What Was Life Really Like for Nobles in Medieval Castles?

PART 2:

 The problem  was not a lack of willingness to clean  the dirt, but the technology available  at the time. Every bucket of water had  to be lifted from the well and then  physically carried into the building.  Every container, after washing, had to  be carried out and emptied manually by  someone after the procedure.

 Some  wealthy castles had cold water supply  systems that were surprisingly advanced  for their time. At Conisbrough,  rainwater reached the washbasins in the  owners ‘rooms inside the keep. In the  palace of Wulfsi, there was one of the  first known medieval piped water supply  systems.

 However, such solutions were a  technological luxury, not a common  faucet next to every bed. In most cases , servants brought water for washing  from a well or a cistern on the  premises. Before eating, washing hands  was an important ritual among the  wealthy before a shared meal. In the  Scottish castle of Urquhart, an  expensive pitcher was found, used along  with a hand basin.

 There was also a  full bathtub, so the claim that  medieval nobility never bathed is  incorrect. A wealthy family could set  up a wooden tub and fill it with hot  water in their private quarters. For a  full bath, servants brought water,  heated it over a fire, and filled the  tub. After bathing, the same heavy  water had to be carried out of the room  after the procedure.

 Therefore, bathing  was a much more laborious process than  the modern 10-minute shower at home.  Soap in medieval Europe also existed  and was sold as an artisanal product in  trade cities. They were made from fats  and alkaline components obtained from  the treatment of wood ash. More  expensive varieties could have aromatic  herbs added to improve the scent during  washing.

 Hair was styled with combs,  and wealthy individuals could use more  sophisticated care products. The point  is simple. People tried to stay clean,  but cleanliness required a great deal  of daily effort. Public baths existed  in cities, so the idea of bathing was  not at all strange in medieval times.  From here, we move on to what was  literally felt on the skin every cold  winter night.

 It was difficult to heat  a classic stone castle in winter, even  with a large amount of firewood. The  thick walls maintained their strength  but became a huge, cold mass around the  person. Windows were small for a long  time, and early open fires used heat  very inefficiently in the wings. Later,  individual fireplaces made noble rooms  much more comfortable than the cold  great hall.

 But a fireplace warms the  person nearby very well, and the huge  volume of the room much worse. That is  why the most important rooms were made  cozier than the gala chambers for the  large family. Walls were covered with  heavy fabrics and tapestries, which  reduced the feeling of cold stone  nearby. The tapestry was not only a  status symbol but also an extra layer  of insulation in cold rooms.

 In bed,  mattresses, blankets, spreads, and  expensive fabrics available to the  wealthy owner were used for sleeping.  The bed might have been luxurious, but  the air around it remained cold in  winter. Particularly annoying were the  drafts passing through doors, windows,  and large interior spaces. Wooden  screens in large rooms helped to reduce  the movement of cold air, at least  partially.

 In truly harsh weather,  people wore more wool clothing, even  inside their homes. Servants watched  the fire, brought fuel, and maintained  the fireplaces in the necessary rooms.  Therefore, a rich man’s winter warmth  depended on other people and the amount  of fuel. If the owner left, part of the  huge castle might not be heated  constantly in winter.

 This saved  firewood and showed the true purpose of  the enormous medieval fortress during  the winter. The castle was not just a  home, but an administrative center, a  warehouse, a fortress, and a symbol of  power. Comfort, therefore, constantly  competed with security, prestige, and  the military solidity of the  construction itself.

 The warmest,  smallest room could be more pleasant  than a huge hall with impressive stone  vaults. However, it was precisely in  the great hall where what best  demonstrated the owner’s wealth took  place. The medieval nobility could  truly eat much better than the majority  of the rural population that surrounded  them.

 The Goodrich archives detail the  incredible amounts of food at the  estate of Countess Joan de Valence.  During one of her stays, 81 pigs were  slaughtered in advance and a large  amount of bread was also baked. Her  household could count nearly 200 people , including both guests and servants.  In the kitchen, they were preparing  beef, pork, lamb, venison, rabbits, and  a variety of poultry.

 Peacocks, swans,  larks, and other unusual birds that are  quite rare nowadays even appeared on  the table. Fish played a huge role due  to the numerous religious days of  abstinence from meat. In 3 months, the  Goodrich kitchen could use around  24,000 herrings for the massive court.  Wealth was also shown through expensive  imported spices that were used in  complex aromatic sauces.

 But the main  problem of this luxurious kitchen began  right after buying provisions for many  weeks. There were no refrigerators, so  fresh food had a very limited safe  storage time. In winter, the cold  helped, but the variety of fresh  produce decreased notably by season.  Meat and fish were salted, dried, and  prepared in other ways for long-term  storage without a fridge.

 Pantries were  filled with barrels, sacks, bread,  grain, fat, and diverse food provisions  for the winter. Precisely these  reserves inevitably attracted mice,  rats, and other undesirable animals to  the facilities. Cats therefore had a  completely practical value, helping to  control the number of small rodents.  This does not mean that every castle  was always full of rats in every room,  but completely isolating a large  medieval estate from pests was  significantly more difficult than today . Pantries tried to stay sealed and

 cats became part of the protection of  supplies against rodents. Grain had to  be protected from moisture, insects,  and animals without airtight plastic  packaging. Meat could spoil and storage  errors could not be verified by  laboratory analysis. Therefore, the  best table of the era remained limited  by the knowledge and technology of its  time.

