http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory

Elizabeth Báthory

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Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory

Born	August 7, 1560 Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	August 21, 1614 (aged 54) Čachtice, Kingdom of Hungary
Penalty	House Arrest until Death
Status	Nobility
Occupation	Royal Family of Hungary
Spouse	Ferenc Nádasdy

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, Alžběta Báthoryová in Czech, Elżbieta Batory in Polish, August 7, 1560 – August 21, 1614), was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. She is possibly the most prolific serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as Bloody Lady of Čachtice, after the castle near Trenčín, at that time in Royal Hungary, where she spent most of her life.

She spent most of her adult life at Čachtice Castle in what is now Slovakia. The Báthory family is famous for defending Hungary against the Ottoman Turks.

After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though she was only convicted on 80 counts.^[1] In 1610, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, where she remained bricked in her room until her death four years later. She was never formally tried in court.

This spread the true story^{[citation needed]} of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth. These stories have led to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

[hide]

[edit] Life

[edit] Early years

Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Hungary, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was George Báthory, a brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been Voivod of Transylvania of the Ecsed branch of the family, while her mother was Anna Báthory (1539-1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory, another Voivod of Transylvania, of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, she was the niece of Stefan Báthory, King of Poland.

[edit] Married life

At the age of 11, Báthory was engaged to Ferenc Nádasdy and moved to Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár, Hungary. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Varannó not long after giving birth to a daughter concieved by sex play with a servant at Sarvar. She was sent to a far Bathory castle to give birth, This daughter along with the midwife were sent in exile to Transylvania, though not without a large sum of money. Anna Bathory carefully hushed up the affair so as to not hinder the upcoming nuptuals.lNádasdy’s wedding gift to Báthory was his home, Čachtice Castle, situated in the Little Carpathians near Trenčín, together with the Čachtice country house and 17 adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a village and agricultural lands, bordered by outcrops of the Little Carpathians. In 1602, Nádasdy finally bought the castle from Rudolf II, so that it became a private property of the family.

In 1578, Nádasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Ottomans. With her husband away at war, Elizabeth Báthory managed business affairs and the estates. That role usually included providing for the Hungarian and Slovak peasants, even medical care.

During the height of the Long War (1593-1606), she was charged with the defense of her husband's estates, which lay on the route to Vienna.^[2] The threat was significant, for the village of Čachtice had previously been plundered by the Ottomans while Sárvár, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman occupied Hungary, was in even greater danger.

She was an educated woman who could read and write in four languages.^[2] There were several instances where she intervened on behalf of destitute women, including a woman whose husband was captured by the Turks and a woman whose daughter was raped and impregnated. She was interested in science and astronomy.^{[citation needed]}

Her husband died in 1604 at the age of 47. His death is commonly reported as resulting from an injury sustained in battle.

[edit] Arrest

[edit] Early investigation

Between 1602 and 1604, Lutheran parish priest István Magyari complained about atrocities both publicly and with the court in Vienna, after rumors had spread.^[3]

The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias assigned György Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610.^[4] Even before obtaining the results,^[5] Thurzó debated further proceedings with Elizabeth's son Paul and two of her sons-in-law. A trial and execution would have caused a public scandal and disgraced a noble and influential family (which at the time ruled Transylvania), and Elizabeth's considerable property would have been seized by the crown. Thurzó agreed that Elizabeth Báthory should be kept under strict house arrest, but that further punishment should be avoided.^[6] It was also determined that Matthias did not have to repay a large debt for which he lacked sufficient funds.^[7]

[edit] Arrest and trial

Thurzó went to Čachtice Castle on December 30, 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices. Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying. Another woman was found wounded, others locked up.^[8]

But on the court later Elizabeth was missing as also all her personal household and dependants from her castle. The only statements that were written down were said by aristocrats and people that never lived in or around her castle. All potential witnesses from her castle as also the girls that "were found by Thurzo on Dec. 30 wounded and locked" were never given the chance of speaking on the court.

