Elizabeth Báthory

Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (, ; , 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the powerful House of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia). Báthory and four of her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and women from 1590 to 1610. Bathory and her cohorts were charged for 80 counts of murder and were convicted. Her servants were put on trial and executed, whereas Báthory was imprisoned within the Castle of Csejte (Čachtice) until she died in her sleep in 1614. Other scholars suggest that the accusations were a spectacle to destroy her family's influence in the region, which was considered a threat to the political interests of her neighbours, including the Habsburg empire.

Stories about Báthory quickly became part of national folklore. Legends describing her vampiric tendencies, such as the tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, were based on rumours and only recorded as supposedly factual over a century after her death. Although these stories were repeated by at least three historians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they are considered unreliable by modern historians. Some insist that Elizabeth's story inspired Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897), although Stoker's notes on the novel provided no direct evidence to support this hypothesis. Nicknames and literary epithets attributed to her include Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

Biography

Early life and education

thumb|left|Ecsed, the lake and the old castle

Elizabeth was born in 1560 on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Royal Hungary, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was Baron George VI Báthory (d. 1570), of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory (d. 1566), who had been ruling Voivode of Transylvania. Her paternal great-grandparents were Anna Radziwiłł, a member of the influential Polish-Lithuanian Radziwiłł family, and Konrad the Red, Duke of Masovia and Warsaw, who was a member of the Piast dynasty. Her mother was Baroness Anna Báthory of Somlyó (1537–1570), member of the other line of the Báthory family, daughter of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó, Palatine of Hungary. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the niece of Stephen Báthory (1533–1586), Prince of Transylvania, who became the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

As a child, Báthory had multiple seizures that may have been caused by epilepsy. At the time, symptoms relating to epilepsy were diagnosed as falling sickness and treatments included rubbing blood of a non-sufferer on the lips of an epileptic or giving the epileptic a mix of a non-sufferer's blood and piece of skull as their episode ended.

At the age of 13, before her first marriage, Báthory allegedly gave birth to a child. In 1610, Matthias II assigned György Thurzó, the devoutly Lutheran Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries, András Keresztúry and Mózes Cziráky, to collect evidence in March 1610. By October 1610 they had collected 52 witness statements; These atrocities usually included: severe beatings with cudgels, needles inserted into lips, arms, shoulders, and fingernails, flesh cut out from the buttocks and from between the shoulders, and then roasted. Many victims were locked in the Castle's dungeons and starved for weeks. Red hot pokers and irons were used to scorch the arms and abdomen of the victims, knives plunged into arms and feet, fingers cut off with scissors and shears, and girls made to stand naked in the winter cold and then doused with water till they froze to death.

Critically, there were a handful of individuals who provided first-hand accounts of Bathory's crimes at the trial. Three of these individuals included Jakab Szivassy, Gergely Paztory, and Benedek Deseo. Deseo was the head of "The Lord's staff" at Castle Cjesthe and was responsible for operations at the castle. Since Deseo and Szivassy were around Bathory the most, they gave the most detailed confessions of what they witnessed at their time of service at Castle Cjesthe. These three men were not tortured into confessions, unlike Bathory's accomplices (Llona, Janos, Dorrthea, etc.). After Deseo was sworn in, he testified that Bathory "took a shoemaker's daughter named 'Illonka', stripped her naked and began to cruelly torment her by taking a knife, and beginning with the fingers, shoved the knife into both arms up the arms, then flogging her over again, then took a burning candle to her and burned her skin, and continued to torment her until she put an end to her life". He also testified that Bathory would "stick a sewing needle in her victims arms and use it to cut her way up the arm of a girl who could not sew." Deseo also testified that Bathory would withhold food and water from her victims until they became very thirsty.

Gergely Paztory was a court judge at Castle Sarvar for Elizabeth Bathory and was forty years old when he was sworn in and testified. He testified that a "young woman from Bratislava named Modl accompanied Bathory and Paztory on a trip to Fuzer". He continued, "The Lady Bathory forced her to dress up and act like a young girl, Modl pleaded for forgiveness as she could not act like a young girl since she is already married and has a child". Following this, in Jakab Szivassy's testimony, Jakab added that the "young woman called Modl, since she did not want to be a girl, Bathory had cut out her flesh and roasted it". After this incident, she continued to torment Modl until she was killed at Sarvar. These testimonies were collected by Mozes Cziraky and was published on 14 December 1611, in his report on the orders of King Matthias II.

