Erzsébet Báthory

Categories: Cleanup from October 2005 | 1560 births | 1614 deaths | Báthory | History of Hungary | History of Slovakia | Serial killers | Torture

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Elizabeth Báthory (married Elizabeth Nádasdy; Báthory Erzsébét in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová-Nádašdy in Slovak, August 7?, 1560 - August 21, 1614), the Bloody Lady of Čachtice, was a Hungarian countess. She is considered the most famous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She spent most of her life at the Čachtice Castle. She and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing numerous girls and young women (20 - 2000 victims, depending on the source). In 1610, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she stayed until her death four years later. Her nobility permitted her to avoid an immediate execution. However, her alleged collaborators were executed.

Various legends about her life, including the idea that she bathed in or drank the blood of servant girls, are thought by some to have been the origin of numerous vampire myths, the Dracula story, and the trope of the sexually sadistic vampiress in particular.

Image:ErzsébetBáthory.jpg

Contents

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The Báthory lineage

The ancestors of Elizabeth (the Gutkeled clan) came to the Hungarian Kingdom in the mid-11th century. They held power in what is now Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The Gutkeled clan emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the early 13th century and the name Báthory (according to one of their estates Báthor [today Nyírbátor] meaning "valiant") was assumed by that sub-family in 1279. Their power peaked during the mid-16th century, and was virtually gone by 1658. With the death of the wife of George Rákóczi II, they died out in 1680. Elizabeth's parents were from two branches of the Báthory family and the brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the Polish king Stephen Báthory.

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Life

She was born in Nyírbátor in present-day Hungary on August 71560 and died on August 21 1614 in Čachtice (Hungarian: Csejte) in present-day Slovakia.

She spent her childhood at the Ecsed Castle; details from this period are unknown. At the age of 11 she was forced to become engaged with the noble and successful warrior Francis Nádasdy and moved to the Sárvár Castle. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Vranov nad Topľou, who in 1578 became the chief commander of Hungarian troops in their war against the Turks. He was known as a very brave, but also very cruel person. The Turks feared him and called him the Black Beg.

Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Elizabeth was his home, the Čachtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trenčín —- then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) together with the Čachtice country-house and seventeen adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a peasant village and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with outcroppings of the Carpathians. In 1602, Elizabeth’s husband definitively bought the castle from the emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a property of the Nádasdys. Since battles with the Turks occupied her husband, Elizabeth became the lady of the castle. At this time she was able to read and write in four languages.

Elizabeth had six children though two of them died at an early age:

  • Anastasia Báthory, illegitimate daughter (born 1574).
  • Anna Nádasdy (born c. 1585).
  • Katalin (Katherina) Nádasdy (born c. 1594).
  • Miklos.
  • Orsolia (Orsika) Nádasdy.
  • Paul Nádasdy (1598 - 1650).

Her husband died in 1602 or 1604, murdered by a harlot in Bucharest, to whom he owed money.

It is unknown when Elizabeth started to kill young women, but if she did, she did so at some time between 1585 to 1610. Both her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, but they did not intervene. She was constantly improving her torturing methods and her brutality was increasing. The people living around her castle hated her so much that she only left the castle under an armed escort. However, she did torture some girls at her properties in Sárvár and Keresztúr. Her victims were initially local female peasants, but later she also killed daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her castle by their parents to learn noble manners. In the early 17th century, parents of substantial position often wished their daughters to be educated in the social graces and etiquette. When it became known in the surroundings what she was (probably) doing, she had to send “assistants“ to bring young women from more distant regions. As rumours spread throughout the Hungarian Kingdom, she had to have girls kidnapped in order to get them.

It was only after the parish priest of Čachtice and monks in (relatively) nearby Vienna had lodged several complaints with the ruling class in Vienna about cries from the castle that the (new) emperor Matthias II assigned George Thurzo, the palatine of Hungary, to investigate the complaints. Thurzo and his men invaded Čachtice in the morning of December 29 1610 and caught Elizabeth in the act in the Čachtice country-house – she was torturing several girls. She and four collaborators were charged with sadistic torture, as well as mass murder. Elizabeth was sealed into a closet of her castle without a trial and died there on August 21 1614. For the fates of her collaborators see below.

