"Must be king." "How do you know?" "He hasn't got sh*t all over him."

A Medieval Knight takes a bath in the river. All historic documentary filmmakers: *I will pretend that never happened...*

Alexander of Neckham, who lived in Paris in the 1170s, complained that he was often woken in the morning by street cries of, “The baths are hot!”

Monty python & the holy grail was directed by Terry Jones, an historian. He parodied screen depictions, mostly Hollywood's, of filthy peasants in drab clothing. He Is On Your Side Metatron!

I really like how fundamentally you grounded this video with the biology, anthropology, pre-history, historiography and just general comparative history. Too often historical phenomenas are explored in a vacuum, I feel like.

Jokes aside, I despise how the Greco-Roman eras were highly romanticized and Medieval Europe was demonized.

My grandfather born in a pre industrial era. His Father was a pessant in 19th century. He allays told me that his father considered extremaly rude to sit down to the table and not to wash hand and face, and change clothes if was with dirt or mud when they came from the field from work. Probably was the case most part of human history.

I remember as a child in Glasgow the communal washhouse, where the women from six houses would do a weekly wash, copper boiler, big sinks, mangles, the lot. I am 75 now, my Granny always said, cleanliness is to godliness. Well done young sir, love your channel.

The misinterpretation is also largely political: progressive politics was gaining ground during Victorian times in the wake of the Enlightenment and thus is became necessary to cast all of history as a progressive march from ignorance, dirt and violence to wisdom, cleanliness and peace

Speaking of city baths -- medieval guilds often obligated their members to bathe a given minimum number of times per week/month (one could take more baths if he wanted). For example, a lawyer in medieval Cracow had to bathe at least twice a week. Less prestigious professions, like stonemasons, had lower requirements (2-3 times a month). Also, the clergy sometimes did speak out against public baths, but not so much against the "bath" part but the "public" part (and the public nudity involved).

There has never been anything as disgusting as London during the Victorian period, so for sure there is some heavy irony there...

It honestly is REALLY unfair how the medieval period is viewed because of myths and misconceptions....insulting even.

I think that Hygiene got worse in the early modern times (especially thinking of wigs). Also, access to sugar left a visible impact on teeth...

I think the "recent" misconception might be associated with the europeans expansions through the americas and other continents, you see, here in Brazil we have documents from the portuguese detailing how the natives bathed frequently and praise their hygine, and there's also the same type of documents detailing this when they met the japanese who in turn found the portuguese "stinky" (I just heard this from a history teacher might be speculation). So the idea of a "filthy european" might be associated with sailers who spent mouths traveling on ships and did not represent the norm, but were falsely labbed as the usual culture. edit: sorry for my grammar, english is not my main language.

This is a good topic to talk about. People often and sadly look down on medieval people, but they were far more sophisticated than most people would think. Though, in my opinion, it would also be interesting to talk about public hygiene, just like personal hygiene, such as trash and defecation on the roads in cities, the presence of vermin and ways these were dealt with, public latrines, hygiene in case of medical procedures or, as you mentioned, burials/graveyards etc.

“The plebs were clean.” - Metatron I

Excellent video as always! Sadly, those "10 DISGUSTING THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES!!!" always have tons of views, while videos with a lot of effort on research and sources pass unnoticed by the masses.

The people in the Middle Ages sound like they were cleaner than many people I know in the modern day.

The modern world and its teaching of history dehumanizes our ancestors

*walks into Bed Bath and Beyond* "Ah yes! I'll take a bath and a woman!" *police sirens*

I did a couple of tours in Afghanistan. The thing is when nobody is bathing and everyone smells bad you don't actually notice.

Wasn't the miasma theory commonplace during medieval times? Which means that bad odors were thought to be related to sickness and the spread of it. If everybody smelled bad by default, such theory wouldn't have any grounds back in that time. In spanish we call the Plague "la Peste" and we use that same noun for strong odors.

I always imagine the peasent farmer, after working his field all day, being sweaty and smelly, just jumps into the nearby river or creek. Surely to cool down, but also to get rid of the smell.

"There's some lovely filth over here!" "Help, I'm being repressed!"