Nobleman Martinus Chanady who lived in the town of Beckov was 48 years old when he was sworn in and interrogated. He testified that himself and Janós Belanczky had visited the Lady Widow Nadasdy in Beckov so that Janós could get his sister back from Bathory. Bathory had refused to give Janós' sister back when they asked. Janós then demanded that he at least see her, after waiting for nearly an hour, Janós sister finally appeared but was severely weakened because of the great pain from torture and torment, so much so that she could barely hold out her hands and was bitterly crying and whining. After this it was said that Janós' sister died and was buried in Beckov. Martinus also claimed that he knew Bathory had killed the daughters of a nobleman named Georgius Tukynzky and another nobleman named Benedictus Barbel. Martinus also claimed that he heard how Bathory had torn the flesh of virgins, grounded it into minced meat and allowed to be served before them. This testimony was collected by András of Keresztúr and was published on 28 July 1611, on the orders of King Matthias II.

Bathory is said to have tortured or killed peasants for years; their disappearances were not likely to provoke an investigation. Several authors, such as László Nagy and Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss, have argued that Elizabeth Báthory was a victim of a politically motivated frameup. Nagy argued that the proceedings against Báthory were largely politically motivated, possibly due to her extensive wealth and ownership of large areas of land in Hungary, which increased after the death of her husband. At that time, Hungary was embroiled in religious and political conflicts, especially relating to the wars with the Ottoman Empire, the spread of Protestantism and the extension of Habsburg power and political centralization at the expense of the military and political power of Austria and Hungary's noble houses. The Habsburgs were Catholic and Báthory was a Calvinist.

Thurzó, the investigator into the accusations, had political state ambitions that would benefit from disgracing Báthory. An ally of King Matthias, he had been involved in an assassination attempt on Báthory's cousin Prince Gábor, and he had ambitions for his son to become Prince of Transylvania, in competition with Elizabeth Báthory's son.

On the night of the raid, Elizabeth Bathory was taken into custody along with her four accomplices. Elizabeth had accused two reverends and one pastor for the reason of her arrest, after a long conversation where Bathory attempted to blame her accomplices for the dead bodies being found. She added this statement after Pastor Barosius had asked her why she did not stop her accomplices from committing the tortures and murders. She said, "I did it ... Because even I myself was afraid of them". This statement was confessed by Bathory herself and was not extracted under torture.

Thurzó debated further proceedings with Báthory's son Paul and two of her sons-in-law, Nikola VI Zrinski and György Drugeth.

Two trials were held in the wake of Báthory's arrest: The first was held on 2 January 1611, and the second on 7 January 1611.

In the first trial, seventeen witnesses testified, including the four servants who were also fellow suspects. These suspects had been tortured before the proceedings. Ilona Jó and Dorottya Szentes had their fingers torn out with a pair of red-hot pincers and were then burned alive. Due to his youth and the belief that he was less culpable, János Újváry was executed by a much less painful method: beheading. Afterwards, his body was burned on the same pyre as Jó and Szentes. Another servant, Erzsi Majorova, initially escaped capture but was burned alive after being apprehended. Katarína Benická received a life sentence after evidence showed that she had been abused by the others.

The highest number of victims cited during the trial of Báthory's accomplices was 650, but this number comes from the claim by a servant named Susannah that Jakab Szilvássy, Báthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Báthory's private books. The book was never revealed and Szilvássy never mentioned it in his testimony.

