The first modern flushable toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington who installed one for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth 1.
The first modern flushable toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington who installed one for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth 1.
His invention came complete with a water tank and a flush valve. However, the flush toilet wouldn't really take off for another 250 years. Most of the toilets in Medieval Europe were either holes in the ground, communal outhouses or chamber pots.
If you were lucky and born into tremendous wealth, you would have the luxury of using a garderobe (derived from the French word for "wardrobe"), which was a small rooms built adjacent to the wall of a medieval castle. The toilet would be connected to a vertical shaft that would run all the way down to the ground. Garderobes which literally translates to "guarding one's robes" originated from the practice of hanging clothes in the shaft as a way to kill fleas by using the ammonia in urine.
Occasionally some brave knights would conduct sneak attacks by entering the castle via the shaft connected to the garderobe. Throughout history, there have been a number of famous people who have died on the toilet. Several of them were stabbed from below while in the process of defecating.
These people include King Edmund II of England (30 November 1016), Jaromír Duke of Bohemia (4 November 1035), Godfrey IV Duke of Lower Lorraine (Circa. 26 or 27 of February 1076), Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (4 August 1306) and Uesugi Kenshin (19 April 1578)