I like that the lord of the rings movies didn't show a medieval setting that wasn't dirty, gross, and gray. The people of Gondor in one of the movies were well clean and kept, even the soldiers of Gondor looked like they kept up in hygiene.

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for the education. My dad was from a poor farm family in the US and he did not have indoor plumbing until he joined the military in 1968, yet their family of 10 were bathed, clean clothes, my dad always tells stories of how his mom had the cleanest house.

Omg! That’s the best thumbnail I have EVER seen! 😂😂 loved the video too babes!

thank you for this! It's one of my pet peeves, next to the misconception that people only expected to live till 30 or something, so a 40-year-old person would be considered to be ancient (could you please do a clip on the average age vs the predicted life span?).

I know a girl who grew up in a jungle village in Vietnam. She was obsessive about keeping the apartment clean because that's how you keep the bugs out of a grass hut. I cannot imagine it being any different at any point in history.

There are two German fairy tales: Bearskin and The Devil's Sooty Brother. In those stories soldiers made a deal with the Devil forbidding them to bathe for 7 years. Therefore the people were repulsed. That wouldn't work, if people were dirty all the time.

Let's be honest here, hollywood has been the biggest contributor of historical myths

Funny how when you went over the hygiene habits of older civilizations you decided to skip completely over the hygiene habits of pre-Roman Western Europeans, whose medieval descendants would be the ones to face the brunt of these medieval bathing myths. “The word sapo, Latin for soap, likely was borrowed from an early Germanic language and is cognate with Latin sebum, "tallow". It first appears in Pliny the Elder's account,[17] Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes. There he mentions its use in the treatment of scrofulous sores, as well as among the Gauls as a dye to redden hair which the men in Germania were more likely to use than women.[18] The Romans avoided washing with harsh soaps before encountering the milder soaps used by the Gauls around 58 BC.[19] Aretaeus of Cappadocia, writing in the 2nd century AD, observes among "Celts, which are men called Gauls, those alkaline substances that are made into balls [...] called soap".[20] The Romans' preferred method of cleaning the body was to massage oil into the skin and then scrape away both the oil and any dirt with a strigil. The 2nd-century AD physician Galen describes soap-making using lye and prescribes washing to carry away impurities from the body and clothes. The use of soap for personal cleanliness became increasingly common in this period. According to Galen, the best soaps were Germanic, and soaps from Gaul were second best.[21] Zosimos of Panopolis, circa 300 AD, describes soap and soapmaking.[21]” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The moment they rise from sleep, which they generally prolong till late in the day, they bathe, most frequently in warm water; as in a country where the winter is very long and severe.” (Tacitus on Germany) www.gutenberg.org/files/2995/2995-h/2995-h.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair is blond, and not only naturally so, but they make it their practice to increase the distinguishing color by which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater, and they pull it back from their forehead to the top of the head and back to the nape of the neck... Some of them shave their beards, but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks, but they let the mustache grow until it covers the mouth.” (Diodorus Siculus) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The voices of most sound alarming and menacing, whether they are angry or the reverse, but all alike are clean and neat, and throughout the whole region, and especially in Aquitaine, you will hardly find a man or woman, however poor, who is dirty and in rags, as you would elsewhere>: (Ammianus Marcellinus, The Character of the Gauls) So we see hygiene was not new to Western Europeans before or during Roman occupation, so why the hell would they suddenly give it up after the Romans left?

"Dennis! There’s some lovely filth down here…"

It's quite scary and sad that misconceptions like this are so deep in the general understanding of the topic to a point that teachers are relaying this to children in schools. In secondary school our literature teacher told us that the medieval people were extremely dirty because the layer of dirt on their skin worked as a shield from germs and diseases.

In England we're often told that Queen Elizabeth took 2 baths a year and was considered clean. Is this true?

I always loved how in the Très riches heures du duc de Berry for example, you can see the peasants wearing old, worn clothes over their normal garments while working to protect them from wear and dirt.

