Sack of Rome (1527)
gigatos | February 8, 2022
Summary
The sack of Rome (looting) began on May 6, 1527 by the imperial troops of Charles V of Habsburg, composed mainly of German lansquenets, about 14,000, as well as 6,000 Spanish soldiers and an unknown number of bands of Italians.
The imperial troops, mostly Spaniards landed in Genoa under the leadership of Charles III of Bourbon, had been engaged in the second part of 1526 in the Po Valley against the League of Cognac. The emperor had then sent down from the Tyrol to reinforce the Lansquenets under the leadership of the now old von Frundsberg, which, however, were effectively opposed by Giovanni delle Bande Nere. When Giovanni died and Milan was conquered, the Spanish and the Lansquenets met in Piacenza in February 1527.
The Venetian possessions to the east were protected by Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, who had done little to prevent imperial actions in the lands of the Duchy of Milan. Spaniards and lansquenets, ill-assorted and ill-disposed towards each other, decided to move south together in search of booty, under the partial control of Charles III of Bourbon, who could only count on personal prestige, since the troops had not seen the money for months.
Hungry and eager for prey, they left behind the little artillery. After having bypassed Florence, considered a difficult objective because it was well defended, they marched in forced marches and pushed by hunger towards Rome. The city was practically without defenders, as Pope Clement VII to save money had dismissed the troops, convinced that he could deal with Charles V to change sides again.
The sack of Rome had a tragic outcome, both in the damage to people and to the artistic heritage. About 20 000 citizens were killed, 10 000 fled, 30 000 died of the plague brought by the Lansquenets. Clement VII, who took refuge in Castel Sant”Angelo, had to surrender and pay 400,000 ducats. The Lansquenets, of prevalent Protestant faith, were also animated by antipapal fervor and were responsible for the greatest cruelty to religious men and women and damage to religious buildings.
The event marked an important moment in the long wars for dominance in Europe between the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France, allied with the State of the Church. The devastation and occupation of the city of Rome seemed to symbolically confirm the decline of Italy at the mercy of foreign armies and the humiliation of the Catholic Church committed to oppose even the Lutheran Reformation movement developed in Germany.
The story is part of the broader framework of conflicts for supremacy in Europe, between the Habsburgs and the Valois, or between Francis I of Valois, King of France and Charles V of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. More precisely it is inserted in the second conflict that saw the two sovereigns engaged from 1526 to 1529.
The first conflict ended with the defeat of Francis I at Pavia and the signing of the Treaty of Madrid, which took place in January 1526, after which the French sovereign had to renounce, among other things, all his rights over Italy and return Burgundy to the Habsburgs.
In the following May, however, Pope Clement VII (born Giulio de” Medici), taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the Valois for having had to sign a treaty containing extremely mortifying clauses for France, became the promoter of an anti-imperial league, the so-called Holy League of Cognac.
In substance, Pope Clement and the King of France shared the fear that the Hapsburg sovereign, once he had taken possession of northern Italy and already had the whole of southern Italy in his hands as a Spanish inheritance, could be induced to unify all the states of the peninsula under a single sceptre, to the detriment of the Papal State, which risked being isolated and phagocytised.
The League was composed, besides the Pope and the King of France, also by the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa as well as the Florence of the Medici. The hostilities began in 1526 attacking the Republic of Siena, but the enterprise was unsuccessful and revealed the weakness of the troops at the disposal of the Pope.
The emperor, intent on momentarily controlling northern Italy, tried to regain the favor of the pontiff, but having had no success, he decided to intervene militarily. But his forces were engaged elsewhere: on the internal front against the Lutherans and on the external front against the Ottoman Empire, which was pressing at the eastern gates of the Empire; so he managed to foment an internal revolt within the Papal State, through the powerful Roman Colonna family, who had always been an enemy of the Medici.
