Elizabeth Báthory

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Elizabeth Báthory" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (April 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Elizabeth Báthory
Born	Báthori Erzsébet 7 August 1560 Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	21 August 1614(1614-08-21) (aged 54) Csejte, Kingdom of Hungary (now Čachtice, Slovakia)
Other names	Bloody Countess[1]
Known for	Hungarian noblewoman subject of folklore alleged serial killer
Spouse	Ferenc II Nádasdy ​ ​ (m. 1575; died 1604)​
Children	Anna Orsika Katalin András Paul
Relatives	Stephen Báthory, King of Poland (uncle) Stephen VII Báthory (paternal grandfather) Stephen VIII Báthory (maternal grandfather) Andrew Báthory (cousin) Gabriel Báthory (cousin)
Family	Báthory

Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (

Elizabeth was born in 1560 on a family estate in

Báthory was raised a Calvinist Protestant,^[5] and learned Latin, German, Hungarian, and Greek as a young woman.^[3][15] Born into a privileged noble family, she was endowed with wealth, education, and a prominent social rank.^[14] A proposal made by some sources^[who?] in order to explain Báthory's cruelty later in her life is that she was trained by her family to be cruel.^[16]

As a child, Báthory had multiple

At the age of 13, before her first marriage, Báthory allegedly gave birth to a child.[16] The child, said to have been fathered by a peasant boy, was supposedly given away to a local woman who was trusted by the Báthory family.^[16] The woman was paid for her actions, and the child was taken to Wallachia.^[16] Evidence of this pregnancy came up long after Elizabeth's death, through rumours spread by peasants; therefore, the validity of the rumour is often disputed.

Coat of arms of the Nádasdy family

Coat of arms as of the Báthory family

In 1573,

On 8 May 1575, Báthory and Nádasdy were married at the palace of Varannó (today Vranov nad Topľou, Slovakia).^[9] The marriage resulted in combined land ownership in both Transylvania and the Kingdom of Hungary.^[9]

Nádasdy's wedding gift to Báthory was his household in the Castle of Csejte (Čachtice), situated in the Little Carpathians near Vág-Ujhely and Trencsén (present-day Nové Mesto nad Váhom and Trenčín, Slovakia).^[9] At the time, King Maximilian II owned the castle, but made Ferenc's mother, Orsolya Kanizsai, official steward in 1569. Nádasdy finally bought the castle in 1602 from Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, but during his constant military campaign, Elizabeth maintained the castle in his absence, along with the Csejte country house and seventeen adjacent villages.^[18]

After the wedding, the couple lived in Nadasdy's castle at Sárvár.^[9]

In 1578, three years into their marriage, Nádasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to

Báthory's daughter, Anna Nádasdy, was born in 1585 and was later to become the wife of Nikola VI Zrinski. Báthory's other known children include Orsolya (Orsika) Nádasdy (1590–unknown) who would later become the wife of István II Benyó; Katalin (Kata or Katherina) Nádasdy (1594-unknown); András Nádasdy (1596–1603); and Pál (Paul) Nádasdy (1598–1650), father of Franz III Nádasdy, who was one of the leaders of the Magnate conspiracy against Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.^{[citation needed]} Some chronicles also indicate that the couple had another son, named Miklós Nádasdy, who married Zsuzsanna Zrinski. However, this cannot be confirmed, and it could be that he was simply a cousin or died young, as he is not named in Báthory's will from 1610. György Nádasdy is also supposedly the name of one of the deceased Nádasdy infants, but this cannot be confirmed. All of Elizabeth's children were cared for by governesses, as Báthory herself had been.^{[citation needed]}

Ferenc Nádasdy died on 4 January 1604 at the age of 48. Although the exact nature of the illness which led to his death is unknown, it seems to have started in 1601 and initially caused debilitating pain in his legs. From that time, he never fully recovered, and in 1603 became permanently disabled.^{[citation needed]} He had been married to Báthory for 29 years. Before dying, Nádasdy entrusted his heirs and widow to György Thurzó, who would eventually lead the investigation into Báthory's crimes.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1602 and 1604, after rumours of Báthory's atrocities had spread throughout the kingdom,

Bathory is said to have tortured or killed peasants for years; their disappearances were not likely to provoke an investigation.[22] The abuse of lower classes by nobles was frowned upon but not actually prohibited by law.^[22] However, she eventually began killing daughters of the lesser gentry, some of whom were sent to live with her hoping to learn from her and benefit from a connection to the high-ranking countess.^[23]

Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations.

Beginning in the 1980s, scholars have questioned the truthfulness of the claims against Bathory.

