The Odoriferous Castles of the Middle Ages

This paper should not be read while eating because it stinks. Castles have always brought to mind a romantic vision of life in the Middle Ages: Kings and Queens, knights fighting for honor, and damsels in distress. The real view of the castle includes cisterns, filthy moats, lack of personal hygiene, poor food preservation, and inadequate garbage disposal. Castles were originally designed as defensive structures but were also offensive to the nose.

Castle life in the middle ages, according to Eva March Tappan, was centered in the great hall (87). Halls came in many sizes depending on the wealth of their owners. The character of the hall did not change no matter what its size. All halls had fireplaces. They were in the center of the hall at first (87). Raymond Rudorff reports that originally everyone ate and slept in the great hall. (83).

The hall changed over time Tappan states ( 76). At first it was a room where meals were cooked on stones in the center and the smoke had to find its own way out through a hole in the roof. Eventually they built tall towers and fireplaces had flues (76).

The fireplace was usually a centrally located hearth without a chimney, asserts W. Douglas Simpson (21). The smoke would swirl around the great hall finally escaping through a slat in the roof (21). Frances and Joseph Gies explain this arrangement as, "a lantern-like structure in the roof with sides that were covered with sloping boards to exclude rain and snow, and that could be closed by pulling strings, like venetian blinds, louvers were built to revolve according to the direction of the wind (63)."

As Jay Williams speculates, when the weather was bad it was probably hard to breathe in the hall because it was filled with people and dogs and a fire in the fireplace mixed with the smoke of the lamps and smells of rich food cooking (73). However, Paul Murray Kendall asserts that, "Conservatives declared smoke to be medicinal" in the many castles where the great hall was kept warm by a smoky central hearth (81).

Comfort was not an issue, Norah Lofts speculates, until the end of the middle ages. "It must have been as cold, damp, and smoky as the homes of the villagers but the building would have been stronger and more spacious (11)." "The castles were cold and drafty," Sidney Painter agrees (30). "If a castle was of wood, you had no fire, and if a stone castle allowed you to have one, you smothered in the smoke (30)." Once people did not have to build castles primarily for defense, they could build them to be more practical to live in.

Late in the middle ages the central hearth was replaced by a fireplace in one of the side walls of the hall, report Gies and Gies (64). This was necessitated by the move of the great hall to the second floor it was impossible to put a central hearth on a wooden floor. They added a funnel-like hood to direct the smoke then eventually move the whole works within the wall itself (64). According to Kendall, "the new fashion of wall-chimneys spread fast in town and country in the late middle ages (81)." The fireplace was huge, reports William Stearns Davis, and stuck out into the great hall (37). It produced large fires which would burn hotly for many hours (37). The walls of the great hall turned black from the soot it produced (32).

The late middle ages also gave way to privacy and separate bed chambers first for the owner of the castle and his wife then later for all of the occupants of the castle. The stone walls were cold but fires in the bedroom were unheard of says Tappan (78). The rooms were dark because the windows would have to be huge to let in adequate sunshine through ten or fifteen foot walls (78). If the windows were large enough to allow for adequate light, then they could easily be entered by the enemy. When glass was not available windows were covered with cloth that was sometimes waxed to help keep the weather out. There were also shutters to help keep the cold air out and the warm, smoky air in. Both methods, of course, denied light to enter the room creating a need for an artificial light source. So they would use fire according to Williams (73). Some of the methods include torches on the walls and "bundles of tow" that were oil soaked. They emitted only a dim light but made quite a bit of smoke (73). Walter Buehr explains that the castle was filled with shadows after dark because of the use of smoky candles and torches (63). Kendall expounds, "oilburning lanterns provided portable illumination as well as the flickering, smoky flames of home-made rushlights (81)."

Candles for everyday use were made from animal fat usually sheep tallow states Fiona MacDonald (17). The good candles were made from bees wax. They made wicks from rushes or thread (17). Lofts explains that candlemaking was a long job (26). Linen threads were dipped into the mutton fat, removed, and allowed to cool. This was repeated until the candles were thick enough. Gravity kept the candles straight. Lofts goes on to say that no matter how good these candles were, they emitted an odor of fat being burned. Beeswax candles were reserved for churches and palaces (26).

Buehr proposes, "The Medieval great hall was a mixture of luxury and extreme discomfort (59)." It contained beautiful tapestries, stained-glass windows, and carvings while the floors were of stone which made the people's feet cold in the winter. They cut rushes from the swamp to cover the floor but they were often filthy from the scraps of food and bones tossed to the dogs. When the rushes were too dirty they would simply cover them with a new layer (60).

