The monarchs who went down in history for their gluttony and gargantuan feasts

“Madame, the town has no bread.”

They told Her Highness shortly before the storming of the Bastille changed the course of history.

But Marie Antoinette, queen of France and consort of the gluttonous Louis XVI, shrugged.

It is said, but not proven, that she replied with disdain that they eat some of the sweets that she had within reach - muffins, brioches, macarons... -

.

It matters little what the queen muttered indifferently.

It's just an anecdote.

Hunger, on the other hand, the lack of cereal, a basic food among the popular classes, is not.

In 1789 it was the trigger for the French Revolution;

in 2024, a weapon of war and the reason why humanity is ashamed.

Before, however, the heads of Louis XVI and Madame rolled on the floor, other monarchs and emperors had displayed an enormous appetite, both in the old world and in the new, since it was typical of the high classes to “be treated like a king”, enjoying well-stocked tables, whether the meals were private and held in the anterooms of the chambers occupied by the monarchs, or in the various banquets and feasts that were held in public for various reasons, such as weddings. royals or reception of high-ranking guests for diplomatic purposes.

In all of them, as María del Carmen Simón Palmer tells it in the book

La Cocina de Palacio

1561-1931

, unions or confrontations arose and were the direct cause of the premature deaths of infants who received an abundant amount of meat, spices and sweets at a too young age, and queens like Isabel de Farnese, second wife of Philip V, who could not miss Italian sausages, truffles, cheeses, jams and macaroni with Parma wine.

More information

José Luis Prada, the owner of the El Bierzo restaurant where the richest man in Spain eats the same as a local from the area

Mariana from Austria even moved to El Retiro during her pregnancy with her entire entourage, including the cook, where she occupied her time with various feasts and cravings for candy and roasted sardines at midnight.

For Isabel de Valois, also wife of Philip II, the number of servants amounted to 178 people, regular diners, some of them at banquets that broke the rigid and almost sacramental protocol of meals in the royal house with the uproar of meninos, butlers, ladies and laughter. which the writers of the Catholic Spanish monarchy saw as a lack of respect.

The kings “ate with their eyes”, that is, they chose from a parade of dishes what they wanted to try, more than 15 different ones at each meal presented in two or three services in which, obviously, roast meat stood out, if not day of abstinence, for which a good carver was needed, a notable figure on any table.

Among the meats, game was especially popular, an activity to which hunts were dedicated that could last up to three days with their corresponding transportable kitchens and banquets for such occasions.

There was never a shortage of hams and sausages, puff pastries filled with more meat, pots and stews highly enriched with expensive and exotic spices and aromatic herbs, eggs, fresh fruit and few vegetables because they were food for the populace.

From the 16th century onwards, American products as prestigious as chocolate were also added, the use of which was extended by marriageable princesses such as Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III and married to the tragaldabas of Louis XIII, among their royal and political families beyond the Pyrenees. .

Louis XIV of France, known as the Sun King. Getty Images (Getty Images)

But the most enlightened gourmand was Emperor Charles I, who in 1525 requested the translation into Spanish of the

Llibre de Coch

by Mestre Rupert de Nola, originally written in Catalan.

Holy Roman Emperor

He died in Yuste (Cáceres) ailing and old before his time.

Néstor Luján wrote that he was “excessive, splendid, full of painful greatness, who had dominion over everything and everyone, except his body.”

In Serradilla Muñoz's book,

The Emperor's Table.

Recipe book of Carlos I in Yuste,

he realizes the tastes of César who never lacked his beer made by his own brewer, his four or five hams from Montánchez as a snack, the salted anchovies that his daughter Juana de Austria, princess of Portugal, to the Monastery of San Jerónimo Cáceres, Iberian black piglets, gigantic eel empanadas, Flanders sausages, capons, partridges, sheep and sweets.

All well washed down with Rhine and Port wines and finished off with the new drinks: coffee and chocolate.

At the emperor's table, as at that of any nobleman who prided himself on being one, even at the cost of ruin, squandering was done at random, although it must be taken into account that in the courts "rations" of what was distributed were distributed. Among the many close friends of the monarch and service personnel, there were the nuns of some convents, such as Las Descalzas Reales, or the nearby inns, who thus valued the culinary innovations that the cooks arriving from Italy or France together with the foreign queens introduced into the dishes. real palates.

Charles I, ignoring his doctors and monks, went to the other world with a string of illnesses derived from or increased by his love of good cooking.

In addition to the gout that disfigured his limbs, he suffered from hemorrhoids, asthma, a stomach that he had difficulty digesting, and poor, worn teeth due to disproportionate jaws that prevented him from fitting his teeth together correctly.

But, it was not only in old Europe that the table was a spectacle of power.

Hernán Cortés saw how Emperor Moctezuma enjoyed more than 300 dishes.

Díaz del Castillo's story speaks of “chickens, dewlap roosters (turkeys), pheasants, wild partridges, quail, tame and brave ducks, deer, wild pigs (a type of wild boar), reed birds, pigeons and hares and rabbits and many types of birds and things that are raised in this land”, in addition to corn tortillas, tamales, chili peppers, tomatoes and many other products that today populate the kitchens of kings and commoners.

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