Why did people never wash in the times of the Elizabeth I?

Question

The Roman the Mayans were fanatical about hygine. Yet 1000 years on people never washed.

Surely the country must of STUNK if no one ever washed their person.

Answer 1

Well you're undoubtedly right about the smell. If you've ever encountered someone who chooses to substitute deodorant for washing, you'll have a fair idea of what it was like when people were not washing but wearing perfume instead.

I commented on the bathing thing to a colleague once. I was remarking on how Frederick the Great was so widely noted for taking a bath once a year, on his birthday. She pointed out that this was in the days before central heating, and a bath in winter  was like an engraved invitation to pneumonia.

Answer 2

Our habit of taking a shower or a bath every day is a very recent one, and it has been a gradual transition from the days that you mention.  I remember the days when ordinary people took a bath once a week, and few had ever seen a shower, except at school after games and at a coal mine after work.  They could not afford to heat the water.  It was usual for working men to wash their faces without removing their shirts.  I am as guilty as anyone else of overwashing, but I do wonder if we really need to use all the energy and water.

Answer 3

People who bathed more often than once a year were looked at suspiciously. This had to do with the Church and its teachings. The thought was that bathing in water would wash away sins, so the more sin one committed, the more often one would need to bathe.

This is the reason perfumes were invented, but only the rich could afford them.

Yes, the country reeked...with the unwashed bodies, and fecal matter that was tossed out windows via a chamber pot, as well as the streets full of horse droppings...It stank.

Answer 4

The problem was plumbing. The Romans and Mayans had pipes and sewers. All of this broke down during the middle ages. So by the time of Elizabeth people would bath once a year. This is where the term don't loose the baby in the bath water comes from. The Father, then mother, the children would bath first.

Answer 5

Despite the finery of the royal and the rich, city and town living involved stinking open sewage in the streets and polluted water. People drank beer, wine, mead or cider because water was not fit to drink unless boiled. Even rivers were polluted.

Having a bath was considered unhealthy. Instead, people used perfumes to kill smells. Queen Elizabeth 1 was regarded with awe because she had four baths a year.

Answer 6

People did not wash as much.

1. Lack of indoor plumbing

2. Belief that washing was unhealthy

Yes it was probably pretty stinky.  What is most humorous is that many romance novels are set in this time on the ocean.  That would have been really stinky and quite unromantic

Answer 7

It did smell. A lot. But bathing was often considered -un-healthy.

-

As for the downvote, go read a history book and educate yourself.

Answer 8

Yes it stank, but they really didn't know better. Washing was considered unhealthy, and with the water as filthy as it was they were probably right.

Answer 9

They did not have soap, only oils and colognes.However I think soap was being produced in other countries I think.

Answer 10

Displaying your private parts was imoral and sinful, even for the sake of hygiene, and are you mad man!? Washing make ye ill!

Okay sorry for my lame attempt at cockney, but I'm sure you understand my point.

peace.

P.S.

The high infant mortality rates of Europe was due largely to poor hygiene. Because, believe it or not, the Brits did not wipe, men or women, when a baby was born, their entire body became smeared in you know what as they came out. Part of the reason Spain had a larger population, is because Roman midwives insisted that a woman be completely clean during the child birth process.

and because women outside the mediterranean had a habit of not wiping, babies were proud mom's "toilet paper."

It sounds too gross to be real, and it even sounds "made up," but I'm sorry to tell you, its true. In fact it could be argued that north america was won from the natives because British and German moms never wiped and that developed white people's imune systems, leave it to nasty s****s to imunize a bunch of genociders.....

peace for real.

P.P.S.

It is a bit of an irony though, because the modern flushing toilet was invented in Britain, while the technology existed in ancient times, it did not exist with the sophistication and ingenuity applied by Elizabeth I's nephew, an eccentric with a warped sense of humor.

He invented the modern flushing toilet, not to help anyone, but to play a practical joke on his aunt; the reason he invented it, was so that everyone would know when she was taking a dump, as the original bowl was designed to echo as loudly as possible, and when it flushed, it could be heard for half a mile as it was made deliberately loud.

The Queen was furious, had him imprisoned in the tower of London where he would have been beheaded had a bishop not intervened famously stating that "his invention could very well save countless millions in the future...."  She calmed down and spared him, although she never forgave him for the joke he played.

Yeah, you heard right; the modern flushing toilet, was invented as a prank by a warped Brit eccentric.

You can't argue with the fact though, that little recepticle is probably single handedly responsible for the world's population explosion because, don't mean to sound even grosser here but sh*t literally kills if you don't get it away from people fast enough.

Kudos to the brit of the Elizabethan era at least, for the invention of the toilet!

Even if it was invented just to play a mean prank on someone.....

peace for really real.

Answer 11

I believe for periods in the Dark & Middle Ages, many church doctrines considered washing to be sinful, since it supposedly "washed away a part of your soul."

Btw, even the pre-Roman Celts of modern France and Germany were fairly clean - they had even invented a form of soap with lye and animal lard. I'd prefer lye & lard soap than the Roman method of cleaning with a scraper and olive oil.

Answer 12

For Romans it was ok to hang around naked with a bunch of strangers in a public bath, but they weren't Christian.

Elizabethans thought bathing would lead to chills/cold for them, so they avoided it.  The theory of contagion by bacteria wasn't known yet, so they didn't think poor hygene would be harmful to them.  With all the other smells around them - wild and domestic animals everywhere,  commodes in every room for p**p, and people thinking nothing of dumping them out the window onto the street - people easily became used to the stench; otherwise they would cover it up with strong scents.

Answer 13

They did indeed have soap, named lye soap now look into it if u like... but at the time it was thought that bathing regularly would open pores and lead to contracting illnesses. and the lack of running water might have been a factor.

Answer 14

They thought it was unhealthy.

Answer 15

I expect heating water was an issue, and they didnt have showers and baths.  Soap probably wasnt around.

If no-one washed and everyone smelt the same, then i expect that it didnt really bother anyone.