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Did the Sack of Rome in 1527 end the Renaissance in Italy

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[[File: Sack of Rome Two.jpg |thumbnail|left|300px250px|Portrait of Emperor Charles V, 1527]] 
The Sack of Rome was the capture and Rome's destruction by the mutinous troops of Emperor Charles V. It caused widespread outrage at the time, and it shocked Europe. The Sack destroyed much of Rome, and it is widely seen as ushering in a new era in Italy's history. This article will discuss the impact that the Sack had on Italy and its development.
The commonly held belief is that the Sack of Rome ended the Renaissance in Italy. The Sack of Rome in 1527 was of critical importance in the history of Italy. It guaranteed Spanish supremacy in Italy, led to increasingly religious orthodoxy, and destroyed Rome's economy. It was not the Sack itself, but the effects of the Sack that contributed to the ending of the Renaissance.
 
==Why did the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's army invade Italy in 1527?==
Since the 1490s, France and Spain (and briefly the Swiss) had fought in Italy for control of the peninsula. The various Italian city-states and the Papacy were divided, and they were often allied to the Hapsburgs, Spanish, and the French.<ref> Lopez, Robert Sabatino, <i>The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance</i> (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970), p. 89 </ref> The struggle for Italy had entered a new phase during the reigns of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his great rival Francis II of France. In 1527 Italy was the scene of the War of the League of Cognac, and this involved France and the Papacy on one side and the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain, and her allies on the other. Pope Clement VII supported the French Monarch, Francis I, to protect the independence of the Papacy.<ref> Lopez, p. 112</ref>
==What was the aftermath of the Sack of Romein 1527?==
[[File: Pope Clement VII.jpg|thumbnail|200px250px|left|Pope Clement VII in 1528]] 
Emperor Charles V was deeply embarrassed by the actions of his mutinous army. However, Charles knew that the Pope was in a weak position, and he saw it as an opportunity to extend his control over the Papacy.<ref> Chastel. p. 212</ref> Successive Popes, eager to preserve Italian independence and their own, had allied themselves with the French to prevent Charles from upsetting Italy's balance of power.
The sack practically bankrupted the Papacy and it could no longer offer the financial support needed by the City-States to recruit armies, which were mainly composed of mercenary soldiers. By 1550 the Spanish Monarch, Phillip II, was the dominant influence in Italy and not the Pope. Spanish control led to an erosion of political and individual freedoms. This dealt a blow to the Renaissance as artists and thinkers could not create the work they wanted or freely express their ideas and opinions.<ref> Burke, Peter. <i>The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy Princeton</i> (Princeton University Press, 1999) p. 6 </ref>
<div class="portal" style='float:right; width:35%'>
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*[[What was Pope Julius IIs contribution to Renaissance Italy?]]
*[[How did the Bubonic Plague make the Italian Renaissance possible?]]
*[[What was the role of the Popes in the Renaissance?]]
*[[What were the causes of the Northern Renaissance?]]
*[[How did the Renaissance influence the Reformation?]]
*[[What was the Borgias contribution to Renaissance Italy?]]
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== The End of Renaissance Rome?==
[[File: Papacy 2.jpg|thumbnail|350px|left|St Peter’s Basilica]]
Rome was in a state of collapse, and the Sack had set the city back by a century. The Pope could no longer afford to pay artists and writers, and they gradually drifted away from the city. The capture of Rome in 1527, ended the Renaissance in Rome which had become one of the last centers of the great cultural flourishing in Italy.<ref>Ruggiero, Guido. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521719380/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521719380&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=099fc32a1ba347508fdb90b622912ce0 The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento]</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 648 </ref>
====Conclusion====
The Sack of Rome is often considered the end of the Renaissance. The brutal seizure of the Eternal City and the subsequent eight-month occupation by a band of rebellious soldiers changed the Papacy and Italy. The Papacy was no longer able to resist Spanish domination, and it increasingly followed the policies of first Charles V and later Phillip II. This led to increasing efforts by the Pope, through the Office of the Inquisition to enforce Religious Orthodoxy. The Sack of Rome shattered the city’s economy, and no longer was the Pope’s ability to spend lavishly on buildings, books, and works of art. These factors changed Italian society.
====References====
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<div class="portal" style='float:left; width:35%'>
====Related DailyHistory.org Articles====
*[[What was Pope Julius IIs contribution to Renaissance Italy?]]
*[[How did the Bubonic Plague make the Italian Renaissance possible?]]
*[[What was the role of the Popes in the Renaissance?]]
*[[What were the causes of the Northern Renaissance?]]
*[[How did the Renaissance influence the Reformation?]]
*[[What was the Borgias contribution to Renaissance Italy?]]
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[[Category:Italian History]] [[Category:Renaissance History]] [[Category:European History]][[category:wikis]]
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