[14][original research? The crumbling remains of achtice Castle loom over the town of achtice in western Slovakia, 50 miles northeast of the capital, Bratislava. Also, have you heard that Elizabeth liked to bathe in peoples blood? So, were almost nearing the end of this absolutely horrendous story. But few very well-known evil females. Their court proceedings began early in January 1611. Ferenc and Erzsebet Bathory had six children. After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls, with one witness attributing to them over 650 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. However, this legend comes from Michael Wagener's book Articles on Philosophical Anthropology. So, Ferenc was almost constantly at war, because Hungary was almost constantly fighting the Ottoman Turks. Ultimately, the truth of what she did will never be known, making her one of the most beguiling figures in history. See the flamboyant grandeur of the common betta fish. Meanwhile, Ndasdy's health had began to decline and in 1601 he was paralyzed from the waist down. He reportedly surprised Bathory in the middle of tormenting a victim and in response immediately imprisoned her in her home (her high status meant she would not be jailed as a common criminal). All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.

She was accused of murdering upwards of 600 young women, which earned her the title of the most prolific female serial killer of all time. Growing up, she wouldve seen many executions of and cruelty towards peasants. But soon even these girls were disappearing as well and the loss of their presence didn't go unnoticed.

He and some of Elizabeths relatives just divided up her lands and wealth, and there Elizabeth was, locked in a brick room. Most of her alleged assaults and murders took place after she was widowed in 1604. achtice Castle, Slovakia, served as home for Bthory after her husbands deathand was later where she was imprisoned for her crimes. Elizabeth may have had seizures (possibly caused by epilepsy, which was possibly caused by her parents being closely related) while growing up.

Visitors to the Hungarian town of Nyrbtor, about 170 miles east of Hungarys capital Budapest, can stare the countess in the eye at the Bthory Castle and Wax Museum, which displays wax effigies of Bthory and her relatives. He showed everyone a dead body of some random lady and told them that this was obviously the woman Elizabeth had killed, and then he showed them all an injured woman, who was obviously the woman Elizabeth had tortured for fun. According to History Collection, the Lutheran minister of Srvr,Istvn Magyari was the first to question the number of dead servants being brought out of the castle for burial. Elizabeth Bthory was married to Ferenc Ndasdy from 1575 until his death in 1609. They had four children: Anna Nadasdy, Orsolya Nadasdy, Katalin Nadasdy, and Paul Nadasy. Elizabeth Bathory died in her castle under solitary confinement. On 21 August 1614, she complained to her bodyguard of a severe chill. She was found dead the next morning.

This king wanted Elizabeth to have a trial, but the Bthorys obviously couldnt let Thurz do that at this point, because they were hated so much. [citation needed], Ferenc Ndasdy died on 4 January 1604 at the age of 48. During colder parts of the year young women might be stripped naked and forced into deadly ice baths. It happens in every story. Ndasdy was an ambitious soldier and was frequently off on military campaigns, especially once the Long Turkish War began in 1593, leaving Bthory to run the estate. She was even alleged to have bitten off pieces of servants' flesh, sometimes from bed if she was too sick to get up to beat someone. According to History Today, Bthory stabbed and cut servants with scissors, burned them with irons or coins, or simply starved them to death. Now, however, this longstanding narrative is being questioned by researchers who believe Bthorys crimes were likely exaggerated as part of a conspiracy against her. [2] Her servants were put on trial and convicted, whereas Bthory was confined to her home. Her father, Baron George VI Bthory, was an important nobleman. A 15-year-old Bathory married Nadasdy on May 8, 1575. WebYes, there are descendants of Elizabeth Bathory that are living today. While Bthorys tale haunted achtice for generations after her death, it didnt gain a wider audience until 1744 when it was retold in lurid detail in a book on Hungarys history by Jesuit priest Lszl Trczi, Thorne says. Killing your fellow nobles, even ones of lower rank, was a far more serious problem, and not one that could be ignored.. Together, they all reportedly terrorized the servants of Bthory's estates. Anthony Pellicano?

Later writings about the case have led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula. The most prolific female murderer and the most prolific murderer of the western world, was Elizabeth Bthory, who practised vampirism on girls and young women. ], A proposal made by some sources[who?] [4][6][24] Two trials were held in the wake of Bthory's arrest: the first was held on 2 January 1611, and the second on 7 January 1611. Is the edge of a desert the right place to plant a forest? The Bathory Nadasdy family agreed to cancel Matthiass

[citation needed] He had been married to Bthory for 29 years.