While the countess was put under house arrest (and remained so from that point on), her associates were brought to court. A trial was held on January 7, 1611 at Bytča. The trial was presided over by Royal Supreme Court judge Theodosious Syrmiensis de Szulo and 20 associate judges. Bathory herself did not appear at the trial. Intimidation and torture were part of the judicial process. She was also accused of witchcraft and pagan practices.^[9]

The defendants at that trial were:

Dorottya Szentes, also referred to as Dorko.
Ilona Jó
Katarína Benická
János Újváry, "Ibis" or Ficko.

Dorko, Ilona and Ficko were found guilty and executed on the spot. Dorko and Ilona had their fingernails ripped out before they were thrown into a fire, while Ficko, who was deemed less guilty, was beheaded before being consigned to the flames. A public scaffold was erected near the castle to show the public that justice had been done. Katarína Benická was sentenced to life imprisonment, as she only acted under the domination and bullying by the other women, as implied by recorded testimony.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Last years and death

During the trial of her primary servants, Elizabeth had been placed under house arrest in a single room. She remained there for four years, until her death.

King Matthias had urged Thurzó to bring her to court and two notaries were sent to collect further evidence^[10], but in the end no court proceedings against her were ever commenced.

On August 21, 1614, Elizabeth Báthory was found dead in her castle. Since there were several plates of food untouched, her actual date of death is unknown. She was buried in the church of Čachtice, but due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Csejthe" buried in their cemetary her body was moved to her birthhome at Nagyecsed in Hungary, where it is interred at the Bathory family crypt. .^[11]

[edit] Accusations

In 1610 and 1611 the notaries collected testimonies from more than 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four defendants, as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.

According to these testimonies, her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to Čachtice by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later she is said to have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well.

The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described most consistently included:

severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death.
burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia.
biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other bodily parts.
freezing to death.
bad surgery on victims, often leading to death.
starving of victims.

The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.

Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations.

According to the defendants' confessions, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Čachtice but also on her properties in Sárvár, Sopronkeresztúr, Bratislava and Vienna, and even between these locations.

In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Elizabeth Báthory with young women. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force.

A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was also rumoured to have influenced much of Báthory's early sadistic career but apparently died long before the trial.

The number of young women tortured and killed by Elizabeth Báthory is unknown, though it is often cited as being in the hundreds, between the years 1585 and 1610. The estimates differ greatly. During the trial and before their execution, Szentes and Ficko reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Many Sárvár castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 to 200. One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of over 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Báthory herself. This book was never mentioned anywhere else, nor was it ever discovered; however, this number became part of the legend surrounding Báthory.

László Nagy has argued that Elizabeth Báthory was a victim of a conspiracy,^[12] a view opposed by others.^[13] Nagy argued that the proceedings were largely politically motivated. However the conspiracy theory is consistent with Hungarian history at that time.^[14]

[edit] Folklore, literature and popular culture

Main article: Elizabeth Báthory in popular culture

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth.

This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi’s Tragica Historia,^[15] the first written account of the Báthory case.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, this certainty was questioned, and sadistic pleasure was considered a far more plausible motive for Elizabeth Báthory's crimes.^[16] In 1817, the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time,^[17] demonstrating that the bloodbaths, for the purpose of preserving her youth, were legend rather than fact.

The legend nonetheless persisted in the popular imagination. Some versions of the story were told with the purpose of denouncing female vanity, while other versions aimed to entertain or thrill their audience. During the twentieth and twenty first centuries, Elizabeth Báthory has continued to appear as a character in music, film, plays, books, games and toys and to serve as an inspiration for similar characters.

