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Elizabeth Bathory 1560-1614

Journal Entry: Mon Jan 15, 2007, 10:31 AM Countess Elizabeth Bthory (Bthory Erzsbet in Hungarian, Albeta Btoriov (-Ndady in Slovak), Elbieta Batory in Polish, August 7?, 1560 August 21, 1614), the Bloody Lady of achtice, was a Hungarian countess who lived in the achtice Castle near Trenn, in present-day Slovakia, relative of king of Poland and prince of Transylvania, Stefan Batory.

In order to improve her complexion and also to maintain her failing grasp on her youth and vitality, she slaughtered six hundred innocent young women from her tiny mountain principality... She is considered the most infamous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She spent most of her life at the achtice Castle. After her husband's death, she and her four alleged collaborators were accused of torturing and killing numerous girls and young women. In 1611, she was imprisoned in achtice Castle, where she remained until her death three years later. Her nobility allowed her to avoid trial and execution. However, three of her four alleged collaborators were put to death. The Bthory case inspired many stories, featuring the Countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain her youth. This inspired nicknames like the Blood Countess. Life Bthory was born in Nyrbtor, Hungary, on August 7, 1560 and died on August 21, 1614 in achtice (Csejte, Schchtitz), present-day Slovakia. She spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. At the age of 11 she was engaged to Ferencz Ndasdy and moved to Ndasdy Castle in Srvr. In 1575, she married Ndasdy in Vranov nad Topou. In 1578, he became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Turks. He was considered brave, but cruel. The Turks feared him and called him the "Black Beg". The noble Bthory family stemmed from the Hun Gutkeled clan which held power in broad areas of east central Europe (in those places now known as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania), and had emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the first half of the 13th century. Abandoning their tribal roots, they assumed the name of one of their estates (Btor meaning 'valiant') as a family name. Their power rose to reach a zenith by the mid 16th century, but declined and faded to die out completely by 1658. Great kings,

princes, members of the judiciary, as well as holders of ecclesiastical and civil posts were among the ranks of the Bthorys. Adopting an exalted name did not alter some basic familial preferences among lesser lights however, and in order to consolidate more tenuous clingings to influence there was considerable intermarriage amongst the Bthory family, with some of the usual problems of this practice produced as a result. Unfortunately, beyond the 'usual problems' some extraordinary difficulties arose (namely hideous psychoses) and several "evil geniuses" appeared, the notorious and sadistic Erzsbet the most prominent of them. Unusual for one of her social status, she was a fit and active child. Raised as Magyar royalty, as a young maid she was quite beautiful; delicate in her features, slender of build, tall for the time, but her personality did not attain the same measure of fortuitous development. In her own opinion her most outstanding feature was her often commented upon gloriously creamy complexion. Although others were not really so equally impressed with the quality of her rather ordinary skin, they offered copious praise if they knew what was good for them, as Erzsbet did not accept unenthusiastic half-measures of adulation; and she was vindictive. She was only 15 when she was 'married off' for political gain and position to a rough soldier of (nevertheless) aristocratic stock and manner. By reason of the marriage, she became the lady of the Castle of Csejthe, his home, situated deep in the Carpathian mountains of what is now central Romania, but which then was known only as Transylvania. Located near no exciting urban center, the castle was surrounded by a village of simple peasants and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with the jagged outcroppings of the frozen Carpathians. While the picturesque setting embraced a bucolic tapestry of ideal small fields, meandering stone walls, quaint cottages, a few satisfied brown cows, and goats with tinkling bells about their necks scampering amongst the chickens, life here was uneventful. The castle was typical for its day and place: cold, dun, gloomy, damp, dark; unlike the cozy thatched houses of the peasants below. While her husband was pursuing his passion, the soldier business, and off on various campaigns, for Elizabeth -- who did not wish to amuse herself in the out-of-doors where those loutish peons were grubbing in the mud -- life became poundingly boring in very short order. Being an energetic teenager, although one with a view and experience of life which was 'special,' she set about finding novel amusements to occupy her days. Her tastes were of a certain slant, and consequently she began to gather about herself (as her ample financial resources readily accommodated) persons of peculiar and sinister arts. These she welcomed into her presence, affording them commodious lodging and lavish attention to each of their most singular needs and interests. Among them were those who claimed to be witches, sorcerers, seers, wizards, alchemists, and others who practiced the most depraved deeds in league with the Devil and too painful to mention even in a story such as this. They taught her their crafts in intimate detail and she was enthralled. But learning such unspeakable things was not enough. War in the 16th century was a brutal affair. While fashionably fighting the Turks and attempting to gain information from prisoners captured, her husband employed a horrid device of torture: clever articulated claw-like pincers, fashioned of hardened silver; which, when fastened to a stout whip would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that even he, a cruel man, abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle as he departed on yet another heroic foray. Ndasdys wedding gift to Bthory was his home, achtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trenn, then part of Royal Hungary), together with the achtice country house and seventeen adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a village and agricultural lands, bordered by outcrops of the Carpathian Mountains. In 1602, Bthorys husband finally bought the castle from Emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a private property of the Ndasdy family. With her husband away at war, Bthory ran the castle's affairs and local defences. An educated woman who could read and write in four languages,

