Sack of Rome

An assault on the city of Rome that occurred 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 centuries, 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 northern Italy, making alliances with several Italian 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 imperial 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 northern 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 thousand militia, including the Swiss Guard responsible for protecting the pope, and cannon 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 imperial 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 restraint. The sack continued for three days while the pope remained a prisoner in the Castel Sant' Angelo. For several weeks afterward the leading citizens of Rome suffered 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 territories in northern Italy to the emperor.

The imperial troops finally retreated from Rome in February 1528, leaving the city heavily damaged and the Papacy permanently 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 Germany.

See Also: Charles V; Paul III