Elizabeth Bathory - Fact and Fiction
Elizabeth Bathory is often looked upon as one of the true
sources of the vampire legends and stories about her abound.
Although there is some debate as to whether she bathed in the
blood of virgins or simply covered herself in it, there is
little doubt that she used it to help try to keep herself young
and powerful. Fact and fiction are difficult to differentiate in
her tale, but if you combine the known facts with the commonly
believed but less verified stories of her, it makes for
interesting, if bloody, reading.
Elizabeth Bathory was born into a powerful family in Hungary in
1560. Her parents were George and Anna Bathroy and belonged to
one of the oldest, wealthiest aristorcratic families in Hungary.
She had a cousin who became Prime Minister and her Uncle,
Stephan Bathory, became the King of Poland reigning between 1575
- 1586. No doubt in part caused by inbreeding between many of
the noble families, the Bathory family had more than its fair
share of strange and often demented family members. These
included and Uncle who was knows as an ardent Satanist and an
Aunt, Klara, who was openly bisexual (at a time when it was far
from 'acceptable') and Klara always had a house fully of very
willing 'guests' including frequent visits by Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Bathory's introduction to torture and sadism started
early in her life with the first recorded incident being when
she witnessed the death of a visiting gypsy accused of selling
his children. Penalties for such a crime could be harsh, so
after a night of torture in which his screams were heard
throughout the castle, he was taken at dawn for his gruesome
execution. This involved being sown into the belly of a freshly
killed horse and left to die slowly and painfully with the
procedure being witnessed by Elizabeth. Needless to say this
made a lasting impression on Elizabeth and reinforced her
already strongly held belief that lives of those under her were
cheap.
As was often the custom at the time, Elizabeth was married early
at the age of just 15. by an arranged marriage to Ferenc Nadasdy
who became known as 'The Black Knight of Hungary'. After the
marriage they moved to one of the largest of their many
properties, the mountain fortress of Castle Csejthe overlooking
the village of Csejthe in north-western Hungary. Despite his
background, Ferenc was poorly educated and spent much of his
time fighting and warring, leaving Elizabeth very much to her
own devices.
At the time it was common to beat the servants of a household
for small infringements, sometimes severely. However, Elizabeth
soon took this to new heights and by her early 20's had become
very inventive in ways to torture and punish her servants,
savouring their screams and pleas for mercy. Her more inventive
punishments included the use of heated pins inserted into the
face, lips, limbs and fingernails as well as the removal of
pieces of sensitive flesh with glowing pincers. When a more
severe 'punishment' was called for the offending girl would
often be dragged naked into the snow to be doused with iced
water until she froze to death.
Elizabeth's husband was far from innocent with regard to the
tortures. Although he didn't quite share Elizabeth's fondness
for screams and blood he often took a part in the tortures on
the return from his campaigns. Indeed he was a great source of
ideas for new tortures and punishments that Elizabeth could use,
having learnt them on his brutal campaigns. One of her favourite
punishments at this time would be to sew the lips together of
any servant who spoke at the wrong time.
Ferenc Nadasdy's died in 1604, said to have been murdered by a
Harlot in Bucharest, so all of his property and responsibilities
passed on to Elizabeth. Without her husband to restrain her even
a little Elizabeth's tortures and excesses became even more
extreme. Hailed throughout Hungary in her early years as a great
beauty she soon became obsessed with her age and looks. Rumour
has it that when an unfortunate servant girl managed to catch a
knot in Elizabeth's hair whilst brushing it, Elizabeth hit the
girl so hard that blood splashed on her the back of her hand. As
she wiped the blood off, she imagined that the skin touched by
the blood had regained the smooth complexion for which it had
once been famous, thus restoring her youth. Turning to her
friends and accomplices in her torture games, known as Anna
Darvulia, Helena Jo and Dorothea Szentes (Dorka), they assured
between them that indeed the blood of young women, especially
virgins, could be on ready supply to help restore her youth and
looks.
>From that day on Elizabeth Bathory's excesses grew and so did
the number of girls tortured and killed. One of her favourite
games was said to be to place the victim in a spherical cage too
small to stand up in. The torture cage would hang by chains from
the ceiling so that it could be easily swung. The inside of the
cage was covered in spikes and the swinging motion would cause
the victim to thrown around the cage, tearing the flesh and
puncturing body as it scraped against the spikes. Elizabeth was
then said to have stood underneath and covered herself in blood
as it cascaded from the victims body.
It wasn't long before the source of peasant girls started to dry
up and after the death of her friend (and probable lover) Anna
Darvulia, she turned to minor nobility for her sport and
sadistic games. This combined with the body disposal becoming
increasingly careless meant the authorities had no choice but to
act shortly after. For mainly political reasons Elizabeth
escaped death and instead was walled up in her room in the
castle, with just a small hole for light and another for food.
Of her friends and accomplices - Helena Jo and Dorothea Szentes
had their fingers ripped off with red hot pincers before they
were thrown alive into fires. The others were beheaded and their
corpses burnt on the same fires.
Elizabeth was said to have lasted for several years, sealed in
her room, before being found dead one day by a guard in 1614.
The more supersticious believe that her death was the result of
being deprived of virgins blood that gave her youth for so many
years, obviously you're free to make up your own mind on that
issue. During her reign of terror 650 girls and women were
reported to have been tortured and killed.