Best Capital for the Holy Roman Empire?

[Pamparampampamparam]

I want to create an Empire from Hispania, Brittania, Francia, Germania, and Italia as Charles, and want it's capital, and therefore its primary culture, to be German. That means no Paris or Brugees, as living there won't allow me to convert to the German culture (I think). Are there any good provinces in Germany? Nassau is the usual choice, but it doesn't have many provinces and is, I believe, land-locked. The future sight of Berlin might be nice.

[Langkard]

You don't have a lot of good choices. The best province with German culture is Osterreich which has 6 total, capital plus 5 holdings. It's a dangerous locale, however, since it sits right on the border with pagan Avaria and it has 3 empty holdings which is a lot of building to be done.

There are 11 counties with 5 total holdings and German culture in the 769 start:

Köln, Nassau, Pfalz, Leiningen, Würzburg, Baden, Württemberg, Schwaben, Nürnberg, Oberbayern and Salzburg. Of those Köln, Pfalz and Oberbayern are the most built-up with only 1 empty holding each.

A better choice than Osterreich might be Oberbayen and the duchy of Bavaria, since Oberbayern is built-up more and also has two other 5 holding counties in the same duchy - Nürnberg and Salzburg.

I think the best choice, however, is an entirely different solution. What is stopping you from making your capital one of the above and then you convert to the German culture in your intrigue choices. Then when your heir takes over and can move the capital again, move it to Brugge, which is one of the rare 7 holding counties. You'll still have German culture and that will slowly drift the culture of Brugges to German too. Flanders makes an ideal capital duchy, since all but 1 of the 6 counties is coastal and the other counties are all 5, except from Guines which has 4 total. Coastal means more income. If you make a vassal Republic out of Normandy or Holland next door, their trade posts will be even more income and built quickly because they're close.

Another option is to put a German culture vassal with high stewardship in charge of Brugge until the culture converts (better chance the higher the stewardship), the kill him and his heirs off until you inherit Brugge back.

[markdb92]

I would say venice or paris would be one of the better choices. Fyi grab as many kingdoms before you form the hre as they become instant de jure.

[NinoAllen]

Osterreich or geneve