Its longer-term impact was muted though by the Pope’s anxiety that he had encouraged a monster he could no longer control. The Pope therefore conjured up a fresh anti-Charles alliance, the League of Cognac, which looked like pure quality on paper – France, Venice, Florence and others all joining together with a cynicism which even the most hard-bitten mercenary should have blushed at – but which rapidly collapsed, resulting in Charles’ unpaid troops running amok in Rome, killing thousands of troops and citizens. It was a benchmark low in Papal–Imperial relations and ended the Roman
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