What would have happened Pope Clement VII had been killed in the Sack of Rome in May 1527?
What political & blowback would Charles V receive?
What political & blowback would Charles V receive?
What if Pope Clement VII was Killed in 1527 “Sack of Rome”?
- Thread starter Tamar of the Tamar tribe
- Start date
The first and most obvious consequence I can think of is that Charles V would be severely ostracized. The Protestant movement could see a gain in followers, especially in Northern Europe.
For now I can only give a very simplified answer ( unfortunately I'm not at home ) but first of all let's address two issues, the first is how Clemente could die during the sack, given that technically if he ended up in enemy hands he would be more important alive rather than on the contrary, now in Otl, the only real moment in which the figure of the Pontiff was at risk, was during the use of the elevated passage that connects San Pietro directly with Castel Sant'Angelo, where technically he was almost hit several times by arquebus shots, but it cannot be ruled out that in the event of capture, Clemente could die due to the conditions of detention ( even if this would greatly aggravate the already bad position of Charles V ) now established how our Pope could die, we must face how the political situation will change in Italy and Europe immediately, first of all Rome and the state of the church would be in the throes of anarchy, so I can imagine that the pro-imperial faction in the Roman curia and aristocracy ( in particular the Colonnas ) will ask the imperial intervention to garrison the territory and help re-establish a semblance of stability to allow a new conclave to take place, this in turn would allow Charles V to elect a cardinal of his trust ( although I hardly see Francis and Henry being very happy about this, but if the first declares to continue the war, already currently underway, with the new objective of doing justice for the late Pope and punishing his murderer, the second sovereign will instead be more susceptible to various proposals that could favor him , if he decides to forgive the action carried out by the imperial soldiers who went out of control, thus clearing the Emperor from any possible guilt ) now certainly for the Habsburgs avoiding the perennial changes of uniform carried out by Clement in Otl would only be a good thing ( since it would allow to save important economic and human resources that could be directed elsewhere than Otl, perhaps facilitating military campaigns against the French in Italy ) furthermore we must not forget that for an absurd, purely personal reason, Clemente was profoundly reluctant to want to convene a council, therefore having a pontiff with a different attitude from him on the subject would partly facilitate Charles' policy of responding to the spread of Protestant ideology ( given the previous support of Rome respect a Otl ) certainly the death of the pontiff will not be a very easy thing for Charles to overcome in foreign policy ( but also internal, given that the same sack of Otl caused him considerable problems ) so I can see him making public gestures of penance or important works of patronage in Rome itself, to clean up his image ( considering that despite having a terrible personal relationship with Clement, the killing of the figure of the pontiff by his troops ( including the ferocious Lanzi of Lutheran faith ) it is a very serious thing, extremely bordering on blasphemous / heresy / excommunication, which will cause him very strong feelings of guilt, which could devour him even for months )
Not really. Charles can not blamed too much for something who happened outside his control and was impossible to stop after the defenders killed the enemy commander.
I do not think who Charles would suffer a worst black lash than the OTL one and Francis well would need to be much careful about what he say when his two elder sons are hostages of the Emperor and not kindly treated as he had reneged the agreement under which he was released, refuting to pay his ransom and give to Charles what he should have…. Catherine de‘ Medici will be the biggest loser here as she would never get her French match but I do wonder what would happen to Henry VIII’s request of annulment under a different Pope as the most likely outcome of such request in natural circumstances would see it being successful
Basically, "the Spanish are Pope-murderers, I'm gonna side with King Henry so he and the French can screw over Spain". Papal politics made personal.
Not for that reason. Doing that would be a prosecution of Clement’s politics who caused the sack and any smart man would know it. But without a Pope basically hostage/prisoner of the Emperor the chances of Henry VIII’s obtaining his annulment are quite good