Is it really true that royal people don't wipe their own bottoms?
That same question has been asked by many people.
Recently i saw a show on television.
Its a BBC 4 show hosted by Baldrick and covering the nasties most treacherous dirtiest jobs history has ever had to offer, that raised my attention to this job of royal arse wiper.
This is what is known about the royal ass wiper or better said the groom of the stool.
The groom of the stool was basically Henry VIIIs chief arse-wiper. He had to look after the Kings poop.
And if he didn't do a good job first time around then you could always mop it up with a diper (which was actually a diamond shape piece of linen with a pattern on it).
The strange thing about the groom of the stool is that you would think it would be the worst job anyone could do but in fact he became such an intimate of the King only courtiers were chosen to do it.
It was also a very dangerous position to hold because he was right in the thick of the things
He could rise up the ranks but could go back down just as quickly. And it was not unknown for grooms of the stool to end up with their heads chopped off. Read more about it on the next page