On Germany the effects of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire were very marked. It established the recognised right of the German King to wear the Italian and imperial crowns and made Aachen, Milan, and Rome the coronation cities. It tended to weaken the allegiance of the Germans to their king when he became Emperor and spent most of his time, together with German wealth and blood, in Italy. It fused the German King and the Roman Emperor into a product different from either and effected the whole subsequent history of both Germany and the Empire. The two systems were very different: one was centralised, the other local; one rested upon a "sublime theory," the other grew out of anarchy; one was ruled by an absolute monarch, the other by a limited monarch; one was based on the equality of all citizens, the other founded on inequality. As a result of the fusion both offices lost and won certain attributes and the product was a "German Emperor" who was the necessary head of feudalism which became so deeply rooted that it took ages to throw it off. To help on the process of disintegration Otto the Great allowed the five great duchies to be subdivided and thus created a second order of nobility and greatly increased the number of nobles. In short Germany was weakened, impoverished, divided, and stunted. The denationalisation of Germany was continued until 1870. What might not have been the splendid career of Germany had Otto the Great and his successors devoted their time and talent to the creation of a powerful German national state as did the French and English kings? It must be added, however, that this peculiar relation with Italy opened the way for learning, art, and a more refined civilisation in the North and that, in turn, Germany became the schoolmaster of Poland and Bohemia and perpetuated the language, literature, and law of Rome. On Italy the Holy Roman Empire left a deep and permanent impression. It gave Italy a long line of foreign rulers who seldom cared much for her real interests and only sought to exploit her for selfish ends. It prevented the establishment of a powerful national state as a republic, or as a monarchy, under some native noble, or a Pope, until 1859. On the contrary it encouraged decentralisation and local division of the people. Italy became the scene, cause, and victim of countless wars and invasions by foreign rulers; or of innumerable local contests which sapped the nation of all strength and ambition.