In 1611 Elizabeth Bathroy, a Hungarian noblewoman, was accused of the torture and murder of 600 young women. But was it true? Or a vicious rumor? What is the real story behind the woman who came to be known as the Blood Countess? Nonye Ugo explains.
Elizabeth Bathory.
Elizabeth Bathory de Ecsed was born on August 7, 1560, to the prominent and powerful Protestant Bathory family on the family estate in Nyirbator, Hungry. Her father, Baron Gyorgy VI Bathory, from the Eched branch of the Bathory family, and her mother, Baroness Anna Bathory, from the Somlyo branch, were relatives. The family was extremely wealthy, owning land in Hungary and Romania as well as having family members in prominent positions. Her brother was the Chief Justice of Hungry, and her uncle the king of Poland. Elizabeth was raised in the Esced castle. She was an intelligent child and received a good education learning Greek, German, Hungarian, and Latin. Despite a very privileged upbringing as the daughter of a wealthy and powerful family, her childhood was marred by seizures and headaches possibly due to epilepsy and even at a young age, she showed signs of sadism and enjoyed torturing animals.
Growing up, Elizabeth’s world was riddled with political strife. Hungary was a battleground between Christian kings in Eastern Europe and Muslim sultans of the Ottoman Empire. There was fighting too between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Some historians think the violent atmosphere may have desensitized her to violence.
Marriage
Elizabeth was 10 -years- old when she was betrothed to 16-year-old Count Ferenc II Nadasdy whose father Tamas, was a Prince Palatine, a title that meant he was the king's representative. The marriage was a way to join the two powerful Hungarian Protestant families. As was custom, Elizabeth was sent to live with her fiancé's family at Castle Sarvar. While there she had an affair with a man of lower social standing that resulted in the birth of a daughter who was promptly given up for adoption. For any other girl such an act would have ruined her future but Elizabeth was a Bathory, and laws didn’t apply to her in the same way, so Count Nadasdy took his anger out on her peasant lover. He had him castrated and torn apart by a pack of dogs. By the age of 15 she and Nadasdy were wed but she refused to adopt his surname - preferring to keep her influential maiden name.
Elizabeth’s husband was away for most of their marriage fighting against the Ottomans and it fell on her to manage his estate and run the household, which included disciplining servants, a task she really enjoyed. At that time whipping was a standard punishment meted out to servants and vassals, but Elizabeth seemed to have taken things a bit too far. She brutally beat her servants, breaking their bones and sticking needles under their fingernails. She had a lot of encouragement from her aunt Klara, a lesbian and self-confessed witch, who introduced her to witchcraft and Satanism, and her confidante Anna Darvola, who taught her all she needed to know about inflicting pain. Her husband too, when he came for visits in between the fighting, encouraged her cruelty. He was a ruthless soldier well known for torturing Ottoman prisoners of war, though at that time mistreatment of heathens wasn’t a bad thing. He once punished a servant by tying her up and coating her with honey, then leaving her outside to be bitten by ants. The only person who disapproved of the brutality was her mother-in-law Countess Ursula, but disapproval was all she had. She was powerless to stop her sadistic daughter-in-law, but her disapproval did provide some restraint.
During Nadasdy’s brief visits, the couple managed to conceive four children: daughters Anna, Orsolya, Katalin, and son Pal.
By 1603 Countess Ursula had passed away. Now in total control of the palace, Elizabeth decided to be a good noble woman and open a gynaeceum where young women from noble families could come and be taught language, etiquette, music, and activities that would socially advance them and make them desirable to respectable suitors. Many nobles had no hesitation in sending their daughters to a gynaeceum to be taught by a noblewoman of Elizabeth’s standing. They knew their daughters would learn a lot from her. But Elizabeth had other ideas for her gynaeceum. It was a way to find new victims, as poor locals valued their lives and limbs and refused to work for her. It wasn't long before the young women attending the gynoecium began to die at an alarming rate. Elizabeth claimed cholera was the cause but the local priests who buried the bodies couldn't tell how cholera could leave marks of what was clearly torture. But Elizabeth was a powerful woman married to a powerful man and despite rumors of starvation, torture and murder in the gynaeceum, nobody investigated.
On January 4, 1604, Count Nadasdy died. He had been in poor health for some years suffering leg pains that left him disabled. Before his death, he entrusted his estate, widow, and children to the new Palatine of Hungary, Gyorgy Thurzo. After her husband’s death, Elizabeth moved to the isolated Csejthe Castle in Slovakia where she installed a dungeon and enlisted her servants Dorottya Sventes, Ilona Jo, Katarina Benicka, Erzsi Majorova, and Janos Ujvary, to help during her torture sessions. By this time rumors were circulating that she bathed in the blood of her virgin victims to retain her youth and local priests were asking for an investigation.
Investigation
Finally, in 1610, King Matthias II of Hungary asked Gyorgy Thurzo to investigate the accusations. This request came some weeks after Elizabeth had gone to demand repayment of a loan Nadasdy had lent the crown under Matthias’ predecessor, Rudolf II. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
On December 30, after a brief investigation, Elizabeth and her accomplices, except Anna Duvolia, who had died some months earlier, were arrested for murder. The trial began in January 1611, but there was no physical evidence and no eyewitnesses. Her accomplices under torture at first blamed the late Darvolia for the crimes, then when the torture became more severe pointed the finger at Elizabeth. Since the confessions were obtained under duress they might not have been very credible. Elizabeth was never called to trial but she was questioned and claimed her servants were uncontrollable and whatever torture or murder there was, had been done without her knowledge. The servants were found guilty and all, but one, were sentenced to death. Jo, Szentes, and Marjorova were burned alive, Ujvary was beheaded but Benicka was sentenced to life in prison.
Outcome for Elizabeth
Elizabeth was another matter. Murderer or not, she was a noblewoman and whatever personal vendetta her accusers had against her it would set a bad precedent if a noble was treated like a commoner. King Matthias, Thurzo, and even the parents of the victims, all agreed their social position was more important than seeking justice.
After negotiations between Thurzo, her son, and her sons-in-law, it was agreed that Elizabeth would be placed under house arrest, Bathory property would remain untouched, and King Matthias’ debts would be canceled. Win, win for everyone - except the victims.
Elizabeth was confined to Csejthe castle. Though under guard, she still had her servants and lived in the luxurious lifestyle she was used to. She died in August 1614, at the age of 54. She was initially interred in the Csejthe cemetery but protests by the villagers caused her body to be moved to an unknown location.
So, was Elizabeth Bathory a villain or victim? Perhaps a bit of both. She mistreated her servants no doubt, perhaps she was crueler than most, but at a time when brutal punishments were handed down to people of lower social status, punishments that far exceeded the crime, beating and even killing a servant wasn't that unusual. After all, people only began protesting when the mistreatment was extended to noblewomen. Did she kill 600 girls? it's very unlikely. Even during the trial the figure was put at 60. And it was a fact that King Matthias was looking for a way to get his inherited debts canceled. He knew arresting Elizabeth would do just that. It was no coincidence that despite the persistent rumors he didn't order an investigation until Elizabeth began demanding payment. He also sought to curb the influence of powerful local families like the Bathory - and Elizabeth’s arrest was sure to do that too.
So many myths and legends have embellished Elizabeth Bathory’s crimes that we may never know the truth.
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