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Guilt

More than 300 people were interrogated before her death between 1611 and 1614. Despite several interventions by the Hungarian king, a regular trial never took place and the case remained open. The reason for this might have been that the palatine Thurzo did not want a trial against a member of the high gentry (with which he was reproached at the time). Moreover, Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Báthory was the ruler of Transylvania and Thurzo did not want to get into troubles with Transylvania. And finally, Thurzo’s properties were adjacent to those of Elizabeth and Thurzo was interested in her properties.

Some sources mention the possibility that she was falsely convicted by the political opponents of the family, mainly because the Báthory family owned large areas of land and were wealthy. The existing historical documents show lack of investigation, omitted evidence and decisions kept in tight local political circles. Some of the most dramatic charges against her, that of Satanism and vampirism, are thought to have been either deliberate falsehoods or folklore that grew up around an unliked figure. Some people claim that the vampire legends could have been exaggerations of actual medical help provided for peasants; at that age it was very unusual that a noble cared about the health of her servants, and bloodletting was practiced by medical authorities for many years. Modern supporters of the vampire legends attached to her life are either unaware of or choose to ignore historical documents and letters that would possibly ruin the otherwise dramatic tales.

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Motives

Her deviation might have genetic reasons, because many of both her father’s and her mother’s ancestors were very brutal individuals (e. g. the Transylvanian ruler Sigismund Báthory who liked to have his retainers killed). Alternatively, it is believed that the Báthory family was inbred and that this may have helped cause various psychotic disorders that the family was known to have.

Only later legends say that she was killing the girls in order to bathe in their blood and, thus, stay forever young or improve her complexion.

It should be noted, however, that brutality was relatively widespread at the time. People arrested under suspicion of crimes and sometimes even witnesses were tortured for their confessions, and punishment of the poor or of political enemies was often death.

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Collaborators

Elizabeth's collaborators were Dorottya Szentes [Dorota Sentéšová], János Ujváry (called Fickó) [Ján Ujvári], Ilona Jó and Katarína Benická [Katalin Benick]. Except for Katarína (whose guilt could not be proven), they were all executed by being burnt alive at Bytča on January 7 1611.

Their confessions and testimony against Báthory were taken under torture by Thurzo.

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Legends

The following lists some of the best known legends about Elizabeth Báthory. Although some are partly based on statements made by those interrogated after 1610, their truthfulness cannot be verified.

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Torture

While interrogating Turks, her husband employed a device of torture: articulated claw-like pincers of silver; which, when fastened to a whip, would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that he abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle.

Aware of Báthory's preoccupations, her aunt had introduced her to the flagellation of others, a taste she quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's silver claws, she generously indulged herself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slavic debtors. She preferred to whip her subjects on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, so that she could watch their faces contort in horror at their fate.

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Satanism

Under torture, alleged conspirators of Báthory confessed to being witches.

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Bloodbath

Various rumours also had it that she used to bathe in blood. This was supposedly virgin's blood, which she then believed to be healthy for her skin. She was also accused of drinking their blood to help her attain inner beauty. She was also said to have bathed in semen.

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Lesbianism

Many works of fiction portray the countess as bisexual or exclusively lesbian.

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References

  • McNally, Raymond T.: Dracula was a woman: in search of the blood countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill, 1983. ISBN 0070456712
  • Farin, Michael: Heroine des Grauens. Elisabeth Báthory. Munich: P. Kirchheim 2003. ISBN 3-87410-038-3 (all relevant sources in German translation).
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External links

el:Ελισάβετ Μπάτορι es:Erzsébet Báthory eo:BÁTHORY Erzsébet fr:Erzsébet Báthory gd:Ealasaid Báthory gl:Erzsébet Báthory nl:Elisabeth Báthory pl:Elżbieta Batory pt:Erzsébet Báthory sk:Alžbeta Bátoriová fi:Erzsébet Báthory sv:Elisabeth Bathory