Pisscapades in the Royal Palace
Poll - Total Votes: 1
my own pristine closestool
a stinky latrine
a vessel carried by a personal servant
a vessel carried by any servant
into a vase or flower pot
into a fountain
under a stairwell
behind a curtain
against a curtain
some corner in a hallway
in the gardens
wherever I happen to be
into my expensive and impossible to clean breeches
other
You may vote on multiple answers, up to 3.
If you were a courtier living in 18th century Versailles, where would you do your business? Bucket carried by a piss page? Under a stairwell? Behind some bushes? Behind a curtain? Or elsewhere?
Pop history abounds in stories of unsanitary practices in Versailles, and to a lesser extent in other European palaces too. History teachers love to repeat them, serious historians hate them. It is true that our popular understanding of the pissing habits of the French royal court are based on just a few anecdotes, and also often on misinterpretation of facts. Oh, and by the way, I am going to focus strictly on urination here, and leave out defecation and personal hygiene.
The flushing toilet was still a relatively new invention and outrageously expensive. Versailles only had a couple of them, reserved for the highest nobility and honored guests. So where else could the numerous denizens of the palace as well as their visitors relieve themselves? The trusty old privy was still in use in Versailles, but people generally didn't like using them, and they certainly didn't like having them close to their living quarters, due to the stench. Those privies in Versailles also had a habit of becoming clogged, and the pipes often leaked, rendering them out of order. Then there were closestools - essentially commodes with a comfy seat and a chamberpot underneath the seat. Those had to be emptied and cleaned by hand by servants, but at least they weren't smelly. About 2000 closestools were counted when the revolutionaries took over the palace and started selling off its inventory. Since there had previously lived about 1,000 courtiers, we can assume that each one owned at least one such closestool. But what about the other inhabitants? The roughly 9,000 servants living in and around the palace surely didn't have such luxury available to them. And lastly, since Versailles was enormous, and people didn't always have the option of retreating to their chambers or to a privy, there were also servants carrying buckets, chamberpots and similar vessels, for a quick wee on the go.
So, things were far from perfect, but surely there were enough options for the inhabitants of the palace to relieve themselves in a proper manner, right? So there was none of that famous wild pissing going on then? Well, that's not the case either. It's easy enough to fill the palace with various vessels and contraptions to do your business in. Waste disposal, now THAT is the real problem. Toilets and latrines had to be serviced regularly, and everything else had to be emptied out by hand. The waste of thousands of people had to be carried and disposed off every day. 10,000 people + visitors. Grand festivities with lots of guests exacerbated things further. And finally, a flood of visitors came pouring into the areas that were open to the public every day. Now consider also that there was no river nearby to dump all the waste into. Versailles was in fact built on swampland. As you can imagine, bottlenecks in the toilet department were an ever-present problem.
And that's where all the fun anecdotes come in. Surely the gardens must have been the most frequently urinated in places in Versailles. But we hear more often tales of grand aristocrats and servants alike pissing under stairwells, behind curtains, or even right in the hallways.
The most famous and flagrant offender was the Princess d'Harcourt, who we are told simply pissed right where she stood or went, much to the anger and annoyance of the servants who had to clean up after her. A trail of urine could often be seen emerging from her gown as she walked the hallways of Versailles. She was never the least bit embarrassed. Quite the contrary. The dignity of her blood, in her opinion, was so great that it would actually be beneath her to stop and use a closestool. People were accustomed to her habit, but not pleased, especially if she left a mess in their homes.
One anecdote recounts some servant boys who peed in the courtyard, near the window of a specific courtier, and they kept doing it even after he yelled at him. Liselotte recounts that she kept seeing servants peeing in corners when she entered certain public rooms. Another anecdote recounts a man who gave up when the latrines were full and he absolutely had to go, so he peed in a stairwell.
Visitors standing in line especially were prone to relieving themselves where they were, not wanting to lose their spot in the line. At one point, the dauphin and dauphine were housed in apartments off of the major hallway, and a gate was put up around their door to ensure people would not use that area as their toilet.
As you can see from the anecdotes, Versailles wasn't just a free-for-all for wild pissing. It wasn't socially acceptable. And yet people kept doing it out of necessity or convenience. How often exactly we can't know.
One last anecdote concerns not urination itself, but the disposal thereof. Servants in the palace sometimes tossed the contents of their chamberpots out through the windows and into the courtyard, much like the people of the cities emptied their chamberpots out into the streets. In Versailles this wasn't supposed to be done, but some people still did it. Marie Antoinette was hit twice this way. After one of these incidents, a public notice reminded readers that throwing their waste out the windows was considered criminal.
