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Elizabeth Báthory

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Elizabeth Báthory (married Elizabeth Nádasdy, Alžbeta Bátoriová-Nádašdy in Slovak, Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, August 7?, 1560 - August 21, 1614), the Bloody Lady of Čachtice, was a Slovak countess. She lived in Čachtice (Csejte in Hungarian) castle near Trenčín, in present-day Slovakia. She is considered the most famous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She spent most of her life at the Čachtice Castle. She and her alleged four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing numerous girls and young women (20 - 2000 victims, depending on the source. It is rumoured that she documented each death in her diary, totalling to 612 entries)[citation needed]. In 1610, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she stayed until her death four years later. Her nobility permitted her to avoid an immediate execution. However, her alleged collaborators were executed.

Various legends about her life, including the idea that she bathed in or drank the blood of servant girls, are thought by some to have been the origin of numerous vampire myths, the Dracula story, and the trope of the sexually sadistic vampiress in particular. She has a few historical nicknames, "The Blood Countess" and "Countess Dracula" because she was a possible model for Bram Stoker's vampire character.

The Báthory lineage

The ancestors of Elizabeth (the Gutkeled clan) came to the Hungarian Kingdom in the mid-11th century. They held power in what is now Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The Gutkeled clan emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the early 13th century and the name Báthory (according to one of their estates Báthor [today Nyírbátor] meaning "valiant") was assumed by that sub-family in 1279. Their power peaked during the mid-16th century, and was virtually gone by 1658. With the death of the wife of George Rákóczi II (Zsófia Báthory), they died out in 1680. Elizabeth's parents were from the two branches of the Báthory family (Báthory of Ecsed and Báthory of Somlyó) and the brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the Polish king Stephen Báthory.

Life

She was born in Nyírbátor in present-day Hungary on August 71560 and died on August 21 1614 in Čachtice in present-day Slovakia.

She spent her childhood at the Ecsed Castle; details from this period are unknown. At the age of 11 she was forced to become engaged with the noble and successful warrior Francis Nádasdy and moved to the Sárvár Castle. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Vranov nad Topľou, who in 1578 became the chief commander of Hungarian troops in their war against the Turks. He was considered a very brave, but also very cruel person. The Turks feared him and called him the Black Beg.

Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Elizabeth was his home, the Čachtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trenčín, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) together with the Čachtice country-house and seventeen adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a peasant village and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with outcroppings of the Carpathian Mountains. In 1602, Elizabeth’s husband definitively bought the castle from the emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a property of the Nádasdys. Since battles with the Turks occupied her husband, Elizabeth became the lady of the castle. At this time she was able to read and write in four languages.

Elizabeth had six children though two of them died at an early age:

  • Anastasia Báthory, illegitimate daughter (born 1574).
  • Anna Nádasdy (born c. 1585).
  • Katalin (Katherina) Nádasdy (born c. 1594).
  • Miklos.
  • Orsolia (Orsika) Nádasdy.
  • Paul Nádasdy (1598 - 1650).

Her husband died in either 1602 or 1604.

It is unknown when Elizabeth started to kill young women, if she did; however, it is speculated that she did so sometime between the years 1585 and 1610. Both her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, but they did not directly intervene. She was constantly improving her torturing methods and her brutality was increasing. While her husband lived, she apparently kept her activities to a moderate level, but upon his death any restraints he may have imposed on her (or she on herself) were completely removed. It is said that people living around her castle hated her so much that she only left the castle under an armed escort. (Note: politicians and other famous figures often use armed escorts, whether hated or not.) However, she did torture some girls at her properties in Sárvár and Keresztúr. Her victims were initially local female peasants, many lured to Cachtice by offers of well-paid work, but when word spread of the countess's inclinations, the supply of new maids began to dwindle. It was then she began to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her castle by their parents to learn noble manners. In the early 17th century, parents of substantial position often wished their daughters to be educated in the social graces and etiquette. When it became known in the surroundings what she was (probably) doing, she had to send "assistants" to bring young women from more distant regions. As rumours spread throughout the Hungarian Kingdom, she had to have girls kidnapped in order to get them.

It was only after the parish priest of Čachtice and monks in (relatively) nearby Vienna had lodged several complaints with the ruling class in Vienna about cries from the castle that the (new) emperor Matthias II assigned György Thurzó, the palatine of Hungary, to investigate the complaints. Thurzó and his men invaded Čachtice in the morning of December 29 1610 and caught Elizabeth in the act in the Čachtice country-house; she was torturing several girls - one of them had only just died. She and four collaborators were charged with sadistic torture, as well as mass murder. Despite the overwhelming evidence found by investigators, Elizabeth herself was not brought to trial. Her son Paul and his tutor Megyery, raised valid concerns that apart from the public scandal and family disgrace, under the law the family inheritance would go to the crown. While she was investigated in absentia, Elizabeth was kept under tight house arrest and waged a spirited defence by a furious stream of letters. But the outcome was inevitable. The bloody countess was bricked up in her own private chamber of her castle, kept alive only by food poked through a slit in the door, and died there on August 21 1614. For the fates of her collaborators see below.

