bathing

we a\have all read about the lack of bathing in the dark ages; however, there is more to that story. here is some information on the subject.

BTW - as always - I am hoping for some alternative views and/or feedback.

baths and bathing were actually quite common in the Middle Ages, but in a different way than one might expect.

the Anglo-Saxons believed that the Vikings were overly concerned with cleanliness since they took a bath once a week.

.

Personal hygiene did exist in the Middle Ages – people were well aware that cleaning their face and hands was a good idea

Medieval writers saw bathing as a serious and careful activity.

If people could afford a to have private bath – and not many could – they would use a wooden tub that could also have a tent-like cloth on top of it. Attendants would bring jugs and pots of hot water to fill the tub.

I the bather has pains or aches, it is good to boil various herbs like camomile, breweswort, mallow and brown fennel and add them to the bath.

Wealthy monasteries often could pipe in water and have baths as well. Some monastic rules suggest that monks did not take regular baths.

The monks of Westminster Abbey, for example, were required to have a bath four times a year: at Christmas, Easter, the end of June, and the end of September. It is hard to know if these rules were being followed, or if they were intended to mean that the monks could only bathe then.

Public Bathhouse

Public bathhouses were very popular throughout middle and later medieval Europe but they also raised controversy as some objected to the fact that men and women could see and be with each other naked, and that this could lead to illicit sex.

However, it seems that church officials had little influence on bathhouses in the Middle Ages. Medieval people, in fact, seems to have accepted that the bathhouse was not only a place to get clean and healthy, but it could also be a place where sex and prostitution could occur.

Youcan find a section about bathing in Pierre Riche’s Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne.

Carolingian princes took baths and changed their clothes once a week.

Commoners would have bathed less often than nobles because of the time and labor it took to fill a tub, but they would have bathed as often as they could.

In the Carolingians of the eighth and ninth centuries, and you’ll find a different attitude. Baths were a requirement for palaces, and bathhouses contained hot and cold pools.

The bathhouse at the Charlemagne’s palace at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French) was spring fed and could accommodate up to 100 bathers.

Abbeys also had baths for the residents, guests, and the sick.

Some medieval people didn’t bathe, but the reason had nothing to do with health. Abstaining from the bath was a form of penance, just like giving up wine or meat or something else you enjoy.

Between baths, people of all classes would wash using basins of cold water.

Just like most of us, medieval people wanted to be clean.