Was frequent bathing for personal hygiene in medieval Europe common or not?

Short Answer

In general, opportunities for bathing for personal hygiene existed in most areas of Europe for those who had the financial means, including monarchs, barons, knights, merchants, doctors, churchmen, and the wealthier farmers and artisans (and their families). In many urban areas, there were public bathhouses (though facilities varied enormously over time and from place to place). There is also evidence of private bathing, particularly amongst the wealthiest. Assessing the extent to which these opportunities were availed of is far more problematic; bathing habits varied over time and from region to region and depended on a host of factors (detailed below).

Unfortunately, we have very little evidence for the bathing habits of the poor. The idea that poor peasants smelled because they didn't wash comes from some contemporary writers (who tended to look down at peasants as inferiors anyway). Prejudice not withstanding, the general assumption among academics is that the rural poor in particular did not bathe frequently, especially in winter, as they generally would have lacked the means to do so. Daily partial bathing may have been widespread among the poor but we cannot even say this for certain.

In the very early medieval period, the use of public bathhouses declined in most regions of the former Roman empire but steadily re-emerged over the succeeding centuries. The Black Death put an end to that growth, but only temporarily as bathhouses regained their popularity in many areas in the 15th century. By the mid-16th century, though, many of the more disreputable places in England, France, Spain and parts of Germany (at least) had been closed, often to be replaced by more closely regulated establishments.

Details

That “the evidence we have on the topic seems to be contradictory” and “confusing” can be attributed to a number of factors, including:

• The failure of many online sources to clearly indicate that what they are writing about relates to a specific time period and / or a limited segment of the population and / or a limited geographical area. Basically, there’s a tendency to over-generalize when, in reality, the evidence suggests that people often had different bathing habits at different times in different regions.
• The, at times, lack of consensus among medieval writers as to the benefits and dangers of bathing. Also, bathing for the sick was sometimes recommended, sometimes not, this depending on the affliction.
• The difference between what was recommended and what people actually did. For example, bathing in warm water was discouraged by many writers of the mid and high medieval periods, but there is evidence that many people did not follow this advice, at least until the late medieval period.
• The extent to which people, as individuals, were influenced by arguments on the morality of bath houses, and the extent to which they may have preached one thing but practiced another.
• The variable amount and quality of the evidence we have, depending on time, region and for whom. On peasants, for example, none of literary evidence comes from peasants themselves. Also, evidence for the first 300 years of the medieval period is especially limited for most of Europe.
• Christian beliefs and practices were not uniform throughout Europe, and we also need to consider the Jewish diaspora, as well as Muslims in Spain.
• The different bathing habits of males and females of different ages.
• The immediate environment (e.g. ease of access to water), the climate and the season.

Given the points above, it is difficult to make generalizations about the entire period for the whole of Europe. However, there were two practices which were probably widespread for the entire medieval period: the washing of the hands before meals and the washing of the face in the morning. Academic sources have made other, more limited generalizations but often qualify these with words such as ‘probably’ and ‘perhaps’. Their observations are primarily based on:

• medieval chronicles which mention personal hygiene / bathing, usually in passing.
• medieval medical / health treatises
• various other documents, such as wills
• medieval art
• archaeological evidence

Aside from the already mentioned widespread practices of hand and face washing, the most common general narrative varies little from this (for the high and late middle ages):

Bathing habits varied tremendously in medieval Europe. Although the peasantry generally did not bathe very often, many Europeans did wash themselves regularly… In the 13th and 14th centuries wealthy people typically bathed once a week… Europeans kept their teeth clean by rubbing them with twigs or chalk.

Source: Amy Hackney Blackwell, ‘Adornment: Europe’. In Pam J. Crabtree (ed.) ‘Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Medieval World’

Similarly,

Medieval people did wash parts of their bodies with some regularity, but peasants were often criticized for excessive odors…. It also appears that medieval Europeans tried to clean their teeth; at least there are reports of people using woolen cloths and hazel twigs for this purpose.

Source: Jeremiah D. Hackett et al., ‘World Eras, vol. 4: Medieval Europe, 815 – 1350’ (2002)

Just as evident, though, are contrasting bathing practices. For example, in the British Isles,

Some Irish people during the early medieval period appear to have bathed and combed their hair daily. The Anglo-Saxon people of Britain did not bathe their whole bodies frequently, but they did wash their faces, hands, and feet daily, and many people owned their own wash basins

Source: Blackwell

An even greater contrast can be found in Spain. On the one hand,

The Arab commentator al-Himari described the residents of Galicia in northwestern Spain as formidable warriors who bathed but once a year and then in cold water.