I've added a poll for those people who don't like to leave comments, but please do tell us where or how you would have preferred to urinate the most in 18th century Versailles (or other palace).
Pop history abounds in stories of unsanitary practices in Versailles, and to a lesser extent in other European palaces too. History teachers love to repeat them, serious historians hate them. It is true that our popular understanding of the pissing habits of the French royal court are based on just a few anecdotes, and also often on misinterpretation of facts. Oh, and by the way, I am going to focus strictly on urination here, and leave out defecation and personal hygiene.
The flushing toilet was still a relatively new invention and outrageously expensive. Versailles only had a couple of them, reserved for the highest nobility and honored guests. So where else could the numerous denizens of the palace as well as their visitors relieve themselves? The trusty old privy was still in use in Versailles, but people generally didn't like using them, and they certainly didn't like having them close to their living quarters, due to the stench. Those privies in Versailles also had a habit of becoming clogged, and the pipes often leaked, rendering them out of order. Then there were closestools - essentially commodes with a comfy seat and a chamberpot underneath the seat. Those had to be emptied and cleaned by hand by servants, but at least they weren't smelly. About 2000 closestools were counted when the revolutionaries took over the palace and started selling off its inventory. Since there had previously lived about 1,000 courtiers, we can assume that each one owned at least one such closestool. But what about the other inhabitants? The roughly 9,000 servants living in and around the palace surely didn't have such luxury available to them. And lastly, since Versailles was enormous, and people didn't always have the option of retreating to their chambers or to a privy, there were also servants carrying buckets, chamberpots and similar vessels, for a quick wee on the go.
So, things were far from perfect, but surely there were enough options for the inhabitants of the palace to relieve themselves in a proper manner, right? So there was none of that famous wild pissing going on then? Well, that's not the case either. It's easy enough to fill the palace with various vessels and contraptions to do your business in. Waste disposal, now THAT is the real problem. Toilets and latrines had to be serviced regularly, and everything else had to be emptied out by hand. The waste of thousands of people had to be carried and disposed off every day. 10,000 people + visitors. Grand festivities with lots of guests exacerbated things further. And finally, a flood of visitors came pouring into the areas that were open to the public every day. Now consider also that there was no river nearby to dump all the waste into. Versailles was in fact built on swampland. As you can imagine, bottlenecks in the toilet department were an ever-present problem.
And that's where all the fun anecdotes come in. Surely the gardens must have been the most frequently urinated in places in Versailles. But we hear more often tales of grand aristocrats and servants alike pissing under stairwells, behind curtains, or even right in the hallways.
The most famous and flagrant offender was the Princess d'Harcourt, who we are told simply pissed right where she stood or went, much to the anger and annoyance of the servants who had to clean up after her. A trail of urine could often be seen emerging from her gown as she walked the hallways of Versailles. She was never the least bit embarrassed. Quite the contrary. The dignity of her blood, in her opinion, was so great that it would actually be beneath her to stop and use a closestool. People were accustomed to her habit, but not pleased, especially if she left a mess in their homes.
One anecdote recounts some servant boys who peed in the courtyard, near the window of a specific courtier, and they kept doing it even after he yelled at him. Liselotte recounts that she kept seeing servants peeing in corners when she entered certain public rooms. Another anecdote recounts a man who gave up when the latrines were full and he absolutely had to go, so he peed in a stairwell.
Visitors standing in line especially were prone to relieving themselves where they were, not wanting to lose their spot in the line. At one point, the dauphin and dauphine were housed in apartments off of the major hallway, and a gate was put up around their door to ensure people would not use that area as their toilet.
As you can see from the anecdotes, Versailles wasn't just a free-for-all for wild pissing. It wasn't socially acceptable. And yet people kept doing it out of necessity or convenience. How often exactly we can't know.
One last anecdote concerns not urination itself, but the disposal thereof. Servants in the palace sometimes tossed the contents of their chamberpots out through the windows and into the courtyard, much like the people of the cities emptied their chamberpots out into the streets. In Versailles this wasn't supposed to be done, but some people still did it. Marie Antoinette was hit twice this way. After one of these incidents, a public notice reminded readers that throwing their waste out the windows was considered criminal.
I've added a poll for those people who don't like to leave comments, but please do tell us where or how you would have preferred to urinate the most in 18th century Versailles (or other palace).
36-40, M