The revolt of the Colonna produced its effects. Cardinal Pompeo Colonna unleashed in the papal city his soldiers who sacked it. Clement VII, besieged in Rome, was forced to ask for help to the emperor with the promise to change his alliance against the king of France, breaking the Holy League. Pompey Colonna calmly retreated to Naples. Clement VII, once free, did not keep the pact stipulated anyway, and called in his help just Francis I.
At this point the emperor ordered the armed intervention against the Papal State (which in the city of Rome was then represented by Governor Bernardo de ”Rossi) by sending a contingent of Lansquenets, under the command of Duke Charles III of Bourbon-Montpensier, one of the greatest French leaders, hated by King Francis.
However, the troops on the field were commanded by General Georg von Frundsberg, an experienced Tyrolean leader of the imperial lansquenets, famous for his hatred of the Church of Rome and the pope; according to his personal secretary Adam Reusner, he would openly express his firm intention to hang Clement VII after occupying the city. The Lansquenet army assembled by Frundsberg would have been led by a number of experienced German commanders, veterans of previous wars, including Georg von Frundsberg”s son Melchiorre, Konrad von Boyneburg-Bemelberg, Sebastian Schertlin, Conrad Hess and Ludovico Lodron
The Lanzichenecchi of Frundsberg, about 14,000 mercenary militiamen enlisted mainly in Bolzano and Merano and followed by their 3,000 women, left Trento on November 12, 1526, flanked by another 4,000 mercenaries from Cremona. They marched initially in direction of the Valley of the Adige to confuse the Venetian militias and then to suddenly direct themselves towards the Valley of the Chiese encamping to Lodrone; here however, seen the impossibility to overcome the Rocca d”Anfo garrisoned by the Venetians, after to have crossed difficult roads of mountain in Val Vestino and to have reached in the Valley Sabbia to Vobarno, the German militias did not succeed to overcome a first barricade of the Venetian troops to the Crown of Roè Volciano. Fearful of the arrival of the troops of the League stationed in the Milan area and that were made up of about 35,000 soldiers, Frundsberg thought it impossible to break through to Brescia. Therefore, he went down to Gavardo and diverted the march of his lansquenets towards Mantua where he intended to cross the Po river.
The imperial militia overcame some weak resistances in Goito, Lonato and Solferino and then reached Rivalta; on November 25, 1526, the lansquenets of Frundsberg, also thanks to the betrayal of the Lords of Ferrara and Mantua (mentioned below), defeated in the battle of Governolo the troops of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere that tried to block their passage near a bridge on the Mincio river; the same Italian leader, that in the preceding days had tried to slow down the enemy advance with a series of raids of disturbance of his light cavalry, was seriously wounded by a falconetto shot, dying after some days for the consequences of the wound. The German militia therefore could pass the Po on November 28, 1526 near Ostiglia and continued the advance; in the following days were reinforced by two hundred men led by Filiberto di Chalons Prince of Orange and five hundred Italian arquebusiers under the command of Niccolò Gonzaga.
The troops of the League of Cognac demonstrated scarce cohesion and mediocre military efficiency; moreover, some Italian princes favored the advance of the imperial army; Alfonso I d”Este, Duke of Ferrara, who after some uncertainties had allied himself with Charles V, supplied his modern artillery pieces that reinforced the army of Lanzichen before the battle of Governolo, while in Mantua, Marquis Federico II Gonzaga, although formally allied with the Pope, refused to take an active part in the war. In these conditions the armies of the League present in Italy were not able to stop the imperial troops of Frundsberg that on December 14, 1526 crossed the Taro and occupied Fiorenzuola while the pontifical forces led by Francesco Guicciardini and Guido Rangoni fell back from Parma and Piacenza in the direction of Bologna. At the same time Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino and commander of the Venetian army, from the regions of Mantua prudently kept at a distance from the imperial army and remained cautiously on the defensive; he considered the Lanzichen army unbeatable in the open field and preferred above all to cover the territory of Venice.
