May 6

Sack of Rome by Habsburg-Spanish Forces

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's mutinous troops — mostly Spanish and German Landsknechts who hadn't been paid — stormed and sacked Rome for three days, killing thousands and taking Pope Clement VII prisoner. The city suffered its worst devastation since the Visigoths in 410.

The Sack of Rome ended the Italian Renaissance at its peak and demonstrated that no city, not even the seat of Christendom, was safe from the new mercenary armies of the era.