I think some of the points highlighted in this video can also be applied to our drawings of prehistoric "cave people," who are always shown with dirt smeared on their faces and long, scraggly hair that's full of knots and not combed at all. The idea there is that "life was too brutal and short to bother with taking care of your appearance." Meanwhile, modern hunter-gatherer groups who basically live like it's still the stone age all have beautiful face paints and all sorts of fascinating headdresses and hair styles, from the Hadza to the Papua New Guineans to the various tribes of the Amazon. Even the great apes groom one another constantly for bugs and have fairly uniform, neatly kept fur (especially gorillas, it would seem). There's also a rare find of a carved bust of a woman in a cave dated at 27,000 years old who was wearing some kind of elaborate headscarf with cross patterns all over it. Certainly not what we might first think when we think "cave woman."

Bathhouses are seen around the world and throughout history in almost every culture. Even to modern times now. These aren’t talked about. These bathhouses and water as a resource would be constricted during wars and sieges. So there could be a misconception of siege/war necessity and common practice.

Well when popular media has characters to use words like "unwashed peasants" or "unwashed masses" that sort imagery is going to get into people's heads.

I appreciate that you take the time to differentiate between hygiene practices of social groups too. Instead of just mentioning sources regarding hifg society, you mention the practices of peasants and common folk as well.

My arts major was heavily invested in reinassance and medieval art and history, she used to tell me, that we have these misconceptions about medieval period not because Hollywood or modern media but because the Renaissance, you see, people back then needed to convince the masses that the "dark ages" where the worst of the worst that man kind had ever seen so they could "convince" them to abandon their old ideologies that were hevaly influenced by religious fervor, so they started to represent medieval times like this so people wouldn't want to live like that anymore, even if they never did.

“All peasants are filthy” easy now, this isn’t Stirland

Excellent video. This is what real historical study looks like.

I remember in Elementary school (in the US) they taught us the Puritans saw bathing as unhealthy, and I feel a lot of people just applied that to all history beforehand.

Another thing a lot of people don't realize is that there was deodorant in the medieval period. People were known to take a crystal of alum, moisten it, and rub it in their armpits. I've personally tested it and can say that it works quite well, though in very hot weather while camping I did develop a rash that cleared up in about 2 days of using regular deodorant instead of alum.

I remember from high school one exam, often later used for preparing, that had sources about local customs of washing - it told one story about somthing similar to saunas descibred as a way Slavic population cleaned itself (with some colorful description about how "steam made all scabies and eschar to go off") and then another story about how Queen Hedwig sent one of the most honorable knight to check candidate for husband Jogaila of Lithuania and he came back with "positive review" describing that he has been invided to bathhouse (actually sauna).

“Look, Henry has come to see us!”

Metatron forgot the weekly saunabath. Practised in Finland (for instace) since times immemorial.

Henry VIII closed the bath houses. He didn't like the idea of shared bathing. Bloody protestant.His manky sprog bathed twice a year.

The presence and recurring plague in those times also leads people to believe that conditions were unsanitary. How ever evidence shows that it was no unsanitary conditions, but a malnourished populace that made plague so devastating. The Middle Ages were a period of global cooling, crop yields were low, rain and muggy condition were the norm leading to spoiling a of stored grains and even more disease from fungus that grew in food stores.

Please include management of bone fractures and joint dislocations in medieval period.

I remember learning somewhere that people of the medieval era believed that bad smells carried diseases, so they took hygiene very seriously, that trope of emptying your chamber pot by tossing its contents out the window into the streets would have had you get fined or arrested

I think a lot of people mistake that for Victorian England. Especially since the Native Americans bathed frequently and complained that their new visitors were smelly and almost never bathed. Bathing was probably considered something of a necessity until it was determined that for a short time that "all the cool kids in Europe don't bathe" 😎

Amazing how many misconceptions regarding the medieval period can be traced back to propaganda. It makes sense. The easiest way to prevent someone from taking pride in their heritage is to portray their ancestors as barbaric/ignorant/dirty etc.

You're right about how we've forgotten how to FIX our clothes instead of just throwing them away for minor holes. I recently started repairing minor rips and it really does make a difference. Which reminds me, my favorite nightshirt is due for a repair...

I remember a story about a French king who didn't bathe for some bizarre reason and just used tons of perfume instead. And of course, no one dared to tell him the truth. But that happened after the middle ages.