her job was to keep the Turks away from Vienna at the behest of the Habsburgs who ruled Royal Hungary. The threat was significant, for the village of Cachtice had been plundered by the Turks in 1599. Srvr was even more dangerous, as it was located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman Hungary. This was during the height of the Long War, the result of which kept the Turks back from Vienna for several decades and rendered them a minimal threat to the West during the duration of the Thirty Years War. Bthory had six children. Two of them died at an early age: * Anastasia Bthory, illegitimate daughter (born 1574). * Anna Ndasdy (born c. 1585). * Katalin (Katherina) Ndasdy (born c. 1594). * Mikls. * Orsolya (Orsika) Ndasdy. * Paul Ndasdy (1598 - 1650). Her husband died in either 1602 or 1604. Various sources attribute his death to an illness, to a murder at the hands of a prostitute, or to an injury sustained in battle. Another view holds that he was murdered by General Giorgio Basta, whose reign of terror in Transylvania at that time led to a sharp decline in the Bthory family's power. Hapsburg Emperor Matthias II refused to pay her the debt he owed Nadasdy. Elizabeth was not alone in her 'unusual' interests. Aware of Elizabeth's complex preoccupations, and amused by them, her aunt had introduced her also to the pleasures of flagellation (enacted upon desolate others of course), a taste Elizabeth quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's heinous silver claws, she generously indulged herself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slav debtors from her own dungeons. The more shrill their screams and the more copious the blood, the more exquisite and orgasmic her amusement. She preferred to whip her 'subjects' on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, not only for the increased damage potential, but so that she could gleefully watch their faces contort in horror at their most grim and burning fate. Her husband died in 1604 (some say 1602) of stab wounds imposed on him by a harlot in Bucharest whom he had not paid, and Elizabeth immediately dreamed of a lover to replace him, since she never cared for him in the first place -- so much for her mourning. However, the mirror showed her that her prurient indulgences, as well as time, had taken their toll on her appearance. Her 'angelic' complexion had long since faded to something less than perfection; she had reached 43. Her desire for a lover did not fade; she raged deep within, cursing time. Such a simple interest as a new husband was not to rule the day, it was merely a detail. With the demise of her husband, prowling highly placed men began to smell a ripe opportunity to seize the power and influence encapsulated in the Bthory name; likely by acquiring her and then eliminating her. As well, she was next in line to become King of Poland, and she wanted the job. This seeming anomaly was possible within the governing constructs of the time, and the office of queen held no political weight. At the same time, she was educated beyond all those around her, reading and writing four languages while the prince of Transylvania was an illiterate boor (who bathed regularly -- every year on his birthday). Maintaining her youth and vitality became central to this developing plot; the absolute divine right to power she understood was hers to keep and protect would be essential to the attainment of all that she sought. Vanity, sexual desire, drive for political power all were seamlessly blended into a central primordial passion. If she lost her youth, she could forfeit all. Her mood deteriorated markedly and one day, as she viciously struck a servant girl for a minor oversight, she drew blood when her pointed nails raked the girl's cheek. The wound was serious enough that some of the blood got onto Elizabeth's skin. Later, Elizabeth was quite sure that that part of her own body - where the girl's blood had dropped - looked fresher somehow; younger, brighter and more pliant.

