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Elizabeth Báthory-Nádasdy (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová-Nádašdy in Slovak), the Bloody Lady of Čachtice was a Hungarian countess and the most famous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She – together with her four collaborators – is said to have tortured and killed numerous girls and young women in her castle (20 - 2000 victims depending on the source). In 1610, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she died. Her collaborators were executed. Her guilt has never been proven.
She is thought to have been the origin of numerous vampire myths, the Dracula story, and the trope of the sexually sadistic vampiress in particular.
The Báthory lineage
The ancestors of Elizabeth (the Hun Gutkeled clan) came to the Hungarian Kingdom from Scandinavia in the mid-11th century. They held power in what is now Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The Hun Gutkeled emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the early 13th Century and assumed the name Báthory (according to one of their estates Báthor [today Nyírbátor] meaning "valiant") in 1279. Their power peaked during the mid-16th Century, was virtually gone by 1658, and they died out in 1680 (with the death of the wife of George Rákoczi II).
Her parents were from two branches of the Báthory family, the brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the Polish king Stephen Báthory.
Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Elizabeth was his home, the Čachtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trencin- then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) together with the Čachtice country-house and with adjacent 17 villages. The castle was surrounded by a village of peasants and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with outcroppings of the Carpathians.
In 1602, Elizabeth’s husband definitively bought the castle from the emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a property of the Nádasdys. Since fights occupied her husband with the Turks, Elizabeth became the lady of the castle. Elizabeth had 5 children; two of them died at an early age. Her husband died in 1602 or 1604, murdered by a harlot in Bucharest, to whom he owed money. Through some strange governance, Elizabeth was next in line to become the King of Poland. At this time she was able to read and write in four languages.
It is unknown when she started to kill young women, but she was doing so for sure from 1585 to 1610. Both her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, but they did not intervene. She was constantly improving her torturing methods and her brutality was increasing. The people living around her castle hated her so much that she only left the castle under an armed escort. But she has also tortured some girls at her properties in Sárvár and Kereztúr. Her victims were initially local female peasants, but later she also killed daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to their castles by their parents to learn noble manners, since in the early 17th Century, parents of substantial position often wished their daughters to be educated in the social graces and etiquettes. When it became known in the surroundings what she was (probably) doing, she had to send “assistants“ to bring young women from more distant regions. And when rumours spread all over the Hungarian Kingdom, she had to have girls kidnapped in order to get them. But it was only after the parish priest of Čachtice and even the monks in (the relatively nearby) Vienna have lodged several complaints with the ruling class in Vienna about cries from the castle that the (new) emperor Matthias II assigned Juraj Thurzo, the palatine of Hungary, to investigate the complaints. Thurzo and his men invaded Čachtice in the morning of December 29 1610 and caught Elizabeth in the act in the Čachtice country-house – she was torturing several girls. She and her four collaborators were charged with sadistic torture and mass murder. Elizabeth was sealed into a closet of her castle without a trial and died there on August 21 1614. For her collaborators see below.
Many scientific sources mention the strong possibility that she was falsely convicted by the political opponents of the family, mainly because the Báthory family owned large areas of land and were wealthy. The existing historical documents show lack of investigation, omitted evidence and a decision which was kept in tight local political circles. It is possible as well that the "vampire" stories were in fact exaggerations of actual medical help for the peasants; at that age it was very unusual that a noble cared about the health of her servants. Modern supporters of the vampire story chose to neglect documents and her letters for her family, which possibly would have ruined the otherwise adventurous story.
Aware of Báthory's preoccupations, her aunt had introduced her to flagellation (enacted upon others, of course), a taste she quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's silver claws, she generously indulged herself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slavic debtors. She preferred to whip her subjects on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, so that she could watch their faces contort, in horror, at their fate.
She also became obsessed with youth and vitality, desiring to acquire political power. One day, as she struck a servant girl, she drew blood when her pointed nails raked the girl's cheek. The wound was serious enough that some of the blood got onto Elizabeth's skin. Later, Elizabeth was convinced that her skin had been improved by the blood. Her alchemists informed her that the blood of a young virgin just might have such effects.Elizabeth reasoned that if she bathed in the blood of young virgins -- and in the case of especially pretty ones, drank their blood -- then she would become gloriously beautiful and strong. Báthory began to roam the countryside by night, hunting for suitable girls.Each batch of young girls would be hung upside-down by chains, wrapped around their ankles. Their throats would be slit and their blood drained for a bath or shower. Occasionally, she would drink blood: at first from a golden flask, but later, directly from the dying body.
After five years, Báthory began to realize that the blood of peasant girls was having little effect on the quality of her skin. In 1609, Elizabeth established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time finish their educations. Assisted by Dorotta Szentes and Anna Darvulia (a woman thought to be her lover), these students were killed by Báthory. However, during a frenzy of lust, four bodies were thrown off the castle walls.Life
She spend her childhood at the Ecsed Castle, details from this period are unknown. At the age of 11 she was forced to become engaged with the noble and successful warrior Francis Nádasdy and moved to the Sárvár Castle, where she became entangled with a peasant for a short time. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Vranov, who in 1578 became the chief commander of Hungarian troops in their war against the Turks. He was known as a very brave, but also very cruel person. The Turks feared him a called him the Black Beg. Guilt
More then 300 persons were interrogated before her death between 1611 and 1614, but even despite several interventions by the emperor, a regular trial never took place and the whole case remained open. The reason for this might have been the fact that the palatine Thurzo did not want a trial against a member of the high gentry (with which he was reproached already at that time). Moreover, Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Báthory was the ruler of Transylvania and Thurzo did not want get into troubles with Transylvania. And finally, Thurzo’s properties were adjacent to those of Elizabeth and Thurzo was interested in her properties. Motives
Her deviation might have genetic reasons, because many of both her father’s and her mother’s ancestors were very brutal individuals (e. g. the Transylvanian ruler Sigismund Báthory who liked to have his retainers killed). Legends, however, say that she was killing the girls in order to bathe in their blood and, thus, stay forever young (some sources: improve her complexion). Alternatively, it is believed that the Báthory family was inbred and this may have helped cause various psychotic disorders, which the family was known to have.Collaborators
Elizabeth’s collaborators were Dorotta Szentes (Dorota Sentešová), Ján Ujvári (called Ficko), Helena Jóová and Katarína Benická. Except for Katarína (whose guilt could not be proven) , they all were executed (burned alive) at Bytča on January 7 1611. Legends
The following contains some of the best known legends regarding Elizabeth Báthory. Although they are partly based on statements made by the persons interrogated after 1610, their truthfulness cannot be verified. Torture
While interrogating Turks, her husband employed a device of torture: articulated claw-like pincers, of silver; which, when fastened to a whip would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that he abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle.Vampirism and satanisms
Elizabeth began to gather those who claimed to be witches, sorcerers, seers, wizards, alchemists, and those who would practice the most depraved deeds in league with Satan.