Sewage on the streets and lack of soap: 8 myths about medieval hygiene

Myth 1. In the Middle Ages, the contents of chamber pots were poured out of windows.

It is believed that this was an extremely common practice. And in France in the 13th century, they allegedly even passed a law requiring residents to shout three times before emptying the pot: “Beware of water!”

That's just not true. People in the Middle Ages did use chamber pots because toilet bowls hadn't been invented yet. But they poured the contents into cesspools and ditches, and not out into the street through the window.

Of course, the originals could come across, which splashed sewage through the window, but they probably had a hard time.

For example, in the cities of England in the 14th century, throwing garbage out of the window could

fineDid People in the Middle Ages Really Throw Fecal Matter Out of Their Windows? / Today I Found Out.com for 40 pence - so many ordinary hard workers received a month. This money could buy1. Hodges. List of Prices of Items in Medieval England / Luminarium,
2. Medieval Price List / Berkeley a few barrels of beer, a couple of sheep or an adult pig. So clearly it was necessary to seriously think about whether it was worth it.

Yes, and it is unlikely that the inhabitants of medieval cities would be delighted with pouring on their heads from the windows waste human life activity. Preserved recordsHow Clean Were Medieval Cities? /HistoryExtrahow someone Thomas Scott urinated on the street in 1307, which caused outrage of two other townspeople. They demanded that the hooligan go to the public restroom, he began to be rude, and he was beaten and stabbed.

And another smart guy who once threw awayDid People in the Middle Ages Really Throw Fecal Matter Out of Their Windows? / Today I Found Out.com spoiled smoked fish from the window, for which he was so beaten by his neighbors that he barely recovered.

As you can see, they didn’t really mess around with dirty people then.

Myth 2. Wide-brimmed hats were needed so that sewage flowed down them.

This myth is related to the previous one. And such hats were allegedly worn by middle-class people who went to medieval theaters and were forced to crowd in the stalls. When the lords and ladies, who slept on the balconies and in the upper boxes, threw scraps and blew their noses on the heads of the mob, the skirts of these headdresses kept the head relatively clean.

In fact, wide-brimmed hats madeH. Amphlett. Hats: A History of Fashion in Headwear thus for the most obvious purpose of protection from rain and sun. And they were common in all cultures, not just in Europe.

In the Middle Ages, they were most often worn by peasants and pilgrims. The latter have a wide-brimmed hat over time transformedC. M. Richardson. The Cardinal's Wardrobe in: A Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal / A Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal in the chapel romano, or saturno, as well as galero - headdresses of the clergy.

In addition, their preferredC. W. Cunnington, P. Cunnington. Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century the military, who were also often forced to stagger in nature in bad weather or heat. Their headdresses over time turnedC. W. Cunnington, P. Cunnington. Handbook of English Costume in the Seventeenth Century in those famous musketeers' hats decorated with feathers, called cavalry hats. And when firearms became widespread and wide fields began to interfere with aiming, they began to stab them with pins - and the cocked hat turned out.

Noblemen have similar headdresses too enjoyedH. Amphlett. Hats: A History of Fashion in Headwear popularity, but not because the poor often poured the contents of chamber pots on their heads. It’s just that aristocrats then considered pale skin a sign of nobility, and a tan was a hallmark. mobwho worked in the fields.

Myth 3. Isabella of Castile bathed twice in her life

Connoisseurs of the unwashed and suffering Middle Ages often cited as an example of Queen Isabella I of Castile, who ruled Spain in the 15th century. Allegedly, this lady was so pious that she considered washing a sin and was proud that she bathed only twice in her life - at birth and before the wedding.

All in order not to wash off the holy water that fell on her skin during baptism.

That's just a fiction, there is simply no evidence. There is only such legendA. J. Maerz, M. R. Paul. A Dictionary of Color: One day in 1491, the Queen laid siege to the city of Granada, intending to expel the Muslims from Spain. And she vowed not to bathe or change clothes until the city fell.

Unfortunately for her, the siege dragged on for eight months, so that during this time Isabella's clothes acquired an unpleasant gray-yellowish tint, to which the artists gave the name isabella.

In general, the legend is rather muddy: historians can’t figure outIsabelle / World Wide Words, whose name formed the basis of the name of this color - Queen Isabella I of Castile or Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain. It was just rumored that the latter also gave a vow not to bathe when in 1601 she began the siege of the Dutch city of Ostend. And take the fighting and stretch for three years.

As a result, in stories about the unwashed Middle Ages, these two Isabellas are constantly confused, so it is difficult to figure out whether there is at least a grain of truth in this story.

At that time, often gaveJ. Froissart. Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries strange oaths to demonstrate steadfastness and to earn God's mercy in battle by their martyrdom. For example, some knights they swore in the war not to eat meat or not to shave, they covered one eye with a bandage or, in principle, did not use fire to keep warm.

But even if we assume that the legend has real grounds and the queen really gave a vow not to wash a few months - this means that such behavior at normal times was atypical for her and was perceived as real trial. And after the capture of the city, she still began to swim again.

Myth 4. Louis XIV "smelled like a beast"

Another person who allegedly strongly disliked swimming is King Louis XIV de Bourbon of France. He is the "Sun King", he is also Louis the Great. A tale is circulating on the Web that this monarch also washed either two or four times in his life and did this only on the orders of doctors. In general, the uncleanliness of Louis can hardly be explained by medieval traditions - after all, the New Age is already in the yard.