Immediately she consulted her alchemists for their opinion on the phenomenon. They, of course, were enjoying her hospitality and did not wish to disappoint, so, fortunately, they did recall a case many many years before and in a distant place where the blood of a young virgin had caused a similar effect on an aged (but generous) personage of nobility and good grace. With such clear evidence at hand, Elizabeth was convinced that here was a brilliant discovery; a method to restore and preserve her youthful glow forever, or at least until she got what she wanted. The advice of her 'beauty consultant,' a woman named Katarina, concurred that her clever realization was most surely sound. Elizabeth reasoned that if a little was good, then a lot would be better: she firmly believed that if she bathed in the blood of young virgins -- and in the case of especially pretty ones, drank it -- she would be gloriously beautiful and strong once again. For years, Elizabeth's trusted helper in her various secret pleasures had been Dorotta Szentes. Now with her, and other 'witches' to help carry the load, Elizabeth roamed the countryside by night, hunting for suitable virginal girls as raw material for her difficult quest. When back in the castle, each batch of young girls would be hung, alive and naked, upside-down by chains wrapped around their ankles. Their throats would be slit and all of their blood drained for Elizabeth's bath, to be taken while the heat of their young bodies still remained in the thickening and sticky crimson pool. And every now and then, a really lovely young girl would be obtained. As a special treat, Elizabeth would drink the child's blood: at first from a golden flask, but later, as her taste for it increased, directly from the stream, as the writhing and whimpering body hung from the rafters, turning pale. Although she had held off her political foes, after five years of this enterprise Elizabeth at last began to realize that the blood of peasant girls was having little effect on the quality of her skin. Obviously such blood was defective and better blood was required. In early 17th century Transylvania, parents of substantial position wished their daughters to be educated in the appropriate social graces and etiquettes, so that they might gain the 'right' connections when ripe. Here was an opportunity. In 1609, Elizabeth established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time from proper families, and to correctly finish their educations. Indeed, their educations were finished. Assisted by Dorotta Szentes (known also by the graceful diminutive "Dorka") these poor students were consumed in exactly the same beastly fashion as the anguished peasant girls who preceded them. This was too easy, and Elizabeth became careless in her actions for the first time in her dreadful career. During a frenzy of lust, four drained bodies were thrown off the walls of the castle. The error was realized too late, for villagers had already seen, collected, and begun to identify the girls. The disappearance of all those young women began to be solved; the secret was finished. Word of this horror spread rapidly and soon reached the Hungarian Emperor, Matthias II, who immediately ordered that the Countess be placed on public trial. But, her aristocratic status did not allow that she be arrested. Parliament at once passed a new Act to reverse this privilege of station (lest she slip from their hands) and Elizabeth was brought before a formal hearing in 1610. Interestingly, no authority seemed inclined to offer any form of attention to these matters when merely peasant girls had been the subject of Elizabeth's blood-letting for five years previous. Criminal trial and death

It is believed that Elizabeth Bthory tortured and killed an indefinite number of young women, though it is often cited as being in the hundreds, between the years 1585 and 1610. Although her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, they did not directly intervene. After her husband's death any restraints he may have imposed on her (or she on herself) seemed completely removed. It should be noted that besides supporting Giorgio Basta's marauding in Transylvania, the Habsburg King also refused to pay her the debt he had owed her fallen husband, this may have caused a change in her already violent character. Her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to achtice by offers of well-paid work. Later she may have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her castle by their parents to learn high society etiquette. Abductions seem to have occurred as well. Investigation of her actions Between 1602 and 1604, Lutheran parish priest Istvn Magyari complained about atrocities both publicly and with the court in Vienna, after rumours had spread. The authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias II assigned Juraj Thurz (Hungarian: Gyrgy Thurz), the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurz ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610. Even before obtaining the results, Thurz debated further proceedings with Bthory's son Paul and two of her sons in law. In case of a trial and execution, considerable property would have been seized by the crown, a public scandal would have been caused, and a noble and influential family disgraced. Bthorys family was then extremely powerful: her relative Gabriel Bthory was the ruler of Transylvania. It was decided that Elizabeth Bthory should be kept under strict house arrest, but that further punishment should be avoided. Thurz went to arrest Bthory on December 29, 1610. According to a letter by Thurz to his wife, his party found one girl dead and one dying. Another woman was found wounded, others locked up. Bthory remained prisoner in her own castle from that point on. A trial of her collaborators was hastily prepared and held on January 7, 1611 at Byta. Collaborators A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia, possibly a local, is rumoured to have influenced much of Bthory's early sadistic career, but apparently died at an earlier time. Bthory's main collaborators after Anna's death were her maids: * Dorottya Szentes, Dorota Sentov, or Dork * Ilona J, or Helena Jo * Katalin Benick, or Katarna Benick * the dwarf or youth Jnos jvry, Jn Ujvri, or Fik. Except for Benick, they were all executed at Byta on January 7, 1611. Benick's guilt could not be proven. Recorded testimony implies that she had been dominated and bullied by the other women. Two of the convicted had their fingers severed before being thrown onto a blazing fire, while Fick, whose guilt was deemed the lesser, 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. By the final count, 600 girls had vanished; Elizabeth admitted nothing. Dorka and her witches were burned

