I.e. would it be improper for a noble to show up to a feast smelly and with stained clothes, or would it be totally acceptable, if not expected?
In short, no, it would not be acceptable. There were actually laws of nuisance in Medieval and Early Modern Europe where you could be fined if your neighbours complained about your house smelling bad. Rest assured that appearing at a significant high-class event smelly and stained would be the end of your reputation.
Indeed, cleanliness was seen as indulgent, given that hot water, soap and perfumes are all not cheap, so looking and smelling your best is a power move. While standards of hygiene were not as good as ours, they did try. As well as water both hot and cold they had soap, tools for wiping or scrubbing. Heck, in the 16th century, contrary to notions of only yanking teeth when rotten, toothpaste was even a thing. Not very common I don't think, but a thing. Including salt, burnt bread and vinegar as options some people used.
Cleaning practises did change during the time-frame you refer. Crusaders brought back bathhouses after the Roman ones had declined, inspired by Turkish baths they experienced in the East. They became standard in cities. However they were associated with prostitution, miasma theory grew which meant hot water use had to be limited to avoid exposed pores, and they could also be transmission sites with everyone together naked in water. After the Black Death the bathhouses were too much under suspicion for spreading both sexual and other diseases and Henry VIII, officially, closed them. They then became just brothels, the Southwark Stews.
Instead people bathed in private, not very regularly but some, and they paid extra attention to those linen underclothes. Linen underclothes actually make a lot of sense, and it's why linen is still used in bedclothes and pyjamas from time to time. It's absorbent and not too delicate yet comfortable. This is why the ruffs come in for the upper classes in the 16th century, when linen washing was increasingly essential. Not only was the whitest and finest linen expensive, they were starched and ironed, and you had additional linen to clean regularly. The mark of someone with disposable income and servants, not a mere labourer. One additional method of linen use that cropped up at that time was the rubbing cloth, which you would rub yourself red with to get off stuff; I imagine more after exercise to reduce the cost of washing the underclothes too often. This journalist went a week with only linen underclothes and a rubbing cloth and managed:
https://newrepublic.com/article/129828/getting-clean-tudor-way
Additionally, washing your face and hands in cold water, and washing your hair in soap were standard throughout the Medieval and Early Modern periods.
So, in conclusion, what do we get? Contrary to the exaggerated idea of the "dark ages" and the stinky Tudors, there was no point in history were people just stopped bathing altogether, where they didn't wash or comb their hair, where soap wasn't a thing (although the soap tax came in later and ruined it), or where people thought being dirty was acceptable. Indeed, people have very long known that dirt and filth have to do with disease, we just haven't understood why until recently, which combined with limited cleaning technology and limited access meant that methods were imprecise and insufficient. But they did try. That's a bit of historical mantra on any subject, people in the past weren't just gibbering morons, it's more of a point of trial-and-error that we came to a (mostly) better society.
I hoped you enjoyed and were informed by this!