There is an online fact site that seems to be very popular, Quora, which is consistently wrong on one point. I just wanted to set the matter straight.
Quora is consistently asked whether people in the Medieval period took baths or cleaned themselves significantly. The answer is always ‘yes’ and the readers are told that taking a bath in a large tub was common.
The first problem with this answer is that it doesn’t refer to any geography. The questioners are probably talking about people in Europe. In this case Quora is completely wrong in the answer.
In Finland, Hungary and Turkey, the citizens regularly took steam baths, used bathing pools or saunas throughout history. The same is true in Japan. In the areas of West Africa that I am familiar with, bathing was ubiquitous. This was also true, much earlier, in the Roman Empire.
For the rest of Europe, bathing and washing the body was not done. The popular theories of the time were that being unwashed was healthy and deterred skin infections. Additionally the smells of everyday life were so egregious that covering one’s body with notions was necessary to survive the fetid smells of everyday life. Sewer systems were unknown in the English-speaking and European worlds.
All of this is readily determined by reading the literature of the time. The Japanese were so offended by the horrid smell of Europeans, they were made to stand outside during all encounters with Japanese and forced to live on a separate island. Africans reacted the same way to Europeans as did Muslims to the Crusaders.
In summary, most Europeans for 1,000 years didn’t bathe or wash. Many other parts of the world testify to the foul smells of Europe.