Barcelona and Cambrai

Abstract

On the day after his return on 7 October 1528, Clement called together his cardinals and the conservators of Rome in order to discuss the restoration of the city. The pope’s first care was to provide for the import of food, of which there was the greatest scarcity. The shortage of grain had an important effect on Clement’s policies, for continued famine kept the pope dependent on the goodwill of the emperor, who could license the export of vital grain-suppies from Sicily and Naples to Rome. But even these supplies were barely sufficient. In January letters were still reaching the duchess of Urbino, describing famine conditions at Rome: ‘Every day one sees people dying in the streets of hunger and throughout the city one hears nothing but the poor crying out, “Help me for I die of starvation.”’¹

What a wonderful thing it is that the king of France, from a desire to have his sons back, did not refuse anything; that the king of England, from a wish to disencumber himself of his wife, promised everything; and that Charles, anxious to place the imperial crown on his head, conceded more than anyone asked of him.

Benedetto Varchi