Guilt or innocence

More than 300 people were interrogated before her death between 1611 and 1614. Despite several interventions by the Hungarian king, a regular trial never took place and the case remained open. The reason for this might have been that the palatine Thurzó did not want a trial against a member of the high gentry (with which he was reproached at the time). Moreover, Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Báthory was the ruler of Transylvania and Thurzó did not want to get into troubles with Transylvania. And finally, Thurzó’s properties were adjacent to those of Elizabeth and Thurzó was interested in her properties.

Some sources mention the possibility that she was falsely convicted by the political opponents of the family, mainly because the Báthory family owned large areas of land and were wealthy. The existing historical documents show lack of investigation, omitted evidence and decisions kept in tight local political circles. Some of the most dramatic charges against her, that of Satanism and vampirism, are thought to have been either deliberate falsehoods or folklore that grew up around a disliked figure. Some people claim that the vampire legends could have been exaggerations of actual medical help provided for peasants; at that age it was very unusual that a noble cared about the health of her servants, and bloodletting was practiced by medical authorities for many years. Modern supporters of the vampire legends attached to her life are either unaware of or choose to ignore historical documents and letters that would possibly ruin the otherwise dramatic tales.

Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss, a Hungarian researcher published a very interesting article in Hungarian scientific magazine "Élet és Tudomány" (December 2005) where she presented the results of many years of research on the life of Erzsébet Báthory. She strongly believes that the countess was the victim of a frame-up trial conducted by palatine György Thurzó from Western Hungary (man of Mátyás II, King of Hungary). The goal of all this feigned action was to defame Prince Gabriel Báthori of Transylvania (brother of Elizabeth), who did not want to recognize the supremacy of Catholic Habsburgs over his small, mainly Protestant country. Three hundred witnesses were summoned during the trial, but no injured, or tortured people, and no eyewitnesses were found. Not having enough proofs, the palatine postponed the passing of a sentence, and finally was urged by the emperor himself to do something and make an end to the proceedings. Ms. Szádeczky-Kardoss writes that actually not Erzsébet in person, but her servants treated a number of people, including young girls, of different diseases, with surgical tweezes, hoes and protractors specific to the period (lancing of abscesses and dirty wounds with hot iron; alternating hot and cold baths, phlebotomy etc.)

Motives

Her deviation might have had genetic reasons, because many of both her father’s and her mother’s ancestors were very brutal individuals (e. g. the Transylvanian ruler Sigismund Báthory who liked to have his retainers killed). Alternatively, it is believed that the Báthory family was inbred and that this may have helped cause various psychotic disorders that the family was known to have.

Only later legends say that she was killing the girls in order to bathe in their blood and, thus, stay forever young or improve her complexion.

It should be noted, however, that brutality was relatively widespread at the time. People arrested under suspicion of crimes and sometimes even witnesses were tortured for their confessions, and punishment of the poor or of political enemies was often death.

Collaborators

A shadowy figure named Anna Darvulia, a suspected local witch that dabbled in black magic and satanic ritual, is rumoured to have influenced much of Elizabeth's early sadistic career, but apparently died before the major events of Elizabeth's reign of terror commenced.

Elizabeth's main collaborators after Anna's death were her maids

Except for Katarína, they were all executed at Bytča on January 7 1611.

Katarína's guilt could not be proven, and according to McNally's sources from recorded testimony by all witnesses, she seems to have been dominated and bullied by the other executed women. Two of the women had their extremities hacked off before being thrown onto a blazing fire, while Fickó, whose guilt was deemed the lesser, had the mercy of being beheaded before being consigned to the flames. A public scaffold was erected near the castle to show the public that justice had been done.

The confessions and testimony against Báthory were taken under torture by Thurzo.

Legends

The following lists some of the best known legends about Elizabeth Báthory. Although some are partly based on statements made by those interrogated after 1610, their truthfulness cannot be verified.

Torture

While interrogating Turks, her husband employed a device of torture: articulated claw-like pincers of silver; which, when fastened to a whip, would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that he abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle.

Aware of Báthory's preoccupations, her aunt had introduced her to the flagellation of others, a taste she quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's silver claws, she generously indulged herself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slavic debtors. She preferred to whip her subjects on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, so that she could watch their faces contort in horror at their fate.

