Countess Elizabeth Bathory is a Hungarian Noblewoman who is still famous for her bloodied and gory past. Everyone knows about Vlad the Dracula but few know about the Bathory. She was famously known as the Vampire queen in history.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory is not a fairy tale instead it is a scary tale. She was a real noblewoman but not an attribute of royal modesty, actually, she was a monstrous, blood-sucking, sadist woman, who loves to torture and murder women. She has also another occultist reason that bathing in the blood of innocent virgin women gives her eternal youth. The reason behind her this sadistic and criminal behavior is hidden in her life as a child.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Birth and Early Childhood
Countess Elizabeth Bathory was born into a noble family in Nyirbator, Royal Hungary in 1560 or 1561. She was the daughter of Baron George VI Bathory and Baroness Anna Bathory. She was a descendant of multiple noble lineages that included the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania among her relatives.
In her family marriage between the close relatives are normal and her parents are closely related when they get married. The child born in that kind of marriage suffers health problems.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory was also suffering from so many health problems as a child. She suffered from severe epileptic seizures and she was treated with pseudo-quackery cures.
There are many legends generated from her childhood stories. The most notable childhood conspiracy is that her seizures were treated by rubbing the blood of a non-sufferer onto her lips or using a piece of their skull, thus igniting her insatiable bloodthirsty.
The second conspiracy theory is that she was trained in sorcery, and witchcraft, and exposed to satanic worship by her aunt Clara, but there is not enough evidence that supports this theory.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Marriage
(R) Count Ferenc Nadasdy (L) Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Countess Elizabeth Bathory married at the age of 14 in 1577 to Ferenc Nadasdy, a nobleman and the heir to one of the oldest dynasties in Hungary. But she was higher in rank in terms of nobility so she kept her surname Bathory and her husband also take up her surname.
The couple began to live in the Nadasdy Castles in Hungary at Saravar and Csetje at the lower end of the Carpathian Mountain. Ferenc Nadasdy was promoted to the Chief Commander of Hungarian troops and he was sent to war against the Ottoman Empire. Elizabeth bore atleast five children to Nadasdy.
Her husband died on 4 January 1604 at the age of 48. After her husband’s death, she was shifted to Cachtice Castle, Slovakia.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Torturous Regime Began at Her Nadasdy’s Castle and Later at Cachtice Castle, Slovakia
Cachtice Castle, Slovakia, where Countess Elizabeth Bathory shifted here after her husband’s death and was later imprisoned for her crimes.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory’s torturous regime began after a few years of marriage although the years are not known. Her gruesome torture we are discussed here in detail -:
She tortures young girls as young as 10, some are her servants and others are the daughters of the peasants. These girls were brutally tortured by Bathory before their death.
Bathory cut their breasts, bite off their cheeks, and sometimes she even burned them with hot tongs. She beat them severely before their final death.
Sometimes she starved them to their death. The reason behind those tortures was she believe that applying the blood of those young girls would preserve her youthfulness.
Between 1602 and 1604 the rumours of her crimes spread on the city and among the officials of that time. Lutheran minister Istavan Magyari began an investigation of her crimes and made a complaint against her in the court of Vienna. In 1610 King Matthias II assigned two notaries Andras Keresztury and Mozes Cziraky to collect the evidence against her.
In December that in 1610 Elizabeth was arrested and so were four of her favorite of her servants, who were accused of her crimes. They were all found guilty and all of them were executed except Countess Elizabeth Bathory due to her family position she was put on house arrest. She remained there for the rest of her life and died in her sleep on around 21 August 1614 at the age of 54.
Her Castle haunted the Csetje area of Hungary for a long time now it is an open tourist attraction.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory’s story is famous for its heinous and gruesome crimes. Many Hollywood movies were inspired by the life of Queen Bathory but one that made on her life is Bathory: Countess of Blood (2008) a Hungarian film directed by Juraj Jakubisko.
Actress Anna Friel played the role of Countess Elizabeth Bathory