In this episode, we pick up with Emperor&nbsp;Charles V&nbsp;consolidating his power over Italy after the&nbsp;Battle of Pavia (1525), where the French king&nbsp;Francis I&nbsp;was captured. The uneasy Italian states, including&nbsp;Pope Clement VII (Giulio de’ Medici), soon realized they had traded one master for another and formed the&nbsp;League of Cognac (1526)&nbsp;— an anti-imperial alliance including&nbsp;France, Venice, Florence, the Papal States, Milan, and under English protection,&nbsp;Henry VIII.The league’s formation was steeped in intrigue, false pretenses, and even secret dealings with the Turks. One of Charles’s own commanders,&nbsp;the Marquis of Pescara, pretended to side with the league while feeding the emperor inside information.Meanwhile,&nbsp;Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, the famed mercenary from the Medici-Sforza line, met his end in battle, struck by artillery supplied by the duplicitous&nbsp;Duke of Ferrara. His death marked the fading of Italy’s old mercenary tradition — and one of its most charismatic figures.When the pope attempted to back away from the alliance, Charles’s allies struck at Rome. The&nbsp;Sack of Rome (1527)followed — a devastating episode where mutinous&nbsp;Landsknechts, many of them fervent Lutherans, unleashed horrific violence on the city. For days, the Eternal City was ravaged: thousands slaughtered, churches desecrated, art looted, and the Renaissance dream in Rome brutally extinguished.&nbsp;Pope Clement VII&nbsp;barely escaped to&nbsp;Castel Sant’Angelo, thanks to the sacrifice of his Swiss Guards.In the chaos that followed,&nbsp;the Papal States collapsed, local lords reclaimed their territories, and the&nbsp;Medici were expelled from Florence, where a new republic was declared — with&nbsp;Jesus Christ&nbsp;symbolically named as its king.Ultimately,&nbsp;Charles V&nbsp;and&nbsp;Clement VII&nbsp;reconciled. Political realism won out over ideology. Through the&nbsp;Treaties of Barcelona (1529)&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bologna (1530), the Italian Wars entered a quieter phase, and imperial dominance over Italy was secured.We close with the final chapter of the&nbsp;Sforza dynasty:&nbsp;Francesco II Sforza, the last Duke of Milan, whose death in&nbsp;1535marked the end of an era — from the rise of the free communes to the age of dynastic rule and foreign domination.

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195 - Italian Wars 12 - The sack of Rome (again) and the end of the Sforza

A History of Italy

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