Mythbusting the Middle Ages: Archaeological Findings Show a Cleaner Reality Than You’d Expect!

The image of a dirty and disgusting Middle Ages still haunts popular representations. This persistent vision, widely relayed by culture and education, nevertheless rests on fragile foundations. Far from reflecting reality, it masks a practice of hygiene in the Middle Ages that was much more developed than we imagine, revealed little by little through excavations and forgotten texts.

The roots of a historical prejudice

In the collective imagination, medieval man remains associated with the image of Jacquouille la Fripouille, a filthy figure popularized by French cinema. This caricature actually has its roots well before “The Visitors”. It is anchored in the vision of the 19th century, where modern progress was opposed to so-called medieval barbarism. The historian Jules Michelet, in The Witch (1862), asserted that medieval religion “declared war on the flesh and cleanliness.” According to medievalist Danièle Alexandre-Bidon, this idea has lastingly shaped our perception, despite its lack of scientific foundation.

This prejudice was reinforced at a time when historical research had little interest in people's daily lives. 19th-century historians focused on battles and kings, neglecting material culture. It was not until the 1960s that archaeologists began to explore medieval hygiene paraphernalia, public baths and cleanliness practices. These discoveries revealed a world where cleanliness, far from being marginal, structured social and religious life.

Thus, as National Geographic reports, medieval hygiene was long “refuted without proof” by generations of historians. This simplification of the past, motivated by a desire for cultural distinction, eventually became an accepted truth. But today excavations, texts and reconstructions restore a very different reality. That of a clean society, attached to the purity of the body as well as that of the soul.

Hygiene in the Middle Ages, a practice anchored in daily life

Contrary to the image of a filthy people, the inhabitants of the Middle Ages paid close attention to their appearance and their health. Ouest France recalls that personal hygiene was a widespread habit among all social classes. Wash your hands before and after meals, your feet in the evening, and your face every morning. Babies were bathed several times a day, while women washed after childbirth to “regain their purity.”

Baths occupied a central place in medieval society. In large cities, each district had its bathing establishment, where people bathed for hygienic or medical purposes. The bath symbolized both the care of the body and the purification of the spirit. Medieval physicians, influenced by the theory of the four humors, recommended water to balance the body's hot, cold, dry and moist. This empirical knowledge linked cleanliness and health long before the discovery of microbes.

Toiletries also bear witness to this culture of care. Combs, tweezers, razors and small skewers for cleaning teeth were among the common possessions. In monasteries, the rules of Saint Benedict provided for regular ablutions and an annual full bath, not out of neglect, but to preserve spiritual and bodily purity. As Voxgallia points out, the Roman heritage of the thermal baths was largely preserved, adapted to Christian life and integrated into daily life.

Among the nobles, bathing became a social act. It preceded ceremonies, knightings or religious services. In more modest homes, laundry tubs served as improvised bathtubs. As for the peasants, they used soap plants collected from the banks of the rivers to wash themselves, proof that cleanliness remained a concern shared by all.

When fear of water set back cleanliness

It was only during the Renaissance that the relationship with water was radically transformed. With major epidemics, notably the plague, the belief took hold that baths opened the pores of the body and allowed miasmas carrying disease to penetrate. This reversal marked a turning point. Public baths, once popular, were gradually closed, accused of promoting contagion.

This fear marked a reversal effect. The more we sought to protect ourselves, the further we moved away from the water. The working classes abandoned the steam rooms due to lack of means or fear, while the elites retained their taste for perfume and clean linen. Hygiene persisted, but in another form. People now rubbed themselves with dry cloths and perfumed waters, a practice called “dry toilet”.

The paradox is striking. It was at a time when science was progressing that Europe lost confidence in basic cleanliness. This decline lasted until the 18th century, when the rediscovery of microbes and medical hygiene gave new meaning to water and soap.

Ultimately, medieval excavations and the studies of historians like Danièle Alexandre-Bidon have made it possible to rehabilitate an unjustly tarnished era. Hygiene in the Middle Ages now appears to be an essential link in the history of cleanliness, where health, religion and body culture mixed. Far from caricatures, this era lays the foundations of our modern practices, reminding us that cleanliness has never ceased to be a profoundly human quest.