A favorite Hollywood convention is to portray people in the Middle Ages as filthy. Mice run across dinner tables while dogs fight over bones at their feet. Noblemen wipe their mouths on their sleeves (or hair!), and toss the bones from their plates over their shoulders. The poor are consistently depicted in filthy (and usually ragged) clothing and mud encrusted boots. Yet the evidence we have from the Middle Ages belies this image. (1)
First, we should remember that although the "Middle Ages" started with the "fall" of Rome that refers to the political and military might of Rome not Roman civilization. The customs and habits of people across what had been the Roman Empire from Yorkshire to Palestine were not suddenly extinguished or forgotten simply because the political and military structures that had made it possible to rule an Empire from Rome were gone. Rome fell, Roman thought, customs and knowledge remained in the hearts and minds of people all across the former Empire. That culture included bathing .... (2)
Across the Christian Middle East, Cyprus, Sicily and Spain as well as in the Eastern Roman Empire, bathing and bath-houses remained a feature of daily life — even after Muslim conquests — just as it had been in Roman times. In the West, the situation was less clear cut because this is where the “barbarians” had the greatest impact. Nevertheless, we know from the rule of St. Caesarius, writing in the very start of the 6th century, that nuns and monks were expected to bathe regularly for hygienic purposes. Other texts recommend washing face and hands daily, as well as washing and brushing hair frequently, and keeping teeth "picked, cleansed, and brushed [sic!]" (Pernoud, Regine. Women in the Days of the Cathedrals. Ignatius Press, 1989, p. 84.) (3)
Furthermore, bathing and washing are referred to in romances and depicted in manuscript illustrations throughout the Middle Ages. Washing hands before meals was part of the ritual at every manor and castle as well as in monasteries and convents. Washing clothes was so important that washer women ― always identified as older, respectable women very different from prostitutes ― accompanied armies. Women washing and hanging out clothes to dry are also a motif in medieval manuscript illustrations (even if I couldn’t find an example in the public domain. Here’s another bathing scene instead.) (4)
By the 13th century, possibly as a result of renewed contact with the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire and with the Muslim world during the crusades, bathing became very popular and prominent. Not only did public bath houses become numerous, but wealthier citizens invested in elaborate baths which by the 15th century including hot-and-cold running water fed from roof-top tanks. The water from the baths, incidentally, was also reused to flush the garderobes (toilets). Edward III and his eldest son, the Black Prince, were very partial to this, while the Percy castle of Warkworth in Northumbria is an excellent example of using rainwater to flush toilets.
Even before that, the Franks in the Holy Land built aqueducts, bath-houses and sophisticated sewage systems. (See:
Hygiene in the Crusader Kingdoms) The royal palace at Nicosia had more than one bath. The commanderies/castles of the Templars and Hospitalles had baths. The hospitals had baths for the patients and the staff. There were many public baths in Jerusalem and other cities. (One of the largest baths in Jerusalem was located opposite the Convent of St. Anne’s pictured below.) The crusader states also produced and exported scented soaps.