[edit] See also

Darya Saltykova
The Countess (film)
Countess Dracula (1971 film)
Daughters of Darkness (1971 film)
Hellboy: Blood and Iron
Immoral Tales (1974 film)
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Stay Alive (2006 film)
Bathory (2008 film)
Cruelty and the Beast (concept album by metal band Cradle of Filth about Elizabeth)
Ottoman wars in Europe

[edit] References

^ Countess Elizabeth Bathory - The Blood Countess - The Crime library
^ ^a ^b Báthory Erzsébet - Elizabeth Báthory: Short FAQ
^ Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 234-237.
^ Letters from Thurzó to both men on March 5, 1610, printed in Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 265-266, 276-278.
^ On September 19, 1610, Andreas of Keresztúr sent 34 witness accounts to Thurzó. On October 27, 1610 Mózes Cziráky sent 18 accounts.
^ Letter from December 12, 1610 by Elizabeth's son-in-law Zrinyi to Thurzó refers to agreement made earlier. See Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 291.
^ McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
^ Letter from Thurzó to his wife, December 30, 1610, printed in Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 293.
^ McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
^ 224 Witness accounts were sent to Matthias on 28 July, 1611 by A. of Keresztúr, 12 by M. Cziraky on 14 December, 1611,
^ Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 246.
^ László Nagy: A rossz hirü Báthoryak. Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó 1984
^ György Pollák: Az irástudók felelötlensége. In: Kritika. Müvelödéspollitikai és kritikai lap. Budapest, January 1986, p. 21-22
^ P.F. Sugar etal:A History of Hungary. Indiana University Press, 1990, p. 97
^ in Ungaria suis cum regibus compendia data, Typis Academicis Soc. Jesu per Fridericum Gall. Anno MCCCXXIX. Mense Sepembri Die 8. p 188-193, quoted by Farin
^ Alois Freyherr von Mednyansky: Elisabeth Báthory, in Hesperus, Prague, October 1812, vol. 2, No. 59, p. 470-472, quoted by Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 61-65.
^ Hesperus, Prague, June 1817, Vol. 1, No. 31, p. 241-248 and July 1817, Vol. 2, No. 34, p. 270-272

[edit] Further reading

In English:

McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
Penrose, Valentine (trans. Alexander Trocchi) (2006). The Bloody Countess: Atrocities of Erzsébet Báthory. Solar Books. ISBN 0971457824.
Thorne, Tony (1997). Countess Dracula. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747529000.

In French:

Périsset, Maurice (2001). Le comtesse de sang. Pygmalion. ISBN 2857047002.

In German:

Farin, Michael (2003). Heroine des Grauens. Elisabeth Báthory. Munich: P. Kirchheim. ISBN 3-87410-038-3.

In Hungarian:

Bessenyei, József (2005). A Nádasdyak. General Press Kiadó. ISBN 9639598658.
Nagy, László (1984). A rossz hírű Báthoryak. Kossuth Könyvkiadó. ISBN 9630923084.
Péter, Katalin (1985). A csejtei várúrnő: Báthory Erzsébet. Helikon. ISBN 9632076524.
Szádeczky-Kardoss, Irma (1993). Báthory Erzsébet igazsága. Nestor Kiadó. ISBN 963752326x.
Welden, Oscar (pseud. for István Nemere) (2000). Báthory Erzsébet magánélete. Anno kiadó. ISBN 9633752248.

In Slovak:

Dvořák, Pavel (1999). Krvavá grófka: Alžbeta Bátoryová, fakty a výmysly. Slovart. ISBN 9788085501070.
Nižnánsky, Jožo (2001). Čachtická pani. Media klub. ISBN 8088963524.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME	Báthory, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Báthory Erzsébet (Hungarian); Bátoriová(-Nádašdy), Alžbeta (Slovak); Bloody Lady of Čachtice (nickname); Lady Dracula (nickname)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Countess and serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 7?, 1560
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nyírbátor, Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	August 21, 1614
PLACE OF DEATH	Čachtice, Slovakia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory"

http://bathory.org/shyla.html

Shyla's History of Erzsébet

[Note from Dennis: This page was written several years ago and contributed by Shyla, then an art student. It continues to be included here only for site completeness. It has factual errors, and should not be used for reference.]

