Whaley, by contrast, salutes Westphalia for creating a system that would last a further 160 years until Napoleon’s army wrecked the Holy Roman Empire once and for all in 1806.

Paradox says the current draft has a total of 357 different countries in it. By contrast, the Europa Universalis 4 Holy Roman Empire has fewer than 100 countries modeled in it.

And in the late 700s AD it was the capital of Europe, of the Holy Roman Empire founded by the Emperor Charles 1st, Karolus Magnus, better known as Charlemagne.

At the end of World War II, it was discovered that the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire had vanished from their secret vault in Nuremberg. The mystery of who stole the jewels was left ...

The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History by Peter H. Wilson is out now. Rupert Shortt's book is called God is No Thing: Coherent Christianity .