Elizabeth Bathory or Erzsebet Bathory

460 years, that is how long ago it has been since Elizabeth Bathory was born. There is much lore behind this name and it is hard to know what is true and what is not. In this post we are going to explore some of her biography, accusations made against her as well as how she may not have been as guilty as some may have believed. 

Also known as the “blood countess,” she was born on August 7th, 1560 in the Kingdom of Hungary. She was born to Baron George VI Bathory and Baroness Anna Bathory. Her mother was related to Stephen Bathory, King of Poland, grand duke of Lithuania and the prince of Transylvania. It is believed that Elizabeth suffered from epilepsy and that she had tantrums as a child. Many historical accounts claimed that a young Elizabeth once witnessed a thief being sewed into the stomach of a horse as punishment. Many use this as a way to explain where her cruelty came from. There is also a rumor which should be mentioned, although there is no real record of it, that as a young girl she gave birth to the daughter of a peasant boy. This supposed child was given away and never to be seen again. 

While still young Elizabeth was betrothed to Count Ferencz Nadasdy and married him in 1575 at the age of 15. Elizabeth kept the name Bathory despite marrying her husband because she was socially in higher standing than him. Together they lived in Csejte Castle, which Nadasady gave to Elizabeth as a wedding gift. Elizabeth and her husband had 4 children: Paul, Anna, Ursula and Katherine.  In 1578 her husband became chief commander of the Hungarian Army and was sent on a campaign against the Ottoman Empire. This left Elizabeth in charge of not only their home but also of the local village. 

It was around this time that rumors began to circulate around the servants and peasants that Elizabeth was indulging in something sinister. Some believe that it was actually Nadasdy who taught Elizabeth her torture methods but again, there are conflicting arguments and historians are not entirely sure of his knowledge about this. One thing however is for certain, Elizabeth was torturing girls. In 1604 Nadasdy died at the age of 48 and Elizabeth’s crimes became more noticeable and more gruesome. It is believed that she had at least 650 victims, most of which were peasant girls who came to work in her castle. She eventually decided that she wanted to have a higher class of girls who she could torture and she opened a school for nobles to send their daughters to be educated by her. Elizabeth, however, seemed to have other plans.  It is said that prior to this Elizabeth only tortured her victims but soon she began to murder them. It was when she began targeting the noble girls that people truly started paying more attention to the rumors of torture and murder. There are many stories out there of how she tortured these girls and they are absolutely horrid. Although some of these stories seem to be embellished such as the story of her bathing in blood which wasn’t listed in the charges against her and seems to have been first mentioned about 100 years after Elizabeth’s death. 

* There are links provided if you’d like to go find some of those stories, however I don’t think it is absolutely necessary for me to go into detail here.*

Elizabeth’s noble status protected her for some time against the accusations but in 1610 Count GyorgyThurso began an investigation against Elizabeth. Thurso was a friend of Elizabeth’s late husband and he actually had been asked by Nasasdy to watch over Elizabeth and his children’s best interests. Thurso however had been asked to lead this investigation by King Matthias II of Hungary and Thurso’s loyalty to his king outweighed his loyalty to his friend. Thurso collected evidence from about 300 witnesses who brought horrific charges against Elizabeth. Some of these charges included cannibalism. Elizabeth was eventually charged with the deaths of 80 girls and the 650 figure comes from one witness who claimed to have seen that number in a ledger kept by Elizabeth. This ledger or diary was never found. 

Elizabeth seems to have had 4 of her servants as her accomplices in this reign of terror. Although the servants denied helping with the torture and murders they did admit guilt to helping Elizabeth get rid of the bodies. Not only did they claim they had no hand in this they also shifted blame to another servant, Darvulia, who had already died by this point. Three of the servants were executed and one was given life imprisonment. After these executions the investigation into Elizabeth continued. Elizabeth’s noble status protected her from being put on trial herself and she was instead placed under house arrest in her castle where she was to stay until her death 4 years later in 1614. It is said that her last words were complaining that her hands were cold to her guard who responded to her by telling her to lay down, which she did and she never woke back up. 

Although she was found guilty it is hard to know if the charges were all true. King Matthias II was indebted to Elizabeth’s husband and upon his death he then owed that debt to Elizabeth. This may have been one of his reasons for wanting to begin the investigation against her. Not only would he not owe the money back but if she was put to death the king could take her lands. However, Elizabeth’s family intervened and instead she was imprisoned which now meant that her family members could now take possession of her wealth.  It seems that there is evidence that her son-in-law was aware of Elizabeth’s coming arrest. 

Elizabeth was not completely guilty but also was not innocent; there is a letter written by a priest in 1602 that spoke of Elizabeth’s and Nasady’s cruelty towards their servants. It is hard to know the truth of what happened almost 400 years ago and although there are court archives that survive many of those testimonies are either hearsay or given under torture. What we do know to be true is that Elizabeth Bathory was a woman of great wealth who ruled her estates without a man by her side, who was owed money by multiple powerful men and this led to her reputation becoming that of a horror story. What do you think about Elizabeth's story? Please leave a comment or message me on Instagram.

Sources: 

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/elizabeth-bathory

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabeth-bathory.htm

https://allthatsinteresting.com/elizabeth-bathory-true-story

https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/hungarian-countess-serial-killer1.htm

https://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/erzebet.html

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