Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 237: How Italy fell to the Habsburgs –  From the Peace of Madrid to the Sack of Rome.

We are coming closer to the end of our series on the Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg. We have seen the reconsolidation of Austria, the acquisition of Burgundy, the inheritance of Spain and today, we will look at the last stages of the Italian wars. This conflict, kicked off by king Charles VIII in 1494 had given  “rise to changes of dominions, subversion of kingdoms, desolation of countries, destruction of cities and the cruellest massacres, but also new fashions, new customs, new and bloody ways of waging warfare, and diseases which had been unknown to that time”. Many players of this game had exited stage left and it was now just France and the Habsburgs in various alliances with the remaining Italian powers, who fought for control. The War of the League of Cognac, 1526 to 1530 was when brutality reached its zenith with the Sacco di Roma, the Sack of Rome that brought back the specter of the Vandals.

A lot of drama to get through.

But before we start let me tell you about the moment I had been waiting for for 4 and a half years. As you can imagine, anyone who sets out to tell the history of one’s homeland over hundreds of episodes is not only deranged, but also exceedingly vain.

It had always been my secret dream that one day someone would come up to me and say, are you the guy from that history podcast, History of the Germans. And it has finally happened. I was in Palermo going to a restaurant where I had forgotten my glasses the night before and a gentleman came up to me and asked me exactly this. Are you the guy from that podcast. And then went on to say he had just listened to the Frederik II episodes in preparation for the journey. I was so flabbergasted, I could not say anything. I did not even ask for a selfie or the name. So, if you are listening, please contact me and tell me your name. I need it to print it on a t-shirt or something. Talking about names, it is once again time to thank our generous patrons who have gone to historyofthegermans.com/support to make sure this show remains advertising free.

Their names are Nicholas M., Gunnar T., James P., Carles S., Jeff McC., Pat S. and the ever most generous Laurence C. Why don’t you join them and find yourself immortalized between me boasting about fame and emperor Charles V badly fumbling the ball.

And with that, back to the show.

Last week we ended on Charles V mighty triumph, the battle of Pavia. Well, it wasn’t exactly his success. He had been back home in Spain when his forces snuck into the park of Mirabello under the cover of darkness and unleashed hell on the French army.

Still, at the end of the battle, the flower of French chivalry lay dead in the mud and the king of France had become his prisoner. This was the worst French defeat since Agincourt and the second time a French king was taken captive.

The last time this had happened, at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, the victorious English forced the Dauphin to sign the Treaty of Bretigny that set the ransom payment at 3 million gulden and settled almost a third of France on the English king. It took the French a 100 years from that point onwards before they could expel the English for good.

When Charles V heard about the victory at Pavia he fell to his knees and “praised God for a good half hour”. The courier who brought the news also brought a letter from Charles de Lannoy, the victorious general, who was also a long standing counsellor of the young emperor. This letter is quoted in every single book I read about Charles V, so let me quote the key sentence here as well. Lannoy wrote, quote: “Sire, I am sure you will remember what Monsieur de Berseel [Charles childhood chamberlain] used to say: that God gives each man one good harvest in their lifetime, and that if they fail to bring it home, there is a risk they will never see another one. I do not tell you this because I think your majesty will let this opportunity slip, but, because whatever you decide to do should be done quickly.” End quote.

So let’s see how Charles maneuvered his combined harvester across the field of victory.

With the French king under his control and Henry VIII as an ally, Charles was in a position where he could shape the fate of Europe. That future, as Charles saw it, was for the war between the Christian powers to come to an end, for the Lutheran heresy to be resolved through a combination of fundamental reform of the church and the application of brute force, so that quote “he could seek out the Turks and Muslims in their own lands, win the empire of Constantinople and the Holy City of Jerusalem, so that under this most Christian prince everyone may accept our Holy Catholic Faith and the words of our redeemer may come true: let there be one flock and one shepherd”.  End quote.

So, like his grandfather, it is world domination this Austrian is after. But this time it wasn’t pure fantasy. Step one to get there was to achieve peace amongst the Christian rulers. Charles’ advisors suggested two ways to achieve this.

Option One was to seize the moment, invade France,  remove the Valois, resurrect the ancient Lothringian empire from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and install Henry VIII as King of Rump-France in Paris. Basically implement the Grand Enterprise Henry VIII and Charles V had agreed on in 1521.

Option 2 was to negotiate a lasting peace deal with the current ruling dynasty in France. Under this deal, they would pay a ransom of 4 million Ecu, give up their claims on Milan and Naples, hand over all the lands that had once belonged to Charles the Bold, specifically the duchy of Burgundy and the cities of Picardie, restitute the duke of Bourbon into his previous position, cease to support the duke of Gelders and others prone to attack Charles, and finally agree to a General Council of the Church.

Option One would involve immediate mobilization and a coordinated attack from Spain, Italy and England. And even Option 2 would have a better chance of success if underpinned by a massing of troops on the border.

And that is where Charles steered his combined harvester off the track. He did not mass troops on the border, ready to invade.

Hence when he sent his demands to Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francois I and regent of France, she found herself in a position, where she could outright refuse the suggested terms. In fact she wrote back that she would not hand over a single square foot of French soil. Geoffrey Parker attributes this harsh response to Charles’ rudeness in the way he addressed Louise and general high handedness. But whilst that surely did not help, we should not forget that we are in 1525 not in 1356. Handing over large sways of territory from one dynasty to another was no longer a matter of private contract. The kingdoms of Europe have become more than assortments of royal claims of ownership. They have developed institutions and a sense of national identity (still in inverted commas – not the full blown 19^th century version). As we have seen at the siege of Neuss (episode 214), even the Empire, despite its fragmentation and lack of institutions, came together in the defense of its territorial integrity. France had more established institutions, a more centralized government and a much stronger sense of cohesion forged in the Hundred Years War. They even had Joan of Arc, a  saintly figure that epitomized the French rejection of foreign occupation. So to believe, as Charles naively did, that Louise or even Francis would or could give him Burgundy, was simply ludicrous. And that was before we consider the fact that a handover of Burgundy would bring about the complete encirclement of France, their perennial nightmare for the next 200 years.

Therefore this proposal was dead on arrival. Option 1, which was effectively a replay of the late stages of the Hundred Years war where England and Burgundy ganged up against a much reduced France carried its own question marks. But that was never even attempted, because Francois had managed to stall his enemies’ momentum.

Most of Charles’ advisors urged him not to negotiate with Francois directly. As one of them pointed out, it is always preferable to negotiate with someone who is free to make choices. Agreements made under duress were and are still considered null and void. Therefore, whatever document you can get Francois to sign, he could easily walk away from once he was free again.

The other reason, though nobody dared mentioning it, was that Francois was just smarter than Charles, and much better at twisting people around his little finger.

But Charles ignored their warnings and copied the proposals he had sent to Louise of Savoy to Francois, who was kept under lock and key in Lombardy. Francois, realizing this was his chance to stall Charles sent back counterproposals. He accepted all the demands regarding Italy and restitution for the duke of Bourbon. And then proposed to marry Charles’ sister Eleanor. Eleanor would receive Burgundy and Milan as her apanage and their children would inherit these lands afterwards. Somehow that proposal excited Francois’ jailor, the viceroy Charles the Lannoy. Lannoy sent a messenger to Charles asking him not to do anything before he had heard Francois’ suggestions. That Charles did, which destroyed any chance to stage an invasion of France together with the English. Lannoy then added to his foolishness and conveyed Francois to Madrid, against his explicit orders.

And from that point onwards the combined harvester first zigzags across the field until it got stuck in the mud with wheels churning. Since the king of France was now in Spain, there was no more negotiating with Louise of Savoy. It was now directly between Francois and Charles.

Francois did use all the tricks in his register. He fell ill, which impressed on Charles how easily his precious hostage could simply disappear. And at a later lull in the negotiations, he faked illness, which freaked Charles out once more. Meanwhile he bribed Charles’ officials most handsomely, so he was always a step ahead of his opponent’s next move. He got a notary to record that he was kept under tight surveillance with soldiers checking on him throughout the night, and that hence any decision he was making now was made under undue duress.

And in the final stages of the negotiations, he just said, fine. If we cannot agree, then I remain a prisoner for the rest of my life. I will resign my crown and leave France to my eldest son, with my formidable mother as regent. Best of luck!

As I said, Francois was a lot cleverer than Charles. This was a masterpiece in diplomacy that could match Talleyrand’s handling of the Congress of Vienna.

Charles and Francois swore on the treaty of Madrid in January 1526. The agreement set forth that France gives up its claims on Milan and Naples and pays a ransom of 3 million. As for Burgundy, Francois promised by all that is holy that he will initiate the transfer of the duchy immediately when he arrives in France. At the very most within 6 weeks, Charles should be riding into Dijon. He argued that he could not hand the keys over before, because only through his presence could he get the estates and the parliament to agree to such an alienation of French territory. As security he handed over his two sons, Francois and Henry and promised to return into captivity should he fail to organize the transaction. Big pinky promise

Two months after Francois had crossed the border and was back home in France, he declared officially what was clear to most observers, namely that he had no intention to adhere to any of the provisions of the Treaty of Madrid. He would not hand back Burgundy and he would not give up his claims in Italy.

