In England it was known to be unhealthy to bathe. Englishmen wore heavy perfumes to mask odors, and wore pomanders filled with perfume or spices at their waists. Elizabeth I would take a bath every six months, whether she needed it or not, which horrified her advisors, who knew she would sicken and die from the practice.

Well, the Germans looked at it a little differently, to say the least.

At the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire (RPFS), the military guild has long had a bathing tub in their environment, which the Landsknechts insist on porting along on every campaign.

"Cleanliness is next to godliness," the Chaplain is quoted as saying, and he can often be found in his tub.

It is very important to recreate the 16th century as exactly as we can, but in sometimes we really can't (or won't) completely relive everything we've learned in our research about the life and times of the 16th century.

From Sexual Life in England Past and Present, Ivan Bloch, 1996
From Chapter Five: The haunts of Prostitution:
"Conditions in Germany are described by Rudeck as follows: 'In the early morning the bath-keeper announced in the street , by blasts on a horn, that all was ready. People of the lower classes then undressed almost completely at home and wended their way through the streets to the bath house. Guarinonius says that well educated burghers and their wives stripped in their homes and walked naked through the public streets to the bath house. "How often indeed does the father run naked from the house through the streets to the bath with his naked wife and naked children? How often do I see(I do not name the town) young girls of 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old quite naked and with only a short linen bath robe, often torn, or as they say here in the country, with a 'Bath honour' as sole covering in front and round the shoulders! With this and bare feet, and one hand held behind for propriety, out of the house they go, through the long streets in broad daylight, running to the bath! How often do the stark naked 10, 12, 14 and 16 year old youths run by their side, accompanying these vagabonds." After this the last remnants of clothing are thrown off in the dressing room and the Turkish or water bath is entered stark naked."

The author's source is W. Rudeck, History of Public Morality in Germany, Jena, 1897.

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