The Holy Roman Empire’s history lies at the heart of the European experience. Understanding that history explains how much of the continent developed between the early Middle Ages and the nineteenth century. The Empire lasted more than a millennium and encompassed much of the continents. It addition to present-day Germany, it included all or part of other modern countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. Others were also linked to it or involved in forgotten ways, such as England, which provided one German king (Richard of Cornwall, 1257-1272). More fundamentally, the east-west and north-south tensions in Europe both intersect in the old core lands of the Empire between the Rhine, Elbe and Oder rivers and the Alps. In short, the empire´s history lies at the heart on the continent´s general development. (P-H. Wilson, Heart of Europe. A History of the Holy Roman Empire, Cambridge (MA), 2016).