I live in Portsmouth and went to see the "Mary Rose" - Henry VIII's flagship, which sank in the Solent. The number of flea combs recovered from the wreck outnumbered the men in the crew. And there I was, thinking they just scratched their heads and lived with it.

I think most misconceptions were brought in during the Victorian time, cause the people wanted to feel like they had a better life than their ancestors, and sadly those „rumors“ survived till today…

From a historical clothing POV, it would not be out of the ordinary for a peasant or lower-middle class individual to have one garment - maybe a nicer garment for special events - and two or three undergarments. The linen undergarment is a miraculous thing - it soaks up the sweat and grime the body accumulates and protects the outer garment so it doesn't need to be repeatedly washed. A bit of sponging at spots before going to bed, and then ready to go in the morning!

The funny thing is that the nobility were the stinky and dirty ones- not only was the water considered unhealthy but also it also was fashionable in France (and thus pretty much in rest of Europe) to hide the stench with massive amounts of perfume. Most of the peasants in northern part of Europe had a small bathhouse just besides the house and it was a custom to take a bath at least every Saturday. Bathhouses were actually considered so clean, that peasant women would give birth in them till early 20th century.

But how do you use the three seashells?

For the record: Monty Python was a satire, not a documentary 🤣

Roman arenas had public toilet. One such facility built of stone is preserved in ruins of Salona, near modern town Split.

Also, certain types of filth causes actual discomfort. Decomposing blood itches the skin, and so do dried genital fluids and urine, not to mention it would have attracted insects which sometimes would try to enter the nose and eyes. So even if they were not disgusted by the smell, they would certainly feel a certain amount of physical discomfort. A quick wash would have solved the issues, so they could focus on doing their work instead of preventing flies from getting into their airways or nursing their burning crotches. Also, certain bright colors could be obtained extremely cheaply. For example, marigold could be obtained with the lichen that grows on fire wood and onion peels. You know, things that would have been thrown in the fire anyways, so you know, the medieval peasant could have decided to keep it either so his wife could wear a pretty yellowish ribbon or to sell it the next time he comes to the market. The barks of certain trees can give a purplish or pinkish hue, which again, a wood crafter would have access to them as a by-product of his labor. Basically, a lot of strong natural dyes could be obtained rather cheaply and give beautiful colors. So again, it would have been pretty strange for people to systematically pick the dullest, ugliest colors if they could get a nicer one for just as cheaply.

I was under the impression "the dark ages" referred to the time in between the collapse of the western Roman Empire and Charlemagne/ before widespread christianisation

Thanks a lot, Metatron. Now I can't justify calling others "unwashed peasants" anymore. Gotta find me another mildly insulting phrase now.

I love when history youtubers include sources! Always more sources! It helps a lot if we the viewers want to read more ourselves and learn more detail than a video can cover. It also makes you the content creator look way better when you present your point and can prove it.

I always just assumed they were as dirty as most farmers are now. People don't like being covered in dirt and sweaty,pretty sure that's consistent throughout time

Did Victorian historians get _anything_ right?

Regarding clothes: I'd guess that people back then would rather wear rugged or damaged old clothes for labour where said clothes were in risk of getting damaged or stained and wear their clean, good-looking and newer clothes for their free time, going to the market, meeting others etc. I mean ... I do that too ^^ Yes, that shirt is washed out and it's got holes under the armpits and somesuch. Throw it away? No?! It's still perfectly comfy for when I need to clean my home, paint the walls, put together something from IKEA, or doing sports.

I'm reading Emily Wilson's new translation of the Odyssey. There are multiple mentions of bathing and grooming.

🤣 the thumbnail with a filthy peasant Metatron at the center is hilarious

Thank you. It's videos like this that help me to contextualize every day life in the past and think of these people as actual, real people, rather than vague abstractions :)

It's common sense they washed and had a level of hygiene. You'd have to be a fool to assume people didn't know how to wash their asses 😂.

Man, I really like Metatrons videos. I have been turned on to so many different topics that I knew nothing about before seeing them highlighted on his channel. I sincerely hope he continues his channel for a long time to come

When I was a child in the fifties, it was common to take clothing to an artisan mender. These were usually women working from home, mending everything from nylon stockings to men's suits, jackets. They used to take these from the hem and work it over the hole. When they had completed their work, there was no way of telling where the mend was. I miss those menders.

