Sorry if memes are frowned upon, but it’s a relevant one.

Many misconceptions about the medieval period stem from the fact that the average person doesn’t even know when the medieval period was. To most laypeople, the entire span of time between the fall of Western Rome and the Industrial Era is considered “medieval.” This is an incredibly broad stretch of history that can actually be divided into two distinct eras. The latter of these eras—spanning from the late 15th to the early 19th centuries, depending on the region—is often referred to colloquially as the Renaissance, the Colonial Era, or the Enlightenment. Most historians, however, use the broad term “Early Modern Era.”

Interestingly, many misconceptions about the medieval period actually originate in the Early Modern Era. For example, the famously gruesome methods of torture and execution often associated with the medieval period largely belong to the Early Modern Era. In comparison, torture and execution in the medieval period were relatively simple and practical. Similarly, in relation to the article, it was the people of the Early Modern Era—not the medieval period—who had truly questionable hygene.

There are a few key reasons why hygiene declined in the post-medieval world. The main factor was the rapid growth of urban centers, which led to nearby waterways becoming polluted with human waste. With clean water harder to obtain, people bathed less frequently. The introduction of sugar from the New World into the European diet also wreaked havoc on oral hygiene, and it took centuries for proper dental practices to develop. Finally, as the article points out, there were many widespread misconceptions about hygiene and its role in preventing disease, particularly with regard to the much-feared Black Death.

In short, William the Conqueror was likely a well-groomed man, while George Washington probably stank.

If you read the article/post

That’s a pretty big “if”.

I’m not able to find it again, so it may be entirely bunk, but I remember reading something about the Japanese during early interactions having a stereotype that Europeans didn’t bathe. Obviously this contact was past the medieval stages, but then that makes me ask “Did hygiene become less popular later?”

So, now I’m curious whether this memory is:

A) Pop culture contamination/made up whole cloth, i. e. an author who believed medieval people didn’t bathe and extrapolated it to the 1500s.

B) True, and hygiene did become less popular with Europeans (seems unlikely).

C) Born of the fact that people who have been at sea for so long are not a good representation of overall hygiene.

D) Born from a another factor unrelated to hygiene, but perceived as such by the Japanese. Maybe differences in sweating or diet or something.

E) Some combination of the above.

A lot of the myths about medieval people were fabricated during the enlightenment and industrial eras to pump up the idea that modern people were so much better than ye olde boorish savages. Much of it is complete BS. People weren’t nearly as backwards and primitive as we’ve been led to believe.

They were hella superstitious, though.

Makes sense, having clean skin feels amazing and must have been an affordable luxury (not sure what to call something great-but-cheap).

The Old Testament says you need to wash your hands.

The New Testament says Jesus didn’t bother.

🤷

What a great blog series, thanks for the link!

Makes sense that Europeans inherited the Roman custom of bathing. There’s a brief mention that the Romans didn’t use soap. They did have soap, but most people thought water loosened the grime, and they scraped themselves with an implement called a “stringel” - which is where our word “astringent” comes from.