The Italian High Renaissance reaches a violent coda
6 MAY 1527
At the start of May 1527, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V held a commanding position in western Europe. The Habsburg ruler had scored an important victory in the Italian War of 1521–26, and was now intent on expanding his control over the northern Italian peninsula. The main obstacle in the emperor’s way was the French-led League of Cognac and its co-founder Pope Clement VII, who ruled the peninsula’s Papal States.
Rather than marching on Rome, however, Charles ordered his imperial army to sit back and give the pope the chance to negotiate. But the soldiers – whose number included more than 14,000 frustrated and underpaid German mercenaries – decided to take matters into their own hands. On 6 May, the rowdy troops breached the city walls and surged towards St Peter’s Basilica, causing mayhem and stealing whatever they could.
Fearing for his life, Clement VII fled the Vatican and was bundled through the 800-metre-long passageway known as the Passeto di Borgo, which took him to the fortified Castel Sant’Angelo – and, crucially, to safety. But other people within Rome’s city walls were not so lucky. Despite their valiant defence of the Vatican, more than 140 members of the Swiss Guard were massacred outside St Peter’s Basilica, while hundreds of civilians w
