Public opinion has turned against him
When we think of the royal dynasties in European history, we think of kings and queens with absolute power ruling over vast empires, living in unchecked luxury. Many of the palaces they built are still some of the most impressive architectural wonders in existence. From the French Palace of Versailles to London’s Kensington Palace, tourists walk the halls and marvel at the beauty and grandeur of these royal homes.
However, these restored palaces leave out a few key details. When they were first built and actually hosted royal courts, they were worse than pigsties! Visitors of the Louvre Palace today are spared the harsh realities of centuries gone by: ungodly smells, rat infestations, and piles of human feces littering the floor.
Do we have your attention? Click through the following gallery to find out what it was really like to live in a royal palace of the past.
As you can probably imagine, the lack of plumbing was the most pressing issue in the royal palaces of old. There was no running water or flush toilets. Instead, chamber pots were scattered around and periodically emptied by the servants. The human waste was then stored in enormous underground chambers, which would eventually have to be emptied.
The unfortunate souls who ended up with this job were called “gong farmers” or “gong scourers.” Their toil was similar to that of mucking out stables, but on a much greater scale. One historical source says that after four weeks at court, these chambers would be filled to head height.
Unfortunately, many of the courtiers couldn’t even be bothered to find a chamber pot. They would sometimes just drop their britches wherever they had a modicum of privacy, such as a hallway, a staircase, or a fireplace, and do their business right there on the floor!
A visitor at the magnificent Louvre Palace in Paris in 1675 gave this account of the situation: “on the grand staircases” and “behind the doors and almost everywhere one sees there a mass of excrement, one smells a thousand unbearable stenches caused by calls of nature which everyone goes to do there every day.”
King Henry VIII had a much larger court than most, which resulted in much more mess, but he was also more concerned with cleanliness than other European royals of the period. Unfortunately, he was fighting an uphill battle.
Henry VIII and his court consisted of almost a thousand people. That’s a lot of unwashed bodies to hang around in one palace at the same time! Particularly considering the lack of running water and plumbing.
Henry VIII’s primary home was Hampton Court Palace in London, but he and his extensive entourage would move frequently between his 60 lavish properties around the country. These “royal tours” were said to inspire loyalty in his people, but their real function was to escape the filth they had created and give the palace staff time to clean up!
Royal functions typically created huge messes, including mounds of human excrement that needed to be removed from the palace, so king and court would move to a fresh palace while their previous location was cleaned. This also gave time for the livestock and farmland to replenish, having been wiped out by royal feasts.
Historical sources say that a stench would start to grow within a few days of the court's arrival at a new palace. This was due to food being discarded on the floor, animal waste, poor bodily hygiene of the residents, and the growing amounts of human waste that were stored in underground chambers.
Henry VIII reportedly gave the following instructions to his kitchen staff, suggesting that their hygiene was somewhat lacking: they were no longer allowed to work naked or in unspeakably filthy garments as they had done before. They were also to stop sleeping in the kitchen...
He gave orders for courtiers not to dump dirty dishes in the hallways when they finished eating, but they ignored him. In fact, he sometimes found dishes left on his bed!
In addition to defecating on the floor, visitors at the court apparently used the valuable tapestries hanging from the walls to wipe their dirty hands. Henry had to issue a warning that anyone who did so “might be hurted” for their crime.
Henry himself would sleep in a bed surrounded by thick animal furs. This was to prevent the palaces’ rampant vermin from making their way to him while he slept.
British royals have long been known for their fondness for animals. King Charles II was famous for his beloved spaniels, later known as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. He would have numerous flea-ridden dogs sleeping in his bedroom every night.
A 17th-century historian wrote that this made his bed chambers “very offensive and indeed made the whole Court nasty and stinking.”
True cleanliness was out of reach for any royal palace, so the next best option was to mask the stench. Palaces would be filled with scented plants and flowers. Courtiers would douse themselves in perfumes and hold scented sachets to their noses as they moved about.
The famous Russian empress Catherine the Great was originally from Germany. She moved to Russia as a teen to marry Peter III, and was shocked by the filth of the Russian palace compared to her German home (which was still filthy, but much less so by comparison).
She recorded some of the strange things she observed upon her arrival in Russia. “It’s not rare to see coming from an immense courtyard full of mire and filth that belongs to a hovel of rotten wood, a lady covered in jewels and superbly dressed, in a magnificent carriage, pulled by six old nags, and with badly combed valets.” The juxtaposition of luxury and squalor was shocking to the future queen.
The Palace of Versailles today is the epitome of luxury and grandeur. Millions of visitors walk its halls and marvel every year. However, if they visited during the era of Marie Antoinette, they might pass out from the smell!
The French royal court had as much of an issue with cleanliness as anywhere else. Women would hike up their skirts to pee wherever they were standing, and the contents of chamber pots were thrown out of windows without a second thought. In fact, Marie Antoinette herself was once hit by human waste that was thrown from a window while she was walking in the courtyard.
Although there were latrines installed in the palace, they were so overused and underserviced that they often leaked into the bedrooms below. Corroding pipes spread the problem throughout the palace. Historian Tony Spawforth says that the leakage would sometimes “poison everything” in Marie Antoinette's kitchen, and that “not even the rooms of the royal children were safe.”
This 'high standard' of cleanliness may be due to the fact that Louis XIV broke tradition by deciding to house his court permanently in the Palace of Versailles. This meant that there were no periods of respite for the palace to be given a deep clean. There could be as many as 10,000 residents living in Versailles at any given time.
In Western Europe, the most up-to-date medical advice at the time was to bathe as little as possible. After the many devastating plagues of the Middle Ages, it was believed that cleaning the skin left the pores open to toxins and disease. As such, it was recommended to wash as little as possible.
King Henry VIII was one of few royals who preferred to wash frequently despite medical advice. Marie Antoinette is said to have bathed once a month, while Louis XIV is rumored only to have bathed twice in his life.
King James I of England supposedly never bathed at all. Historical accounts say that the rooms he spent most of his time in became infested with lice as a result of his presence.
It’s impossible to predict just how many royals and noblemen died as a result of the ungodly conditions they were living in. It wasn’t until the 19th century that infrastructure improved and understanding of hygiene and disease finally moved out of the Middle Ages.
Sources: (History) (HistoryExtra)
See also: Fascinating ancient temples of the world
The hidden history of royal palaces
Luxury and squalor co-existed to create a formidable assault on the senses
LIFESTYLE Weird history
When we think of the royal dynasties in European history, we think of kings and queens with absolute power ruling over vast empires, living in unchecked luxury. Many of the palaces they built are still some of the most impressive architectural wonders in existence. From the French Palace of Versailles to London’s Kensington Palace, tourists walk the halls and marvel at the beauty and grandeur of these royal homes.
However, these restored palaces leave out a few key details. When they were first built and actually hosted royal courts, they were worse than pigsties! Visitors of the Louvre Palace today are spared the harsh realities of centuries gone by: ungodly smells, rat infestations, and piles of human feces littering the floor. Do we have your attention? Click through the following gallery to find out what it was really like to live in a royal palace of the past.