States of the Holy Roman Empire: Map & History

Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born in the Flemish city Ghent), Flanders became a member of the Burgundian Circle. The county was later involved in the Guelders Wars.

From Wikipedia: County of Flanders · History: The seventeen provinces in the 16th century (1506–98) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 1789, a revolution broke out against emperor Joseph II. In 1790, the county of Flanders and a separate province called West Flanders, which constituted the territories returned to the Emperor by France, were two of the founding members of the United States of Belgium. Just like the other parts of the Austrian Netherlands, the county of Flanders declared its independence. This took place on the Friday-market at Ghent on 4 January 1790. The "Manifest van Vlaenderen" was drawn up by Charles-Joseph de Graeve and Jean-Joseph Raepsaet.

From Wikipedia: County of Flanders · History: Last years (1789–97) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Duchy of Burgundy was a successor of the earlier Kingdom of the Burgundians, which evolved out of territories ruled by the Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe that arrived in Gaul in the 5th century. The Burgundians settled in the area around Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Mâcon, Autun and Châtillon-sur-Seine, and gave the name to the region. The Kingdom of the Burgundians was annexed by the Merovingian King of the Franks, Childebert I, in 534, following their defeat by the Franks. It was recreated, however, on several occasions when Frankish territories were redivided between the sons on the death of a Frankish king.

From Wikipedia: Duchy of Burgundy · Origins (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Askanier are documented as Counts of Ballenstedt, originating from an area now part of the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt. From the outset, the family held possessions in the present-day districts of Salzlandkreis and Anhalt-Bitterfeld. Ballenstedt, Aschersleben, and ultimately Anhalt Castle were the most significant ancestral seats, with Ballenstedt as the eponymous seat in the 11th and the 12th centuries. Those possessions, along with further holdings in present-day Anhalt, led to the emergence of several Anhalt principalities in the 13th century. Numerous land divisions caused concentrated ownership in a single hand to be the exception over the centuries.

From Wikipedia: House of Ascania · History: Beginnings to 1212 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The origin remains unclear, however, Staufer counts are mentioned in a document of emperor Otto III in 987 as descendants of counts of the region of Riesgau near Nördlingen in the Duchy of Swabia, who were related to the Bavarian Sieghardinger family. A local count Frederick (d. about 1075) is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at the behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine; his son Frederick of Büren (c. 1020–1053) married Hildegard of Egisheim (d. 1094–1095), a niece of Pope Leo IX. Their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079.

From Wikipedia: Hohenstaufen · Origins (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Conrad IV was succeeded as duke of Swabia by his only son, two-year-old Conradin. By this time, the office of duke of Swabia had been fully subsumed into the office of the king, and without royal authority had become meaningless. In 1261, attempts to elect young Conradin king were unsuccessful. He also had to defend Sicily against an invasion, sponsored by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon) and Pope Clement IV (Guy Folques), by Charles of Anjou, a brother of the French king. Charles had been promised by the popes the Kingdom of Sicily, where he would replace the relatives of Frederick II. Charles had defeated Conradin's uncle Manfred, King of Sicily, in the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into the midst of his enemies and was killed.

From Wikipedia: Hohenstaufen · Ruling in Italy: End of the Staufer dynasty (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Kyffhäuser Monument was erected to commemorate Frederick I and was inaugurated in 1896. The Hohenstaufen arms were adopted by the German state of Baden-Württemberg in 1954. On 29 October 1968, the 700th anniversary of the death of Konradin, a society known as "Society for Staufer History" (de) was founded in Göppingen.

From Wikipedia: Hohenstaufen · Legacy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Because of the sandy soil prevalent in Brandenburg, the agriculturally meager principality was denigrated as "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire". Albert invited colonists to settle the new territory, many of whom came from the Altmark ("Old March", a later name for the original Northern March), the Harz, Flanders (hence the Fläming region), and the Rhineland. After the capture of territory along the Elbe and Havel Rivers in the 1160s, Flemish and Dutch settlers from flooded regions in Holland used their expertise to build dikes in Brandenburg. Initially, the Ascanians protected the country by settling knights in villages; castles fortified with knights were mostly located in the border region of the Neumark. After a 14th century decline in imperial power, however, knights began constructing castles throughout the principality, granting them more independence.

From Wikipedia: Margraviate of Brandenburg · History: Settlement and administration (CC BY-SA 4.0)

After Albert's death in 1170, his son succeeded him as Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg. The Ascanians pursued a policy of expanding to the east and the northeast with the goal of connecting their territories through Pomerania to the Baltic Sea. This policy brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Denmark. After the Battle of Bornhöved (1227), Margrave John I staked his claim to Pomerania, receiving it as a fief from Emperor Frederick II in 1231. The middle of the 13th century was a time of important developments for the Ascanian House, as it won Stettin (Szczecin) and the Uckermark (1250), although the former was later lost to the Duchy of Pomerania. Also around 1250 it took over Lubusz Land from then-fragmented Poland and subsequently conquered northwestern parts of the Duchy of Greater Poland in the late 13th century, moving the border east of the Oder river.

