The Sack of Rome

About this book

Here is E. R. Chamberlins account of one of the great tragedies of history. It was a tragedy that nobody intended but it cost the lives of thousands and brought a way of life to an end. The author traces the origins of the tragedy through the personalities of the people whose miscalculations brought it about: Charles Duke of Bourbon leader of the army who was killed at the moment of assault leaving it leaderless and doubly dangerous; Franois I the brilliant hedonistic King of France who drove Bourbon to treason and so helped start the avalanche; Frundsburg the giant German who brought his "landsknechts" across the Alps to march on Rome with the Frenchmen he despised; the Emperor Charles V the deeply religious man who nevertheless unleashed his army to teach "that villain of a pope" a lesson; and the Pope himself the scholarly timorous Medici Pope Clement VII whose vacillations provided the final trigger for the catastrophe.