Henry VIII

Henry VIII's Hampton Court, was not well-equipped to deal with the many servants it required, nor the hundreds of guests on banquet nights.

During the king's boisterous banquets, busy servants regularly heeded nature's call, by relieving themselves in hidden hallway corridors, and on sizzling fireplaces.

In the kitchen, the boys assigned to turning the spit were commonly found "interlarding their own grease to help the drippings."

The walls reeked of urine so badly, that historian Lucy Worsley writes in her book ~ If Walls Could Talk~

"the palace management would have crosses chalked onto the walls, in the hope that people would be reluctant to desecrate a religious symbol."

The King, of course, had a luxurious place to squat.

According to the Hampton Court Palace website, he and other royals, sat atop a padded chair "covered in sheepskin, black velvet, and ribbons" lofted above a pewter chamber pot.

Henry VIII's highest-esteemed courtiers weren't nearly as coddled as their king, but they were still lucky enough to have their own private chambers—and, therefore, their own chamber pots.

The same, however, could not be said for Hampton Court's many servants......

To fix the problem, Henry VIII constructed a giant toilet block by the River Thames called 'The Great House of Easement'.

The toilet had two levels, and could seat 28 people at one time.

As a common space, it had no stalls and no walls, and greatly resembled the other public toilets in England, which were basically glorified benches with holes cut through them.

The only thing worse than using 'The Great House of Easement', was cleaning it.

The communal privy led to a tank that, after the King's festivities, had to be scrubbed by a group of king-appointed boys, known as 'Gong Scourers'........

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https://www.mentalfloss.com/.../how-to-poop-king-henry...

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders