Chapter 14: How the Holy City of Rome Is Taken With Much Cruelty Visited Upon Its People

Joerg returned to his men and reported. They decided to wait until the next day, to see what the Duke had to say. The mood was subdued in the camp that night, as the men thought of their field captain, who had led them to two resounding victories.

News spread rapidly on the next morning that Georg von Frundsberg had suffered from a stroke. He was being transported home already, and the Duke of Bourbon now held the command. From the Duke came the summons to the captains for another council.

"Messieurs, I will admit that I am at a loss of what to do. Florence is well fortified, we are lacking food and gunpowder, and our men are disgruntled. To continue the siege appears fruitless. I have sent to the Emperor for new orders. I have also implored his Highness to finally send us the pay our men deserve. In the meantime, let us try to restore order in the ranks."

That was it. Joerg was deeply disappointed. The Emperor would hardly do more for them, now that Frundsberg was disabled. Bourbon was clearly playing for time, but Joerg could not see how this would avail them. He suspected that the Emperor kept them in Italy to put pressure on Venice and the Pope, without actually engaging either power in a war. At one point, they would haggle over a new treaty, and the landsknechte would be the losers. He shared those thoughts with some fellow captains and found that most agreed with his views.

Food became even scarcer over the next weeks. Thanks to Thorben, who maintained good connections to the merchants of Casale, they received a few wagonloads of food, but they were all hungry and dispirited.

In mid-March, things came to a head. The Duke of Bourbon called for another assembly of the captains, but now, the soldiers pushed in and demanded redress of their grievances. Bourbon openly admitted that no support was coming from the emperor, because Pope Clement pressured the German nobles.

Suddenly, the idea was there, and nobody knew who shouted it first.

"Let us collect our pay from the Pope, then!" "To Rome!" "Death to the meddling Pope!"

All the Duke could do was to assume the overall leadership. It could not be called command anymore, for the enraged landsknechte were beyond following orders. They did not even bother to collect the siege equipment. They broke camp and left, more an undisciplined mob than an army.

The only semblance of order came from a few captains who were trusted. Joerg was one of those, and with his siblings, he was able to keep the Free Saxons an intact fighting unit. They even increased in numbers over the next days, for many landsknechte, accustomed to rigid discipline, were appalled at the loss of order in their units and asked to join the Free Saxons and other intact units. In consequence, Joerg was leading a large fähnlein of over five hundred towards Rome.

Even with the size of the mob - 20,000 soldiers - they failed at sacking larger cities en route, simply because the undisciplined men were not fit for a regular siege anymore. They met a smaller papal army in open battle and routed them thoroughly. It was a massacre, and a taste of what would come. Joerg was deeply disturbed over the cruelties committed against fellow soldiers who just happened to be contracted by the opposite site. It went against the teachings Gernot of Brederode had given him.

For his part, and for his fähnlein, he gave quarter to surrendering papal soldiers. This proved to be beneficial, for three of the captured soldiers were natives of Rome, of the Trastevere quarter, and they agreed to act as guides in return for their life and for a share in the spoils. Joerg found that the lower populace of Rome hated the nobility and the Church princes as much as his own men did.

A little over six weeks after leaving Florence, the mob of landsknechte arrived at the gates of Rome. They closed in on the walled city from the West, and the mob divided, with the Spanish mercenaries attacking the Vatican hill, and the German landsknechte heading for the Trastevere.

The Trastevere was a maze of narrow alleys and streets and mostly inhabited by poor workers and craftsmen. Not much loot could be found there, Joerg learned from the three rogue soldiers. The main problem would be to get through the maze as quickly as possible, to reach the affluent parts of the city. For that, he counted on the help of his prisoners.

The attack was as undisciplined as the entire campaign had been. The Spanish attacked the Vatican hill in large numbers. Here, the defenders had massed the militia, but the few thousand untrained defenders were soon overpowered by the angry mob of mercenaries. Nevertheless, a lucky shot from the militia felled the Duke of Bourbon. This did not change the outcome, but it proved disastrous as it left the victorious troops without any control.

Once the attackers gained a foothold on the walls, gates were forced open, and a flood of madmen swarmed into the Vatican. A small detachment of the Swiss Guards stood their ground, sacrificing their lives and gaining enough time to bring Pope Clement to the St. Angelo Castle. The rest of the Church princes, along with thousands of innocent people, fell victim to the raging mob.

The Free Saxons were part of the group that attacked the Trastevere, to the South of the Vatican Hill. It was Nele Isebrand, with fifty Free Saxons, who scaled the walls using grapple hooks and ropes, and overwhelmed the sentries. The gates were forced open, and the landsknechte flooded the Trastevere.

With great difficulty, Joerg managed to keep his fähnlein together. Led by the renegade papal soldiers, they navigated their way through narrow alleys of Trastevere, and they were the first to cross the River Tiber over the Ponte Emilio. Joerg had picked out the palace of the Cardinal Granvella as their prime target, as the renegades had told him of the riches this man had accumulated. Once they had entered Rome proper, they found little resistance on their way, since most inhabitants were already fleeing to the North and West, or hiding in their houses. Where they met feeble resistance, the advancing Free Saxons crushed the opponents.