Source: James F. Powers, ‘Frontier Municipal Baths and Social Interaction in Thirteenth-Century Spain’. In ‘The American Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Jun., 1979)’.

On the other hand,

In medieval Christian Spain, bath houses were integrated into the fabric of urban life, much as they were in al-Andalus. From the tenth century, it became normal to find bath houses in Christian cities, not only in areas that had once been in Muslim hands but also in regions that had continuously been under Christian control.

Source: Olivia Remie Constable, ‘Cleanliness and Convivencia: Jewish Bathing Culture in Medieval Spain’. In ‘Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times’

The popularity of bathhouses in Spain is evidenced by the considerable profits and tax revenues accrued, so much so that

Some cities enforced the general public use of bath houses, spurred by the revenues from rents, leases, fees, and other income generated by these urban facilities. In Tortosa, for instance, the Libre de les costumes generals (1279) stated that “the baths in which one pays, and which charge a fee for washing oneself, are for all of the people in Tortosa. All of the citizens and inhabitants of the city and its surroundings, including Muslims, Jews, as well as Christians . . . must pay the fees to bathe [here] and not in other bath houses.”

Source: Constable

Far to the north of Spain, in Iceland, archaeologists have found that some (but not all) farms had their own bathhouses, and other evidence on personal hygiene in Scandinavia also shows variations:

Viking-age Scandinavians' personal hygiene was probably low, at least by our modern Western standards—and also by medieval Muslim ones. Ibn Fadlan comments on the Rus's lack of sanitary efforts....drawing attention to the fact that they do not wash after urinating, defecating, ejaculating, or eating, and when once a day they do wash, they all use the same water, into which they also spit and blow their noses. It is, however, possible that within Scandinavia and in the Norse colonies in the North Atlantic people were a little more concerned about personal cleanliness. Indeed, the eddic poem Havamal (Sayings of the High One) tells that a guest should be greeted at the table with water and a towel, and it also specifies that a man should be washed before going to the assembly. Moreover, Old Norse-Icelandic literature regularly makes reference to saunas and hot baths in Norway and Iceland. In Eyrbyggja saga (Saga of the people of Eyri), the sauna at Hraun in Iceland is described as being partly dug into the ground and with a hole in the top for pouring water on the stove from the outside.

Source: Kirsten Wolf, ‘Daily Life of the Vikings’ (2004)

In eastern Europe, the first hot baths in Budapest were founded during the reign of King Stephen of Hungary (1015–27). In European Russia, where Ibn Fadlan was sent as an ambassador in 921-922, Islam played a key role in the spread of the use of baths:

The conversion of the Volga-Bulgars to Islam contributed to a strong cultural influence connected with the religion. Mosques and baths have been documented from the eleventh century, but certainly must have existed already shortly after the conversion in the 920s.

Source: Johan Callmer, ‘Urbanisation in Northern and Eastern Europe, ca. AD 700-1100’. In Joachim Henning (ed), ‘Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium, Vol. 1’

Evidence from France shows that, even in the early medieval period, the Merovingian elite visited baths, as did the later Carolingians. Also, despite what the church hierachy may have thought,

Sidonius Apollinaris, the late 5th-century bishop of Clermont, erected a luxurious villa complete with baths and a swimming pool.

Source: William W. Kibler et al., ‘Medieval France: an Encyclopedia’ (1995)

Charlemagne had a “predilection for steam baths” and bathed “with his courtiers and retainers, even bodyguards.” Further,

During the later Carolingian period, perhaps under Louis the Pious, a large bath was installed….”large enough to accommodate hundred”

Source: Herbert Schutz, ‘The Carolingians in Central Europe, 750 – 900’ (2004)

Moving forward a few hundred years,

Bathhouses, or “stews,” were popular enough to number at least twenty-six in Paris under Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223). Royal control was maintained by licensing, but it could extend further, as when Louis X (r. 1314–16) ordered new étuves [steam baths] built in Provins to keep up with the growing population.

