Elizabeth Bathory

Who is Elizabeth Bathory?

Countess Elizabeth (Erzebet) Bathory, or the "Blood Countess" is famously known as the most vicious female serial killer in all recorded history. She was born August 7th, 1560 and died August 21st, 1614. She was born into a wealthy Hungarian family who ruled Transylvania. She was the niece of King of Poland, Stephen Bathory a long with many other royalties in her family such as her parents siblings who were voivodes of Transylvania. Elizabeth's brother was also the judge royal of Hungary. Elizabeth grew up wealthy, intelligent, and was known to be very beautiful. She was married around the ages of 13-15 to to Ferenc Nadasdy for political reasons. His family was one of the wealthiest and most influential in Hungary. Together they had four children.

The Blood Countess

Elizabeth became famously known as the Blood Countess as well as the female Count Dracula because of her lust for blood. Because of her royal status she had many servant girls and like most royals, she whipped her servants for misbehavior. Elizabeth became obsessed with the idea to find a way to maintain her youth and beauty. It is said that as she whipped one of her maids and blood splattered on Elizabeth's skin and made her skin look younger. This convinced her that blood was the key to keeping her youth. The maid was then killed and it is believed that she bathed in the blood of the maid after. She would also drink the blood of her victims to maintain her youth. Her blood thirst lead to many more murders and torture of women within her castle, the murdering of virgins, and also killing women of nobility. Some of the torture would include her making her servants cut and eat their own flesh if they were hungry, if they were thirsty, she forced them to drink their pee. She also rubbed honey on the body of one of her servants and made her lay outside to get stung by bees and bothered by other animals until she died. She would stick pins and needles in the fingers of her servants and also stuck hot iron rods in their vaginas. In total, about 650 women were torture and killed by Elizabeth.

The End of Elizabeth Bathory

Elizabeth's blood thirst became even more extreme around the death of her husband who lost his life at war. Her fear of old age grew. She became even more powerful and wealthy with the money and land her husband left her. Due to how powerful and wealthy she was for a woman, most believe that Elizabeth crimes were false, and instead there was a plot to destroy her reputation and take everything that she owned. Investigations of her crimes began in 1610. Her cousin conducted a raid on the castle in which she lived ordered by the King. Her cousin found dead bodies of women, some were imprisoned, and some that were waiting on death. Elizabeth and her accomplices were arrested and her accomplices were put on trial. Elizabeth never made it to trial or ever spoke on her behalf because of her royal status. Instead she was locked away in a room in her castle for the last four years of her life with just enough space for air and food to be allowed in her room. With all of the stories and accusations that were made of her, it is no doubt that she murdered women, but it is still questionable as to what is actually true or false due to her royal status and very little evidence that remains.

                                                         



                                                              WORKS CITED:



Clark, Josh. “Was a Hungarian Countess the World's Most Prolific Serial Killer?” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 1 Apr. 2008, history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/hungarian-countess-serial-killer1.htm.

“Death of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.” History Today, www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/death-countess-elizabeth-bathory.

“Elizabeth Báthory.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory.

Erzsebet Bathory, departments.kings.edu/womens_history/erzebet.html.