For the 1982 song by Venom, see, Copy of the lost 1585 original portrait of Elizabeth Bthory, The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of, Lengyel Tnde, Vrkonyi Gbor: Bthory Erzsbet - egy asszony lete / Life of a woman, Letters from Thurz to both men on 5 March 1610, printed in, A letter from 12 December 1610 by Elizabeth's son-in-law Zrnyi to, Szdeczky-Kardoss Irma - Bthory Erzsbet igazsga / The truth of Elizabeth Bthory (10 years of research using contemporary correspondence), Infamous Lady the true story of Countess Erzsebet Bathory Kimberly L. Craft 2009 p.298, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Bloody Countess? In 1573,[9] Bthory was engaged to Count Ferenc Ndasdy, a member of the Nadasdy family.

Wife of Unknown Peasant and Count Ferenc II. [2][13][16] Born into a privileged family of nobility, Bthory was endowed with wealth, education and a prominent social rank.[17]. It was the Renaissance, and it was starting to become a good thing to be super well-educated. Yes, there are descendants of Elizabeth Bathory that are living today. Bthory's other known children include Orsolya (Orsika) Ndasdy (1590 unknown) who would later become the wife of Istvn II Beny; Katalin (Kata or Katherina) Ndasdy (1594 unknown); Andrs Ndasdy (15961603); and Pl (Paul) Ndasdy (15981650), father of Franz III Ndasdy, who was one of the leaders of the Magnate conspiracy against Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Bthory was also exposed to brutality. [19] Her family, which ruled Transylvania, sought to avoid the loss of Bthory's property which was at risk of being seized by the crown following a public scandal. They included no references to blood baths. After this incident, Bthory is said to have become obsessed. The frescoes decorating this palatial room in Ndasdy Castle depict the battles fought by Ferenc Ndasdy II between 1591-1602. [8] Szdeczky-Kardoss argues that the physical evidence was exaggerated and Thurz misrepresented dead and wounded patients as victims of Bthory, as disgracing her would greatly benefit his political state ambitions. Losing weight leads to better health? [5][6][7] Other writers, such as Michael Farin in 1989 have said that the accusations against Bthory were supported by testimony from more than 300 individuals, some of whom described physical evidence and the presence of mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. Thurz ordered two notaries, Andrs Keresztry and Mzes Czirky,[19] to collect evidence in March 1610. And of course, Thurz killed people too, that hypocrite. Not necessarily, NASA reveals Artemis II crew, the first moon astronauts in 50 years, T. rex had lips, upending its enduring pop culture image. The theory is consistent with Hungarian history at that time, which included religious and political conflicts, especially relating to the wars with the Ottoman Empire, the spread of Protestantism and the extension of Habsburg power over Hungary. The book was never revealed and Szilvssy never mentioned it in his testimony. Majorova was thought to be the mastermind behind body disposal, but she's also thought to be the reason that Bthory was caught.

The crumbled remains of achtice Castle are now an eerie tourist attraction, looming above the town of achtice in western Slovakia, 50 miles northeast of the capital, Bratislava.

After Bthory started having difficulty obtaining servants willing to come work at her estates, she took Majorova's suggestion to start trying to lure noble girls as well. But Bthorys privileged upbringing was tainted by violence and health problems, according to Aleksandra Bartosiewicz, of Polands University of d, who in 2018 published a research paper on the countess. [citation needed] The castle had been bought by his mother in 1569 and given to Ndasdy, who transferred it to Elizabeth during their nuptials, together with the Csejte country house and seventeen adjacent villages. According to Atlas Obscura, Bthory had originally been placed under house arrest during the trial, walled into a dark windowless room in a castle tower, and was then kept there after the trial finished. Bathory was born in Nyrbtor, Hungary, on August 7, 1560. Well soon find out. Reading about the wedding made me sad I wasnt Elizabeth. Because Elizabeth was arrested, she couldnt do anything anymore, and because Thurz was the Palatine of Hungary, nobody said anything. Her mother was Baroness Anna Bthory (15391570), daughter of Stephen Bthory of Somly, also voivode of Transylvania, who was of the Somly branch. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Helena Maurya: The Greek Wife of IndiasEmperor, Musa of Parthia: Slave to Queen ofQueens, Elena Glinskaya: Powerful and PoisonedRegent, Amalasuntha: Wise Queen of theOstrogoths. Bthory's youngest daughter Katalin was also reported to have participated in her mother's activities. Article Title: Elizabeth Bathory Biography, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/elizabeth-bathory. She would live there for a while, and thats where all the murder we know her for would allegedly take place. WebElizabeth Bthory (died 1614), daughter of George VI and through her mother niece of the Polish King Stephen Bthory. However, it's also not unlikely that Bthory was the victim of a conspiracy to usurp her power and her land. Another servant, Erzsi Majorova, initially escaped capture, but was burned alive after being apprehended. It is a grim tale stained by blood, haunted by torture, sensationalized by sex, and increasingly disputed by scholars.

