The year is 1600, and your parents have sent you to stay with a beautiful countess in her castle. The countess was going to teach you all of the things that would make you a perfect lady, but that’s what she told your family. Once you were in her custody, the nightmare began. She cut her girls and drank their blood. Sometimes she would kill them, and fill a bath with their blood to bathe in. Your turn was coming up. She is Elizabeth Bathory.
Countess Erzébet Báthory (Elizabeth Bathory when anglicanized) was born into Hungarian nobility in 1560. Her family ruled Transylvania as a virtually independent principality within the kindgom of Hungary, giving her elite status. She grew up beautiful, with an excellent education, and great wealth. But things weren’t as nice as they looked on the outside.
Elizabeth’s father employed several officers. She often witnessed them taking turns torturing the peasants who lived near her family’s estate. At one point she even watched as they captured a thief, and then stuffed him into the underbelly of a dying horse. They sewed the belly shut, leaving the man, and the horse to die. Never once did her father speak out against such cruelty.
At the young age of 11, Elizabeth was betrothed to Ferenc Nádasdy, another member of the aristocracy. But she was a girl who couldn’t be tamed, and just over a year later, she gave birth to a baby – the father was a man of a lower class. Ferenc was not to be humiliated in such a manner, and he had her lover castrated and torn to pieces by dogs. Elizabeth was able to keep her daughter, hidden of course, and she married Ferenc in 1575, when she was just 15 years old.
Although Ferenc was a member of the aristocracy, Elizabeth still outranked him, allowing her to keep her surname Bathory. This meant Ferenc took on her name as well. Together they lived in the Nádasdy castles in Hungary at Sárvár and Csetje (now in Slovakia). Ferenc was a soldier, and an ambitious one at that, leaving Elizabeth home to run the estates while he was away. It was during these times that she really began to spread her wings.
Elizabeth took on a series of lovers, and had four children – whether they were her husband’s or not remains a mystery. One thing we do know for sure, she had her own twisted idea of a good time. Her crimes started with her servants. She would drive needles through their lips and fingernails. She would bite their breasts, hands, faces, and arms. One story tells of a servant girl who stole a pear. Elizabeth beat her so bloody, that she had to change her top. The girl was beaten for hours, before she was finally killed when Elizabeth stabbed her with a pair of scissors.
She soon began taking the daughters of local peasants, and when began to accept girls from local families, whose parents wanted them to learn proper manners from a countess. But they didn’t learn manners – instead she would torture them, burning them with red-hot irons, coins, or keys. She beat the girls to death, and starved others. She even went so far as to strip them naked, send them outside into the freezing cold, pour water over them, and wait for them to free.
Before long she turned to cutting them with scissors and to drink their blood. Elizabeth believed that drinking the blood of such young girls would preserve her youth, and her beauty. When that wasn’t enough, she took to draining their blood into a bath, so she could fully immerse herself in the youthfulness of their blood.
When her husband died in 1604, she was able to fully immerse herself in her own horrific acts. It wasn’t until 1610, when Hungarian authorities finally began to investigate her. Some claim the inquisition was a result of a raid conducted by Elizabeth’s cousin. Others say it was the Lutheran Minister who initiated the investigation. It may have even bed the parents of those poor girls who were sent to Elizabeth, but never returned home.
When the castle was raided, they found many girls, already dead, and several others locked up, awaiting their turn to be tortured. Elizabeth was arrested, as were four of her favorite servants – as they were suspected as being her accomplices.
The servants accused of being accomplices were put on trial. Whether their testimonies could be believed or not, is still up for debate. One thing that was gathered is a victim count. Approximately 650 girls were tortured and killed. All four of them were found guilty; three were executed, and one given a life sentence. As for the Blood Countess herself? Because of her social and political standing, she was not tried.
Elizabeth Bathory lived out the rest of her life, walled up in her room of Csetje Castle. The windows were closed and only enough space was left to the outside world for food to be passed through. She died in 1614, alone on the floor, at the age of 54.
Some compare Elizabeth Bathory to Count Dracula, claiming her to be a living vampire. Others say she’s the true embodiment of Bloody Mary. One thing they all agree on – she was a monster. She has even earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific female murderer.
Have you read about Delphine LaLaurie, the monster of Royal Street?
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