My best bet it to target a small de jure kingdom like Carinthia, Frisia, or Pomerania. Unfortunately I'm at mercy of pope RNG here.
An opportunity presented itself soon, with duchy of Fruili in de jure Carinthia being controlled by a toddler.
My wife had a bad case of wine poisoning, the culprits are unknown. I married sister of king of Croatia, 6th in line to the throne. For now it's a good ally to have, in addition to Swabia and Savoy.
I was trying to befriend Kaiser all that time, so I asked him if he doesn't have a spare castle, and got county of Weinsberg in Franconia.
I wasn't trying to act against my Kaiser - on the contrary, I'd much rather act against vassals who got too strong for their own good. Duchess Matilda had 3 duchies, and Gottfried proclaimed himself king of Lotharingia, and dukes of Bohemia and Saxony were also quite strong, but my target was 4-way duke of Thurgai, Verona, Carnolia, and Carinthia, all held under seniority succession.
Amazingly, he accepted our demands for him to release Carnolia. So we followed up with a second letter demanding release of Carinthia as well, and he complied. He's craven and depressed, maybe that's the reason. The old bastard decided to attack Carnolia back as soon as we weren't looking.
King Robert of Sicily created The Champions of Christ warrior society, with members like Kaiser Heinrich and Basileus Theodoros. I'm still Hermetic Society Initiate, but that's an option for the future. Or at least they could all start duelling and killing each other more?
Kaiser was in deep debt, so he offered to sell me duchy of Franconia (without any land in it) for 200 gold or that plus favor for 300. It's tempting, but I don't think I'll be able to keep those North German lands.
Another baby girl got put in charge of duchy of Provence. So I took that, and it really annoyed pope in Vivarais, as he had some outstanding disagreements with borders of Provence.
Next on my list was a war to destroy that vile duchy of Transjurania, my brief liege.
King Bohemond of Sicily and Pope in Rome attacked Kaiser trying to depose our Pope. At the same time so did king Bernat the Liberator of Aquitaine. I wasn't worried about Papal politics, but Aquitaine's army was marching right through my Provence, and it was far too big for me to do anything about it. I sent some diplomats to both Popes, just in case, God will choose which one is the true pope on the field of battle.
The Kaiser could have crushed one and then the other, but instead kept moving back and forth between Tuscany and Provence. King Bohemond of Sicily won and we now only have one Pope.
Duchess Matilda went Lollard and tried to follow this up by starting a faction to overthrow the Kaiser, and even asked me to join her. No thanks. She obviously lost in no time.
I tried to get a claimant for a county in Carinthia to maybe get a kingdom there, but he became a bishop halfway through the war, so that idea failed.
For whichever reason I might be able to greate for myself a titular kingdom of Thuringia. But I'd much rather become king of Arles (7/21) or at least Carinthia (3/8). I also have lands in Germany (4/43), but that's a crazy distant idea. Overall my lands are in 5 disconnected places, quality HRE bordergore.
William the Bastard captured England, but then Norwegians did, making Normandy and England parts of Norway. Different sons of Harald Hardrade got Norway and England resulting in this bordergore.
HRE is actually not too bad, but there's whole Middle Ages to go.
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