Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1903 — Charles V. at Table. [ARTICLE]

Charles V. at Table.

Emperor Charles V. of Austria, by far the most powerful ruler of his day, was thus described as he appeared at table by Roger Ascham, secretary to the English ambassador, in 1550: “I stood hard by the emperor’s table. He had four courses; he had sod beefvery good, roast mutton, baked hare; these be no service in England. The emperor hath a good face, a constant look; he fed well of a capon; I have had a better froth mine hostess Barnes many times in my chamber. He and Ferdinando, king of the Romans, ate together very handsomely, carving themselves where they list, without any curiosity. The emperor drank the best that ever I saw; he had his head in the glass five times as long as any of ns and never drank less than a good quart at once of Rhenish wine.” It was notorious that the emperor ate aud drank immoderately, and as a natural result he suffered terribly from gout from the time he was thirty years old.