Charles V was back where he started. The greatest defeat the French had suffered in centuries yielded him nothing meaningful. Sure he could go around calling Francois a liar and an oath breaker, but this was the age of Machiavelli – sticking to agreements was for whimps.

What made the situation worse for Charles was that the Battle of Pavia had made the other European powers extremely anxious. If Charles had got what he wanted, Milan and Burgundy, the Habsburg Empire would have achieved cohesion. Armies could then travel between the three key locations, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria without ever leaving Habsburg territory. An encircled and weakened France would mean the whole of Italy could become the Habsburg’s back yard.

Venice and the Papacy had already been in an alliance against Charles before the battle of Pavia. Now other, smaller Italian states joined. A surprise participant was Francesco Sforza, the duke of Milan. He had only been installed in his position by Charles V just a few years earlier and was supposed to be a mere puppet of the Habsburg empire. But that puppet was now kicking back.

The Italians also turned to the King of England, Henry VIII. Henry and his chief advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, feared that Pavia had tipped the balance of power on the continent decisively towards the Habsburgs. That would have been acceptable had Charles implemented the Grand Enterprise and made Henry the King of France. But once that was off the table, relations cooled rapidly. Things turned icy when Charles cancelled the planned marriage to Henry’s daughter Mary, the future Bloody Mary, on the grounds that she was only 9 years old and he could not wait so long to produce an heir.

By the end of May, at a time when Francois was supposed to return to captivity in Spain for failure to deliver Burgundy, he instead joined the league of the Italian states. That happened in the city of Cognac, which is why this one became known as the League of Cognac. Henry VIII made sympathetic noises, but stayed neutral for now.

Which meant that the great victory at Pavia had not only brought Charles no harvest, it had cost him almost all his allies. The war in Italy resumed.

This war lasted from 1526 to 1530 and can be seen as the peak of atrocities in this sixty plus year conflict. If you are interested in the details, I can recommend “The Italian Wars 1494-1559” by Michael Mallet and Christine Shaw. They trace every major political and military twist and turn in a lot of detail. I am afraid this is the History of the Germans, not a History of Italy, so I will not trace all the actions and counteractions of the conflict. It is basically an endless running backwards and forwards across the peninsula, burning and pillaging each other’s homes on behalf of either French or Spanish-Austrian masters.

The basic structure was roughly as follows. After decades of war each of the major combatant had created a standing army that was available all throughout, even in peacetime. Therefore any alliance shift could immediately be followed up by what military people call kinetic operations. However, most of these standing armies consisted in heavy cavalry. The infantry and even artillery had to be supplemented in a massive way by mercenaries, namely the Swiss and the Landsknechte. The Spanish Tercios were the exception, they weren’t mercenaries, but professional soldiers serving the Spanish crown.

These trained infantry divisions had become the deciding force in the late 15^th and early 16^th century, in particular when equipped with firearms. And given they were mainly mercenaries, military success hinged on the availability of ready cash. In this context Charles V had an advantage since he could draw on the bankers of Genoa and Augsburg, whilst Francois drew from the less liquid banking houses based in Lyon. Francois tried to make up for this by issuing bonds to the public and by instituting the sale of public offices.

Being dependent upon either banker’s willingness to fund or the market demand for bonds meant that ever so often the mercenaries of either Charles V or of his opponents simply went home just before a battle. That meant that whoever had run out of cash had to give up their recent gains. However, since almost everyone had a standing army, these battles never led to a complete defeat of other side.

All it did was visit unimaginable harm on the Italians. which culminated in the Sack of Rome of 1527.

The League of Cognac had begun operations in 1526, focused on Milan. They tried to expel the imperial troops from the city itself and their main stronghold in Cremona. Their efforts proved  successful and Cremona fell in September1526. At this point Ferdinand, forever the supportive brother, sent an army of Landsknechte, once again under Georg von Frundsberg, to reinforce the imperials. They gradually turned the tide, relieved Milan, whilst the army of the League stood by.