Shyla's Realm

1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. Her family had many powerful relatives -- a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary are among these relatives. The most famous relative was Istvan (ISHT-vahn) Bathory (1533-86). Istvan was prince of Transylvania and king of poland from 1575-86. It has been said that At around the age of 4 or 5, Elizabeth had violent seizures. These may have been caused by epilepsy or another neurological disorder and may have something to do with her "psychotic" behavior later in life.

1575: Age 15, Elizabeth married Count Ferenc (pronounced FAIR-entz) Nadasdy (NAW-dawzhd with silent y). The Count was 26 years of age. The count took Elizabeth's surname so that she could keep her name. They lived together in Castle Cséjthe (which in hungarian is pronounced CHAY-tuh). In Slovak this Castle is named Cachtice (pronounced CHAKH-teet-suh). [To this day there is rivalry between the Hungarians and the Slovak's and you will get a blank expression if you refer to the "wrong" name.] The count spent a great deal of time away from home fighting in wars and for this he was nicknamed "The Black Hero of Hungary". While her husband was away Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult. For a brief time Elizabeth eloped with a "dark stranger". Upon her return to Castle Cachtice the count did forgive her for her leaving. Back at the castle, Elizabeth couldn't tolerate her domineering mother-in-law. With the help of her old nurse Ilona Joo, she began to torture the servant girls. Her other accomplices included the major-domo János Ujvary (pronounced YAH-nosh OOEE-vahr-yuh), Thorko, a forest witch named Darvula and a witch Dorottya Szentes. The first ten years of their marriage, Elizabeth bore no children because she and Ferenc shared so little time together as he pursued his "career." Then around 1585, Elizabeth bore a girl whom she named Anna, and over the following nine years gave birth to two more girls, Ursula and Katherina, and in 1598 bore her first and only son, Paul. Judging from letters she wrote to relatives, she was a good wife and protective mother, which was not surprising since nobles usually treated immediate family very differently from the lower servants and peasant classes.

1600: At age 51, Count Ferenc died in battle and thus began Elizabeth's period of atrocities. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away from the Castle. By this time it is thought that she had dabbled into some forms of sorcery, attending rituals that included the sacrificing of horses and other animals. Elizabeth, now 40 years old, grew increasingly vain and she feared the thought of aging as she may lose her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing it. Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood. The girls blood fell into ELizabeth's hand and she immediately thought that her skin took on the freshness of her young maid. She believed that she had found the secret of eternal youth. Elizabeth had her major-domo and Thorko strip the maid and then cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.

1600 - 1610: Elizabeth's henchmen continued to provided Elizabeth with new girls for the blood-draining ritual and her blood baths. Elizabeth went out of her way to see to it that the dead girls were given proper Christian burials by the local Protestant pastor, at least initially. As the body count rose, the pastor refused to perform his duties in this respect, because there were too many girls coming to him from Elizabeth who had died of "unknown and mysterious causes." She then threatened him in order to keep him from spreading the news of her "hobby" and continued to have the bodies buried secretly. Near the end, many bodies were disposed of in haphazard and dangerously conspicuous locations (like nearby fields, wheat silos, the stream running behind the castle, the kitchen vegetable garden, etc.). But one of her intended victims escaped and told the authorities about what was happening at Castle Cachtice. King Mátyás (MAHT-yash) of Hungary ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, Count György (pronounced DYERD-yuh) Thurzo, governor of the province to raid the castle. On December 30, 1610 they raided the castle and they were horrified by the terrible sights. One dead girl in the main room, drained of blood and another alive whose body had been pierced with holes. In the dungeon they discoverd several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced several times. Below the castle, they exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.

