![]() ![]() The church tried to curb these conflicts, because frankly, they were nasty and threatened the stability of everything. These "wars" were less Braveheart-style epic battles and more knights rolling up into villages and slaughtering everybody. Toward the 11th century, many of the local lords started bickering over who would get a slice of the Holy Roman pie that Charlemagne baked, and the knights were at the forefront of these petty wars. Most of these guys were relatively young and didn't have Call of Duty to satisfy their violent urges, so they tended to take it out on the local population. Remember, knights were professional warriors, and when there wasn't a war to fight, they had to find something to do with their war-boners. Suddenly, smart people were telling the previously washed masses that bathing was a surefire way to open your body's pores and invite in all the bad spirits or gremlins or whatever (they weren't too savvy on what caused illness back then). If only an act of God could change Europe's epic bathing culture, they got one - in the mid-14th century, the Black Death strolled up and kicked Europe right in the teeth with its pestilence boot. ![]() So why do we picture everyone as wallowing in their own filth back then? Well, things changed all at once. Medieval demand for soap (usually made from animal fats, with a variety of oils and salts added) was so great that by the 13th century, soap was being made on an almost industrial scale in Britain, Italy, Spain, and France. Meanwhile, not only was it common for medieval folk to wash their hands before and after eating, it was also customary to offer to bathe with guests when they entered your home, something The Man has repeatedly reminded us is no longer acceptable in modern society. ![]()
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