The finished work was presented officially to Giulio de' Medici, now Pope Clement VII, in May 1526. The Pope liked the work and rewarded him, albeit moderately, and asked him support in the creation of a national army, in the wake of his theoretical work "The Art of War", in the preparations for the War of the League of Cognac. However, after the Sack of Rome (1527) and the fall of the Medici government in Florence, Machiavelli's hopes were dashed. Machiavelli would die soon afterwards.