1611: A trial was held at Bitcse. Elizabeth, who refused to plead either guilty or innocent, and never appeared in the trial.. At this trial Johannes Ujvary, major-domo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. The trial revealed that most of the girls were tortured for weeks or even months. They were cut with scissors, pricked with pins, even prodded with burning irons onto short spikes in a cage hung from the ceiling to provide Bathory with a "blood shower". Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess did it herself. Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed. In fact, Elizabeth killed 612 women -- and in her diary, she documented their deaths. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survices today in Hungary. Of the people involved in these killings, all but Countess Bathory and the two witches were beheaded and cremated. Due to her nobility, Elizabeth was not allowed by law to be executed. The tow accomplices had their fingers torn out and were burned alive. The court never convicted Countess Elizabeth of any crime, however she was put under house arrest. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in her torture chamber and stonemasons were brought to wall up the windows and doors of the with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed. King Mátyás II demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which really meant solitary confinement for life.

1614: On July 31 Elizabeth (age 54) dictated her last will and testament to two cathedral priests from the Esztergom bishopric. She wished that what remained of her family holdings be divided up equally among her children, her son Paul and his descendants were the basic inheritors though. Late in August of the year 1614 one of the countess's jailers wanted to get a good look at her, since she was still reputedly one of the most beautiful women in Hungary. Peeking through the small aperture in her walled-up cell, he saw her lying face down on the floor. Countess Elizabeth Bathory was dead. Her body was intended to be buried in the church in the town of Cachtice, but the grumbling of local inhabitants found abhorrent the idea of having the "infamous Lady" placed in their town, on hallowed ground no less! Considering this, and the fact that she was "one of the last of the descendants of the Ecsed line of the Bathory family", her body was placed to the northeastern Hungarian town of Ecsed, the original Bathory family seat.

More Information:

All records of Elizabeth were sealed for more than a century, and her name was forbidden to be spoken in Hungarian society.
Unlike most females of the time, Elizabeth was well educated and her intelligence surpassed even some of the men of her time. Elizabeth was exceptional, becoming "fluent in Hungarian, Latin, and German... when most Hungarian nobles could not even spell or write...Even the ruling prince of Transylvania at the time was barely literate"(20). Some modern scholars and contemporaries of hers postulated that she may have been insane, thus accounting for her seemingly inconceivable atrocities, but even a brief glance into her past reveals a person fully in control of her faculties.
Dracula, created by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was based, albeit loosely, on the Romanian Prince, Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Raymond T. McNally, who has written four books on the figure of Dracula in history, literature, and vampirism, in his fifth book, "Dracula was a Woman," presents insights into the fact that Stoker's Count Dracula was also strongly influenced by the legends of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Why, for example, make a Romanian Prince into a Hungarian Count? Why, if there are no accounts of Vlad Dracula drinking human blood, does blood drinking consume the Dracula of Stoker's novel, who, contrary to established vampire myth, seems to appear younger after doing so? The answers, of course, lie in examining the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
It was largely Slovak servants whom Erzsebet killed, so the name "Csejthe" is only spoken in derision, and she is still called "The Hungarian Whore" in the area.

Page maintained by Malted/Media.
Copyright ©1991-2006 by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz. All rights reserved.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabeth-bathory.htm

Short Biography of the life of Elizabeth Bathory -

Lady Dracula
The following biography information provides basic

facts about the life Elizabeth Bathory:

Nationality - Hungarian

Nickname: The notorious Elizabeth Bathory

is also known as Lady Dracula

Lifespan - 1560 - 1614

Born: August 7, 1560 in modern-day

Slovakia

Married: Count Ferencz Nadasdy in 1575

Spent her early married life living in the

home of her husband - Nadasdy Castle in

Sarvar, Hungary

Count Ferencz Nadasdy took Elizabeth

Bathory's surname when they married

giving her the full title of Countess

Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy.