Tappan agrees, "The table linen was clean and plentiful; but the floor was covered with rushes, with bones and other refuse, and perhaps had not been swept for twenty years. A feast in a nobleman's castle was a grotesque medley of splendor and filth. (92)"

New rushes, scattered with flowers and herbs, were put on the floors on festival days, as Davis points out (37). When they were walked on they made sweet fragrances while fresh. During the winter they helped keep the cold floor from chilling people's feet. Even though cats and dogs roamed freely there was too much refuse in the rushes for them to keep up and the rushes would have to be replaced by the end of the winter (37).

Gies and Gies note that some of the herbs that were mixed in with the rushes include basil, camomile, cowslips, daisies, fennel, lavender, marjoram, mints, violets, and savory (60). They go on to say that when the rushes were replaced and the floor swept there would be "an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones spittle, excrement of dogs and cats and everything that is nasty (60)."

Food preparation, preservation, and disposal were considerable causes of offensive aromas. In the early middle ages all of the food was cooked on the fire in the central hearth in the great hall. When the fireplace was placed in the side of the room in the late middle ages, they still did some cooking there but soon found that the walls created an extra warmth and the oven was invented. Soon after, the food was cooked in a separate building because of the danger of fire, states Davis (28).

Kitchens became far away from the great hall of the castle, as the author of the book Medieval Castles points out, so food was warmed up in some castles in small rooms nearby (25). Through most of the middle ages, though, there was a considerable amount of cooking done in the castle itself.

Meat had to be preserved, reports Buehr, because there was no refrigeration (68). It still spoiled quickly so the cooks would hide the tainted flavor with spices and herbs (68). Preserving food was accomplished by smoking, salting, or drying it, says MacDonald (16). Meat was most easily preserved by keeping the animal alive until ready to eat it, observes Gies and Gies (112). There were two ways of salting the meat. One was dry-salting where salt was crushed to a powder and the meat was buried in it. The other method was brine-curing which meant the meat was soaked in a tub of salt water. Salted meat needed to be thoroughly washed before it could be cooked. (112)

Meat spoiled quickly even if it had been salted, reports Gwyneth Morgan (10). To restore meat that had gone bad, Lofts explains, sometimes they would wash it well with vinegar (24). If the meat had gone green it would be buried in the earth for a couple days before cooking it. Finally, spices were added to cover the taste of spoiled meat - especially pepper (24).

Strong vegetables (such as onions and garlic), spices, and herbs were used in cooking to hide the flavor of spoiled meat, states MacDonald (16). In the later middle ages, Jay reports, spices like cinnamon, ginger, and cloves were imported (74). Marjorie Rowling agrees that food was very heavily spiced (85). Some of the spices she claims were used include pepper, vinegar, garlic, mint, fennel, marjoram, sage, and parsley (85).

According to Lofts, the meat was cooked on a spit next to the fire. The drippings were caught in a pan below (25). They were used as a butter substitute on bread, to baste meats, given to the poor, or used in candle making (25).

Waste from the kitchens were sometimes dumped in rivers, contends J.H.B. Peel (62). The flies, rats, and roaches in the kitchen were taken for granted, Buehr maintains (60). The conditions with which food was prepared and eaten were very unsanitary to say the least. Rotten meat, combined with heavy spices, smoke from the burning logs, and dripping grease would have created very strong, unpleasant odors.

Another cause of malodors in the castles would be the people themselves. Personal hygiene was lacking in the middle ages creating unpleasant odors. When the Romans occupied England it was customary to bathe in a public bath. These baths were generally located in the center of the town and all of the citizens would spend time there bathing. This custom, however, was regarded by the Normans as licentious.

Norah Lofts, while commenting on the fact that many women of the Middle Ages began wearing perfumes imported from the East (58), writes, "In the middle ages sweet odours were certainly desirable; there were too many of the other kind. They were caused not only by the lack of sewers and drains but by bodies seldom or never completely washed," The Roman habit of daily bathing was considered sinful (59). A fastidious lady would take an occasional bath in her own home (60).

The Normans thought the Romans' use of public bathing was immoral and took a dim view of bathing at all. The book A History of Private Life further elaborates the point, "Bathing and grooming were regarded with suspicion by moralists. . . because they unveiled the attractions of the body. Bathing was said to be a prelude to sin (525)." It was rumored that while the Romans used the baths there were all manner of sexual encounters that would take place. After all, men and women were bathing together nude.

People bathed infrequently and not to the standards of today. Custom of the day dictated that the lord of the manor washed his face each morning and before each meal he would wash his hands, as Jay Williams explains (75). Bathing usually was not done more often than monthly. The rich used bath water scented by flowers. No one used soap because it was too strong and only used for the laundry (75).