Báthory, being a sadist, had many ways of brutally torturing her victims, most of which were young girls. This gave the impression that she was bisexual. She usually had drastic punishments for servants who disobeyed the rules of her household. Elizabeth would stick pins under the fingernails of a servant who broke a rule. A technique her husband taught her before he died was something he liked to call the 'Honey Torture'. This was constructed by stripping a girl naked and covering her in honey. She was then left to be swarmed by bees. Her husband did not torture to kill, unlike The Countess. She liked to see their faces as she tortured them til death. During the harshest parts of winter, she would strip girls naked and force them outside. She would then pour water over them until they froze solid. She would then gaze among her 'beautiful' sculptures. She often enjoyed stripping girls in her room and made them lie flat on their backs as she tortured them. It is said they bled so profusely, pools of blood were left on her floor, which could be scooped up by bucketfulls. Elizabeth killed with such graceful glee, it was hard to believe she was human herself. She often viewed her servants as something other than human and cherished the contorted agony on their faces.

Witchcraft

Under torture, alleged conspirators of Báthory confessed to being witches.

Bloodbath

Elizabeth was a beauty back in her age. She had a very pale face contrasted with dark hair. Her face youthful and beautiful and her body voluptuous. She was intent on keeping her beauty and tried to force it to last. Once the concequences of time started taking a toll on her body, Elizabeth tried to cover it up with makeups and extravagant clothing, the most expensive around. It is said that the Countess bathed in the blood of peasant virgin girls usually young in age. This came about in an accidental discovery. One day, one of the Countess' servant girls was tending to Elizabeth's hair. She had either pulled it, or said her headdress was in some way not attractive. Elizabeth became engraged with her and slapped her so hard, her nose bled. Droplets of blood hit the Countess in the face and as she wiped it away, she claimed the wrinkles on her face had disappeared. She had a personal and close friend who happened to be a witch who told the Countess that the blood, indeed, would make her young and beautiful again. She had taken the young girl and slit her wrists and drained her of her blood. She then bathed in it, giving her the name The Blood Countess. She began using her servants as 'blood donors'. When she began to run out of servants, she had people go out and kidnap virgin peasant girls. She became known as evil and hated, so when she left her castle, she had to have body guards to protect her, mainly from enraged peasants.

Lesbianism

Many works of fiction portray the countess as bisexual or lesbian. This speculation is tied directly to the belief that she exclusively murdered women.

In film

Several movies about Elizabeth Báthory have been made. Except the erotic short story Contes Immoraux, animated Bloody Lady and a theatrical comedy Elisabeth the Terrible it was always B and C class horror movies.

  • 1970 - Necropolis (Franco Brocani) - horror
  • 1970 - Countess Dracula (Peter Sasdy) (with Ingrid Pitt) - horror
  • 1971 - Les Levres rouges / Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kummel) - horror
  • 1973 - Ceremonia sangrienta / Blood Castle (Jorge Grau) - horror
  • 1973 - El Retorno de Walpurgis / Curse of the Devil (Carlos Aured) - horror
  • 1974 - Contes Immoraux / Immoral Tales (Walerian Borowczyk) (with Paloma Picasso) - erotic
  • 1975 - Alžbeta Hrozná alebo Krw story / Elisabeth the Terrible or The Krw Story (Stanislav Štepka) - TV
  • 1980 - Krvavá pani / The Bloody Lady (Viktor Kubal) - animated
  • 1980 - El Retorno del Hombre-Lobo / Night of the Werewolf (Jacinto Molina) - horror
  • 1988 - The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau (Dennis Berry) - horror
  • 2000 - Bathory (Brian Topping)
  • 2004 - Tomb of the Werewolf (Fred Olen Ray) - horror
  • 2002 - Killer Love (Lloyd A. Simandl) - horror
  • 2004 - Ethernal (Wilhelm Liebenberg, Federico Sanchez) - horror

In music

The black metal band Bathory, although taking its name from the blood countess, had few songs about her. The black metal band Cradle of Filth has many songs about the countess, and its 1998 album, Cruelty and the Beast, is completely dedicated to Elizabeth. Progressive power metal band Kamelothave a 3 part song on their Karma album about Bathory called Elizabeth.

In fiction

Bathory is a major character in the alternative history/fantasy novel This Rough Magic by Eric Flint, Dave Freer and Mercedes Lackey. In the book she is of undetermined age and uses the blood of the slain young girls to retain her youth and power, in the eventual goal of attaining immortality without giving up her soul to Shaitan.

The Blood Countess is a novel by Andrei Codrescu, a Romanian native and descendent of Elizabeth Bathory, currently a professor of writing at Louisiana State University and columnist with NPR.

References

  • McNally, Raymond T.: Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill, 1983. ISBN 0070456712
  • Farin, Michael: Heroine des Grauens. Elisabeth Báthory. Munich: P. Kirchheim 2003. ISBN 3-87410-038-3 (all relevant sources in German translation).
  • Nash, Jay Robert: Look For the Woman. New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 1983. ISBN 0871313367
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