Lady Dracula's Castle: Count Ferencz

Nadasdy gave his wife the Countess

Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy Cachtice

Castle in modern Slovakia ( then

Hungary) together with the adjoining

villages

Died: Elizabeth Bathory died August 21,

1614

Family connections of Elizabeth Bathory

- Elizabeth Bathory came from

one of the wealthiest families in

Transylvania. Father was George/Gyorgy

and her mother was Anna Bathory. The

brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the

Polish king Istvan Bathory (1533-1586)

and Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Bathory

was the ruler of Transylvania

Children: Elizabeth Bathory had six

children although two children died

in infancy. the names of her surviving

children were:

Anastasia Bathory, born out of
wedlock 1574
Anna Nadasdy (born c.1585)
Katalin (Katherina) Nadasdy
(born c.1594)
Paul Nadasdy (1598 - 1650)

Education - extremely well educated

and able to speak several languages

Famous for : Countess Elizabeth Bathory

Nadasdy ( 1560 - 1614 ) is famous as

a real historical figure who was reputed

to have not only drunk but bathed

in the blood of young virgin girls she

murdered in order to retain her youth

Character of Elizabeth Bathory :

Intelligent,

ruthless, vain, cruel and sadistic -

probably mentally unstable

Short Biography, Facts & History

about the life of Elizabeth Bathory -

Lady Dracula
The following are additional facts

about the bio, life and history of Elizabeth
Bathory:
Legend has it that Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Nadasdy discovered her "secret of eternal
youth" when some spots of blood from a

beaten servant seemed to 'tighten' her skin.
She became obsessed with this notion which
gave her a perfect excuse to vent her
sadistic streak on local teenage peasant
women. Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Nadasdy was known to torture her
victims before bathing in their blood. Her

instruments of torture included knives,
pincers, needles, razors, red-hot irons
and pokers. She is also reputed to
have ordered the construction of
an iron cage called "Iron Virgin".
The "Iron Virgin" was shaped like
a woman and fitted with blades,
similar to the "Iron Maiden".
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy
was believed to have been responsible
for the deaths of over 600 peasant women.
She was aided in her crimes by servants
including Dorka Szentes, Iloona Joo,
Johannes Ujuvary, Anna Darvulia and
Damien Thorko. So many complaints
were made about the Countess that
King Mathias of Hungary sent cousin,
Lord Palatine George Thurzo to question
her. Her accomplices were sentenced to
death but Elizabeth's involvement was
'hushed-up' due her her royal connections.
She was quietly left to die in her own castle.
The windows and doors of her room were
sealed by workmen were sealed leaving just
a small hath to pass food to her.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy
( Lady Dracula ) died three and a half years later.

Parallels between
Elizabeth Bathory and Dracula
Parallels have been made between Countess
Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy and Vlad
Dracul (Prince Vlad IV) also called
Vlad Dracula meaning Son of the Devil.
Vlad Dracul (1431 - 1476) a was also
known by the nickname Vlad the Impaler
after impaling his enemies on stakes as a
cruel and vicious form of torture and
execution. Bram Stoker wrote the famous
fictional book he called Dracula which
was inspired by the Middle Ages prince
from Transylvania who had a lust for
blood. There is speculation that Bram
Stoker
also used the stories about Countess
Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy when writing
his book. Prince Vlad IV and Elizabeth
Bathory both lived in Transylvania
and had a real lust for blood - there are
several other similarities between these
two historical figures...

Famous Elizabethans - Elizabeth
Bathory - Lady Dracula
Some interesting facts and biography information
about the History, Life & Times of Elizabeth Bathory.
Additional details, facts, history and information
about the famous Elizabethans and events
in Elizabethan Times can be accessed via the
Elizabethan Era Sitemap.

http://bathory.org/

http://bathory.org/erzsgall.html

http://www.abacom.com/~jkrause/bathory_pix_page.html

Marmalade

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Elizabeth Bathory Countess Dracula