburgs looked like they were on the way to fixing things, initially, then the protestant reformation happened and blew it all to shit again.

>>3337384
What were the Habsburgs doing that was fixing things?

>>3337395
Consolidating power through marriages to acquire alliances or lands. The Burgundian inheritance was a major boon to the house's prospects; shame they went to the Spanish side in the division of the empire.