In reality, even the Lansquenets, despite their apparently unstoppable advance, were in difficulty because of the continuous attacks and especially for the serious lack of food; marching in the mud and cold with insufficient food supplies, the troops were in deplorable conditions and Georg von Frundsberg was seriously worried. On December 14, from Fiorenzuola the imperial leader sent a pressing request for help to Charles of Bourbon who was in Milan with the Spanish troops, which according to the plans should have joined with the Lansquenets. Charles of Bourbon decided to move quickly to the rescue with his troops that however gave evidence of poor discipline and impatience because of the non-payment of the money. With some expedients the imperial leader was able to convince his soldiers to obey orders and on January 30, 1527 he marched from Milan. The Spanish troops, 6,000 men, reached the Lanzichenecco army in Pontenure, near Piacenza, on February 7. On March 7, the reunited imperial army, further strengthened by the arrival of contingents of pro-imperial Italian troops, arrived at San Giovanni in Bolognese territory.
On March 16, 1527, however, there were new, serious manifestations of indiscipline and sedition among the imperial troops because of the extremely poor living conditions and especially because of the non-payment of the money due to the troops; after the riots started among the Spanish troops, also the German lanzichenecchi joined the protests and Frundsberg”s personal attempt to quell the revolt was not successful. The militia called for payment of the penny, and the German leader, while speaking to the troops, had a serious illness. Struck by stroke, Frundsberg, after futile attempts to cure, had to surrender the command and March 22 was evacuated to Ferrara. By now infirm, he returned to his castle in Mindelheim only in August 1528 to die there. The command of the imperial expeditionary corps was assumed by Carlo di Borbone who had great difficulty in re-establishing the discipline.
Just during the days of the sedition among the imperial troops, arrived in the field the envoys of the viceroy of Naples Carlo di Lannoy to inform Carlo di Borbone that a truce had been established with the pope Clemente VII on the base of a payment of sixty thousand ducats to the imperial army. The pope, extremely worried about the invasion, had decided to start negotiations and break the solidarity among the powers of the League of Cognac. The news of the agreement however provoked violent protests among the imperial troops desirous to retaliate of the fatigues of the war with a devastating plundering of the enemy territory; the truce was therefore rejected and Carlo di Borbone decided autonomously to resume the advance after having communicated to the viceroy that he could not oppose to the will of the troops.
The imperials, about 35,000 Spanish, German and Italian soldiers, passed Forli, where about 500 of them had the worst in a skirmish with the troops of Michael Anthony of Saluzzo, crossed the Apennines and went to Arezzo, following, then, the Via Romea Germanica. From here, on April 20, 1527, they left again, taking advantage of the precarious situation in which the Venetians and their allies found themselves because of the insurrection of Florence against the Medici. The troops defending Rome were few in number (no more than five thousand), but they had on their side the solid walls and the artillery, which the besiegers lacked. Borbone had to take the city quickly to avoid being trapped in turn by the League”s army.
On the morning of May 6, the Imperials began their attack. There were 14,000 Lansquenets and 6,000 Spaniards. To these were added the Italian infantry of Fabrizio Maramaldo, Sciarra Colonna and Luigi Gonzaga “Rodomonte”; many knights had placed themselves under the command of Ferrante I Gonzaga and the Prince of Orange Filiberto of Chalons; many deserters of the League, soldiers dismissed by the Pope and numerous bandits attracted by the hope of robbery had also joined them.
The assault was concentrated between the Janiculum and the Vatican. In order to set an example to his men, Charles of Bourbon was among the first to attack, but while climbing a ladder he was seriously wounded by an arquebus ball, which seems to have been shot by Benvenuto Cellini (according to his autobiography). Hospitalized in the church of Sant”Onofrio, the Bourbon died in the afternoon. This increased the impetus of the attackers, who, at the cost of heavy losses, managed to enter the Borgo district. The Bourbon”s successor was the Prince of Orange.
