Holly Roman Emperor Charles Vth

“I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse.”
- Holly Roman Emperor Charles Vth

 

I wonder whether he spoke all those languages fluently...

 

As per his wiki page he was fluent only in Dutch and French...

 

That is still pretty impressive, in my opinion.

 

For his time it may have been impressive; now a lot speak at least 2 languages.

 

True. But back then it was different. Of course, an emperor had a lot more educational opportunities than most people.

 

If you speak three languages they say you are trilingual.
If you speak two languages they say you are bilingual.
If you speak one language, what are you...?


American