Good Queen Bess's bathing habits

In fact, i was referring to the exhaustive studies of manorial records made by the French. I got those materials at the library of the University of Illinois, many years ago. I doubt that i have anything around the house, but i'll look.

I offered Churchill's comment about bathing simply for its ironic value. I also do not have a copy of Churchill's four volume biography of his celebrated ancestor to which i can refer. I might be able to dig out the Washington reference. Basically, both men issued instructions to their officers not to allow the men to spend very long bathing in rivers and streams, and to allow it only occassionally, and in organized parties.

John Churchill certainly always had his logistical ducks in a row. Getting the men's linen done, however, was not a priority for the forces actually campaigning in the field--it helps to remember that three of every five soldiers in the coalition were in garrison. When it could be accomplished in the field, it was done. It had no reference to cleanliness, however, in my estimation. Before battle, the men blacked their boots and all equipment and appurtenances made of leather, and they coated canvas straps and appurtenances with white "pipe" clay. The entire purpose was show--appearances.

I've heard about Churchill's bathing habits in an entirely different context: commentary on his industry and how he managed to complete so many projects.

The peasants very often received hand-me-down clothes from the manor houses during the Middle Ages. I'm not certain about the summary baths but, consider that most of the year, it had to be too cold in central to northern Europe to bathe. Most bathing had to be done in streams and rivers to avoid carrying that much water. However, isn't there some artistic representation of laundrying? There are carvings of peasants doing various chores, like winnowing grain and ploughing fields.

Well, actually there have been piblic "bath rooms" all over Northern Europe during the Middle Ages - since the first crusades - in towns, greater villages and (nearly) all manor houses.

This was stopped/stopped, when the plague arrived



In my native town, one of the (open) sources was used
a) to supply the water for the town's bath 'house' (13th/14th century, in the local hospital)
b) as 'washing room' - from about the same period until the about 1955.
(Only written sources about that - no carvings or similar)

It is also worth noting that the Hanoverian minister accredited to Petr Alexeevitch in St. Petersburg wrote a very long passage in one of his reports on the "barbaric" practice of weekly bathing by the Russians, at all levels of society . . .