The investigation into Báthory's crimes, however, was sparked by insistent complaints from a Lutheran minister, István Magyari[19] and Thurzó was also a Lutheran, which does not align with the notion of a Catholic/Habsburg plot against the Protestant Báthory family. However, religious tension was still a possible source of conflict, as Báthorys were Calvinists rather than Lutherans.^[14]

Thurzó, the investigator into the accusations, had political state ambitions that would benefit from disgracing Báthory.^[5] An ally of King Matthias, he had been involved in an assassination attempt on Báthory's cousin Prince Gábor, and he had ambitions for his son to become Prince of Transylvania, in competition with Elizabeth Báthory's son.^[5] Thurzó alleged that he found numerous dead and dying girls when he entered the castle,^[8] but Szádeczky-Kardoss argues that the physical evidence was exaggerated and Thurzó misrepresented dead and wounded patients as victims of Báthory.^[5] Landowners like Báthory were responsible for medical care of tenants, so sick and injured subjects were brought to her castles.^[5] Female landowners were charged with care of female patients.^[5]

On 13 December 1610, Nikola VI Zrinski confirmed the agreement with Thurzó about the imprisonment of Báthory and distribution of the estate.

Two trials were held in the wake of Báthory's arrest: The first was held on 2 January 1611, and the second on 7 January 1611.[28] In the first trial, seventeen witnesses testified, including the four servants who were also fellow suspects. These suspects had been tortured before the proceedings.^[5] They confessed, and stated that they were acting on Elizabeth's orders. After the trial, they were executed as her accomplices.^[29] Ilona Jó and Dorottya Szentes had their fingers torn out with a pair of red-hot pincers and were then burned alive. Due to his youth and the belief that he was less culpable, János Újváry was executed by a much less painful method: Beheading. Afterwards, his body was burned on the same pyre as Jó and Szentes. Another servant, Erzsi Majorova, initially escaped capture but was burned alive after being apprehended. Katarína Benická received a life sentence after evidence showed that she had been abused by the others.

The accusations of murder were based on rumours. There is no document to prove that anyone in the area complained about the Countess. During this period, letters of complaint were written whenever someone was harmed, even in a matter of a stolen chicken.^[5][7] Although 300 witnesses testified against Báthory, none were victims or eyewitnesses of the torture.^[5]

The highest number of victims cited during the trial of Báthory's accomplices was 650, but this number comes from the claim by a servant named Susannah that Jakab Szilvássy, Báthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Báthory's private books. The book was never revealed and Szilvássy never mentioned it in his testimony.^[30]

Aerial view of Castle of Csejte

Remains of the castle's chapel

On 25 January 1611, Thurzó wrote a letter to King Matthias describing that they had captured and confined Báthory to her castle. The palatine also coordinated the steps of the investigation with the political struggle with the Prince of Transylvania.^{[clarification needed]} She was detained in the castle of Csejte for the remainder of her life, where she died at the age of 54. György Thurzó wrote that Báthory was locked in a bricked room, but according to documents from the visit of priests in July 1614, she was able to move unhindered in the castle, more akin to house arrest.^[31][32]

She wrote a will in September 1610, in which she left all current and future inheritance possessions to her children.^[20] In the last month of 1610, she signed her arrangement, in which she distributed the estates, lands and possessions among her children.^[33][7] On the evening of 20 August 1614, Báthory complained to her bodyguard that her hands were cold, whereupon he replied "It's nothing, mistress. Just go lie down". She went to sleep and was found dead the following morning.^[34] She was buried in the church of Csejte on 25 November 1614,^[34] 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 intered at the Báthory family crypt.^[35] The location of her body today is unknown but believed to be buried deep in the church area of the castle. The Csejte church and the castle of Csejte do not bear any markings of her possible grave.^{[citation needed]}

Báthory was the great-great-granddaughter of Barbara Aleksandrówna and Bolesław IV of Warsaw, and Mikalojus Radvila the Old; the 3rd great-granddaughter of Bolesław Januszowic; the 4th great-granddaughter of Vladimir Olgerdovich; and the 5th great-granddaughter of Algirdas.

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common

Báthory has been disregarded by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer, because the number of her victims is debated.^[42]

• Elizabeth Branch
• Elizabeth Brownrigg
• Kateřina of Komárov
• Delphine LaLaurie
• Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer
• Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova
• List of serial killers by country

Further reading

• ISBN 978-0-07-045671-6. Raymond T. McNally (1931–2002) was a professor of Russian and East European History at Boston College
• ISBN 978-0-7475-2900-2
  .
• ISBN 978-0-9714578-2-9
  . Translation from the French Erzsébet Báthory la Comtesse sanglante
• Craft, Kimberly (2009). Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory. Kimberly L. Craft.
  ISBN 978-1-4495-1344-3
  .
• Ramsland, Katherine. "Lady of Blood: Countess Bathory". Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks Inc. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014.
• Zsuffa, Joseph (2015). Countess of the Moon. Griffin Press.
  ISBN 978-0-9828813-8-5
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elizabeth Báthory.

• The Blood Countess? – Epitome of Szádeczky-Kardoss Irma's research
• Elizabeth Bathory – the Blood Countess BBC piece on Erzsébet Báthory, Created 2 August 2001; Updated 28 January 2002
• "Elizabeth Báthory Drop of Blood Festival: 16 August 2014" (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 15 April 2015. Festival in Čachtice, Slovakia
• A complete genealogy of all descendants Elizabeth Báthory (17th–20th century)
• Novotny, Pavel (2014). Die Gräfin Elisabeth Bathory und das Geheimnis hinter dem Geheimnis [400 Years of Bloody Countess – The Secret Behind the Secret] (Motion picture). Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2014. (Documentary film)