• 31/03/2023
• By wizewebsite
• 374 Views

How did the nobility deal with personal hygiene in history? You wouldn't want to be their servant<

Personal hygiene in today's sense of the word practically did not exist in the Middle Ages, but it was very normal, so it didn't seem strange to anyone. The differences were between the nobility and the common people, between the city and the village. But despite the general belief of how terrible hygiene was, the reality is much less terrifying. Paradoxically, it was worst for the nobles. They didn't care about "hygiene", so their servants didn't have it easy.

Awareness or unconsciousness?

Even in the Middle Ages, people had a basic idea of ​​what hygiene is and the basic principles of how to observe it. However, the conditions were incomparable to today and often it was not even possible to get to the water, not to mention a bath.

However, people have already adopted certain hygiene principles. "If you don't want to have holes or decayed teeth, clean them any time in the morning with peach wood. Others rub their teeth with aloe wood mixed with salt. This is wiped together, sieved and put on a stick. It whitens and cleans the teeth," Albík from Uničov writes in his recipe book, proving his interest in hygiene.

Let's take a look at them, and end with how the nobility imagined hygiene. It is therefore not surprising that the invention of some perfumes that at least overpowered body odors in the court was a welcome change.

The nobility did not overdo it with hygiene either Source: Author: Lana K / Shutterstock

Religious traditions

Cleanliness of the body had a lot to do with religion. For example, people also washed their hands during the meal with the so-called aquamanila, which was related to the Christian symbolism of washing hands, which referred to the Lord's Last Supper. Although these teapots started at the royal court, they gradually spread to the tables of the lower nobility and the bourgeoisie.

It was clear that dry latrines should be dug far enough from the source of drinking water, i.e. the well. But in reality, the water was often infected with bacteria from the faeces, so typhus was very common. Water resources were very limited, so people got used to sparing with it. Baths practically did not exist because people had more important uses for water. In addition, people had almost no free time, so they only took it for hygiene when they were not working, and that was rarely.

Rembrandt-style renaissance portrait of a young woman in medieval peasant costume working near an authentic fireplace in a detached French castle propertySource: Author: Anneka / Shutterstock

One bath was half a day's work

The nobility was much better off, which does not mean that they strictly followed any rules. After all, the servants who always came running to prepare the bath for the king were from that. And that it was hard work – the servants had to manually haul heated water to the bath. The water was heated in boilers, so it was a huge job to apply the water fast enough, not to mention its weight.

A kind of hygiene was mainly related to food. Nobles ate twice a day, gluttony was criticized.

A certain kind of "hygiene" can also be used to mix different cleansing potions, which could serve to protect and cleanse the body from the inside. Herbs were used in the form of infusions (teas), decoctions, medicinal wines, herbal baths, poultices and ointments.

And if any sovereign already indulged in a "bath" or rather a bath, it was mainly for making love rather than for cleansing the body. It was said that baths steamed the brain, which is not good.

Detail of the fountain in the Palace of VersaillesSource: profimedia

King of the sun or of the stench?

A lot has been written about the stench at the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who reigned until 1715 stacks. Although the court of Versailles appeared almost pompous, the hygiene here was terrifying. Cramped dwellings, terrible sanitary conditions, little heat, a lot of dirt and windy and unhealthy surroundings. At the same time, the king did not hesitate to spend approximately three state budgets during his reign on the construction of the castle and its equipment.

Even if the opportunity to communicate with the king was a privilege of only a select few, it also brought unexpected difficulties. A rather amusing story is that the king's doctor advised Louis that instead of one painful tooth that was bothering him, he should have all the healthy ones extracted as a preventive measure. During the operation, the doctor broke the king's lower jaw and tore out part of the palate. His lower jaw later grew back together, but a hole remained in his palate. So watching the king, for example, while he was drinking or eating as his servants, was not exactly a cultured look.

And what was even more terrible was that Louis XIV. he didn't use a fork. At the same time, he was stuffing himself with food, larger pieces of food gradually rotted in his oral cavity, emitting a horrible smell, which the king spread around him wherever he went. In addition, he had problems with digestion - of course, he could not bite and had selected delicacies prepared for him, so the smell of rotting food was added to other problems associated with poor digestion.

Intimate hygiene in the Middle Ages: The bath replaced the so-called honorable French method

Versailles – one big cesspool

The Pompeian Palace is today one of the most visited monuments in France. Who would have thought that in the time of the most famous king it was hell to move around here. In addition, the king used to defecate in public, for example during audiences and meetings, for which he used a special toilet seat.

Toilets did not exist here, as well as the waste system, which Versailles only saw in the 18th century. So where did the servants go "to the toilet"? From then on, there were communal latrines, a kind of two-seaters that did not know the division by gender. It was located in the basements of the palace buildings next to the public staircases for ventilation. Therefore, visitors to the castle relieved themselves in the corridors.

Well, tell me, wasn't it a fairy tale? As you can see, being a servant on the Sun King's staff, for example, was definitely not a walk in the red of the setting sun. Maybe more of a smelly Sun...

Sources:

zoommagazin.iprima.cz, www.stoplusjednicka.cz, www.stoplusjednicka.cz