 The kitchen itself was a hot,  noisy, and quite harsh workplace for  the servants. Large hearths were used  to roast meat, while heavy cauldrons  boiled and ovens operated nearby. A  person could spend hours turning the  spit by the burning fire and the  dripping fat. The rendered fat was  collected, and some of it could even be  used to make homemade candles.

 Chef  Goodrich was responsible for preparing  two large meals for the huge estate  every day. The main meal could last for  hours and simultaneously showcased the  social hierarchy of the entire house.  The hosts and important guests sat at  the high table, furthest from the  kitchen, by strict status.

 Others sat  in lower-status spots, so even their  seat at the table showed a person’s  rank. They washed their hands before  eating, but the kitchen itself  functioned without modern sanitary  infrastructure. There, they skinned  carcasses, stored produce, worked with  open fires, and generated a great deal  of waste.

 Bones, ashes, fat, and  spoiled leftovers required regular  cleaning and removal from the courtyard . The more people came to see the Lord,  the faster the burden on the castle’s  economy grew. And here you understand  why the medieval castle was literally  filled with people providing service.  In the house of Joan of Valencia, at  Goodrich, there were nearly 100  servants, both permanent and transient.

 Among them were managers, cooks, stable  hands, chamber servants, and numerous  lower-ranking court workers. One person  handled the drinks, another tended the  horses, and a third managed the large  kitchen. The lowest jobs could mean  spending all day by the fire or  cleaning up human waste.

 In summer, a  common servant started working at about  5:30 in the morning. The workday  sometimes stretched into the night  because housework was barely mechanized . Servants turned the cold stone  fortress into a relatively comfortable  home for the owner. Some hauled water,  others firewood, while others washed,  cooked, and cleaned rooms throughout  the house.

 Someone looked after the  Lord of the Castle’s clothes, weapons,  horses, and valuables every day. Others  guarded the gates and the safety and  security of the entire complex  throughout the night. For a simple  employee, the castle was not a  luxurious home, but an enormous  workplace. Lower-ranking servants slept  wherever they could find free space  within the property after work.

 Higher-ranking servants might have  better rooms, but even they sometimes  shared beds. The owner himself received  separate quarters, a fireplace, a good  bed, and his own room for personal rest . In some castles, private chambers  also had washbasins and small rooms for  privacy, but the concept of privacy was  still different from the modern home of  a very wealthy person.

 Around the  person there were always servants,  family members, guards, guests, priests , and maintenance workers. Even getting  dressed in the morning for a person of  high status could happen with the help  of their personal servant. Isolation  was considered a privilege. However,  the system of living itself demanded  the constant presence of other people.

 Which of the following options would  you consider the worst in the comments?  A toilet on a wall, the cold, or the  lack of privacy. Even the expensive  bedroom was part of the house where  servants and other people were always  moving about. It is here that the dream  life in a castle starts to seem less  romantic to the modern viewer.

 But the  true line of wealth was not seen in the  bathroom, nor was it even noticed in  winter. It appeared when a person  contracted a serious infection or  suffered a severe injury after a common  wound. Medieval medicine had doctors,  medicines, surgical skills, and  accumulated observations about the body .

 However, it did not know about  bacteria, antibiotics, modern  anesthesia, or the principles of  sterile surgery. An infected wound,  therefore, could be fatal even for a  person with an immense fortune. Nor was  it possible to treat a decayed tooth as  safely and predictably as with modern  methods. Childbirth remained a serious  risk for women, regardless of their  position in society.

 Good food and care  gave the nobility an advantage, but  they did not eliminate biological  threats. An epidemic could penetrate  the castle along with people, animals,  goods, or contaminated water. Not even  good personal hygiene replaced  understanding how many dangerous  diseases were transmitted within the  fortress.

 During a siege, the sanitary  situation worsened, as more people  crowded inside, water and food supplies  dwindled, while waste and disease  increased internal pressure. During the  famous siege of Kenilworth, hunger and  dysentery weakened the defenders inside  the fortress. Thus, a fortress capable  of resisting stones from siege engines  could lose to a human intestinal  disease.

 This shows very precisely the  limit of medieval military and domestic  technology. At the same time, a stone  wall could stop an army, but it could  not stop an invisible infection during  a siege. Therefore, wealth made life  much more comfortable, but it never  made a person invulnerable. A medieval  lord ate meat more often, slept more  comfortably, and received more warmth  from the fireplace.

 He could order  others to fetch water, clean the  bathroom, and keep the fire going in  every room. He could have a private  bath, expensive tableware, and dozens  of people around at a moment’s notice,  but his toilet always ended up being a  hole in the wall, a pit, or an exterior  chute.

 His food still depended on salt,  the cold, the pantry, and proper  storage of supplies. Regardless, his  castle still smelled of smoke, animals,  the kitchen, dampness, and, in short,  human life every night. His bed might  have been luxurious, but the stone  around him remained cold all winter  long. His servants could clean up the  filth, but they couldn’t create a  modern sewage system out of thin air.

 That is why comparing medieval nobility  to today’s billionaires is quite absurd  from a technological standpoint. By the  standards of his society, the lord  lived fantastically rich and possessed  a huge amount of resources. By our  standards of living, many of his daily  conditions would seem extremely  difficult to us.

 The main luxury did  not lie in things, but in the ability  to constantly utilize the labor of  others. Man replaced plumbing, heating,  the washing machine, housekeeping, and  various household appliances. The  richer the owner, the more people  manually created a sense of comfort  around him. The difference between us  and a medieval lord shows how many  everyday problems infrastructure solves  today.

 The medieval castle protected  the nobility from enemies much better  than from their own daily reality.