The sack of Rome shocked the Christian world. Following the battle of Pavia, Pope Clement VII joined (1526) the French-led League of Cognac to resist the threatened Habsburg domination of Europe. Emperor Charles V appealed to the German diet for support and raised an army, which entered Italy in 1527 and joined the imperial forces from Milan, commanded by the Duke of Bourbon. This army marched on Rome, hoping to detach the pope from the league. The many Lutherans in its ranks boasted that they came with hemp halters to hang the cardinals and a silk one for the pope. Rome fell on 6 May 1527, Bourbon being killed in the first assault. Discipline collapsed, and the city was savagely pillaged for a week before some control was restored. Judith Hook's book is here reprinted with a foreward by Patrick Collinson.

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About the author

JUDITH HOOK sometime lecturer in History at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and author of Siena, A City and it's History, Baroque Age of England and Lorenzo de Medici: an Historical Biography.

PATRICK COLLINSON Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Cambridge and author of many books including The Birthpangs of Protestant England.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: The Sack of Rome
Book Subtitle: 1527
Authors: Judith Hook
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230628779
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2004
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4039-1769-0Published: 16 March 2004
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-62877-9Published: 16 March 2004
Edition Number: 2
Number of Pages: XVII, 331
Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations
Topics: European History, Modern History, History of Britain and Ireland, History of Early Modern Europe, World History, Global and Transnational History, History of Italy

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

Front Matter

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