Time to review yet another nonsense online article with no sources or references.
“Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In”
https://talesofthemiddleages.com/why-medieval-castles-were-filthy-places/
Oh dear.
Okay, this is mostly just a rant, a flood of words, me screaming into the void.
There are some sources for what I’m saying in the thread I link to at the end, but I’m not backing up everything I say with proof, although I’ve written about pretty much all of this before elsewhere.
It’s Tuesday afternoon, I’ve got a dog to walk and chickens to feed.
But if you read something you really badly want to know more about & want sources for, feel free to ask, I may add some sources to this post later.
This is mostly just a warning about not believing random stuff you find online.
I’ll just go read the article and respond to what it says as I read it.
Castles had flush toilets, the first known mechanical flush toilet was installed in a castle during the middle ages.
Garderobes were built over moats, places were people generally wouldn’t be wandering or were connected to cess pits.
Small amounts of human wastes ending up in large bodies of water filled with fish & birds would not cause many bad smells at all.
Kitchens didn’t have much waste and all of it was organic.
Livestock rarely lived in castles and their waste was collected because it could be used as precious manure by farmers.
The rich and powerful who lived in castles expected their castles to smell nice.
Medieval people believed in the miasma theory, they literally thought that bad smells could KILL them.
They did everything they could to avoid them.
Chamber pots have been used for 1000s of years, still are.
During the middle ages they were not emptied out of windows into streets, that’s more Hollywood than History.
That popular medieval saying mentioned is from after the middle ages.
Getting clean water in a medieval castle was easy because castles were built to have a clean water source.
If they didn’t, people couldn’t live there and they wouldn’t survive a siege for more than a couple of days.
Most water sources were not dangerously contaminated, people knew that suspicious water could be deadly and that life literally depended on clean water.
They dug wells to get to groundwater and even installed pipes and aqueducts to get clean water from springs.
The idea that people drank ale in stead of water because the water was polluted is a myth.
Bathing was routine during the middle ages.
Medieval folk did carry on the tradition of bathing & enjoying bathhouses from the Romans.
Bathing in bad water could be dangerous, they were right.
The church worried about bathing too often because it suggested the sin of vanity.
The church also worried about mixed bathing, men & women being naked or almost naked together.
But the church wasnt against bathing, it promoted being clean, the church even ran its own bathhouses.
Not washing yourself was admired because everyone agreed that it was an awful hars sacrifice, it was suffering!
So a few very religious people did it to demonstrate their piety.
But it wasn’t expected of normal people do avoid bathing.
Hot water & soap were not scarce.
There was a fire burning in every house, there were wells & water sources everywhere, all it took was placing a jug or kettle near the fire or taking some stones from the fire and putting them in a bucket and then you’d have hot water.
Soap was made from waste products such as tallow & ash, every household had access to them, people made soap at home and it was also big business.
Royals bathed plenty and washed daily, like most people.
Yes it was an ordeal for people who wanted a private bath, but nobody cared about something being an ordeal for servants, that’s what they were there for.
For common people who were happy enough with a hipbath and who didn’t live in a house with stairs, it was a lot less work.
And there were bathhouses everywhere.
People stayed clean.
Dry wiping with natural linen actually works.
But people also cleaned their body with water from a bowl, soap & towels, just like people still did two, three generations ago…
Upper-clothes, made of wool, was rarely washed, how often do you launder your natural woollen sweaters & winter coats?
Underclothing was washed as often as possible, this included linnen underwear, which is antibacterial and combats sweat smells.
Castle floors were cleaned.
Rushes were carefully woven mats that were indeed cleaned regularly and well maintained.
The filth mentioned in this “article” comes from ONE single source of a Dutchman visiting an English home AFTER the middle ages…
Historians have done experiences with rush floors and found that they remained very clean.
Having curtains around your bed was not a luxury.
Straw beds are very comfortable.
Yes, perfect homes for bugs but people knew this and hated those bugs so beds were as often cleaned as possible and also daily aired, which really helps.
Also replacing straw in a sack is easier than cleaning a modern day mattress, so don’t be surprised if some medieval beds had fewer creepy crawlies in them than yours does.
Clean sheets were a thing.
Castles had these things called chimneys.
Many windows also didn’t have glass.
Poor ventilation was rarely an issue.
Great halls were rather… great, it would take a lot of effort to fill one up with smoke.
The plague was not brought by fleas on rats but by fleas on humans and their clothing, goods, etc.
People didn’t an masse killed cats, the rat population didn’t explode.
Medical knowledge wasn’t as backwards as this author seems to think, bloodletting is still done.
But there simply was no cure for the plague.
Fresh food was supplied regularly, they didn’t just eat salted, smoked, etc.
And no, covering up bad food with spices is a long debunked myth.
Think about it.
Spices were extremely expensive.
Meat & fish were not.
It’s like sprinkling diamonds over a mc donalds hamburger.
People knew very well how to deal with pests.
Cats & dogs kept rodents away.
Food was kept in places where bugs couldn’t come, like hanging from the ceiling in smokey rooms.
Food was rarely wasted, leftovers were turned into new meals or fed to animals.
People didn’t throw things out of windows.
People knew what eating dodgy food did to their bodies, they were neither mad or suicidal.
Washing hands was a very common part of daily life, done several times a day.
Many castles, in part, were absolutely built for comfort.
The not so grim reality was that they often had plumbing, always had heating and were pretty good at avoiding dirt.
Never put any value in anonymous articles that make claims that are not backed up with any sources or references.
Here are some of mine:
Twitter thread about medieval hygiene:
https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/1724028943324373228
I also deal with several of these myths in my book!
If you like my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon;
Disclaimer;
Picture(s) found online, used for (re-)educational and journalistic purposes only, it falls under ‘fair use’.
I do not own the copyrights to these images, I only share them here for educational purposes to try and make sure the real story behind it becomes known and people will stop spreading false information.
If the copyright owner objects to the sharing here, kindly contact me and I shall alter the article.
If you’re interested in using any of the images here get in touch with the copyright owners mentioned in the article.
Feel free to contact me with questions.
Fake History Hunter 