POW: Countess Elizabeth Báthory...

Last week poll was, Countess Elizabeth Báthory... And here are your answers.

57% ...she was just a ordinary person, with a twisted mind.

29% ...she was one of the first vampires, possibly a Queen of the Vampires.

14% ...I dont know who the hell she was or is!

The events and characters from the popular legends seem to be sometimes distorted details of real events, the work of simple peasants. But sometimes this stories and legends intrigue us as human beings, making us ask ourselves if they were true or not!

The Childhood of Elizabeth

Erzsebet Bathory-Nadasdy, better known as Madame Bathory is one of the most sinister and enigmatic figures in history. Born in Transylvania no less than in 1560 within one of the most powerful and wealthy families in the country. Among her relatives was a cardinal and a prince of Transylvania. Her cousin, Count Thurzo was prime minister of Hungary, and even King Stephen of Poland was among family members. But between religion and state affairs, the family had other interests, an uncle was a sorcerer, an aunt was lesbian, and a brother known for his amorous conquests, which were often achieved through force.

It is said that at 4 or 5 years old little Elizabeth suffered from violent tremors and convulsions. At eleven years was promised to Count Ferencz Nadasdy, and sent to spend a season with his new family. When she was thirteen becomes pregnant by a servant. The boy was castrated and thrown to the dogs, and Elizabeth was sent to a remote castle to give birth. They made the baby disappear.

The Start of Horror

Unlike most people of her time, Elizabeth had a remarkable intelligence, spoke perfect Hungarian, Latin and German. Her culture was extensive and impeccably mannered. It is thought that by that time both husband and Elizabeth's family knew her sadistic inclinations, but these attitudes were not uncommon in the aristocracy, so no one considered the issue as relevant.

On May 8, 1575, at age 15 she married the Count, who was 26. They moved to the majestic castle Csejthe in the region of Nyira, in northwestern Hungary. The couple rarely saw each other because of the warlike activities of Ferencz, known as the "black warrior". Ten years passed until Elizabeth had her first daughter, Ana, then came Ursula and Katherina, and finally her only son, Pal. On January 4, 1604 her husband died, leaving her a widow at age 44. As a first step the countess dismissed her hateful mother in law from the castle, and locked in the basement the ones protected by the old woman.

During her marriage, Elizabeth had become friends with a servant, Thorko, who initiated her into the practice of necromancy. Aided by the servant and her old nanny Ilona Joo, Elizabeth began torturing some servants of the castle. Other accomplices were later added: Johannes Ujvary, and two witches called Dorothea Szentes and Darvula.

At that time the rumors start in nearby towns that something sinister was going on in the castle. Simple minds talk of black magic and dark rituals, others less exalted, shook their heads and claimed that the strange obsession of the Countess by her beauty was a simple act of vanity.

Baptism of Blood

One day one of her servants accidentally pulled her hair while combing. Elizabeth slapped her hard, so hard it splashed her hand with the blood of the poor maid. Immediately, it seemed to Elizabeth that her skin in that area got the freshness of her young maid. There awoke the monster. She immediately called Johannes and Thorko, they stripped the girl, cut her throat and bled her in a tub. That day Elizabeth took her first bath in human blood.

Between 1604 and 1610, the dark agents of Elizabeth were devoted to providing women between 9 and 16 years old for her bloody rituals. In a desperate attempt to keep up appearances the Countess persuaded the local pastor to give each unfortunate a respectable funeral and burial. When the death toll grew alarmingly, the pastor began to express doubts. Elizabeth had to begin to bury her victims in the castle gardens under the night. Some say it was the priest who officially complained to King Matthias through the Clerical curia.

The Tortures

At that time the Countess took the custom of burning the genitals of the maids with candles, charcoal irons, for pure and crazy fun. Also widespread practice of drinking blood directly by biting on cheeks, shoulders and breasts. Lashed to the unfortunate and not in the back, as was the custom, but in the breasts so she could see the terrified faces of prisoners of pain. In her obsession was believed that blood would keep her always beautiful.

According to the testimony of a witness who accompanied the Earl Thurzo Madame Bathory Castle, the first thing they saw was a girl in the stocks of the court, in a state bordering on death from the blows that had fractured the bones of the hip. Inside the castle they found a girl bled to death in the living room and another dying with her body pierced. In the dungeons they discovered over a dozen young women, some of which had been cut and perforated. 50 bodies were exhumed. The whole castle was covered in dried blood spots, each rider, each show gave off the foul stench of death and putrefaction. By the Journal of Elizabeth, who with cruel methodically scoring each of his diversions, we know the number of victims is at least 612 people.

 

The tortures were accompanied by violent orgies, the screams of pain mixed with the erotic climax of the Countess and their agents. They drank the blood flowing while still warm from the wounds of the young.

In 1609, for lack of servants in the area because of such slaughter, Elizabeth made ​​the mistake that eventually would destroy her, she began to take girls from good families under the pretext of educating them. The last known victim was a 12 year old girl named Pola, and her murder was particularly cruel, even talking about the Blood Countess. She undressed the girl and locked her in a cage. This particular cage was built in a sphere, was too narrow to sit and too low for standing. The interior was covered with leaves of a long thumb, and on this macabre cell Elizabeth and her followers made ​​an endless orgy, shaking the cage and causing the tortuous death of the girl because of deep cuts.

 

In 1612 began the process, Elizabeth was protected by the rights of nobility. Those who do appear before the law, by force, were the sinister staff. The trial focused on the deaths of young aristocratic. The poor girls were unimportant. Except the witches all colleagues of Elizabeth were tortured and burned at the stake. Katarina Beneczky who with fourteen years was the youngest of the assistants of the Countess, saved her life by a express request of one of the survivors. Strangely the witches were only punished by pulling their nails, because they have been soaked in Christian blood.

The Blood Countess was never convicted, although she was locked in the castle. The room served as a prison was walled up with bricks, leaving only a slit to pass food.

 

The End of Her Life

On July 31, 1614, Elizabeth Bathory left her will. On 21 August of that year one of the guards saw her lying face down in her cell, they torn down the wall and found she was dead. So she passed away at age 54 the bloody countess.

Elizabeth Bathory did all kinds of excesses in an absurd battle against time. Her tenacious and macabre struggle, to preserve the physical beauty ended with hundreds of lives, although the irony of fate has left us a phrase that is at least troubling: it is said that during her funeral, the pastor of the people of Eczed said :

"She's the most beautiful woman my eyes have seen."