How smelly were the Middle Ages?

They were ankle-deep in a putrid mix of wet mud, rotten fish, garbage, entrails, and animal dung. People dumped their own buckets of faeces and urine into the street or simply sloshed it out the window.

How bad was hygiene in medieval times?

Clothes could be washed in a tub, often with stale urine or wood ash added to the water, and trampled underfoot or beaten with a wooden bat until clean. But many women did their washing in rivers and streams, and larger rivers often had special jetties to facilitate this, such as 'le levenderebrigge' on the Thames.

Did medieval castles smell bad?

To our modern standards of living, most Medieval castles would have been incredibly cold, cramped, totally lacking privacy, and would have been disgustingly smelly (and likely home to more than a fair share of rats!).

Did people smell in the 16th century?

Historians and scientists across Europe have now gotten together with perfumers and museums for a unique project: to capture what Europe smelled like between the 16th and early 20th centuries. A European street today may smell like coffee, fresh-baked bread and cigarettes.

Did castles smell bad?

Often the moat surrounding the castle was used as a sewer. Both the moat and the castle quickly became smelly and dirty. It's said that the kings and queens of England never stayed longer than eight weeks in one of their castles because of the build-up of foul odors.

How clean were Medieval people?

How often did Royalty bathe in the 1500s?

Clean water was hard to get but even those, who had access to it, rarely bathed. It is believed that King Louis XIV bathed just twice in his lifetime. Not just him, Queen Isabella of Spain bathed once when she was born and once on her wedding day.

Why were medieval towns so dirty?

They were a breeding ground for disease. The upper storeys of houses jutted out into the street, limiting light and air. There were no sewers, so household waste was thrown into the streets. There were large numbers of animals in towns, so there was a lot of manure left to rot down.

What did ancient Rome smell like?

In Rome, frankincense, cinnamon, myrrh, and nard, were widely used in Imperial age temples, with frankincense and myrrh being the most popular.

What did Victorian England smell like?

Most fragrances in early to mid-Victorian times were delicate and floral. They were understated, feminine – and often simply conjured up the scent of a particular flower, such as jasmine, lavender, roses, honeysuckle…

What did Victorian London smell like?

Little do they know that the elegant route is built on top of massive sewer tunnels, constructed as a reaction to exploding toilets, smelly politicians and lots of lime. The Great Stink, as was named the horrendous smell given off by the Thames, plagued London for a great many years during the Victorian era.

How often did medieval nobles bathe?

There are stories of how people didn't bathe in the Middle Ages – for example, St Fintan of Clonenagh was said to take a bath only once a year, just before Easter, for twenty-four years. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Saxons believed that the Vikings were overly concerned with cleanliness since they took a bath once a week.

What did medieval battles smell like?

The atmosphere is loaded with the horrid smell of decaying horses and the remains of slaughtered animals, and, it is said, from the bodies of men imperfectly buried.

What did the founding fathers smell like?

The Founders risked their lives for an ideal. Their wisdom shapes the most noble experiment in democracy. And they might have smelled like a running shoe filled with oysters.

Where did they poop in medieval times?

The waste shafts of some medieval toilets ran down the exterior of a fort into moats or rivers, while others were designed with internal castle channels that funneled waste into a courtyard or cesspit. Other privy chambers, meanwhile, protruded out from the castle wall.

How often did Royalty bathe in the 1700s?

Louis XIV of France, for example, is said to have taken only two baths in his adult lifetime — both times recommended by his doctors. The king had headaches, and his doctors thought bathing would help cure the condition. It did not, and he never bathed again.

Did people in the dark ages bathe?

It is true. In fact, medieval people loved a bath and can in many ways be considered a bathing culture, much in the way that say, Japan is now. Medieval people also very much valued being clean generally in an almost religious way.

Was Queen Victoria smelly?

Specifically, Queen Victoria probably smelled – so much so that courtiers had to drop heavy hints that she might want to change her clothes and take a bath once in a while.

What did people smell like in the 18th century?

When historians delve into the archive and start sniffing, there are five scents that waft from the annals of the 18th century with particular pungency: rose, fish, ammonia, tobacco and paint. This rich bouquet can tell us a lot about how Georgians saw (and smelled) their world, as we explore over the following pages.

Was there deodorant in the 1800s?

Deodorant Was Introduced in the Late 1800s

The first deodorant, made with ingredients that killed odor-producing bacteria, is believed to have been created by the brand Mum in 1888, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Did Roman baths smell?

Toilets and public baths were heavy with the smell of excrement, urine and disease. In classical scholarship, when we sniff out what the nose knows, we reconstruct a vivid picture of daily life in Rome, one that reveals both the risks and the delights of that ancient society.

What did ancient battlefields smell like?

The pungent stench of sulfur wrought by exploding gunpowder dominated the battlefields of the Civil War. With the firing of tens of thousands of muskets and hundreds of cannons, the distinct smell of gunpowder rendered even the most floral landscape a wasteland of rotting eggs.

How did Roman baths stay clean?

The main purpose of the baths was a way for the Romans to get clean. Most Romans living in the city tried to get to the baths every day to clean up. They would get clean by putting oil on their skin and then scraping it off with a metal scraper called a strigil.

Why did people stop bathing in medieval times?

It wasn't just diseases from the water itself they were worried about. They also felt that with the pores widened after a bath, this resulted in infections of the air having easier access to the body. Hence, bathing, particularly at bathhouses, became connected with the spread of diseases.

When did Europeans start bathing?

“Bathing as you and I know it was very, very uncommon [among western Europeans] until the later part of the 18th century,” says W. Peter Ward, a professor emeritus of history at the University of British Columbia and author of the new book The Clean Body: A Modern History.

How did they shave in medieval times?

Razors were sort of like the old fashioned razor that barbers used...you know, the one they sharpened on a leather strop? Among the nobility servants shaved them, among the soldiers a knife was often used. The lower classes, for the most part, grew beards, and kept them trimmed close to the face.