It is very difficult to know with any certainty how many young women Bathory is said to have killed. This is due to many compounding factors: firstly, her accomplices (Dorka, Ficzko, and Illona) all gave different numbers and were tortured into confessions. Secondly, one should assume that not every dead body was found, as in most serial killer cases. Lastly, how many of the girls died directly at the hands of Bathory, as a result of her tortures, or had died of other reasons, is hard to prove. With this in mind, there are a couple of people who testified at the trial that could offer some insight. Benedek Bicsérdy was the castellan at Bathory's castle at Sarvar. In October 1610, in the preliminary investigation of the Countess, he stated that he knew of at least 175 girls and women who had died at Castle Sarvar. However, he added that he knew nothing regarding how they died because "unless Bathory had called for him, he was not permitted to go into the house of the Lady." Another witness was named Baltazar Poby (also spelled Balthasar Poky); he was another castellan at Castle Sarvar. He testified that he had heard the number of victims at Castle Sarvar, actually numbered over 200, "if not already mounting to nearly 300".

These numbers only take into account the bodies found at one of Bathory's castles (in Sarvar). It does not include her other castles, including Castle Keresztúr and the infamous Castle Cjesthe.

Confinement and death

On 25 January 1611, Thurzó wrote a letter to King Matthias describing that they had captured and confined Báthory to her castle. The palatine also coordinated the steps of the investigation with the political struggle with the Prince of Transylvania. She was detained in the castle of Csejte for the remainder of her life, where she died at the age of 54. György Thurzó wrote that Báthory was locked in a bricked room, but according to documents from the visit of priests in July 1614, she was able to move unhindered in the castle, more akin to house arrest.

She wrote a will in September 1610, in which she left all current and future inheritance possessions to her children. The location of her body today is unknown but believed to be buried deep in the church area of the castle. The Csejte church and the castle of Csejte do not bear any markings of her possible grave.

The Gynaecaeum

In the Winter of 1609, Bathory had opened a Gynaecaeum, which is similar to a finishing school, and it was opened for high born young women. The Gynaeceum brought in much needed funding and provided a new type of victim for Bathory to kill after many peasant families in the local villages surrounding her castles declined to let their daughters work at the castles after the reputation of Bathory had spread throughout the Kingdom. On the contrary, many noble families were eager to send their daughters to her court, so their social status would increase and they could learn courtly etiquette. However, once their daughters did not come back home, they eventually appealed to King Matthias for answers.

Noblewoman Anna Zelesthey who resided in the town of Milhalifalva, was 54 years old when she was sworn in and interrogated. Anna testified that her own daughter named Zsuzska was accepted to attend Lady Bathory's court. However, she testified that she could say with certainty and also from what others had told her, that her daughter was tortured, tormented, and beaten so badly that she was killed in the Gynaecaeum. She also testified that it was Lady Bathory who beat, tortured, and tormented her daughter to death based on what she was told by others. This testimony was collected by Mózes Cziráky and was published on 14 December 1611, on the orders of King Matthias.

A Noblewoman named Anna Köszeghy, was 32 years old when she was sworn in and interrogated. She testified that she would make numerous trips to Bathory's Gynaecaeum and saw many of the victims in a tortured state. She testified that their fingers were broken and hands were scorched. She testified that when she asked these girls about their hands being burned, they told her that Bathory had burned them with red hot irons. Another Noblewoman named Dorottya Jezernyczky was 45 years old when she was sworn in and interrogated. She testified that she sent her own daughter named Erzsébet to this Gynaecaeum, and that she was killed in the Gynaecaeum. These testimonies were published on 28 July 1611, by András of Keresztúr on the orders of King Matthias.

The Castellan of Castle of Csejte (Čachtice), was a man named Michael Horvath and he stated that he knew of at least seven girls who had died at the Gynaecaeum. He stated that these seven bodies had been buried in a little garden behind the courtyard in Castle Cjesthe, but they had not been buried deep enough, so dogs had dug up the corpses and were carrying around body parts in their mouths.

It was alleged that in a matter of weeks, that all of the attendants in her Gynaecaeum had been killed. When Nobles began to press Bathory on why their daughters had gone missing, Bathory concocted this story that one of the girls in her Gynaecaeum had gone crazy and killed all of the other attendants and then killed herself. She alleged that this girl did this because she was greedy for jewelry.