However, it's unlikely Bathory was completely innocent. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Change). Although Bthory claimed that the deaths were due to cholera, Magyari was suspicious at the unusually high number of bodies. They wouldve blamed Elizabeth because what were women for if not popping out babies? BUT. Growing up, Bthory witnessed a great deal of violence. They eventually Before dying, Ndasdy entrusted his heirs and widow to Gyrgy Thurz, who would eventually lead the investigation into Bthory's crimes. On August 21st, 1614, Elizabeth Bthory died at the age of 54, locked in a brick room in Ferencs castle which, by this point, Thurz had moved into. Afterwards, his body was burned on the same pyre as J and Szentes. Due to his youth and the belief that he was less culpable, Jnos jvry was executed by a much less painful method: beheading. She was buried in a local cemetery but, according to HeadStuff, so many locals complained that as a result she was moved to the family tomb in Ecsed, Hungary.

Birth: 1534: Death: xxxx : Record information. So, during this time, Elizabeth was, allegedly (just remember that word, it pretty much describes every little thing Im going to say about Elizabeths crimes), torturing and killing local super-poor peasant girls because fun. Some blood got onto Bthory's hand, and later in the night Bthory noticed the skin on her hand looked youthful and felt softer in the places where the blood had gone. So, to preserve her beauty, she would bathe in blood.

It seems most likely that the claim of Thurz's discovering Bthory covered in blood has been the embellishment of fictionalized accounts. She spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was Baron George VI Bthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Bthory, who had been voivode of Transylvania. This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar Lszl Turczi's Tragica Historia, the first written account of the Bthory case. How did Englands lost king end up beneath a parking lot? First, there was the part the Ottoman Empire ruled, Transylvania, and then Hungary, part of the Holy Roman Empire. We dont even know if Darvulia is actually spelled that way. But because Elizabeth was really rich, he needed something concrete. Monitoring the heart of the Okavango Delta, From Radar to AI: The future of conservation, Climate change and tornadoes: a complicated link, Climate changes hidden threat: grief and trauma. So, basically, if he caught Elizabeth torturing better if she was murdering someone, best if it was a richer person, then he could just arrest her. Hun var medlem av

And the fact that Bathory's servants were tortured makes their confessions unreliable. Well, there was also a King of Hungary, who had, at that part of this story, been okay with Thurz locking Elizabeth up. [16] The threat of attack was significant, for the village of Csejte had previously been plundered by the Ottomans while Srvr, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman-occupied Hungary, was in even greater danger. Elizabeth Bthory was born in 1560 to a noble Hungarian family in Nyrbtor.

(LogOut/ That evidence included numerous bodies and dead and dying girls found when the castle was entered by Thurz. And, of course, he was her co-ruler, so Elizabeth was the niece of the King of Poland.

[17] To support Bthory's innocence, the testimony of around 300 witnesses[citation needed] and the physical evidence collected by the investigators have to be addressed or disputed. As Gyrgy Thurz wrote, Elizabeth Bthory was locked in a bricked room, but according to other sources (written documents from the visit of priests, July 1614), she was able to move freely and unhindered in the castle, more akin to house arrest.

According to Biographics, Elizabeth Bthory enjoyed a lavish upbringing and education, learning to speak Hungarian, German, Slovak, Latin, and Greek during her formative years. Her uncle was also reportedly interested in Satanism and it's claimed that her aunt taught her in the ways of sadomasochism.