alive, but the Countess, by reason of her noble birth, could not be executed. Katarina was somehow seen as another victim, and was set free. So, Elizabeth was damned to a death while alive. Sealed into a tiny closet of her castle -- and never let out -she died four years later. Elizabeth did not ever utter even a single word of regret, or remorse. A note of interest: When Elizabeth was 25 years old, Stephan Bthory (a prince of Transylvania and her uncle) was elected King of Poland. Documented crimes Testimonies collected in 1610 and 1611 contain a total of over 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four persons indicted, as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Eye-witnesses include the castellan and other personnel of Bthory's Srvr castle. Some witnesses named relatives that died while in Bthory's gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations. The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described most consistently included: * severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death, * burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia, * freezing to death or * starving of victims. Biting and the use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court. According to the defendants, Bthory tortured and killed her victims not only at achtice, but also on her properties in Bcko, Srvr, Keresztr, Pozsony (Bratislava) and Vienna, and even en route between these locations. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Bthory with young girls. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force. One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Bthory herself. This book was never mentioned anywhere else, nor was it ever discovered. However, this number became part of the legend surrounding Bthory. The estimated number of victims differs greatly. Szentes and Fik reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Srvr castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 and 200. Last years and death King Matthias II urged Thurz to bring Bthory herself to trial. The same two notaries were sent to collect further witness accounts. Letters exchanged between the King and his Palatine from 1611 to 1613 suggest that Thurz was not keen to advance the case against Bthory herself, and she was never brought to court. On August 21, 1614 Bthory died in her castle. She was buried in the church of achtice.

Modern perspectives Lszl Nagy and others have tried to establish Elizabeth Bthory as victim of a conspiracy, a view refuted by others. McNally dismisses "attempts to whitewash Elizabeth's reputation" as "nationalistic in tone and idiosyncratic in argumentation." Elizabeth Bthory in folklore and literature 18th and 19th century: the Blood Countess The case of Elizabeth Bthory inspired numerous stories and fairy tales. Eighteenth and 19th century writers liberally added or omitted elements of the narrative. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth. Frequently, the cruel countess would discover the secret of blood bathing when she slapped a female servant in rage, splashing parts of her own skin with blood. Upon removal of the blood, that portion of skin would seem younger and more beautiful than before. This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar Lszl Turczis Tragica historia, the first written account of the Bthory case. When quoting him in his 1742 history book, Matthias Bel was sceptical about this particular detail, he nevertheless helped the legend to spread. Subsequent writers of history and fiction alike often identified vanity as the sole motivation for Bthory's crimes. Modern historians Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally have concluded that the theory Bthory murdered on account of her vanity sprung up from contemporary prejudices about gender roles. Women were not believed to be capable of violence for its own sake. At the beginning of the 19th century, this certainty was questioned, and sadistic pleasure was considered a plausible motive for Bthory's crimes. In 1817, the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time, demonstrating that the bloodbaths were legend rather than fact. The legend nonetheless persisted in the popular imagination. Some versions of the story were told with the purpose of denouncing female vanity, while other versions aimed to entertain or thrill their audience. Some versions of the story incorporated more elaborate torture chamber fantasies, such as the use of an iron maiden, which were not based on the evidence from Bthory's trial. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name inspired the term masochism, was inspired by the Bthory legend to write his 1874 novella Ewige Jugend ("eternal youth"). Elizabeth Bthory and the vampire myth The emergence of the bloodbath myth coincided with the vampire scares that haunted Europe in the early 18th century, reaching even into educated and scientific circles. The strong connection between the bloodbath myth and vampire myth was not made until the 1970s. The first connections were made to promote works of fiction by linking them to the already commercially successful Dracula story. Thus a 1970 movie based on Bthory and the bloodbath myth was titled Countess Dracula. Some Bthory biographers, McNally in particular, have tried to establish the bloodbath myth and the historical Elizabeth Bthory as a source of influence for Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, pointing to similarities in settings and motifs and the fact that Stoker might have read about her. This theory is strongly refuted by other authors. Meanwhile Bthory has become an influence for modern vampire literature or movies and their subgenres.