The women did the laundry with soap that was made from animal fat, vegetable ash, and water according to the author of Medieval Castles (13). To take an oil or grease stain out of clothes, the author of A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century said that people heated urine until warm and soaked the spot for a couple days. If it did not work they added powdered ox gall to fresh urine and tried again (99). The primitive laundry methods including allowing clothes to soak in urine for days would only add to the many other bad smells of the castle.

Many castles were surrounded by a source of overwhelming stink the moat. Moats were not always kept clean causing a stench of their own. Moats were often standing water used to protect the castle. Standing water grows algae which emits a fetid odor. The moats were not kept clean purposefully because it was a deterrent to the enemy from swimming across. No one wants to share water with the carcasses of dead animals and garbage. Even castles that did not use the moat as a means of garbage disposal would still have a problem with contamination of the water by the accumulation of natural wastes like leaves and dirt. Without filtration and chlorine treatments standing water turns foul. Davis points out that the moat was muddy (28). And Peel, on the other hand, states that the toilet facilities of some castles emptied into the moat (62). Tappan tells of a moat that was around the city of London that was once so foul they had to charge a tax to get it cleaned out (220).

One of the sources of foulness mentioned in connection with moats was human excrement. David Macauley explains that castles had small rooms called garderobes where the toilet facilities were located (42). The people sat on a stone seat with an opening which allowed the waste to drop below. The garderobes built on the outer walls allowed the waste to drop outside the castle into the moat or a river, usually. The ones in the inner walls were usually located together with shafts that led to a cesspit, which needed to be regularly emptied out (43).

The garderobe was located near the bed chamber, according to Gies and Gies. Chamber pots were also used (71). Hay often served as toilet paper (73). Ideally, the garderobe was located in the thickness of the wall, perhaps in a buttress. When the walls were not thick enough, it was corbeled out from the wall over a moat or river with a long shaft reaching nearly to the ground (71). "This latter arrangement sometimes proved dangerous in siege, as at Chateau Gaillard, Richard the Lionhearted's castle on the Seine, where attackers obtained access by climbing up the latrine shaft (72)." To prevent an attack like this from happening, builders later used a masonry wall at the end of the shaft. Usually there were several latrines grouped together in a tower with a pit below. In some castles rainwater from gutters above or from a cistern or diverted kitchen drainage flushed the shaft (73)."

Traveling from one residence to another, Henry III sent ahead orders: "Since the privy chamber. . . in London is situated in an undue and improper place, wherefore it smells badly, we command you on the faith and love by which you are bounden to us that you in no wise omit to cause another privy chamber to be made . . . in such more fitting and proper place that you may select there, even though it should cost a hundred pounds, so that it may be made before the feast of the Translation of St. Edward, before we come thither." (73)

It seems that even Henry III considered the smells of the garderobe to offensive as anyone who has visited an outhouse can attest to. Imagine bringing the outhouse in and placing around the corner from your bedroom.

The upkeep of a castle, comments MacDonald, kept many people employed (15). They had to cut the rushes that covered the floors and preserve the food by salting it. The bed linens and wall tapestries needed to be shaken out once a week to get rid of lice, fleas, and dust. The most offensive job was emptying the lavatories, moats, and cisterns (15).

It might be argued that the occupants were used to the pervasive odors that surrounded them thus, the odor would not be considered offensive to them. According to Trygg Engen, there are many things that affect a persons' preference for odors. Some of these factors include the times, the culture the zeitgeist, as it were, and age of the person (134). Some people dislike the smell of manure while it does not bother others. No one likes the odor produced by lavatories or septic tanks (135). In homes the most malodorous things are perspiration and spoiled food (136).

The author of the Handbook of Perception explained that people get used to smells even ones they don't like through a process called habituation (287). This means that the more often one spends with an odor the less one is likely to notice it. Engen disagrees, "A stench might come to dominate and motivate all of a person's awareness (136)."

No matter what deterrences they may have attempted, the predisposition to offensive odors is overwhelming. The lack of proper hygiene and sewage systems alone would create a stench. Rancid meat, smoke filled rooms, rats, cats, dogs, decaying rushes and herbs, all surrounded by a moat of pungent excrement could hardly have created an odor that was able to be overlooked. As Simpson says, there was not much care taken with sanitation or cleanliness (21). If we were to visit back in time our first impression would be of stench, dampness, and cold (21). But as Williams writes, they blew their noses in their fingers, ate with their hands, and tossed the remains under the table (75). Perhaps they really did not mind the smell.