I was born in 1947 and I can tell you from experience that even with all the advantages of then 'modern civilization', by the standards of today, most people were filthy. Because open fires were virtually the only form of heating, we were all covered in a fine layer of soot. Almost everyone smoked cigarettes or a pipe, every public room was wreathed in smoke that sometimes obscured one end from the other, shirts, underclothes and bedding were washed at best once a week and heavier clothing like trousers and jackets, very rarely indeed. Poorer households didn't bother since they often only had one set of clothes. Workmen worked in their everyday clothes, whatever the job and would be stained and crusted with whatever the filth of choice was for their profession. Children literally played in the gutters or ran wild in the surrounding woods and fields where they would inevitably cover themselves in dirt sitting to play marbles or 'scrapping' with each other, even the girls. And when it came to bathing, once a week was something of a luxury and the bath water would end up with a floating scum on the surface that stuck to the bath sides and required vigorous application of abrasive powders containing bleach to remove it. I won't turn your stomachs with some of the more revolting bodily consequences of such a life - but I promise you, I could make you barf for the Olympics. In the middle ages I can only guess how it must have been. At least we didn't have to share the house with livestock just to keep warm.

The reason why the teeth in the medieval times were so bad is because we usually imagine the medieval ages with the British :P

8:39 in the academic book Medevil Prostitution, it's discussed that larger towns and the cities in Medevil France had many communal bath houses, some of which were actual bath houses and some of which had a dual purpose

I recently read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and in it there is a chapter where a group of monks are forbidden to bathe. I had no idea this was an actual historical exaggeration.

Excellent video, well researched and well presented.

Love this video! This stuff really needs to be said, as the misconceptions this video address are almost always commonplace in today's society. I very much appreciate this video and your work, keep it coming mate! :)

I'm reminded of the series Tudor Farm where historian Ruth Goodman explained how Tudor era farmers would have kept themselves and their environment clean and sanitised in some cases (like the dairy).

A marvellous presentation, well grounded in research.

The thumbnail confirms that Metatron would fit perfectly into the background of Life of Brian.

This is finally covered

"He who wishes to drink must first finish what is in his mouth", gosh I know some people who don't do this when they're eating and it makes my skin crawl.

"People always instinctively tried to keep clean." The most important thing you could have said.

I've felt disconnected with your content for a while, really enjoyed this one though

NPCs in Kingdom Come deliverance when i do not take a bath: "you smell like a beggars armpit!" people in medieval movies: "i like the smell of shit in the morning"

I’m addicted to this channel. So many historical knowledge. I love it!

I REALLY love the editing and presentation of this video! Amazing job, Sir!

It’s funny that in Lord of the Rings the characters are shown having clearly been groomed and washed. And they get dirty on the trail but when they find somewhere secure like an Inn or Rivendale, the next time you see them they appear bathed and groomed, and they actually take their armor off when not in battle. It’s funny that a fantasy series gets that right but something meant to be “historical” always shows people in disgusting cesspits of mud and filth, and knights who apparently sleep in their armor even when in peace time.

Also Charlemagne’s biographer, Einhard, specifically mentions that one of Charlemagne’s favourite activities was bathing Charlemagne, so Einhard says, “used to invite not only his sons to the bath, but also his leading men and friends and sometimes even a crowd of his attendants (satellites) and bodyguards, so that sometimes a hundred men or more bathed together.”

Hahaha! The thumbnail is pretty funny. And the vid is super informative and interesting too. Thanks for making historical topics fun

So appreciate your factual view of History, and your common-sense approach making it so relatable! I'm a history major and kudos too what you're doing. Teaching history is all about research, research, research. You have definitely done that and more. Thanks for all the good work!

Ser Duncan the Tall, a character created by George R. R. Martin, is fond of having baths or make do with a river. A very clean knight!

Very well debunked Metatron! Really interesting and entertaining video!

Extremely informative video . Keep it coming please . You never dissapoint.

Congrats with such a sponsor and thank you for yet another awesome video