Problems arose when pay dried up. The Spanish Tercios and the Landsknechte who had fought at Pavia and had stayed in Italy were used to it. They had not been paid for years. To make up for the shortfall they had been robbing and plundering the countryside, which by now was utterly exhausted. The French nobles they had captured and had hoped to ransom had either died or fled. The newly arrived men, hearing this, realized that they were unlikely to be compensated for their services either. The once immensely wealthy duchy of Milan had turned into a poorhouse. But there were still a lot of rich Italian cities further south, cities that could provide the compensation needed.

The commanders of the army, Charles of Bourbon and Georg von Frundsberg had neither orders nor intention to move south, but they could not hold their men back. This horde, formally still the imperial army, but operating on its own accord was moving south from Milan. Bourbon and Frundsberg prevented them from attacking current or potential allies of the emperor along the way by raising cash from wherever they could get it. As they moved, one city above all others became the target, Rome.

Of all the Italian allies who had left him, the defection of pope Cement VII had enraged the emperor most. Pious catholic that he was, he asked a council of theologians whether he would be right in attacking the pope, and was given the go ahead. Charles wrote him a letter, addressing him with the familiar “you” as opposed to “holy father” or some derivation thereof. He opened with quote: You cannot be unaware that you became pope through my intercession and with my help [..], yet you began hostilities against me [..] and you intend to expel me from Italy and deprive me of my imperial title. He goes on regretting he had not taken up his German subjects’ complaints about the corruption of the Holy Mother Church and stated that unless Clement ceases his opposition to him, he would call a general council to reform the church. This letter he had then printed and widely distributed in Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

The Landsknechte who, like many Germans, sympathized with Luther’s theses, saw Charles’ letter as a call to arms against the Medici pope. It gave them the veneer of legitimacy that separated them from mere bandits.

They arrived before the gates of Rome on May 6, 1527 and immediately attacked the Leonine Walls. By then Georg von Frundsberg was no longer with them. In Bologna a few weeks earlier his men, his beloved sons as he called them, had chased their officers out of the camp and gathered before his tent shouting money, money, money. The old man, seeing his life’s work imploding before his eyes, suffered a massive stroke. When the army moved on to Rome, he was left behind and he returned to Germany to die a year later, a sad end for the victor of Pavia.

The other leader of the army, duke Charles of Bourbon was killed during the first attack on the walls of the Vatican. Benvenuto Cellini, the immensely talented sculptor and fabulator claimed to have killed the duke and injured the second in command the prince of Orange. Whether it was Cellini or some nameless arquebusier, the net result was that the army that had just broken through the walls of Rome did no longer have any commanders with authority. One of the Landsknecht officers described what happened, quote: In the year 1527, on May 6^th, did we take the city of Rome by storm, killed a 6,000 men, plundered the entire city, taken everything we could find from the Churches, set a good part of the city alight, torn and smashed all manuscripts, registers, letters and courtly flummery”.  End quote.

Francesco Guicciardini, the historian who had been in Rome at the time reports quote: “You might hear the lamentable Cries and Shrieks of the Roman Women, and of the Nuns, hurried away to Bands of Soldiers to satiate their Lust; so that it might be truly said, Hidden to Mortals are the Judgments of God, who was pleased to permit the renowned Chastity of the Roman Women to fall by Force, a Sacrifice to so great a Degree of Brutality and Misery. All Places resounded with infinite Lamentations of those who were miserably tormented, some to constrained them to pay their Ransom, others to discover their secreted Effects. All consecrated Things, the Sacraments, and the Relics of Saints, of which the Churches were full, were spoiled of their Ornaments, and thrown about the Ground, with infinite Marks of Contempt from the German Barbarity ; [..]

It was reported that the Plunder in Money, Gold and Silver Plate, and Jewels, amounted to above a Million of Ducats, but what was raised by Ransoms made yet a much greater Sum.” End quote.

With drunken soldiers rampaging through the city nobody disposed of the bodies that putrefied in the early summer heat. Diseases broke out almost immediately. Potentially a further 10,000 men, women and children died, as did many of the perpetrators. Viruses and mosquitos are notoriously unable to differentiate between good and bad.

If you go to the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere to see the Raphael frescoes, you can also see the graffiti the Landsknechte left on the walls, boasting they had the pope on the run.

Indeed Pope Clement VII had fled to the Castel St. Angelo watching the devastation of the eternal city. Meanwhile the army of the league that had followed the Landsknechte to Rome stayed outside the wall and refused to intervene. Clement VII had been such an incompetent Politican, his see-saw politics had alienated everybody.  