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Irretrievably mired in myth and speculation, Elizabeth Bthory, also known as the Blood Countess, is said to be the most prolific female serial killer to date, allegedly torturing and murdering hundreds of young women in the 16th and 17th centuries. One story claims that when a Romani man was sown alive into the body of a dying horse, the 10-year-old Countess Bthory laughed at the sight. Despite claims of hearing sounds of a whip and screams of pain, no one could give hard evidence of torture.

Many of the servants tried to put most of the blame on Anna Darvolya or accused one another but as the torture continued they shifted the blame onto Bthory. [30] She was buried in the church of Csejte on 25 November 1614,[30] but according to some sources due to the villagers' uproar over having the Countess buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birth home at Ecsed, where it was interred at the Bthory family crypt. The other important uncle that Elizabeth had was a guy named Andrs, another Prince of Transylvania. [9], Ndasdy's wedding gift to Bthory was his household, Castle of Csejte,[9] situated in the Little Carpathians near Vg-Ujhely and Trencsn (present-day Nov Mesto nad Vhom and Trenn, Slovakia). Do you remember how Thurz had been trying to ruin Elizabeth to get her money?

She was said to have sown servants' mouths shut, burnt their genitals, and stuck needles under their fingernails. Elizabeth definitely killed people, but it wasnt an oddity, everyone did it.

Some accounts say that Ndasdy encouraged her abusive and murderous behavior, while others claim that he reined in her bloodlust.

This is probably just a rumor though, as it was spread by peasants well after Elizabeth died. Of course, it was!

Ndasdy also allegedly gave Bthory a clawed glove with which to scratch the faces of disobedient servants, and let her use his own torture devices, such as a whip with pincers attached at the end.

Anyway, back to more important and definitely more true stuff. According to HeadStuff, despite the fact that Bthory was not present or directly charged at the trial, in the eyes of the general public the trial turned into an indictment of her. Even though killing servants wasnt illegal at all, Elizabeth was scared enough of Thurzs schemes that she felt the need to go tell the authorities about this. We dont know exactly what happened to servant #4, but she was probably a rich person whom Thurz didnt want to execute (he didnt want to execute a kinda rich servant woman while he had the rich person, Elizabeth, in prison? Elizabeth is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being historys most prolific female murderer, and honestly, I dont hate that page, because it contains the word alleged, and Ive been saying allegedly a lot.

According to The Toast, Bthory had been engaged for three years when she was impregnated by a lover from a lower class. All of Elizabeth's children were cared for by governesses, as Bthory herself had been. Elizabeth was not an exception and became quite infamous. The countess enduring legend is inspired largely by this one sensational account.

In the end, Thurz attributed 80 victims to Bthory, although some claim that Bthory herself counted over 600 victims, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, makes her history's most prolific serial killer who was a woman.

As a wedding gift, Ferenc gave Elizabeth one of his many, many castles, a nice place called achtice Castle. Countess Elizabeth Bthory de Ecsed, also known as Bthory Erzsbet, was born in Nyrbtor, Hungary on August 7th, 1560, into an incredibly powerful Protestant noble family that ruled most of the region. Several servants reportedly helped with her murderous activities. [15] The child, said to have been fathered by a peasant boy, was supposedly given away to a local woman who was trusted by the Bthory family. Today, Elizabeth Bathory is infamously remembered as the Blood Countess who killed up to 650 girls and women in the Kingdom of Hungary. It also obscures a tragic history.). Bathory was accused of a haunting litany of crimes against both female servants and minor noblewomen who'd come to her for training and education. There were rumors that Elizabeth had an affair with a peasant during the time she was betrothed but not married to Ferenc and had a baby at age 13. Finding several mutilated bodies by the doorway, they also heard the sounds of screams coming from inside, which led them to Bthory's torture chamber. Between 1602 and 1604, after rumors of Bthory's atrocities had spread throughout the kingdom, Lutheran minister Istvn Magyari made complaints against her, both publicly and at the court in Vienna. So basically, Thurz had Elizabeth arrested, and she was living in terrible conditions because thats just what happened to 17th-century prisoners. [citation needed]. Ndasdy reportedly taught Bthory new methods of torture, such as putting rolls of oiled paper in-between someone's toes and lighting them on fire, because she needed to know how to discipline the servants while he was away.

