Two different trials were held and drew on many of the hundreds of witness testimonies, most of which were not eye witness accounts. One or more mutilated dead bodies and a girl, barely alive, were found in the castle according to records. Historical accounts say she was caught in the act of torture and rounded up by villagers, while others suggest she was merely having dinner when authorities arrived at her home. Copy of a lost 1585 original portrait of Elizabeth BáthoryĮlizabeth Báthory was arrested in the winter of 1610. There were over 300 witness statements, some of which were also provided by royal court insiders who even claimed to have witnessed the torture themselves. Perhaps even more gruesome was the claim that B áthory had covered her victims in honey and live ants. The documents recorded accounts from locals that described horrific beatings, torture and murder of both servant girls and the daughters of the lesser gentry who were sent into Elizabeth’s care by their parents to learn the ways of the royal court. The sensational accusations included cannibalism, together with the burning of victims with hot tongs and then placing them in freezing cold water. György Thurzó, an ambitious royal courtier, to whom the late Count Báthory had entrusted his widow’s estate, was quick to take matters into his own hands and started collecting local witness statements. It’s also been suggested that no one really batted an eyelid at the mutilated bodies of peasant girls, but when Báthory allegedly started going after daughters of noblemen, something had to be done. Initially, the Hungarian aristocracy didn’t react, presumably because of Elizabeth’s status, but by 1610 her overlord was pressured to send an investigator. But at the dawn of the 17th century, around the time of her husband’s death, strange rumours started to emerge from Čachtice castle about various ghastly and gory goings-on, including the abduction and torturing of young girls and women. With her husband away at war leading the Hungarian armies against the Ottomans, a very capable Elizabeth managed both her business affairs and the defence of her vast estates that were spread across Royal Hungary, many of which guarded the military routes to Vienna in the north. Elizabeth’s dowry was the castle of Čachtice in the Little Carpathian Mountains in present-day Slovakia, a fortress that would become her home and eventual prison. Her social standing was superior to that of her husband Count Ferenc II Nádasdy, who adopted her surname along with her wealth. Elizabeth Báthory from Zay artist.Įlizabeth was married off at the age of 15. According to some sources, remedies of the time involved blood rituals, possibly the drinking of the blood of non-sufferers. Medical treatment in those days entailed a concoction of herbal remedies intended to release demons and evil spirits trapped inside the body. Exceptionally privileged, with an elitist education, she was of Polish and Transylvanian aristocracy, but was also said to suffer from physical fits that may have been caused by epilepsy or other disorders as a result of family inbreeding. Rivalries in culture, language and religion would plague Elizabeth Báthory’s homeland in a 3-way brutal religious war fought between the great empires of the day. Caught between the Christian Holy Roman Empire in the west and the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the east, it was politically unstable for centuries and in 1526, partitioned between the Catholic Austrians, the Ottomans and the Principality of Transylvania in the south. Under two hours’ drive east of Vienna, the ruins of her castle of Čachtice still hug the rugged Slovenian crag which, back in the 16 th century was part of the lost kingdom of Royal Hungary. Today, she still holds the Guinness World Records as being the most prolific female serial killer. Accused of trying to retain her youth by bathing in the blood of young servant girls, she was convicted of killing 80 people though the death count was rumoured to be in excess of 650. Remembered as the “Blood Countess”, Elizabeth Báthory’s family ruled Transylvania, where she lived and died in a remote Hungarian mountaintop castle almost four centuries ago. Us mere mortals have a morbid fascination with the seductively taboo tales of vampires from deepest Transylvania and the immortal be-fanged and be-cloaked Count Dracula – but what of the Countess Dracula? As it turns out, there’s far more real-life demonic horror (and a real-life castle) attached to a historical female figure than there is to suggest a blood-thirsty male figure might have inspired Bram Stoker’s iconic lead character. Every year, nearly a million people flock to Romania’s famous Bran Castle, a medieval fortress in Transylvania often referred to as the home of Dracula.
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