With the aid of Burgundy, I managed to defeat the French as England and win the hundred years war - taking Paris and forming a personal union with France. Once I managed to win the loyalty of France, I was effectively free to bully all of Europe, stealing their colonies and such - but my main goal after the hundred years war was to bully the Scandinavians. Bullied Denmark to steal all of the Norwegian islands in the North Sea, took control of the Sound Toll and began nicking all their Baltic Islands. By stealing all their Baltic Islands my fleets of trade ships with maritime, naval and English ideas dominated Baltic trade, allowing me to then invade Novgorod, stunting Muscovite expansion, taking over key trade ports in the Baltic and White Sea. Then, maxing out on merchants, I turned all of Russia into my giant informal trade Empire, my caravans seizing all of their trade power and bringing it to the North and Baltic Seas, both dominated by me. I didn't bother expanding or fighting militarily at this point, content to just peacefully spread protestantism and send loads of money to the Portuguese and Burgundians for having been such faithful allies in the early-years. Both Burgundy and Portugal became great powers as a result. The Livonian Order willingly joined me, being diplo-annexed, but not before the Grandmaster converted the order to a protestant one. Thereafter the great Franco-British Union peacefully traded the ever loving shit out of the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Sea, English Channel, Baltic and White Seas, flooding all the German and Russian markets with merchant caravans who could steal delicious trade without ever having to fire a single bullet.
Then some interesting things happen.
Austria inherits Hungary.
Spain inherits Austria.