[citation needed] Some chronicles also indicate that the couple had another son, named Mikls Ndasdy, although this cannot be confirmed, and it could be that he was simply a cousin or died young, as he is not named in Bthory's will from 1610. While the extent of her cruelty may have been exaggerated, Bthory lived in a time when cruelty towards peasants was commonplace and she most likely engaged in some abusive behavior. He, like Elizabeth, was very well educated. So, if she killed someone, they argued, where did she throw the body?

Photograph by DPA Picture Alliance, Alamy Stock Photo.

Most of the witnesses testified that they had heard the accusations from others, but did not see it themselves. Thats why Elizabeth is remembered as more of a legend than a human being. Other tales claimed that she watched people freeze to death in the winter, while in the summer she'd cover her victim's body with honey and leave them to the insects.

Since there werefew rumors about Bthory before her husband's death, it's also possible the rumors came out of pure resentment.

Her family also didn't have the best relationship with the ruling Catholic Habsburgs. The testimony that Bathory had listed 650 victims was a secondhand accounting of what a court official had discovered yet the official who'd supposedly seen this information didn't testify. So, the best thing Thurz could do was catch her killing and/or torturing rich girls, and legend says that he actually walked into a room and was like hey, is Elizabeth Bthory here OH MY GOD SHES KILLING SOMEONE!. According to The Vintage News, Bthory's behavior was swept under the rug for years because her relatives administered the local councils and courts.

In 1610 she was accused of gruesome acts of serial murder and confined to her home of Castle achtice, where she remained until her death.

And while her relatives insisted that Bthory was innocent, they had already come up with a plan to permanently imprison Bthory in her castle and distribute her lands and assets amongst themselves. Poor, Elizabeth. [citation needed], Several authors, such as Lszl Nagy and Dr. Irma Szdeczky-Kardoss, have argued that Elizabeth Bthory was a victim of a conspiracy. [18] This does not contribute to the notion of a Catholic/Habsburg plot against the Protestant Bthory, although religious tension is still a possible source of conflict, as Bthory was raised Calvinist, not Lutheran. On 13 December 1612, Nikola VI Zrinski confirmed the agreement with Thurz about the imprisonment of Bthory and distribution of the estate. WebFilled with adrenaline, romance, and reversals, The Progeny is the present-day saga of a 400-year-old war between the uncanny descendants of Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the most prolific female serial killer of all time, and a secret society dedicated to erasing every one of her descendants. Imprisonment allowed family members to take control of the powerful widow's possessions (her sons-in-law knew beforehand that her arrest was coming). There is no document to prove that anyone in the area complained about the Countess.

[1], There are counter-arguments made against this theory. Even doctors who'd been called to the castle said that they hadn't seen any signs of abuse on their patients, although admittedly they'd only seen the patients' faces. Two died as infants, but two daughters and a son survived.

In 1729, Jesuit historian Father Lszl Turczi repeated tales of her bloodlust uncritically. According to Biographics, they had agreed upon Thurz completing his investigation, but had decided that Bthory herself was not going to be brought to trial due to the embarrassment that it would cause the family. One thing to keep in mind is that it was completely legal to kill any poor person you wanted, as long as you were rich, so the Bthorys could essentially do whatever the heck they wanted, because money. Elizabeth Bthory de Ecsed (ungarsk:Bthory Erzsbet) (fdt 7. august 1560, dd 21. august 1614), var en ungarsk grevinne og psttt seriemorder. They eventually had four children.

The Bthorys were an extremely important family in their time and place, so Elizabeth was educated very well. As newlyweds they moved to Srvr, in western Hungary, where Ndasdy schooled his wife in torture. Already at the age of four or five, she suffered from epileptic seizures, violent mood swings, as well as painful migraines, Bartosiewicz says. They were the king's witnesses, but they were executed. The ruse worked. A sorta important thing to note: Elizabeth might not have been the most pleasant person to know.

Some have gone as far as to portray Bthory as a defenceless widow. That is how renowned Slovakian filmmaker Juraj Jakubisko, on his official website, says he depicted her in his 2008 movie, Bthory: Countess of Blood, which diametrically opposes the established legend.. Its not just about seeing the stars. In August 1610, Bthory brought the mother of a deceased girl from Bthory's etiquette school into court so that the mother could testify that her daughter's death was from natural causes.