Famous royals, including Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, had poor hygiene habits and rarely bathed. Daily showers were not the norm until the late 19th century, and bathing was a difficult and time-consuming process. Some oddities of the royals include Queen Elizabeth I ordering gingerbread effigies and Mary, Queen of Scots bathing in white wine.
It might be nice to be the king, but if you lived before the days of indoor plumbing, it wouldn’t have been pleasant to be particularly close to the king — or the queen, for that matter. Despite their prestige, wealth and imaginative surroundings, some famous royals tended to skip an important part of their daily routine: the bathroom. Queen Elizabeth I of England, for example, famously claimed that she bathed once a month “whether she needed it or not.” James I, the king who succeeded her, hated washing and did not even wash his hands before eating. And it wasn’t just the British who refused to bathe. In Spain, Queen Isabella I reportedly bathed her only twice in her life: at her birth and just before her wedding. Of course, it’s important to remember that daily showers have only been the norm for a relatively short time, at least in part because toilet systems weren’t invented until the late 19th century. In the old days, if someone wanted a hot bath, an empty tub had to be dragged into a room and the water heated one bucket at a time. The bather should therefore do his best to get clean before the water gets cold.
Royal Oddity:
Queen Elizabeth I ordered gingerbread effigies made of foreign dignitaries who came to her residence.
King James I had an elephant as a pet; he kept it in St. James’s Park and gave it a gallon of wine every day in the winter.
Speaking of bathing habits, Mary, Queen of Scots reportedly enjoyed bathing in white wine because she believed it kept her complexion beautiful and glowing.
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