With the rulers and young ministers strong, orphans and widows ruling the country, where would the Italian city-states and princes not see that this was a great time to become independent from the HRE Empire?

The Duke of Lombardy and the Princes of Milan, Ezzo II, then held a social ball, frequently communicating with the envoys of the princely city-states, agreeing to raise a revolt after the harvest this autumn to overthrow the oppression of Italy by the Holy Roman Empire royalty and princes in one fell swoop.

After the autumn harvest, Italy, which is known for its abundance, will have wheat, rye and other food crops ripe, and with the help of the Kingdom of Sicily, the Italian princes and states will be able to sustain a war that will last for many years.

As the leader of the war of independence, Ezzo II naturally had to contribute a large amount, not only providing nearly one-third of the grain, grass, gold and silver, but also dispatching half of his own troops, more than 8,600 people, accounting for nearly one-third of the total strength of the coalition army.

The 20,000 allied troops were home defenses, deployed at the southern foot of the Alps, taking advantage of the geographical advantages of the Alps, the Italian states were enough to block the attacks of the princes of the HRE Empire, not to mention that they also had the Normans of Sicily, Pope Victor II of Rome and William of the Norman Kingdom as allies, and the support of these powers gave them full confidence.

"Independence" is not accurate or rigorous this time, and the war of independence of the Italian princes may be seen as an anti-colonial war against the German royal family and the princes.

Since the conquest of Italy by Otto the Great in the last century, the Italian city-states have had to pay a large amount of taxes and tributes to the imperial royal family and princes, and even for a period of time, Italy paid more than half of the taxes of the Holy Roman Empire, which shows the heavy oppression of Italy by the royal family and princes of the HRE.

Even more so, the Italians never had the right to participate in the political games of the Holy Roman Empire, neither the powerful Marquis of Milan and the Duke of Lombardy, nor the Duke of Tuscany and the Vashar of Florence.

Without any political power, he was burdened with the oppression of the city, and even the title of Duke of Lombardy, which was actually claimed by Ezzo II, was not recognized within the HRE, and his official title was only a vassal of Milan.

The royal family and princes of the HRE Empire oppressed the Italian states so much, it is no wonder that they were planning to unite to launch a rebellion, and with the accumulation of the Pope and William, they could not make up for it.

Another famous joke about the Holy Roman Empire is that it is neither sacred, nor does it contain Rome, nor is it an empire.

The name of the Holy Roman Empire begins in the days of the Roman Empire, when in 293 AD, the Roman Emperor Diocletian divided the empire into four parts, the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire, ruled by Augustus and Caesar respectively.

At this point, the Roman Empire began to divide into four, and the ancient Roman Empire was divided and merged until the death of Emperor Theodosius, and the ancient Roman Empire was never unified again.

On September 4, 476, the Western Roman Empire officially fell, and for the next three centuries, the Western Roman Empire was never reunited, and it was fragmented by the barbarian rulers who invaded Rome.

Finally, at the end of the 8th century, Charlemagne, the Frankish monarch who was armed with a holy spear, came to dominate the world and changed the situation.

Charlemagne was crowned "Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day 800 AD, and thus he inherited the position of Roman Emperor starting from Octavian and was regarded as the rightful successor of the Roman Empire.

It was from this moment that Charlemagne's successors, all the "Roman emperors" did not need to be crowned by the Pope, and only then could he be recognized as the legitimate Roman Emperor and under the protection of the Catholic Church, and this situation continued unanimously for more than 700 years.

Charlemagne, who died in 843 AD, divided the empire into three kingdoms, according to the Frankish succession law, with West Francia in the west, the Kingdom of Lorraine and Italy in the center, and the Kingdom of East Francia and Bavaria in the east.

These three parts were then divided and fragmented, or divided into numerous small territories, or combined with regional kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Bavaria, which was the root of the endless wars of Western European countries for thousands of years, because every ambitious European monarch did not want to inherit the great legacy of Charlemagne and rebuild the great Roman Empire.

In the 11th century, the Holy Roman Empire finally took shape, encompassing Germany, the Rhineland, the Dutch Lowlands, Burgundy, Italy, and the Eight Farias.

But at this time, the Holy Roman Empire had nothing to do with the word empire in any way, it was not yet called sacred, and unlike the British Empire, it was essentially a union of princes who inherited the name of the ancient Roman Empire.

Even the king had to be elected by the imperial council of princes, not by members of the royal family, so it is conceivable that the country was not a real empire, not even a sound state, but a union of princely states, and the HRE Emperor was only an alliance of princes.

Like the powerful Salian family, Henry III, who ruled Franknia, Bavaria and other powerful countries, was also powerless to change this situation, in order to succeed his young son Henry IV smoothly, he had to convene an imperial parliament in advance, elected his son as the king of Germany, and handed over Bavaria to his son Henry IV in advance.

Even Henry III could not change the status quo of the HRE Empire, let alone other monarchs, such as the famous Otto the Great and Otto III, and the world-famous Frederick the Redbeard of Barbarossa, all of whom were helpless.

So, don't be deceived by the name of the Holy Roman Empire, which in fact never agreed to me in its entirety, and the princes of the various regions basically went their own way, and then the imperial power, which was already very weak, was severely weakened by the centuries-old struggle with the papal imperial power, and after that there was no possibility of unification of the HRE Empire.

At that time, the HRE Empire, which was fighting with William, because of the support of Pope Leo IX, coupled with the strength of Henry III, and the threat of William's continuous expansion, the princes of the HRE Empire would take out a large number of troops to gather the more than 80,000 troops, but since Henry III was defeated, such a situation may not be the case anymore.