What Hygiene Was Like at The Court of Versailles

King Louis XIV of France moved his royal court to Versailles

in 1982.

Though it had originally been a hunting lodge,

Louis expanded and remodeled Versailles

so that it became a glittering palace worthy of his status

as the Sun King.

French aristocrats were expected to live there as well.

But for the people who were actually there,

it was most memorable for something considerably less

opulent.

The stench.

So today we're going to take a look

at what hygiene was like at the court of Versailles.

But before we get started, be sure to subscribe

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And let us know in the comments below what

other French or hygiene related topics

you would like to hear about.

OK, watch your step Verailles hygiene is tres, tres mal.

Contrary to how most people view it today,

folks in the 17th century didn't see hot water baths

as a pleasurable indulgence or a hygienic necessity.

In fact, many of them believe that bathing in hot water

was actually bad for one's health.

According to historian Jules Harper,

the common belief was that warm water weakened the body

and widened the pores.

Thus, allowing diseases to enter.

People everywhere, not just in France,

found it much safer and better for the health

to have a quick wash than soaking in a tub.

King Louis himself was no exception.

In fact, historians believe the so-called Sun

King had only two baths over the course of his entire life.

Tres nasty.

Now that's not to say he never attended

to his personal hygiene, he is known

to have occasionally wiped himself down with the towel.

Scrubbed his body with perfume and alcohol.

And washed his hands every morning.

But sitting next to him at a dinner

wouldn't be too easy on the olfactory sense.

Now as we established, Louis XIV wasn't

too into bathing or showering.

So when he got sweaty, he, like your old college roommate,

would simply change his shirt.

Louis and his courtiers change shirts multiple times

per day, a move that signaled both their money and status.

However, though perfumes allowed users to mask unpleasant

smells, body odor was still a major problem.

Sadly for all involved, underarm deodorants

wouldn't be widely used until the 20th century.

In modern times, answering nature's call

is typically a pretty private experience.

But that wasn't always the case at Versailles.

Louis XIV, for example, often took meetings with visitors

while on the commode as did other members of his court.

Kind of gives a whole new meaning to doing your business.

Despite this unnecessary openness,

all inhabitants would have also had chamber pots or commodes

in their private rooms.

The higher ranking you were a court, the more likely

you would have been to have a small closet in your chambers

in which to do your business.

For those of you wondering, the first flush toilet

didn't arrive at Versailles until Louis XV, the sun King's

immediate successor, had one installed

for his personal use in 1738.

Though inhabitance had commodes and chamber

pots in their private living spaces,

Versailles had public use latrines.

But considering the sheer number of people on the estate,

the supply was, to say the least, woefully inadequate.

The combination of minimal toilets and high demand

meant the latrines were under a tremendous strain.

They often overflowed.

And sewage seeped through the walls and floors

into neighboring rooms.

Versailles had limited plumbing, which

meant that chamber pots were unceremoniously

dumped out the windows.

Passerby's would have to move with caution.

And as we covered in our video on hygiene

during the French Revolution, even Marie Antoinette

was said to have once been hit by flying waste.

Sacre-poo.

If the pots weren't dumped out the window,

they would have to be transported

to one of the nearby cesspools that collected waste.

Given the lack of adequate plumbing

and the density of people at the palace,

many courtiers answered nature's call whenever and wherever

it was most convenient.

Seeing someone in the act of relieving him

or herself wasn't an uncommon sight.

The Princess d'Harcourt, for one,

didn't think twice about urinating in public.

In 1702, German born Princess Elizabeth Charlotte

recoiled at the behavior she saw at the French court.

In her words, the people stationed

in the galleries in front of our rooms piss in all the corners.

It is impossible to leave one's apartment

without seeing someone peeing.

Louis XIV finally made a point of directing servants

to clean up the waste weekly.

By all accounts, the stench of Versailles

was horrendous and overpowering.

According to one eyewitness, the unpleasant odors in the park,

gardens, even the Chateau, could make a person literally gag.

The hallways, courtyards, and corridors

were full of urine and feces.

And the Avenue Saint-Cloud was covered with stagnant water

and dead cats.

So what did the courtiers do to counteract the stomach churning

smells that filled the air?

They attempted to cover it up.

Yes, most of the residents routinely

douse themselves with generous quantities of perfume.

As historian Alain Corbin put it,

to use excessive amounts of perfume was to protect oneself

and to purify the surrounding air.

But it was ultimately counterproductive.

The prevalence of perfumes only made things worse

since it added yet another fragrance to the already

unbearable stench.

Versailles was also a hotbed of liaisons amongst all classes.

After Louis XIV moved his court to the former hunting lodge,

workers and nobles alike descended on the town.

According to people who were there at the time,

the forest surrounding the palace grounds

became a kind of open air brothel

since sex workers could be solicited there.

In light of what he deemed to be the immoral licentiousness

of his court kingdom, Louis vigorously policed sex workers

and marked them as sinners.

However, contrary to Louise's public stances on morality,

he maintained numerous mistresses.

A political leaders saying one thing and doing the opposite?

That's hard to believe.

After a lifetime of dental problems,

Louis XIV was toothless by the time he passed in 1715.

His dental woes were bad, but they were far from unique.

Decadent treats made with refined sugar

began to be widely available in France in the 17th century.

French aristocrats, who were apparently

indifferent to the effects of poor dental care,

gobbled them up and it typically led to rotted teeth.

Despite, or perhaps because of the prevalence of rotten teeth,

having a good mouth was important to many couriers

at Versailles and their beauty ideals.

As described in the 17th century texts, the School of Venus,

a beautiful woman should have even and very white teeth.

Courtiers used various powders and mouthwashes

to give the appearance of healthy teeth.

Thanks in part to improvements in dentistry,

oral hygiene had become a mark of elegance

by the middle of the 18th century.

In an alleged bid to conceal his own thinning hair,

Louis XIV had been credited with helping

popularize those fancy wigs they used to wear in France.

But the wigs did more than just conceal male pattern baldness.

They protected against lice.

Well, sort of.

See, the lice oft infested off of them

instead of a person's scalp.

And boiling a lice covered wig was way easier than picking

lice out of a person's hair.

That being said, men typically shave their heads

in order to wear wigs.

And control lice.

While women by and large did not.

The hygienic conditions at Versailles also impacted food.

The plumbing problems, for example,

made life difficult for the palace cooks.

For example, on at least one occasion,

sewage seeped into Marie Antoinette's private kitchens

and poisoned everything.

Though hand washing was part of Louis XIV's dining ritual,

there was evidence that food was not always prepared or handled

properly.

As a result, intestinal parasites

lived within courtiers at Versailles.

Even the King wasn't spared.

And it is known that he had several bouts of tapeworm.

In fact, during one of those bouts,

Louis is said to have relieved himself

of a worm that was nearly six inches long.

Despite how famous it is today, Versailles was never really

an obvious location for a royal court.

Initially built as a hunting lodge,

it wasn't near flowing water which could whisk away waste.

Worse, the site was built on what one observer called

shifting sand and marsh.

So when Louis XIV decided to move his court there,

the already poor hygienic situation at Versailles

quickly deteriorated as more people descended on the space.

Making matters worse exponentially

was the fact that Louis generally stayed put

at Versailles rather than circulating

between multiple palaces as kings had previously done.

This put an impossible housekeeping burden

on the army of servants and caretakers

who simply couldn't keep up with the mountains of filth

and waste that courtiers produced.

Versailles was filthy.

But a great place if you happen to be a cat person.

In fact any visitor to Versailles

would have seen cats, both domestic and feral,

throughout the palace estate.

Some members of court brought their own pets,

and the heaps of food of waste attracted

rodents which in turn attracted the cats that hunted them.

Of course, the presence of so many cats

led to even more sanitation problems.

Feline droppings can be spotted all over the grounds.

Worse, the remains of deceased cats

could be found along the town's main thoroughfare.

The reddish purple brown color known as puce

got its name at Versailles.

Amusingly, thanks to a pest.

It happened in 1775 when Marie Antoinette

wore a gown in that color, prompting her husband

Louis XVI to compare the color to un puce, or a flea.

Despite the comparison, the color caught on.

In fact, According to the baroness d'Oberkirch,

every lady at court were a puce colored gown.

Old puce, young puce, ventre de puce, dos de puce, et cetera.

Puce wasn't the only color to get its name at Versailles.

After the birth of Louis XVI heir in 1781,

courtiers marked the occasion by wearing a new color.

They called it caca dauphin or douphin poop.

Because it was as brown as the infant's excrement.

And you thought comparing the color of a dress to a flea

was unflattering.

After Louis XIV passed in 1715, his five-year-old great

grandson inherited the throne as Louis XV.

Recognizing the unhygienic and generally stinky

state of the palace, Louis XV began

several renovation projects aimed

at cleaning things up a little.

Chief among them was seeing to it

that the sewage pipes were extended.

This put a greater distance between the palace

and its cesspools of human waste which, if nothing else,

had to be a good place to start.

So what do you think?

Would you have liked living at the court of Versailles?

Let us know in the comments below.

And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos

from our Weird History.