"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." Charlemagne I had learnt this line as attributed to Charles V, Holy Roman Emp

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." Charlemagne I had learnt this line as attributed to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (king of both Spain as Carlos I, and of Germany as Karl V). Charlemagne could hardly have spoken those languages as they didn't quite yet exist around the year 800 A.D. when he lived, but spoke Rhenish Franconian, Latin, and some Greek [1]. Charlemagne was the first Holy Roman Emperor which could explain the confusion, but Charles V lived around 1500 A.D, seven centuries later. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne#Language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne#Language I have quoted those words myself for a number of years, but when checking before commenting I found out that he didn't ever say exactly that, but according to reports some 40 years after his death: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#Misattributed https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#... "When Emperor Charles V used to say, as I hear, that the language of the Germans was military; that of the Spaniards pertained to love; that of the Italians was oratorical; that of the French was noble". "Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say: if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement". Thanks for triggering me into correcting my misunderstanding. :-)