![]() ![]() The Emperor would eat alone, but so would the other princes, who would have lunch in separate tables, in order not to have Charles V have lunch in no company while the others gathered round the table for lunch and a chat. This eating alone is also mentioned by fray Prudencio de Sandoval, a later chronicler of the Emperor, and it even turned to some sort of etiquette. ![]() We all had our eyes set on the Emperor while he had lunch. The chamber was full of lords, part of them served the wines, part brought the dishes, part took the dishes out. The Emperor moved forward with a special majesty, and he sat alone at the table, while we waited standing while he ate. Well, the concept of eating alone is a bit relative, considering the presence of courtiers and servants, but he would be sharing the table with nobody. Enzinas was someone worthy of that particular generosity, as his father was extremely rich and a usual lender to the Crown, to the tune of a hundred thousand ducats (he was, after all, the representive of the Fuggers in Castile). One such meeting at lunchtime he had in Brussels with Francisco de Enzinas, who had come to present him his translation into Spanish of the four Gospels. For Charles to have lunch with someone, or to have a meeting with someone at lunchtime, was an extreme form of deference. This inability to properly close his mouth caused him to ordinarily eat alone. He has some avid eyes, his aspect grave but not cruel nor severe no part of his body can be faulted except for the chin and the lower face, which is so wide and long that it does not appear natural to that body, but it appears foreign, and it happens that he cannot, closing his mouth, join his upper and lower teeth, but they are separated by the space of a tooth, so when speaking, most notably at the end of the clauses he mumbles some word, which for that reason cannot be well understood Not only when chewing, but also for speaking it caused him some trouble, as explained by Gasparo Contarini, who tells us this about Charles: The emperor had serious troubles closing his mouth due to his prognatism, which led to complications in the process of chewing the food he consumed, and he had an appetite to match his immoderate list of titles that normally take half a page in formal documents. Charles V, probably the best known sufferer of the Habsburg jaw, was definitely feeling some sort of shame from his particular jawline and the troubles it caused him. ![]()
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