In popular culture Film There have been several movies about Elizabeth Bthory: * 1970 - Necropolis (Franco Brocani) * 1970 - Countess Dracula (Peter Sasdy) (with Ingrid Pitt) * 1971 - Les Levres rouges/Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kummel) * 1973 - Ceremonia sangrienta/Blood Castle (Jorge Grau) * 1973 - El Retorno de Walpurgis/Curse of the Devil (Carlos Aured) * 1974 - Contes Immoraux/Immoral Tales (Walerian Borowczyk) (with Paloma Picasso) * 1975 - Albeta Hrozn alebo Krw story/Elisabeth the Terrible or The Krw Story (Stanislav tepka) * 1980 - Krvav pani/The Bloody Lady (Viktor Kubal) * 1980 - El Retorno del Hombre-Lobo/Night of the Werewolf (Jacinto Molina) * 1988 - The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau (Dennis Berry) * 2000 - Bathory (Brian Topping) * 2002 - Killer Love (Lloyd A. Simandl) * 2004 - Tomb of the Werewolf (Fred Olen Ray) * 2004 - Eternal (Wilhelm Liebenberg, Federico Sanchez) * 2005 - The Brothers Grimm - (Ehren Kruger, Terry Gilliam) * 2005 - Night Fangs - (Ricardo Islas) * 2006 - Stay Alive (William Brent Bell) * 2006 - Metamorphosis (Jen Hodi) * 2007 - Four different films are said to be in progess Music * The black metal band Bathory is named after her. Their songs dedicated to her include Woman of Dark Desires. * The gothic extreme metal band Cradle of Filth dedicated their album Cruelty and the Beast (1998) entirely to her. Also in their album Dusk and her embrace Bthory is the main theme. Songs about Elizabeth Bthory include: * Elizabeth by progressive power metal band Kamelot * Countess Bathory by British thrash metal band Venom * Elisabeth Bathory by Hungarian black metal band Tormentor, which was covered by the black metal band Dissection * Bathory's Sainthood by American hardcore band Boy Sets Fire (2003) * Bathory Erzsebet by experimental doom metal band Sunn O))) * Countess Erszebeth Nadasdy by Finnish black metal band Barathrum * Villa Vampiria by death metal band God Dethroned * Transylvanian Pearl by Russian metal band Nocticula * The Sonology Of Sex II (Le Comtesse De Sang) by the British industrial band Clock DVA * Woman of Dark Desires by black metal band Marduk (Bathory cover). Fiction * Bthory is a major character in the alternative history/fantasy novel This Rough Magic by Eric Flint, Dave Freer and Mercedes Lackey. * The Blood Countess is a novel by Andrei Codrescu.

* The Bloody Countess by Alejandra Pizarnik was a short gothic work of fiction (1968, reprinted in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, ed. Chris Baldick) * Bthory is an ancestor of the protagonist of the Half/Life series by Wm Mark Simmons; significantly in the second book. * In the science fiction short story Rumfuddle by Jack Vance, a baby who would have grown up to be Elizabeth Bthory is taken to a different time and place in history. * In the book Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong, the antagonists, two vampires, practice human sacrifice and bathe in the blood of their victims, hoping to gain immortality. The passage describing their acts references Elizabeth Bathory. * In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer book Tales of the Slayer vol. 1, she is the villain in the story "Die Blutgrafin". * In "Bloodlust of the Countess" a small series of short stories, tells much about the Vampire countess Elizabeth Bartley. In the first, it tells of how she Vampirised the wife of Eric LeCarde. In the second, she attempts to seduce John Morris. Games Allusions to Elizabeth Bthory or the bloodbath myth are found * In the VCR/DVD boardgame Atmosfear: a playable character portrayed as a vampiress * In the video game Castlevania: Bloodlines: a character named Elizabeth Bartley * In the PC game Diablo II: one of the quests * In the online role-playing game Ragnarok Online: a monster known as Bathory * In the online role-playing game EverQuest II: a quest called The Blood Countess Rises * In the VHS Board Game, Nightmare: a character named Elizabeth Bathory, the Vampire. * In the video game Bloodrayne: A boss character--Dr. Bathory Mengele, a sadistic doctor/researcher working for the SS--claims her as an ancestor. Toys Bthory is featured in McFarlane Toys 6 Faces of Madness series, a collection of action figures, including Rasputin and Vlad the Impaler. Bthory is depicted bathing in blood while the heads of some of her victims are impaled in a candelabrum.