In the early years of the family's ascendancy, neither Rudolf I nor Albert I appear to have spoken French. By contrast, Charles V of Habsburg is well known some having been fluent in several languages. He was native in French and also knew Dutch from his youth in Flanders. He later added some Castilian Spanish, which he was required to learn by the Castilian "Cortes Generales". He could also speak some Basque, acquired by the influence of the Basque secretaries serving in the royal court. He gained a decent command of German following the Imperial election of 1519, though he never spoke it as well as French. A witticism sometimes attributed to Charles was: "I speak Spanish/Latin on the source to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse."