Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — ROYAL PECULIARITIES. [ARTICLE]

ROYAL PECULIARITIES.

Shah Ashref of Persia was lefthanded, and had a special saber made to suit this peculiarity. Edward 111. was 6 feet 3 inches in height, and had a rough, shaggy* beard that reached to his girdle. Claudius was an idiot. His eye:, stared in a meaningless gaze, and saliva dropped from his lips. Augustus was afraid of thunder and whenever a storm came on went to the darkest room in his palace. Charles I. wore a small, pointed beard, and thus set the fashion so often seen in Vandyck's portraits. Henry VIII. was enormously fat and easily overheated. At the slightest exertion his face became purple. Philippe I. of France was said to lie the most amorous King that ever ruled over that amorous nation. Henry 111. of Germany had a complexion so dark that he might easily have been mistaken for a negro. The Czar Nicholas was said by the court physicians to have suffered for many years from Ingrowing nails. Vitellius, the Glutton, who for a short time ruled the Roman Empire, bad a waist measure of 62 inches. Tamerlane, the Tartar conqueror, had a club foot. His real name was Timour Lenk, or Timour the Lame. Edward I. d*as 6 feet 2 inches high and it is said that the tips of his middle fingers extended below his knees. Genseric, according to the Roman historians, had a mouth so large that it inspired terror whenever he opened it Constantine IV. is mentioned by contemporary historians as having the most handsome beard in his dominions.