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Elizabeth Bathory- The blood countess
Elizabeth Bathory was born into a noble family of estate Niryabator, Royal Hungary in 1560 or 1561
it was a story from the 16th century, Elizabeth Bathory has been labeled by Guinness world record as the most prolific female murderer, though the precise number of her victims are still not clear, the highest number of victims cited during Bathory's trial was 650.
Who was Elizabeth Bathory?
Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian noblewoman, from the noble family of Bathory who owned land in the kingdom of Hungary.
Bathory's parents were blood relatives, so Elisabeth as a child suffered multiple seizures, that may have been caused by epilepsy, possibly stemming from the inbreeding of her parents. now at that time, the treatment of epilepsy included rubbing the blood of the non-epileptic person on the lips of the patient or giving the mixture of non-sufferers blood and a piece of skull to an epileptic.
so many believe that maybe this was the reason for her murders which did, in the latter part of her life, to cure the disease which she was suffering from childhood, but there is no proper evidence of that.
Bathory was raised learning, Latin, German, Hungarian, and Greek, she was born in a privileged family and endowed with wealth, education, and a social rank.
At the age of 13, before her marriage, Elizabeth allegedly gave birth to a child, the child said to have been fathered by a peasant boy, when the family finds out they forced Elizabeth to give away the child to a local woman who was heavily trusted by the Bathory family.
at the age of 10, Elizabeth got engaged to Ferenc Nadasdy, he also belongs to the aristocracy family, so probably this was the political arrangements within in circles of the aristocrats.
they got married when Elizabeth was 15 and Ferenc was 19, as Elizabeth's social status was higher than that of her husband, she refused to change her last name, and instead nadasdy assumed to take the surname, Bathory.
Ferenc Bathory after marriage he gave his family castle as a wedding gift to Elizabeth, the castle csejte, situated in the little Carpathians (presently situated in Slovakia) before the couple could move to the castle, Ference ordered his workers to build a torture chamber in the palace for Elizabeth which she can use for her victims.
In 1578 Nadasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops leading them to war against the Ottomans, so while the nadasdy was away for the war, Elizabeth managed business affairs and the estates. also including responsibility towards Hungarian people, even providing medical care.
Ferenc Nadasdy died on 4th January 1604, at the age of 48, the reason for his illness is still not known, it seems that his illness started in 1601 when his legs were not working properly and at the time of 1603 he became fully disabled.
The crime period
Bathory's first victims were girls age 10-14, so in the beginning, she mostly murdered the peasant girls, who were very easy to catch, but after sometime when she gained the confidence she shifted to the higher social class girls who were mostly sent to Elizabeth to learn the court etiquettes by their parents. the atrocities mostly include severe beating, burning, and mutilation of hands, biting the flesh off the faces, hands, and other body parts, freezing or starving to death, the uses of needles was mentioned by the collaborators in the court. the Bathory torture was brutal, according to the Budapest city Archives,
the girls were burned by hot tongs and then placed in freezing cold water, they were also covered in honey and live ants, Bathory was also suspected of cannibalism.
Elizabeth was doing all this with the help of her four trusted collaborators, it was believed that after murdering she used to drink the blood of her victims, some also believe that she also bath in the blood which would keep her young, youthful, and vibrant. but there is no evidence, supporting this speculation.
Investigation
Between 1602 and 1604, after rumors of Bathory's atrocities had spread throughout the kingdom, Lutheran minister Istvan Magyari made complaints against her, both publicly and at the court in Vienna.
The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias II assigned Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate.
Thurzo ordered two notaries, Andras Keresztury and Mozes Cziraky, to collect evidence in March 1610.
By October 1610 they had collected 52 witness statements, by 1611, that number had risen to over 300.
In one of Elizabeth's personal journals, she claimed to have taken the lives of more than 650 victims over the course of 20 years.
climax
Till 1610 her murder game was going well, so maybe that was the reason she wanted to upgrade,
so now she and her four collaborators started abducting the girls of the local noble families and that was the mistake she did, so the noble families were started talking about the missing girls and they took the action and gave the order to investigate.
so as mentioned above, Thurso was in charge, so after recording statements from the locals, he moved to the castle for further investigation, where he peeps through the window and he saw a nightmare he saw Elizabeth sitting and also a young girl who was tied to a chair, so once Thurso witnessed everything with his own eyes and caught Bathory red-handed,
on 30 December Elizabeth and her four collaborators got arrested, everyone who was involved in the murder spree with Bathory was tortured and question till they confess every bit of truth, snd as a punishment they sentenced to death
so now it was Elizabeth's turn, officials were struggling thinking that what they gonna do with Elizabeth as she was from the royal family, they cannot just execute her.
so instead of being sentenced to death, she was detained in her castle for the rest of her life,
she was locked in the bricked room, but many believe that she was able to move freely and unhindered in the castle, which nowadays we call a house arrest.
On 24 November 1614, she said to one of her bodyguards that her hands were cold, but he didn't take it seriously and said her to go to sleep, so she went to sleep and found dead the following morning.
she was buried on 25 November 1614 in the church of cjeste. but later her body was moved to her birth home, where it was interred at the Bathory family crypt.
Though in the present-day the location of her body is unknown.
so that was the story of the blood countess, Elizabeth Bathory, do write your opinions regarding this, in the comment section below and if you know something more about her then feel free to share.
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