From Wikipedia: Margraviate of Brandenburg · History: Decline and extinction of the dynasty (CC BY-SA 4.0)

From the end of the 12th, a narrow circle of imperial electors emerged among highest princes, both secular and ecclesiastical, thus gradually excluding other, less powerful nobles from the electoral process. The dukes of Saxony had prominent roles in various imperial elections, and their electoral rights were affirmed both through practice and formal documents. Already before the Golden Bull of 1356, the Electoral College was reduced in practice to seven major princes: the archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne, plus the king of Bohemia, the count palatine of the Rhine, the duke of Saxony, and the margrave of Brandenburg. Tying electoral rights to specific domains took place already in the early 13th century, and solidified from then on. In the case of the Saxon Electorate, the specific territory tied to was the Ascanian Duchy of Saxony, that emerged in 1180.

From Wikipedia: Electorate of Saxony · Establishment of the Saxon Electorate (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The 1618 Defenestration of Prague, in which angry Protestants threw Catholic officials out of a window of Prague Castle, marked the end of a long period of religious peace. Elector John George I (r. 1611–1656) joined the emperor's side with the goal of preserving the status quo of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Initially he and the elector of Mainz tried to mediate between Emperor Matthias and the Bohemian estates that were behind the defenestration. After the death of the emperor in March 1619, the Bohemian estates deposed the newly crowned Ferdinand II and elected Frederick V of the Palatinate as their king. John George then agreed with Ferdinand II that Saxony should reconquer the two Bohemian tributary lands of Upper and Lower Lusatia for the emperor. In September 1620 Saxon troops marched into the two Lusatian territories and occupied them without major resistance.

From Wikipedia: Electorate of Saxony · Albertine Electorate of Saxony: Thirty Years' War (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The margrave held ultimate authority in Moravia, throughout the history of the margraviate. This meant that as its margraves became more foreign, so too did governance of the margraviate.

From Wikipedia: Margraviate of Moravia · Government (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Because of the sandy soil prevalent in Brandenburg, the agriculturally meager principality was denigrated as "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire". Albert invited colonists to settle the new territory, many of whom came from the Altmark ("Old March", a later name for the original Northern March), the Harz, Flanders (hence the Fläming region), and the Rhineland. After the capture of territory along the Elbe and Havel Rivers in the 1160s, Flemish and Dutch settlers from flooded regions in Holland used their expertise to build dikes in Brandenburg. Initially, the Ascanians protected the country by settling knights in villages; castles fortified with knights were mostly located in the border region of the Neumark. After a 14th century decline in imperial power, however, knights began constructing castles throughout the principality, granting them more independence.

From Wikipedia: Margraviate of Brandenburg · History: Settlement and administration (CC BY-SA 4.0)

After Albert's death in 1170, his son succeeded him as Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg. The Ascanians pursued a policy of expanding to the east and the northeast with the goal of connecting their territories through Pomerania to the Baltic Sea. This policy brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Denmark. After the Battle of Bornhöved (1227), Margrave John I staked his claim to Pomerania, receiving it as a fief from Emperor Frederick II in 1231. The middle of the 13th century was a time of important developments for the Ascanian House, as it won Stettin (Szczecin) and the Uckermark (1250), although the former was later lost to the Duchy of Pomerania. Also around 1250 it took over Lubusz Land from then-fragmented Poland and subsequently conquered northwestern parts of the Duchy of Greater Poland in the late 13th century, moving the border east of the Oder river.

From Wikipedia: Margraviate of Brandenburg · History: Decline and extinction of the dynasty (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The first known reference to the territory was made by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico. The historical region of Luxembourg belonged to the Roman province of Belgica Prima. After the invasion of the Germanic tribes from the East, Luxembourg became part of the Frankish Empire. By the 843 Treaty of Verdun, it became part of the Lotharingian province of Middle Francia. According to the Treaty of Ribemont in 880, it had finally fallen to East Francia.

From Wikipedia: Duchy of Luxembourg · Early history (CC BY-SA 4.0)

After the war ended, peace prevailed until the French Revolutionary Wars started. The War of the First Coalition against France (1792–1797) with Great Britain, Hanover and other war allies forming the coalition, did not affect Hanoverian territory since the first French Republic was fighting on several fronts, even on its own territory. Men were drafted to recruit the 16,000 Hanoverian soldiers fighting in the Low Countries under British command against France. In 1795, the Holy Roman Empire declared its neutrality, including Hanover, but a peace treaty with France was being negotiated until it failed in 1799.

From Wikipedia: Electorate of Hanover · History: French Revolutionary Wars (CC BY-SA 4.0)