The "Roman Catholic States" led by the Catholic Habsburg Imperial family sought to tighten its grip on the Holy Roman Empire, and gain formal in addition to retaining its de jure control over the Empire, which it had by and large secured by this point, albeit still on risky foundations. The political structure of the Holy Roman Empire ensured they would never seize this as a hereditary right unless the political structure of Germany was altered. They sought to do this by suppressing the practice of the Protestant branch of Christianity in north Germany, and reseating the Protestant potentates in the Empire with Catholic ones. This was because election to the Holy Roman Empire was divided between a number of princelings who were of both Protestant and Catholic faith. They simultaneously sei