“…the news comes from Rome that the Emperor’s Spanish and German troops, who have not been paid for months, have run wild through the Holy City paying themselves, plundering the treasuries and stoning the artworks…Thomas More says that the imperial troops, for their enjoyment, are roasting live babies on spits. Oh, he would! says Thomas Cromwell. Listen, soldiers don’t do that. They’re too busy carrying away everything they can turn into ready money.” (Wolf Hall)

Here’s the thing about sacks: While they are awful on a human level, they are not the end of the world when it comes to property. Soldiers are running around stealing stuff, but they can only steal as much as they can carry away and are going to prioritize precious metals. So the losses are going to be partial and uneven rather than total, and if you’re lucky enough that your money is in real estate or wool rather than gold, you might escape the sack altogether. 

And the loss of human life means that if you’re lucky enough to survive, you have some opportunities: lots of dead people means property that can be snapped up on the cheap, means wages are going to go up (because labor supply just dropped), means less competition in your given trade so you can put up your prices. 

And all of these factors also mean you’re likely to see an increase of migration into the city – if you’ve got some small capital, you might be looking to buy some real estate or set yourself up as an artisan or a merchant; if you don’t, you probably can get better wages in the city than you could in Duskendale, so why not move?