Source: Schutz

Later,

There was a slow move towards the separation of the sexes in French baths during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with some towns adopting it up to a century later than others, but even then ‘it was never in practice universal’

Source: Virginia Smith, 'Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity' (2007)

By the early 15th century, diplomatic bath feasts were popular in France and surrounding regions. For example,

In 1446 the bathing arrangements in the Grand Palace of the duke of Burgundy, at Bruges, were overhauled and renewed for the wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York. Steam rooms and barber’s shops were provided for the duke and his guests, but the star attraction was a great bathing basin...

Source: Smith

Also,

The accounts of Philip the Good show how he used them to give important guests a good time. Throughout December 1462 the duke gave several banquets in the baths at his palace for most of the local nobility, including one for the ambassadors of the wealthy duke of Bavaria and the count of Wurttemburg, where he ‘had five meat dishes prepared to regale himself at the baths’. Philippe de Bourgogne hired both the bathhouse and its prostitutes at Valenciennes, ‘in honour of the English ambassador who was paying him a visit’

Source: Smith

and

Nor were noblewomen excluded: in 1476 a reception was given in Paris to Queen Charlotte of Savoy and her court, where ‘they were received and regaled most royally and lavishly, and four beautiful and richly adorned baths had been prepared’.

Source: Smith

In 15th century Krakow, the official capital of Poland until 1596, baths

were incredibly popular, with people going at least once a fortnight and often more frequently. Twelve public baths were eventually opened across the city with many more in people’s residences.

Source: Leslie Carr, ‘Waste Management in Medieval Krakow: 1257-1500’ (footnote 284)

The fact that bathhouses, along with breweries and private homes, were one of the three main sources of tax revenue from supplying water further attests to the popularity of bathhouses.

Others who may have had the opportunity to bathe more frequently than most were the inhabitants of monasteries, especially when there was running water, but there could also be restrictions:

...access to water made it easier for monks to take baths, although the Benedictine Rule limited full-immersion bathing to four times a year. Baths were considered a worldly luxury, and the rule tried to redirect the monks from worldly to spiritual concerns. For this reason, medieval monks enjoyed the benefits of running water less than aristocrats, who by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had apparently incorporated some of this technology into their structures and were enjoying the sanitary benefits.

Source: Hackett et al

Declines in the Use of Public Baths

There were declines in the use of bathhouses at various times and in various places in Europe, most notably around the time of the Black Death (though this was temporary and Cordoba in Spain was one notable exception), but also in Constantinople in the early medieval period:

Constantinople benefited from the quintessentially Roman urban amenity: a robust water supply that brought water from as far as 150 miles to feed underground sewers, fountains, massive cisterns, and baths. By the seventh century, however, most public baths had been shut down and turned to other uses.

Source: John Soderberg, ‘Cities: Europe’ In Crabtree (ed.)

Another clear trend emerged in the early to mid 16th century when the nature and popularity of public bathing in much of western Europe changed. In addition to Erasmus' observation in 1526 of the disappearance of bathhouses in Brabant,

In England, Henry VIII closed the stews of Southwark and Bankside in 1546; the brothels and stews of Chester were closed in 1542. In France the four steam baths at Dijon were suppressed in 1556; in 1566 they were closed throughout the Duchy of Orle´ans, while those at Beauvais, Angers, and Sens were gone by the end of the century. In Paris there were ‘only a handful by the end of the seventeenth century’.

The reasons for this are disputed; syphilis, increased costs, plagues, and increasingly lawlessness in these establishments have all been proposed. Religious figures also played their part, and the new bathhouses that were opened (e.g. by Henry VIII) were strictly regulated.

Public bathing, though, did not decline everywhere. For example, note this 17th century cleric’s eyewitness account of the Saturday bath from Basel in Switzerland (and note how it is family-oriented):

In the morning the bath-keeper gave a horn blow, that everything is ready. Then the members of the lower classes [and] polite citizens undressed in the house and walked naked across the public road to the bath-house . . . Yes, how often the father runs naked from the house with a single shirt together with his equally naked wife and naked children to the bath.

Cited in Smith

Other sources:

Jeffrey L. Forgen & Will McLean, - Daily Life in Chaucer’s England (2009)

Arrush Choudhary, ‘From the Light and into the Dark: The Transformation to the Early Middle Ages’ (Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal, vol. 10, 2015)

Joseph P. Byrne, ‘Daily Life during the Black Death’

Jeffrey L.Singman, 'Daily Life in Medieval Europe'

Luke Demaitre, 'Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing, from Head to Toe' (2013)

Luisa Cogliati Arano, 'The Medieval Health Handbook TACUINUM SANITATIS'