Sack of Rome (1527)
On May 6, 1527, the unimaginable happened. Over 20,000 men entered Rome, the Eternal City, and pillaged and looted it for more than a month. Under the leadership of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, German and Spanish forces pillaged churches and palaces, kidnapped merchants and cardinals, and murdered people from all walks of life in the streets and their houses. Since the city's capture in 410 C.E., Rome has not seen such a humiliating and disastrous defeat at the hands of an outside force. the Visigoths killed him (Hunt, n.d.).