Charles V was not happy with the way things had turned out, even if he hated Clement VII. The sack of Rome was an event that shocked Catholic Europe and even many protestants. The wanton destruction, rape and pillaging of one of Europe’s greatest cities was horrific. And all that whilst Suleiman the Magnificent had come up the Balkans, destroyed the Hungarian army at Mohacs and killed king Louis II. Charles had not been able to send even a single soldier to support Louis, his adopted brother. Ferdinand had sent Frundsberg and the Landsknechte to Rome, rather than to the defense of the Ottoman border. It was a on top of all else, a massive PR disaster.

And then the embarassment wasn’t going away. The army still had no commander who could restore order. The prince of Orange had recovered from his wounds but was unsure he wanted this hospital pass. Plus there was no money around to pay these soldiers, which would have been the only way to get them back in order. So the sack continued for more than a year. The Graffiti in the Farnesina date from 1528, not 1527. The wealthy had left the city before the Landsknechte arrived, but now everyone tried to get away. The community of renaissance artists, the pupils of Raphael and Michelangelo fled the burning city to embellish Venice, Siena, Parma, Mantua and the castles of Francois I instead.

Though Clement VII was ultimately released and fled to Oervieto, the papacy was seriously damaged. Territories that Clement’s predecessors had slowly regained for the papal states, like Urbino, Perugia, Rimini, Ravenna were once again lost to the families of local strongmen. And most troubling for the Medici pope Clement VII, Florence once more threw out his family and became a Republic.

And then there is the reputation of the Germans – this was very much not our finest hour.

One would assume that after this demonstration of the imperial force, all of Italy would fall on its knees before the benevolent emperor Charles V. But that was not at all the case.

Instead the atrocities rekindled the fear of the Teutonic fury and an oppressive Habsburg regime. Plus it was obvious that the emperor had no money at all. Meanwhile Francois I seems to have had the chance to collect some dosh, enough to send a force down to Italy. Plus Henry VIII had now joined the League of Cognac after a terrified Clement VII refused to allow his divorce from Charles’ aunt. He did not send soldiers but much needed funds.

Some of this money was spent most wisely in hiring Andrea Doria, the Genoese maritime entrepreneur whose private fleet controlled much of the Western Mediterranean. Doria had taken Genoa which cut the imperial forces in Northern Italy off from Sanish supplies. And now he helped ferrying French troop under general Lautrec into Southern Italy. The imperial forces there came under severe pressure and had to retreat to Naples. French troops now encircled the city, whilst Doria blocked access from the sea. Most of the experienced Spanish commanders were killed during the siege until responsibility for the defense was left in the hands of the 25-year old prince of Orange. With all supply routes cut off, the huge city, the second most populous one in Italy, was quickly running out of food.

The situation was extremely dire and if things had continued as was, surrender was all but inevitable. And that would meant the kingdom of Naples would have gone to the French. God knows what would have happened with Milan.

But at the last minute, in July 1528, Andrea Doria changed tack. An enormous payout and the promise that Genoa could remain a free republic convinced the admiral to join the imperial side. Naples was resupplied and it was now the French who were cut off. Disease spread in the besiegers camp, general Lautrec died in August and the French surrendered. Similarly in Northern Italy the reopening of Genoa for the imperial turned the tide. Francois I attempt to regain Milan and Naples had failed.

It came down to the two most formidable ladies of the period, Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francois I and Margaret of Austria, Charles’ Aunt and foster mother to make peace. The two ladies agreed that Francois would give up his claims on Milan and Naples, would cede overlordship of Flanders and Artois and accepted the imperial rights on the Franche Comte. In exchange Charles renounced his claims on the duchy of Burgundy, which must have hurt a lot, and returned the two sons of Francois against payment of 2 million ecu. All that was sealed by Francois’ marriage to Charles’ sister Eleanor.

This wasn’t the end of the Italian wars. Francois tried again and so did his son Henry II. The official end wasn’t until 1559. But after 1529 no French army made major inroads into Italy. In 1535 Francesco Sforza died and Charles became duke of Milan. The other states remained nominally independent under princely families, the Medici, the Gonzaga, the Este and so forth, but were essentially satellites of the Habsburg empire. Even Venice found itself sucked into its slipstream. The Habsburgs had added Italy to their vast portfolio of territories.

One last puzzle piece is left in the rise of the Habsburg, the acquisition of Bohemia and Hungary. And that is a story where Charles V plays at best a marginal role. Much of that was the work of his brother Ferdinand, one of the most consequential and most underrated Habsburg emperors. But for that story I am afraid you will have to sleep 7 times. I hope to see you then.  

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