However, according to some "Russian ambassadors" (according to another version, "Cossacks"), "their majesty stank like a wild beast." Sometimes this phrase is even attributed to Peter I. True, the king of such a thing to say for sure could notPierre le Grand, un tsar en France, 1717 / Château de Versaillesbecause by the time he visited Versailles in 1717, Louis had already passed away a couple of years.

There is also no historical evidence that Russian ambassadors or Cossacks said such things.

Most likely, I will send her attributedD. Absentis. Evil Writh: Invisible Fire of Death blogger Denis Absentis is the author of a book about the “unwashed and sick” Middle Ages “Evil Cramps”. Describing the unsanitary conditions of that time, he got carried away a little and “slightly” exaggerated.

In addition, in his work, he seriously refers to the work of Patrick Suskind - a kind of "Swiss chronicler". Although in fact this is our contemporary, the author of the novel "Perfumer".

In fact, Louis XIV bathed regularly. Otherwise, it is not clear why he threatened a mountain of money to spend in Versailles running water and the construction of bathrooms and pools in it. How wroteM. du Bois. Moi, Marie Du Bois, gentilhomme vendômois: valet de chambre de Louis XIV contemporaries, his majesty was an excellent swimmer and could swim across the Seine on a dare.

He built a Turkish-style bathhouse in his palace and regularly took baths there, often in the company of court ladies. And when he did not have the opportunity to wash himself on a trip, he ordered the valets to wipe his body with grape alcohol and spray it with perfume.

Myth 5. Soap was brought to Europe by the Crusaders.

One can come across the assertion that in Europe they began to wash only after dirty crusaders They stole the secret of making soap from Muslims. And before that, its inhabitants allegedly did not know him at all.

In fact, in Europe at least since the 6th century existedH. Kleinschmidt. Understanding the Middle Ages: The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World entire guilds of soapmakers. And it is not clear how they managed to make their products if the First Crusade will happen only in the XI century.

Crusaders and Truth broughtH. Kleinschmidt. Understanding the Middle Ages: The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World from Palestine, a soap recipe, but quite specific - with olive oil. When European soap makers began to use the latter instead of animal fat, their products began to smell better. And wealthy gentlemen switched to her. But it is not necessary to say that before the wars with Muslims, Europeans did not use soap.

Myth 6. Europeans considered Russians to be perverts because they took baths once a month

This quote also went for a walk on the Web with the light hand of the author booksD. Absentis. Evil Writh: Invisible Fire of Death "Evil cramp". True, there is one snag: he did not cite any references to her sources.

Baths at that time were common in Europe, and both private (for wealthy gentlemen) and public baths. The latter, by the way, often combinedH. Kleinschmidt. Understanding the Middle Ages: The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World with bakeries or forges to save firewood and not waste the heat of the stoves when there is no need to heat the water. Here descriptionJ. LeGoff. La civilization de l'Occident mediaeval similar establishments in the 13th-century city of Erfurt.

Yes, baths were often combined with brothels, and it was easy to get other services from the bathhouse attendants, in addition to washing. Church looked at these petty sins through her fingers - in England, for example, bishops charged taxesH. Kleinschmidt. Understanding the Middle Ages: The Transformation of Ideas and Attitudes in the Medieval World from the baths located on the territory of their dioceses.

Myth 7. In the Middle Ages, they ate with their hands and did not know manners.

Medieval people - even noble lords - are usually portrayed as extremely ill-mannered table companions who grab food from the table and put it into their mouths with their hands. They say that the forks were brought to them from the East only at the end of the era, and before that they had to use dirty fingers.

In fact, medieval table etiquette can be judged by manuscriptMedieval Hygiene / World History Encyclopedia XV century under the title "Rules of behavior at the table."

As you can see, it doesn't look much like a scene from comedy "The Black Knight", where the king put peas on the guests with the same hand that he had just scratched and fed the dog.

Forks are really appearedG. Rebora. Culture of the Fork in Europe quite late, in the 1600s. Before that, people ate only with spoons and knives, and the noble lord carried a knife for eating with him on his belt - it was considered stupid to show up to a feast without your own device. And when the medieval aristocracy got hold of forks... they were also initially carried in a sheath. This is such a funny custom.

Myth 8. So much sewage flowed through the streets of cities that people walked on stilts

Medieval European cities, of course, were not as well-groomed as modern ones, but the authors of articles and books about the "dark Dark Ages" sometimes exaggerate too much.

For example, there is a myth that streams of feces, manure and other sewage poured out of the windows and doors of surrounding houses flowed along the streets of the settlements. And people were forced to walk the streets on stilts.

Heels were supposedly also invented in order to move along the manured streets without getting dirty.

Sounds disgusting, right? However, the images of medieval sufferers on stilts, which are usually used to illustrate such statements, are understood by modern people. wrongI. Mortimer. The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England.

These devices are indeed woreTen 14th century images of stilts / wilhelmszabel, but not city dwellers, but peasants, whom they helped to move through wet fields and swamps and not get stuck. In addition, stilts were used to harvest from tall trees, as well as for entertainmentThe Stilt Walkers of Namur, joust on stilts. Since 1411 / Les Echasseurs Namurois - funny fights were arranged on them and tournaments.

It was not necessary to move around the cities on them, since sewage did not flow through the streets. For the latter, latrines were assigned channelsI. Mortimer. The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England, and covered, so that the smell does not spread. And special responsible persons made sure that they did not overflow.

As for shoes with heels, ladies sometimes worev. Steele. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion her, so as not to stain the dresses. But not in sewage, but in rain puddles. Later, men also adopted the fashion, emphasizing their status with the help of such shoes and increasing their height.