ABSTRACT
On May 27, 1527, troops of Emperor Charles V under the command of Philibert, prince of Orange, and Georg von Frundsberg stormed Rome, took the pope prisoner, and ravaged the city, the famous sacco di Roma. Charles's mercenaries, who had not been paid for months, revolted and proceeded to Rome, after the attempt to storm Florence had been thwarted by the troops of the league. Charles began to prepare for a military showdown with the League of Schmalkald by consolidating his international involvement, particularly by concluding peace with France. On July 20, barely six months after Martin Luther's death, Charles declared the Saxon elector and the landgrave of Hesse, the two main bulwarks of the League of Schmalkald, to be political outlaws for actions that in part had occurred in the distant past. When Isabella died in 1506 Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros became regent, his oldest son Charles of Burgundy assumed the crown as Charles I of Spain.