During this time, dozens of complaints from the Hungarian nobles began to flood the King's and Palatine's courts, accusing Bathory of torturing and murdering noble girls. This time the King could not ignore the complaints and sent his two notaries (Mózes Cziráky and András of Keresztúr) and Gyorgy Thurzó to investigate the claims.

It was also said that during this time one of Bathory's victims actually managed to escape from Cjesthe and went into the nearby village and alerted the locals about the goings on at Cjesthe. It was also said that this girl had a knife stuck in her foot.

Letters about Erzśebet and the Trial proceedings

There are many letters that were sent between Thurzo, The King, Bathory's own children, and the two notaries before and after Elizabeth was arrested. These letters describe the trial proceedings and the findings through testimonies. Some of these include:

Thurzo's letter to Mozes Cziráky, dated 5 March 1610.

"To the honorable Master, Mózes Cziráky, our Deputy Notary, with gracious greetings. You know how, both in the past and the present time, several serious complaints have come to us regarding the noble and glorious Lady Erzsébet Báthory, the widow of the late, noble and glorious Lord Ferenc Nádasdy, etc.; namely, that this same Lady Erzsébet Báthory, through some sort of evil spirit, has set aside her reverence for God and man, and has killed in cruel and various ways many girls and virgins and other women who lived in her Gynaecaeum; also that we, both by the will of said Royal Majesty and by virtue of the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Hungary, said Palatine of the same Kingdom of Hungary shall be responsible in fulfilling our duties and we are entitled under Palatinal authority, in accordance with the customs of the Kingdom, to punish said unbearable and serious crimes which have been committed. Thus, we can legitimately and duly proceed in the aforementioned matter; and, thus, regarding said Lady Erzsébet Báthory, once a proper verdict – if it should be necessary – is spoken and can be achieved, we begin by ordering you in this matter to collect and make inquiries of witnesses, as the law of the Kingdom requires. Therefore, we exhort you earnestly and instruct and authorize you, by virtue of our Palatinal authority that, as soon as you receive this letter, to question every member of both the ecclesiastical state as well as the nobility and other honorable people of all classes and of both sexes in the counties of Györ, Sopron, Vas, Zala and Veszprém, concerning the above-mentioned killings of girls and women by the said Lady Erzsébet Báthory; by members of the spiritual state, may they answer in the purity of their conscience; by the upper and lower nobility, and those of other classes of both sexes, out of respectable secular ethos in their God, and with due reverence and loyalty to the said Royal Majesty and the sacred Crown; the whole, pure truth is to be fully explored, and you should bring your experience to the inquiry (we add our Palatinal authority by virtue of the seriousness of the matter and strictly impose a penalty of 16 marks – such as this is available in a general decree – a heavy weight imposed immediately thereafter upon those whom it affects, as we are adamant that only the pure truth be given on the issue points without having the slightest sacrifice of the oath). After implementation of these interviews and witness interrogations, you are obliged to faithfully report and to make announcements to us. This matter calls for justice. Anything else shall not proceed. Given at Bratislava, on the 5th day of the month of March, the year of the Lord 1610."

King Matthias letter to Thurzo dated 14 January 1611.

