{"id":14219,"date":"2022-05-06T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=207632"},"modified":"2022-05-06T07:20:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T05:20:08","slug":"6-may-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/6-may-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"6 May: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 06 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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6 May 1527: Imperial troops sack Rome<\/h3>\n

A mutinous Habsburg army mercilessly lays waste to the city<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On the morning of 6 May 1527 the people of Rome awoke with a sense of dread. The previous day, the Habsburg imperial army, commanded by Charles, Duke of Bourbon, had arrived at the walls of the old city. After years of fighting in the Italian peninsula, his army was short of funds and discipline. His adversary, Pope Clement VII, was the ideal target. And now, at his headquarters at the monastery of St Onofrio, the duke gave the order to attack.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, Charles himself was killed early in the assault \u2013 but his death only enraged his men, most of whom were Spanish and German mercenaries. After breaking through the city\u2019s defences, they rampaged through the streets, smashing their way into churches and monasteries, looting and killing without mercy.<\/p>\n

The Germans in particular seemed fired with religious fury. In front of Clement\u2019s fortress, they staged a mocking parody of a papal procession. \u201cLong live Luther Pontifex,\u201d they chanted. One observer lamented that \u201cthe Germans were bad, the Italians worse, but worst of all were the Spaniards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most infamous confrontation of the day occurred in the Teutonic Cemetery next to St Peter\u2019s where the pope\u2019s elite bodyguards, the renowned Swiss Guard, had assembled to cover his escape into the castle. What followed was a massacre, the guardsmen cut down where they stood by the Habsburg troops.<\/p>\n

In the final bloody moments of the encounter, the guard\u2019s commander, Kaspar R\u00f6ist, escaped to his house nearby. The imperial troops burst in and butchered him in front of his wife. Of the 189 Swiss Guards, only 42 survived. | Written by Dominic Sandbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

6 May 1562<\/h3>\n

Birth in Tuscany of Italian baroque sculptor Pietro Bernini. His best-known work is the Fontana della Barcaccia at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome.<\/p>\n

6 May 1758<\/h3>\n

French Revolutionary leader Maximilien de Robespierre<\/a> is born. Architect of The Terror<\/a> which saw the executions of as many as 30,000 people, he himself will be guillotined in 1794.<\/p>\n

6 May 1840:\u00a0The Penny Black revolutionises communications in Britain<\/h3>\n

Rowland Hill\u2019s \u201cgummy medallion\u201d becomes a national icon<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Rowland Hill had a vision. While a small boy in Kidderminster, he had watched in embarrassment as his mother scrabbled for money to pay the postman. By the 1830s, Hill, now a teacher and social reformer, was determined to push through a change that he believed would transform the Post Office into a force for progress: universal penny postage, paid in advance.<\/p>\n

By May 1840, Hill\u2019s scheme was up and running. As he explained, people would prove that they had paid by using \u201ca bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter\u201d. He\nenlisted the Royal Mint\u2019s chief engraver to create a memorable image \u2013 a picture of Queen Victoria<\/a>. Today we know his creation as the Penny Black.<\/p>\n