It's a popular misconception that the Tudors were unclean individuals, who wore flea ridden garments, that were caked in dirt and stunk to high heaven. This is quite simply not true. In social historian Ruth Goodman's book 'How to be a Tudor, A Dawn to Dusk Guide to Everyday Life' she mentions that it was considered to be socially unacceptable back then to '..stink like a beast..', especially if you wanted to lead a socially respectable life. How then did they keep the dirt at bay, and ensure they smelt sweet to their contemporaries, especially when they could wear many layers of clothing, and wore textiles that were difficult to clean such as silks, and wools?
The Tudors secret weapon in the fight against dirt and odour is linen fabric. Garments that were to touch your skin were made from this fabric in differing thickness/coarseness - the most finest of linens being 'Holland' or 'Lawn'. The reason for this was because linen was absorbent, meaning when you removed a linen layer from your body be it a coif, or shirt etc. you removed the layer of dirt, sweat and grease that had built up on your skin and had been absorbed by the linen touching it. Also linen could withstand being regularly washed. Most people had at least two linen shirts, the idea being that you could launder one, whilst wearing the other. So you had a clean shirt each day. The exceptionally wealthy sometimes changed their linen under garments as much as several times a day.
It should be noted that the exceptionally poor sometimes struggled to even obtain a linen undergarment to cloth themselves in due to the cost and required aid from charitable groups to be able to obtain one.
Without the use of modern day washing machines and tumble dryers, how were clothes cleaned back then? The below picture from the 'Splendour Solis' shows women laundering linens, with each working on a different stage of the cleaning process. The basic process is:
1. Water or a lye-water based solution was made, and is shown being heated over the fire in the below picture.
2. The linens were then soaked and moved around the lye solution. As shown by the lady with her hands in the wooden tub to the right of the fire. She could also use a wooden corrugated board to scrub the linens.
3. The linens would then be beaten, either against stones on the river bank or with a wooden washing bat/paddle. There are two women pictured with these wooden bats in their hands.
4. The linens would then be rinsed in a clean water source. In this case you can see a woman rinsing some linen in the the river.
5. The linens were stretched and hung out to dry, or laid out flat across the fields to dry and bleach in the sun.
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| Page detail from the 'Splendour Solis' created in Germany 1582. Image is copyright to the British Library. |
The whole process was quite laborious, and was entrusted to women only. So what sorts of stains were these women removing, and how did they achieve this? Aside from techniques and recipes passed around from women to women, and generation to generation. There were some manuals containing cleaning recipes/instructions which could be consulted.
In her paper entitled “Ye Shall Have It Cleane”: Textile Cleaning Techniques in Renaissance Europe' by clothing historian Drea Leed, she examines one such manual called the 'Nuremberg Kunstbuch', which was originally written for the sisters of St. Catherine's convent in Nuremburg, Germany. The paper contains the 12 original cleaning recipes in German and their translation into English. Some of the most interesting are below:
'How one gets dirt out of clothing.
xxii. Item if you want to get dirt out of fabric, take the yolk of an egg and beat it well and spread it on the spot and rub it in, until it goes through [the fabric]. Then spread it on the other side [of the fabric] and again rub it very well in; then let it dry, and take then good soap and a bit of water and wash it, and it will go away.'
'How one gets a spot out of clothing.
xxiii. Item to get a spot out of fabric, which is colored, take peas and boil them until the coating disappears, and with the same water wash it, and it will go out.'
'How one gets wagon grease out of clothes.
xxviii. Item if you want to get wagon grease out of clothing, take clay and put it in a pot and pour water thereon, and let it boil until it becomes like mud and paint it on the stain, but in such a way that it does not burn the cloth; and lay it in the hot sun until it becomes dry and then rub it out, and it [the stain] will go away.'
'How one restores green clothing, that is stained with wine etc.
xxix. Item if you want to restore green clothing, which is stained with wine, take fresh woad ashes and put them in a new basin and pour foul water thereon and let it stand half a day and take then the same solution and sprinkle the stain therewith and hang it up in the air, that the sun does not shine thereon, and let it dry, and it will be good.'
'How one shall wash an undergown.
xxxiii. If you want to wash an undergown, take three measures of ashes and put them in a great open vessel and pour first hot boiling water thereon and then cold water so that the vessel is full and let it become strong, and sieve it then through a cloth and dunk the gown therein and wash it when cool, otherwise it will be yellow, and rub it well with soap on the collar and the sleeves, and where it is sweaty. If you think that the lye solution is too strong, mix it well with water or pour more water on the ashes and mix it with the first.'
Overall, the nuns were cleaning clothes that had been soiled with wine, dirt, urine and wagon grease. It's not too much of a stretch to think that these were just some of the most common issues being tackled/cleaned by the laundresses of the time.
The clean linens would then have been stored away with some kind of sweet herb, lavender for example. Therefore, just from your clean linens you could smell quite sweet indeed.
Part two in the series will focus on how the Tudors bathed and groomed themselves to maintain good hygiene.
Sources consulted:
Goodman, R, How to be a Tudor, A Dawn to Dusk Guide to Everyday Life (UK, 2015)
British Library, Splendour Solis (Germany 1582), BL Harley 3469 f.32.v.
Leed, D, “Ye Shall Have It Cleane”: Textile Cleaning Techniques in Renaissance Europe' (Paper Undated)