"Venerable and distinguished one, loyal subject sincerely devoted to us. What you tell us about the lofty and well-known Widow Nádasdy in writing, we have not heard without serious displeasure, paralyzing fear and internal shuddering; namely, that she has put behind any reverence for God and man, driven by animal crudity and diabolical influence, killing more than 300 innocent virgins and women, of both noble and lower levels, who served her as maids, and of whom no such action was deserved, without any involvement of the judiciary, in a most monstrous and cruel manner, their bodies mutilated, burned with hot irons, their flesh ripped out, roasted on the fire and this roasted flesh then allowed to be served. We would have certainly preferred that mortals never heard of such an atrocity of so many miserable virgins who perished, whose innocent blood and misery could not be held by the vastness of the heavens; but after this became so widely known and, as a result, the fear that if we do not render punishment the avenging wrath of God will come upon us, we are determined to bring justice and, by this example to cut off other such outrageous acts of sacrilege, that the woman known as Lady Erzsébet Báthory (after the others had already been caught in the act, convicted and arrested by you), 15 days from when this copy was created or the date on which your decision to the court against the notable Peter Zokoli falls, under the law and in accordance with the custom of the Kingdom and, finally, on the basis of the matter there being no grounds in which to delay a verdict for her outrageous sacrilege and deeds, and through our faithful one, the excellent Magister Joannes Kythonich of Kostanicza, the President of the Court Chamber (director causarum nostrarum regalium) of the Crown of the Holy Kingdom of Hungary, to our knowledge will do as follows: we instruct you earnestly and we give you the emergency order as soon as you receive this letter, that you immediately summon this woman Erzsébet Báthory on the said date or through dates of letters to your bondsmen and by warrant of the honorable Chapter of the Metropolitan Church of Esztergom to appear at Castle Csejteh with leave to discover and discuss her aforementioned immense and outrageous deeds and that the judgment proceed and be carried out in fulfillment of the law, whether she appears personally or sends someone or not, and warn at the front where you set the date and place that she personally or by legal representation appear before you. Your handling of the matter, however, given the insistence of the parties involved, has to be done in accordance with the law. Anything else shall not proceed. Given in our City of Vienna on the 14th day of the month of January in the year of the lord, 1611."

Pal Nadasdy's letter to Thurzo dated 23 February 1611

"I wish Your Grace and my Lady, as well as your beloved children, all the best from God, as you yourself desire. I took from your letter what His Majesty has ordered you to do to my miserable mother. I have your response to His Majesty, and realize how often you are well disposed toward me and my sisters. God grant that we, I and my sisters and brothers-in-law, can reward your kindness by obedience from a pure heart throughout our entire lives. It is true, as you wrote to His Majesty, that the Citatio (court summons) should have been issued sooner and that it is now inappropriate, because Your Grace, as the country's Chief Justice, has already done enough extentio. It is no longer necessary to continue, since the present punishment of my poor mother is worse than death, and not necessary to proceed according to the command of His Majesty since a judgment on her life has already been made. Turning now to her property, there is no need to fear, because before her arrest, she turned it all over to the three of us. Nevertheless, we, the relatives and humble subjects of His Majesty, wish to ask that your use of legal force against my mother not impose eternal shame on our family. However, we do not want to act without the knowledge and advice of Your Grace; it is not fitting. I therefore implore you, please, write to us your opinion on how my sisters and I should proceed with our intercession to His Majesty so as not to cause Your Grace any grief; indeed, as we learned from your letter, which we have kept secret. I await a favorable response from you, as my beloved father and Lord. God grant you many years in good health. Castle Keresztúr, February 23, 1611."

(Pal Nádasdy is Elizabeth's son)

Folklore and popular culture

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her virgin victims' blood to retain beauty or youth. This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi's Tragica Historia, the first written account of the Báthory case. The story came into question in 1817 when the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time. They included no references to blood baths. In his book Hungary and Transylvania, published in 1850, John Paget describes the supposed origins of Báthory's blood-bathing, although his tale seems to be a fictionalised recitation of oral history from the area. It is difficult to know how accurate his account of events is. Sadistic pleasure is considered a far more plausible motive for Báthory's crimes.

References

Bibliography

Kürti, László. "The symbolic construction of the monstrous–the Elizabeth Bathory story." Narodna umjetnost-Hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku 46.1 (2009): 133-159. online in English

Raymond T. McNally (1931–2002) was a professor of Russian and East European History at Boston College

Translation from the French Erzsébet Báthory la Comtesse sanglante

Puhak, Shelley, (2026). The Blood Countess : Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster, Bloomsbury.

Wilde, Robert. "Elizabeth Báthory: Mass Murderer or Victim?" (ThoughtCo, 28 Feb. 2019) online

Zsuffa, Joseph (2015). Countess of the Moon. Griffin Press. .

External links

The Blood Countess? – Epitome of Szádeczky-Kardoss Irma's research
Elizabeth Bathory – the Blood Countess BBC piece on Erzsébet Báthory, Created 2 August 2001; Updated 28 January 2002
Festival in Čachtice, Slovakia
A complete genealogy of all descendants Elizabeth Báthory (17th–20th century)
(Documentary film)