Now travel abroad has gradually become a fashion, many rich people to travel abroad will prefer Europe, in Europe, you can go to the romantic France, you can go to the gentleman's England, you can also go to the picturesque Switzerland...
Contemporary Europe has become synonymous with economic development, humanistic atmosphere and picturesque scenery. But before that, the development process in Europe was unusually slow, and the level of development was much lower than that of the mainland, especially in medieval Europe.
For many, medieval Europe was like a thick veil, full of mystery. Looking back at the aristocrats of medieval Europe, they did not bathe for months, and even the kings of Europe were full of parasites.
How terrible was Europe at that time? Let's move on.
The Black Death outbreak broke out in Europe
From the 5th century to the 15th century AD, it is an intermediate period in the division of the three traditions of European history, which is in the middle of the Middle Ages.
Let's talk about the shocking "Black Death" that broke out in Europe in the 14th century. In fact, the outbreak of this plague originated from a terrible plague. The outbreak of the plague killed nearly 1/3 of Europe's population at the time.
To put it bluntly, Europe at that time was simply a "hell on earth". Many Europeans, fleeing the rapid and menacing plague, would even spend months in sunless, food-starved cellars.
As for the cause of the outbreak of the plague, it is inseparable from the sanitary conditions and hygiene habits in Europe at that time. If the sanitary conditions in Europe at that time were put into the present, the designation would frighten the contemporary people.
You can also defecate on the street
At that time, Europe was full of garbage, the streets were potholed, dirty water flowed, people defecated in the corners of the streets, chickens, ducks, pigs and dogs ran all over the streets, and even in the daytime, people would shout and beat the street "rats". The living environment of ordinary people is like this.
After looking at the living environment of ordinary people in Europe at that time, we also look at what the living environment of the nobles and leaders at that time was, was it very different from that of ordinary people?
The local nobles, that is, the living environment is better than that of ordinary people, and they are really not much better than the people in terms of daily hygiene habits.
Not only did the nobles not bathe for months, but they didn't even bother to wash their clothes, and although they didn't usually defecate openly, the toilets they went to were not much better, and the lice on their bodies grabbed a lot, and in this regard, the king was no different from the nobles.
Renaissance France is in stark contrast to the romance and flowers that are everywhere in France now, and if you want to have a chance to communicate and communicate with the king, you need to smell the king's bare ass eggs, and it is best to show that you enjoy it...
In addition to this little strange exquisiteness, there are many more requirements that are unbearable.
The criterion for comparing the wealth among the nobles is to see how many chariots and horses belong to their own names, and in addition to this, another criterion for measuring the wealthiness of the nobles is the number of urinal pots.
The nobles not only collected and made a large number of urinal pots, taking these urine pots as their own collections, but also spent real money and silver to find craftsmen to create urine pots, and these real gold and silver urine pots can become a symbol of the status and wealth of the nobles.
However, such a valuable potty, in our eyes, is a treasure of gold and silver, and it will certainly be carefully treasured. However, at that time, some aristocratic people really used it for convenience, and there were a few nobles who did not have gold and silver potties to go to the toilet.
Because of the long time without bathing or washing clothes, many of the clothes on the body of Europeans in that era were stained with a large number of stains, and some serious dirty clothes were even stained with edges and angles, which is now an incredible situation at that time.
So, were there any people who didn't bathe for life? Yes. Legend has it that the famous Louis XIV bathed only twice in his lifetime, and his spouse was in a commensurate with his situation. If Louis XIV is still like this, then ordinary people need not say more.
But having said all that, why is the health situation of Europeans so poor?
Why haven't you bathed for 50 years?
There are two main reasons why the health situation in Europe is so dire. One of the reasons is that the objective material basis is not up to standard; The second reason for this is the influence of the ideology and concepts of the time.
At that time, Europe was not only not synonymous with the developed countries of the world, but the degree of development there could be said to be very low, compared with the mainland at the same time, the development gap between them and us was one hundred and eighteen thousand miles, and poverty and backwardness made bathing difficult.
In addition to the objective reasons caused by economic conditions and the low degree of development, subjective ideas and concepts were also an important factor hindering the lack of hygiene of medieval Europeans, and this reason was more influential than the first reason.
The Catholic Church in Europe believes that people must believe in God in life, and the dirtiness of the body can highlight the simple soul. It is understandable that the dirtier their bodies are, the more they will be able to get closer to God spiritually and receive God's care.
Under the domination of this kind of thinking, more and more people do not bathe, and they compare themselves to the dirtiness of the body. Many people who have not bathed for many years are defined as "saint groups".
The more typical figure is St. Abraham, who has a stubborn personality and is very Catholic, and at his insistence, he has not taken a bath for 50 years and has successfully been promoted to "saint".
Another man named St. Simon became inflamed by an infection in his body wound and eventually festered and maggots, but he insisted on not cleaning the wounds so as not to defile his "Eucharist" and eventually died tragically.
There are many similar examples, and it is understandable that ordinary people do not have bathing conditions, and these people like the above are noble people, who although they have good bathing conditions, they are subject to the shackles of the soul.
In fact, there is also a small opinion in the explanation of the reasons why medieval Europeans do not pay attention to hygiene and do not like to bathe, that is, many people at that time believed that the spread of plague and disease was through the pores, and bathing would be sutong pores, so they refused to bathe.
However, things have two sides, at that time Europeans did not like to bathe is true, but because the smell of the body is too large, so they actively look for good spices, use spices to cover up the odor of the body, in the long run, the European perfume market will also open.
epilogue
This quirk of the Europeans was one of the important causes of the outbreak of the plague, and looking back on that period of history is not only frightening, but also ridiculous. However, it was precisely the ravages of quirks at that time that made the current European perfumes popular all over the world and favored by consumers.