While the Spanish troops were assaulting the walls between Porta Torrione and Porta Fornaci, the lansquenets, led by Frundsberg”s lieutenant, the leader Konrad von Boyneburg-Bemelberg, began to climb the ramparts between Porta Torrione and Porta Santo Spirito. After strenuous efforts, the Germans succeeded in overcoming the surrounding wall in the Porta Santo Spirito sector; captains Nicola Seidenstuecker and Michele Hartmann reached the terraces with their lansquenets, conquered the cannons and forced the defenders to flee.
While the German lanzichenecchi were multiplying their efforts to widen the breach and cross the walls of Porta San Pietro en masse, a division of Spanish soldiers fortunately managed to locate a poorly camouflaged window in a cellar of Palazzo Armellini close to the walls that was apparently unprotected; through this window the Spaniards entered a narrow tunnel that led them inside Palazzo Armellini where they encountered no resistance. The soldiers then turned back and widened the opening; the troops were thus able to pour in, invade the neighborhood and advance towards St. Peter”s. At the same time the German lansquenets, covered by the fire of the arquebuses, conquered a large part of the walls and, while the papal troops were falling back in route, they in their turn moved towards the basilica advancing on the right of the Spaniards.
The pope, who was praying in the church, was led through the passetto to the Castel Sant”Angelo while 189 Swiss Guards (also mercenaries but loyal to the pope) had themselves slaughtered to defend his escape.
Deprived of command, the Lansquenets, until then frustrated by a disappointing military campaign, gave themselves to the pillage and violence on the inhabitants of the city starting from Borgo Vecchio and the hospital of Santo Spirito, with an unheard of brutality and even gratuitous. All the churches were desecrated, treasures were stolen and sacred furnishings were destroyed. The nuns were raped, as were the women who were torn from their homes. All the palaces of the prelates and nobles (such as the Massimo family) were devastated, with the exception of those loyal to the emperor. The population was subjected to all kinds of violence and harassment. The streets were strewn with corpses and traversed by gangs of drunken soldiers dragging behind women of every condition, and by looters carrying stolen goods.
Pope Clement VII found himself sheltered in the impregnable Castel Sant”Angelo. On June 5, after accepting the payment of a large sum for the withdrawal of the occupants, he surrendered and was imprisoned in a palace in the Prati district waiting for the payment of the agreed amount. The pope”s surrender, however, was a stratagem to get out of Castel Sant”Angelo and, thanks to agreements secretly made, escape from the Eternal City at the first opportunity. On December 7, about thirty knights and a strong division of arquebusiers under the orders of Luigi Gonzaga “Rodomonte”, attacked the palace and freed Clement VII who was disguised as a vegetable gardener to overcome the city walls and then escorted to Orvieto. In the pictorial iconography, Clement VII, starting from 1527, will be painted with a white beard, it seems became such in three days, following the pain caused by the sack.
The actual plundering lasted eight days, at the end of which, however, the city remained occupied by the troops, who also tried to exploit the situation by demanding ransoms for the prisoners. The real withdrawal of the plunderers would have been had only between the 16 and the 18 February of the following year, after s”era looted the lootable and there was more possibility to obtain ransoms, but also because of the plague spread after months of bivouac and the desertions of many soldiers (assimilated in the population).
The sack caused incalculable damage to the artistic heritage of the city. Even the works in the factory of Saint Peter”s were interrupted and resumed only in 1534 with the pontificate of Paul III:
In addition to the large sum for the withdrawal of the occupants, the pope as guarantee had to deliver as statesmen (Onofrio Bartolini, archbishop of Pisa; Antonio Pucci, bishop of Pistoia: Gian Matteo Giberti, bishop of Verona.
The same day in which the defenses of Rome yielded, the pontifical captain Guido II Rangoni pushed himself up to the bridge Salario with a lineup of horses and arquebusiers, but, seen the situation, he withdrew to Otricoli. Francesco Maria della Rovere, who had joined the troops of the Marquis of Saluzzo, camped in Monterosi waiting for news. After three days the prince of Orange ordered that the plundering ceased, but the lansquenets did not obey and Rome continued to be violated, until there was something left to take possession of.
