The novel, which will evoke as many laughs as tears, begins in 1557 when a prematurely aged, ill, and very irritable Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, (Carlos I of Spain and always known as Carlos), retires to a small isolated monastery in western Spain. He has brought with him memories of his past loves, his years in power, and his many military campaigns, most of them failures, and his delusions that his disastrous dynastic arranged marriages for all his family have been strokes of sheer genius. Among his few specially chosen companions is his outspoken major domo, who has been his lifelong aide and confidant. He knows Carlos better than Carlos knows himself and, uniquely, he is allowed total freedom to speak his mind, no matter what. The result is often very funny. With the other members of his household revealing tragicomic anecdotes from his past and the unremitting critical yet supposedly objective observations of an all-knowing narrator we see a warts and all picture of a ruler often called the greatest Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne. But was he? Or was he just a blustering, bumbling, egotistical, ultimately very humane, loving and lovable, ordinary, generous man; Barbara thought so.
