Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian Countess from the renowned Bathory family. She is probably the most famous female serial killer in history. She is also known as "The Blood Countess" and as "The Bloody Lady of Cachtice", after the castle near Trencin at that time in The Kingdom of Hungary, where she spent most of her adult life. After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was just 80. Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted. In 1610, however, she was imprisoned in the Cachtice Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later. Later writings about the case have led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional character Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.
EARLY YEARS
Elizabeth Bathory was born on a family estate in Nyírbator, Hungary on August 7th, 1560, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was George Bathory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Bathory, who had been Voivod of Transilvania, while her mother was Anna Bathory ( 1539 - 1570), daughter of Stephen Bathory of Somlyo, another Voivod of Transilvania, was of the Somlyo branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the niece of Stefan Bathory, King of Poland. As a young woman she learned Latin, German and Greek. She was also interested in science and astronomy.
MARRIED LIFE
Elizabeth was engaged to Ferenc Nadasdy, in what was probably a political arrangement within the circles of the aristocracy. The couple married May 8th, 1575, with her at the age of 14, almost 15, in the little palace of Varanno. There were approximately 4,500 guests at their wedding. Elizabeth moved to Nadasdy Castle in Sarvar and spent much time on her own, while her husband studied in Vienna. Nasasdy's wedding gift to Bathory was his home, Csejte Castle, situated in the Little Carpathians near Trencin, together with the Cachtice 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, Nadasdy finally bought the castle from Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, so that it became a private property of the family. In 1578, Nadasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Ottomans. With her husband away at war, Elizabeth Bathory 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. The threat was significant, for the village of Cachtice had previously been plundered by the Ottomans while Sarvar, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman occupied Hungary, was in even great danger. She was an educated woman who could read and write in four languages. 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. In 1585, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Anna. A second daughter, Ursula, and her first son, Andrew, both died at an early age. After this, Elizabeth had three more children, Katherine (born in 1594), Paul (born around 1597) and Miklos. All of her children were cared for by governesses as Elizabeth had been. Elizabeth’s husband died in 1604 at the age of 47, reportedly due to an injury sustained in battle. The couple had been married for 29 years.
SHOW TRIAL
Early Investigation
Between 1602 and 1604, Lutheran minister Istvan Magyari complained about atrocities both publicly and with the court in Vienna, after rumors had spread. The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari’s complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Mattias assigned Gyorgy Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzo ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610. Even before obtaining the results, Thurzo 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. Thurzo, along with Paul and her two sons-in-law, originally planned for Elizabeth to be spirited away to a nunnery, but as accounts of her murders of the daughters of lesser nobility spread, it was agreed that Elizabeth Bathory should be kept under strict house arrest, but that further punishment should be avoided. It was also determined that Matthias would not have to repay his large debt to her, for which he lacked sufficient funds.
Arrest and trial
Thurzo went to Csejte (Cachtice) Castle on December 30th 1610 and arrested Bathory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices. Thurzo men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying. They reported that another woman was found wounded, others locked up. While the countess was put under house arrest (and remained so from that point on), King Matthias requested that Elizabeth be sentenced to death. However, Thurzo successfully convinced the King that such an act would negatively affect the nobility. Hence, a trail was postponed indefinitely. Thurzo’s motivation for such an intervention is debated by scholars. The countess’ associates however were brought to court. A trail was held on January 7th 1611 at Bicse, presided over by Royal Supreme Court judge Theodosious Syrmiensis de Szulo and 20 associate judges. Bathory herself did not appear at the trial. The defendants at the trial were Dorottya Szentes, also referred to as Dorka, Ilona Jo, Katarina Benicka, and Janos Ujvary (“Ibis” or Ficko). Dorka, Ilona Jo and Ficko were found guilty and put to death on the spot. Dorka 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. Katarina Benicka was sentenced to life imprisonment, as she only acted under the domination and bullying by other women, as implied by recorded testimony.
Last years and death
During the trial of her primary servants, Bathory had been placed under house arrest in a walled up set of rooms. She remained there for four years, until her death. King Mattias had urged Thurzo to bring her o court and two notaries were sent to collect further evidence, but in the end no court proceedings against her were ever commenced. On August 21st 1614, Elizabeth Bathory 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 Csejte, buy due to the villagers’ uproar over having “The Tigress of Csejte” buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birth home at Ecsed, where it is interred at the Bathory family crypt.
Accusations
In 1610 and 1611, the notaries collected testimony from more than 300 witnesses. The trial records include the testimony of the four defendants, as well as thirteen witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sarvar castle. According to all this testimony, her initial victims were the adolescent daughters of local peasants, many of whom were lured to Cachtice by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later, she is said to have begun to kill daughters of local peasants of the lesser gentry, who were sent to by 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, administered by Elizabeth herself, who reportedly beat girls about the face “till their bones broke”.
- applying red-hot irons to the soles of girls’ feet.
- mutilation of the face, hands and genitals, including cutting off or splitting open the fingers,
- sexual abuse of the most depraved nature
- placing oily rages between a girls legs and setting them on fire.
- mock “surgery”, including forcing one girl to strip a piece of flesh off her own arm.
- abductions. If girls did not come willingly, they were beaten unconscious and carried to the castle.
- biting off their flesh, sometimes until they died. Witnesses report she would have male servants eat their flesh.
- stabbed with needles and scissors
- freezing to death
- forcing girls into small cages filled with spikes, or tying them up to the walls in the dungeon.
- starvation.
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 testimony of the defendants, Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed her victims not only at Csejte but also on her properties on Sarvar, Sopronkeresztur, Bratislava, (then Pozsiny, Pressburg), and Vienna, and even between these locations. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Bathory with young women. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force. A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was rumored to have influenced Bathory, but Darvulia was dead long before the trial. The exact number of girls and young women tortured and killed by Bathory is unknown, though it is often speculated to be as high as 650, between the years 1585 and 1610. The estimates differ greatly. During 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 Sarvar castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 and 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 Bathory herself. This number became part of the legend surrounding Bathory. Reportedly, the location of the diaries is unknown but 32 letters writtin by Bathory are stored in Hungarian state archives in Budapest. Laszlo Nagy has argued Elizabeth Bathory was a victim of a conspiracy, a view opposed by others. Nagy argued that the proceedings were largely politically motivated. The conspiracy theory is consistent with Hungarian history at that time. There was a great conflict betweeb religions, including Protestant ones, and this was related to the extension of Hadsburg power over Hungary. As a Transylvanian Protestant aristocrat, Elizabeth belonged to a group generally opposed to the Hadsburgs.
Background information
Birthname: Erzsebet Bathory
Also known as: The Blood Countess, The Blood Lady of Cachtice
Born: August 7th 1560 Nyirbator Hungary
Died: August 21st 1614 (age 54) Cjeste, Kingdom of Hungary (today Cachtice, Slovakia)
Number of victims: 80-650
Span of killings: 1590-1610
Country: Hungary
Date apprehended: December 30th 1610
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