A Look at Elizabeth Bathory

A True Vampire

Elizabeth Bathory was a countess in what is now Slovakia. She was born to George and Anne Bathory in 1560. As a child she had seizures that were accompanied by uncontolable fits of rage. By the age of 14 she was pregnant due to an affair with a peasant. At age 15 she was married to Count Ferenc Nadasdy. He was a soldier and often away. While he was gone she was in charge of the household on Castle Cachtice.

It was in Castle Cachtice that Elizabeth's rain of terror began. She found delight if punishing and torturing the household staff, particularly the young girls. She would not just punish infringments on her rules, but found excuses to inflict punishment and loved to torture her victims to death. Some of these tortures included sticking pins into various sensitive body parts like under the fingernails and in the eyes. In the winter she would have them striped, led out into the snow, and buckets of water poured on them until they froze to death. Her husband would often take part in such tortures and even taught Elizabeth some new ones such as in summer haveing the victim covered with honey and left to be bit and stung by insects.

In 1604 Elizabeth's husband died and her new partner in crime was Anna Darvulia. When Darvulia died in 1609 Elizabeth turned to a woman named Erzsi Majorova. She would be Elizabeth's downfall by encouraging her to include women of noble birth among her victims. On December 29, 1610 Elizabeth Bathory was arrested for the murder of over 650 people. Her accoplices were sentenced to death while Elizabeth was sentenced to life imprisonment and solitary confinement in Castle Cachtice. Sadly in recent times it has come to light that the only reason Elizabeth was ever charged was because the King owed her a large sum of money that he didn't want to pay and he was interested in her lands. By charging her he could kill two birds with one stone. On August 24, 1614 Elizabeth Bathory died.

About now you are saying "Wait a minute you said that Elizabeth Bathory was a vampire" and so she was. I know that being a sadistic murderer doesn't make her a vampire, but one important fact does, she bathed in the blood of virgins to retian her younthful beauty. By all accounts she was a very attractive woman.

Reportedly she would bite girls flesh while torturing them and then often drained their blood into a bath. In the records from her trial was this passage:

It was said that one day, the aging countess was having her hair combed by a young servant girl. Tle girl accidently pulled her hair, and Elizabeth turned and slapped the servant. Blood was drawn, and some of it spurted onto Elizabeth's hands. As she rubbed it on her hands, they seemed to take on the girl's youthful appearance. It was from this incident that Elizabeth devel- oped her reputation for desiring the blood of young virgins.

In another account her bloodlust began after her husband's death when it was said that she was assosiated with younger men. Once when she was with one of her young lovers she saw a an old woman and asked him, "What would you do if you had to kiss that old hag?" He responded with expected words of distaste. The old woman heard and accused Elizabeth of excessive vanity and noted that such an aged appearance was inescapable, even for the countess. After that she became obsessed with her own aging and finding ways to retain her beauty.

Tina The Troubled Teen