Royals

Royals always live in sprawling, opulent castles or manor houses, with magnificent furniture, and gorgeous canopied beds.

Beautiful four-poster beds, inticately carved, and decorated with the best swathes of silk or velvets.

But those canopies weren't just there for decoration, they served a functional use too.

The canopy bed arose from a need for warmth and privacy in shared rooms.

Private bedrooms where only one person slept were practically unknown in medieval and early modern Europe, as it was common for the wealthy and nobility to have servants and attendants who slept in the same room.

Even in very modest homes, it was not uncommon to hang a simple curtain across a room to shield the bed from cold drafts and create a sense of division between living space and sleeping space.

In the Middle Ages, roofs were also a lot less sturdy and quite draughty.

It was pretty common for pests, bugs, and droppings to fall through onto the beds.

The canopies above the beds could catch all that nasty stuff, before it fell on the clean bedding, and gave you the cooties in the night.

By all accounts, Henry VIII was waging a battle against the dirt poor hygiene standards of his era - but it was one he sadly had no chance of winning.

Henry slept on a canopied bed surrounded by luxurious furs.

These furs were not just to keep his royal self warm, but more to act as a barrier between him, and the hordes of fleas and lice that might infest everything!

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Source~Samuraijournalist

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Picture credit~Wikipedia/Design: Roy Kaden