Some Roman families, on the side of the Lansquenets, managed to save their property. Among these, besides the Colonna, were the Gonzaga and the Farnese families. In fact, while one of Alessandro”s sons (later Pope Paul III), Ranuccio Farnese, was siding with Pope Clement VII, his other son Pier Luigi was a commander among the Lansquenets. Upon entering Rome, Pier Luigi quartered himself in Palazzo Farnese, thus saving the family”s property.
At the time of the “Sack”, the city of Rome counted, according to the papal census carried out between the end of 1526 and the beginning of 1527, 55,035 inhabitants, mainly composed of colonies coming from various Italian cities, with a Florentine majority.
Such a small population was defended by about 4,000 men-at-arms and the 189 Swiss mercenaries who formed the pontiff”s guard.
The centuries-old lack of maintenance of the ancient sewage system had transformed Rome into an unhealthy city, infested with malaria and bubonic plague. The sudden overcrowding caused by tens of thousands of lansquenets heavily aggravated the hygienic situation, favoring beyond measure the spread of contagious diseases that decimated both the population and the occupants.
At the end of that dreadful year, the citizens of Rome were reduced almost in half by the approximately 20,000 deaths caused by violence or disease. Among the victims there were also high prelates, such as Cardinal Cristoforo Numai da Forlì, who died a few months later from the sufferings he had undergone during the plundering. As in many other places in Europe due to the wars of religion, a period of poverty was determined in the Rome of the 16th century.
The reasons that induced the Germanic mercenaries to abandon themselves to such a heinous pillage and for such a long time, that is, for about ten months, lie in the frustration for a military campaign that had been disappointing until then and, above all, in the heated hatred that most of them, Lutherans, nurtured for the Catholic Church.
In addition, at that time the soldiers were paid every five days, that is for “cinquine”. However, when the commander of the troops did not have enough money for the pay of the soldiers, authorized the so-called “sack” of the city, which did not last, in general, more than a day. The time enough, that is, so that the troop made up for the lack of pay.
In this particular case, the Lansquenets had not only been left without pay, but they had also been left without their commander. In fact, Frundsberg had hastily returned to Germany for health reasons and the Bourbon had fallen victim in the field.
Without pay, without commander and without orders, in the grip of a rabid aversion to Catholicism, it was easy for them to indulge for so long in the plundering of no longer eternal Rome.
In addition to the history of the city of Rome, the sack of 1527 had an epochal significance so much so that Bertrand Russell and other scholars indicate May 6, 1527 as the symbolic date on which to place the end of the Renaissance.
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Religion
Beginning with the sack, a turning point for the entire Catholic world would begin. The logic of family power and the questionable customs that had dominated the papacy had given rise to Lutheran criticism and the birth of Lutheranism. The sack of Catholic Rome by an astute and contemptuous Protestant army, just ten years after the publication of Luther”s theses (1517), was one of the elements that forced the Church (and families) to react. Paul III Farnese, successor to Clement VII Medici, convened the Council of Trent in 1545, resulting in the birth of the Counter-Reformation.
Also read, biographies – Emil von Behring
Policy
The sack of Rome, ordered by Charles V of Hapsburg and occurred within the War of the League of Cognac (1526-30), is framed as a sensational event within one of the conflicts of the sixteenth century that will then lead to the division of Europe between the Habsburgs and France culminated in 1559 with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.
Also read, battles – Battle of Chaul
Art
Before the sack, Rome was the main destination for any European artist eager for fame and wealth, for the prestigious commissions of the papal court. The sack generated a real diaspora, which brought, first in the Italian courts and then in the European ones, the style of the “great manner” of the pupils of Raphael and Michelangelo.
In the years following the sack, however, the Counter-Reformation marked a new style more didactic and understandable, sometimes veined with gravity and celebratory grandeur towards the Catholic Church. A clear example is the evolution of Michelangelo Buonarroti himself, who in 1508-1512 had painted the vault of the Sistine Chapel with biblical representations, and who returned to the same place in 1536-1541 with the cautionary Last Judgment.
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