I'm referring more to ownership of land, we see in modern day France that much territory was owned by various houses, Aquitane, Britanny, Normandy. The borders seem quite clean however, Normandy in the north, Provence in the south etc... However, if you look to the Holy Roman Empire it's just a complete mess of principalities and other states, and not all territory seems connected (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/HRR_1400.png) some houses seemingly own provinces not even next to there borders. My question is why did this occur? Why was there more division of territory between houses and states within the HRE?
Well it's not that it was so divided since it's inception, so much as that the HRE failed to become a centralized state in the way that France did. Political power was always very fragmented in the Middle Ages, maps of the period are more like approximations. Around 1100, say, France and the HRE both had large regional principalities. However, until the 13-14th century principalities were often little more than collections of lordships -- in 1100, say Aquitaine or Saxony were quite fragmented. However, in France the great territorial principalities were slowly absorbed by the Capetians Kings. In Germany (the Holy Roman Empire), on the other hand, the Hohenstaufen emperors were unable to assert their authority in Germany or Italy, and the last great Hohenstaufen emperor, Fredrick II, spent a great deal of time and energy involved with the Kingdom of Sicily, which he inherited from his mother. However, the Hohenstaufen died out with the death of Fredrick's son Conrad IV in 1254, resulting in a 19 year interregnum until the election of Rudolf of Habsburg. Royal authority proceeded to collapse, as the Habsburg did not totally secure the crown for another two centuries, during which time the House of Luxembourg and briefly Wittelsbach held the title. Around this time (the 13th c.), territorial rulers began to assert their authority more forcefully in Germany, with bishops, duke and counts constructing their own principalities. However, the great German principalities also collapsed, with the destruction of the Duchy of Saxony by Fredrick and the subsequent reduction of Bavaria, followed by the fragmentation of royally-held Franconia and Swabia. So, as these older principalities collapsed, Bishops and lesser lords were able to assert themselves in the territories they ruled, often gaining imperial immediacy. This is the reason that the eastern principalities which were not dismembered like Brandenburg, Saxony or Bohemia (a kingdom, of course). Furthermore, larger cities also got imperial immediacy and self government. These events led to the difference in appearance on maps of these countries around, say, 1400.
I got this information from many different sources over the years, so if you'd like more info on anything on I can cite some sources. Also I could try to answer questions about anything related to this although I'm not an expert.
Hope this helps.
