Why did Queen Elizabeth I have a bath only once a year?

Question

and don't say it's because of the year because even over 1000 years before her people washed

Answer 1

cause she was durty

Answer 2

i'm not too sure she bathed only once a year but a lot of others did. bathtubs weren't around. sanitary conditions were a lot different than today & things were done (or not done) that would astound the average person today. there were no toothbrushes, tooth paste & bars of soap were made of animal fat. sanitary napkins & toilet paper weren't invented, and the list goes on. in the earliest times, to be clean & washing every day were associated with rome & those godless romans of 500 years before, so anything smacking of their culture was considered a no-no. in their anti-roman zeal, they literally threw the baby out with the bath water. all things clean & sanitary (the romans were fastidious about health) were avoided. the kings & queens were no better than their subjects. in fact, if she did bathe once a year, they probably bathed once in every two years or more. the water wasn't inside. no hot water other than what was heated, no heating inside, and i'm totally sure no cleaning was done during the cold winter months. bad time for people & good time for germs.

Answer 3

She bathed every few weeks or so, which was a lot more frequent than even her nobles let alone her people did - baths were considered a luxury by Elizabethan people. It took a lot of effort to bathe, you would have to draw the water from a well or a pump (and water is heavy), the water would then have to be heated and then brought to wherever the bath was. The Queen was quite particular about her personal hygeine however, she would never have anyone around her who smelled.

Even until the 1960s it was still quite common for British people to only bathe around once a week (on bath night) because hot water wasn't often on tap and had to be heated on the fire - though they would still wash every day.

Answer 4

It was not fashionable for the Tudors to bathe regularly. It was quite out of keeping for someone to take a bath once a year as Elizabeth I did!

Most people did not change or wash their clothes regularly either. It was common practice to wear the same clothing day in and day out (even at night).

To try to disguise the smell of stale body odour they would hang herbs in the rooms they lived in.

Answer 5

Rome is undoubtedly one the absolute most wonderful towns in the world; each year an incredible number of tourists originate from around the globe to admire the secrets and projects of Roman artwork and architecture and to be one of them you will have to start with Hotelbye . One of the most popular of Rome's many sections is Piazza Navona. This place preserves the form of the Stadium of Domitian that after stood here. Piazza Navona was builted by Emperor Domitian in 86 AD and has three spectacular fountains.

Answer 6

That would have been disgusting, and it is completely not true!

The actual saying is that she "had a bath every month, whether she needed it or not".

So by the standards of her time, which are well described by a couple of the previous answerers above, she probably kept herself cleaner than most of her subjects and courtiers.

Answer 7

That was thought to be really clean! She probably washed her face and stuff often, but only had a proper bath once a year.

Answer 8

no this is not so - she actually had a bath every 3 months and was considered very clean because of this.

Answer 9

The French had a ban on Perrier water and it was hard to find in England.

Answer 10

English custom

Answer 11

Oh gosh, it was once a month. after her period. I don't know where the once a year came from