Sack of Rome ................................... S
An assault on the city of Rome that oc-
curred on May 6, 1527, by the armies of
Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. The
popes and emperors had been contending
for power in the Italian peninsula for cen-
turies, with the other major powers of the
continent taking sides in the conflict to
advance their own interests. In 1494,
France entered the fray by invading north-
ern Italy, making alliances with several Ital-
ian cities and briefly occupying the city of
Naples. By the early sixteenth century the
advantage in this conflict had shifted to
the Holy Roman Empire; to offset the im-
perial armies Pope Clement VII had allied
with France in the League of Cognac that
also included Milan, Venice, and Florence.
A polyglot army of thirty-five thousand
Spaniards, Germans, Italians, and French
under the command of Charles III, the
Duke of Bourbon, was fighting in north-
ern Italy on behalf of the Holy Roman
Empire in the spring of 1527. Poorly fed
and going for several weeks without pay,
these troops mutinied and forced their
commanders to march on Rome, which
was defended by a small force of five thou-
sand militia, including the Swiss Guard re-
sponsible for protecting the pope, and can-
non set atop the city’s ancient walls.
On the day of the attack, the Duke of
Bourbon was killed, leading to a complete
breakdown of discipline among the impe-
rial troops. By sunset the attackers were
breaking through the gates of the city,
while the Swiss Guard took positions on
the steps of Saint Peter’s Basilica, while
Clement escaped through a secret passage
to the fortified Castel Sant’ Angelo. The
remaining defenders quickly surrendered
and were massacred, while the armies of
Charles V degenerated into a violent mob,
killing, raping, and plundering without re-
straint. The sack continued for three days
while the pope remained a prisoner in the
Castel Sant’ Angelo. For several weeks af-
terward the leading citizens of Rome suf-
fered the ransacking of their houses and
kidnapping for heavy ransom payments.
Realizing that the members of the League
of Cognac would not relieve the city or
stage any kind of counterattack, Clement
finally surrendered on June 6, one month
after the siege began, he was forced to pay
a huge ransom and give up papal territo-
ries in northern Italy to the emperor.
The imperial troops finally retreated
from Rome in February 1528, leaving the
city heavily damaged and the Papacy per-
manently weakened in its long-standing
conflict with the Holy Roman Empire.
Clement agreed to formally crown Charles
V as emperor in February 1530. In the
meantime, Rome’s primacy in the artistic
and cultural life of the Renaissance came
to an end, as important artists fled the city
to seek patronage elsewhere. The Sack of
Rome also freed the emperor of any need
to fight in Italy, Charles V turned with full
force against the Protestant princes of Ger-
many.SEEALSO: Charles V; Paul III