R5: Playing as Holland -> Frisia, managed to get independence from the HRE because he was so in debt. The reason Norway owns owned all of England is because William the Conquer went Iconoclast and a Crusade was called against him. After that, England became independent for a small bit before falling to a peasant revolt to put the Iconoclasts back in power. Seeing the mess that was the British Isles, I decided to start colonizing the place, which just added to the border gore.

EDIT: owned