Palaces housing hundreds of courtiers quickly became dirty, smelly, infectious places. Henry was an obsessive clean freak and terribly afraid of catching the plague. A sampling of common issuesodor:
Bathing was difficult, soap was expensive, and deodorant didn’t exist, so people just masked their smell using perfumes and pomanders (small scented balls women wore around their waists).
image: 246 is a pomander that belonged to Queen Elizabeth. It's divided into six segments for six different fragrances.
excrement:
men often relieved themselves in fire places or even just along the walls. Royal officials resorted to painting crosses on the walls as a moral deterrent. “Piss pots” were advised against because of their smell. “Garderobes” were well ventilated, sometimes flushable, sometimes equipped with a wooden seat, and emptied into stone cesspits. There was an employee whose job it was to empty the cesspits and scour the garderobes.
bad teeth/breath:
toothpicks and your finger were the extent of oral hygiene, so people blessed to live into old age had few teeth. The prescription against halitosis was sleeping with an open mouth and a nightcap with a hole, through which the foul vapors could escape.
toothpicks and your finger were the extent of oral hygiene, so people blessed to live into old age had few teeth. The prescription against halitosis was sleeping with an open mouth and a nightcap with a hole, through which the foul vapors could escape.
food safety:
dirty dishes were officially not allowed (although one chronicler said the cups looked as if they’d been used as piss pots). Kitchens scullions were given uniforms because Cardinal Wolsey had found that some were going about their duties naked. He also ordered they stop urinating in the cooking fires.
waste: no dumping in the moat. There were sewers for waste water, and sometimes pipes with fresh water. Most people distrusted the water and thus drank ale, beer, and wine.
image: replica of the first flushing toilet, built for Queen Elizabeth
fleas, bedbugs, head lice:
mulberry twigs beneath the bed, or like Henry, sleep with a small piece of fur to trick the parasites.
Henry’s ordinances on cleanliness were not often or fully obeyed. The only real solution was for the entire court to completely vacate the palace for it to be thoroughly cleaned. Just how dirty was the court? The king moved an average of 30 times a year.
