[33] Moreover, Matthias owed a large debt to Bthory, which was cancelled after she was arrested. Thurz collected evidence from some 300 witnesses who leveled a bevy of truly horrifying charges against the countess. Afterwards, his body was burned on the same pyre as J and Szentes. It is unclear whether he died before or after his sisters Elizabeth and Sophia. 1 Colonization and Settlement (1500-1763), 2 Revolution and Early Republic (1754-1801), 4 Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), 5 Emergence of Modern America (1877-1929), 4 Late Middle Ages-Renaissance-Reformation Europe (1300-1648), 3 Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE), HS 1302 United States History since 1877, SP 3392 Language Variation and Dialectology of Spanish, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bthory. Elizabeth Smart spent nine months in captivity after being abducted from her home at age 14 in 2002. There were many suspected forms of torture carried out by Bthory. Luke possessed wide estates in Szatmr and was granted by King Charles Robert the lordship of Ecsed, where he built the castle called Hsg (loyalty). As a wealthy noblewoman, Bathory evaded the law until 1610, according to the History Channel. The most famous relative was Istvan (ISHT-vahn) Bathory (1533-86). Make 2023 the year to let that wonderful you-ness shine. Both make for a compelling story even if only one of them is actually true. Elizabeth Bthory was born in 1560 to Protestant nobility in Hungary. Wikimedia CommonsA late 16th-century copy of the now-lost portrait of Elizabeth Bathory, painted in 1585 when she was 25 years old. The fourth was spared immediate execution; what happened to her afterward is unknown. Matthias was not inclined to pay that debt, which historians say may have fueled his move to incriminate the countess in multiple crimes and deny her the opportunity to defend herself in court. And the fact that Bathory's servants were tortured makes their confessions unreliable. Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She told her guard that her hands were cold, and the next day the guard found her dead.20 She was buried somewhere around her castle, Cachtice. At first, all appeared to have been well under Bathorys leadership. On 13 December 1612, Nikola VI Zrinski confirmed the agreement with Thurz about the imprisonment of Bthory and distribution of the estate. In the way that governments and authorities dont act if something happens to the poor or unprivileged. She did this by saying she would give them a higher salary.11 The testimonies included how she killed the girls by mutilating their bodies, starving them, freezing them, and torturing them. Darvulia supposedly implanted in Bathorys mind that if she killed young virgins and bathed in their blood, she could maintain her youth.9 Bathory confided in Darvulia and took interest in learning more about witchcraft and Satanism. In 1575 she married Count Ferencz Ndasdy and moved to Castle Csejte (now in Cachtice, Slovakia), a wedding gift from Ndasdys family. Thurz ordered two notaries, Andrs Keresztry and Mzes Czirky,[19] to collect evidence in March 1610. Overall, I believe the author did a good job telling a tragic story. [37], Bthory has been labelled by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer, though the number of her victims is debated.[38]. Sadistic pleasure is considered a far more plausible motive for Bthory's crimes. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the Late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary. For years, citizens were frightened of Elizabeth Bathory. For other uses, see. Just go lie down." Bthory was born into prominent Protestant nobility in Hungary. And when Bathorys husband died in 1604, these views became much more widespread and dramatic. However, it's unlikely Bathory was completely innocent. Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560 to Baron George VI Bathory and Baroness Anna Bathory in Nyirbator, Hungary. ), Hodos was the ancestor of the Szokolvi family, see, Moritz Wertner, "Urgeschlechter in Siebenbrgen. Bathory was born in Nyrbtor, Hungary, on August 7, 1560. Elizabeth Bthory (born Ecsedi Bthory Erzsbet in Hungarian) came from the noble Protestant family Bthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary. Some of Bathory's victims were covered with honey and left outside for insects to devour. Gyrgy Ndasdy is also supposedly the name of one of the deceased Ndasdy infants, but this cannot be confirmed. Orsika's year of birth was probably some time between that of Anna and Katalin, around 1590. I recognize that most people took little interest in their servants, but I feel like someone would have noticed the mass disappearance of young girls, regardless of their social standing. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. She celebrated 70 years on the throne in June 2022 with her Platinum Jubilee. In Hungarian the word btor means "brave". Any remains or signs of her or her body cannot be found today. Great job! and it is widely believed that the case was to seize her assets. [19] On 31 December, Thurz went to Csejte Castle and arrested Bthory along with four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices: Dorotya Semtsz, Ilona J, Katarna Benick and Jnos jvry ("Ibis" or Fick). Elizabeth was raised on Ecsed, an estate in Transylvania. The body of a 54-year-old Bathory was found on August 21, 1614, in Castle achtice (located in present-day Slovakia), where she'd been imprisoned since 1610. After the death of the count on the battlefield in January 1604, horrifying suspicions of torture, murder and vampirism were voiced against Elizabeth. However, she was bricked up and isolated in a room at Csejte Castle, where she remained under house arrest for four years until her death in 1614, according to History Today. At times, Bathorys husband went away at war, but when he was at home, he shaped Bathory in how she killed.6 Nadasdy enjoyed torturing peasants and servants in brutal ways. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Imprisonment allowed family members to take control of the powerful widow's possessions (her sons-in-law knew beforehand that her arrest was coming). She allegedly expanded her sights and began killing daughters of the gentry who had been sent to Csejte for their education. [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. . Together with four of her servants, she was accused of . [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. It was only when noble girls started disappearing and dying that he demanded Thurzo to look into it. Her brother was a judge royal of Hungary. [2] Her family ruled Transylvania as an independent region within the Hungarian kingdom. [citation needed], After the wedding, the couple lived in Nadasdy's castle at Srvr. She would soon be accused of not only torturing but killing hundreds of girls and women who entered her castle. Thurzo found a dead body of a girl and two other girls wounded. While Elizabeths husband was away at war, she met a witch named Anna Darvulia. Elizabeth Bthory was born on a family estate in Nyrbtor, Royal Hungary in 1560 or 1561, the daughter of Baron George VI Bthory and Baroness Anna Bthory. I was also struck by the punishment she got because from everything she did, I would have thought she would have gotten a stricter punishment. The Early Life of Elizabeth Bathory. That evidence included numerous bodies and dead and dying girls found when the castle was entered by Thurz. Her victims were usually aged between 10 and 14. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. After taking a lover at age 13 and giving birth to a secret love child, Elizabeth was married shortly before turning 15 to a nobleman named Ferenc Nadasdy. I have never heard of this story, it was very interesting to read and learn about! Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat from Massachusetts who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and ran for her party's presidential nomination in 2020. In a way, things that happened back then are still happening now. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. According to Biographics, Bthory also had a steady supply of victims since she had almost 400 peasant women and girls working as servants across her estates. [19] In the last month of 1614, she signed her arrangement, in which she distributed the estates, lands and possessions among her children. He had also received the castle Bujak from King Albert of Habsburg. They included no references to blood baths. Rate this book. Elizabeth Bthory., College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences. During colder parts of the year young women might be stripped naked and forced into deadly ice baths. Want to Read. Countess Elisabeth Bthory (August 7, 1560 - August 21, 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman who has become renowned as a pre-modern Serial Killer, allegedly kidnapping, torturing, and murdering dozens of young peasant girls. Many of the witnesses who spoke against Bathory were beholden to Thurz, who oversaw the entire investigation. Her family contributed to her sadism by torturing their servants and peasants.4 One story suggests that after Bathory witnessed a man being sewn into a horses stomach for theft, she laughed at the sight of it.5 Bathory saw her family members torture their servants for fun, and this turned her adolescent self into a full-blown killer. Another servant, Erzsi Majorova, initially escaped capture, but was burned alive after being apprehended. Countess Elizabeth Bthory de Ecsed (Hungarian: Bthori Erzsbet, pronounced [batori rebt]; Slovak: Albeta Btoriov; 7 August 1560 - 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the family of Bthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia).. Bthory and four of her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of . According to witnesses, Bathorys crimes took place between 1590 and 1610, with most of the vicious murders happening after her husbands death in 1604. Instead, she was diagnosed as criminally insane.17. [20] By October 1610 they had collected 52 witness statements;[19] by 1611, that number had risen to over 300. Since the Dragfi estates were legally due to the crown, the Habsburgs forced George to yield the castles and withdrew to Csitsva in Zempln County. Both her parents' side were nobility and this they had achieved from small beginnings. Some say that Countess Elizabeth Bthory, considered by many to be the world's worst female serial killer, was the true inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. At the time of Thurzs investigation, some accused her of being a vampire, while others claimed to have seen her have sex with the Devil. However, this depraved action isn't backed up by contemporaneous witness accounts (which otherwise didn't shy away from gore). The second son, Stephen III rose to become Palatine of Hungary and in 1444 fell in the Battle of Varna as flag-bearer of Wadysaw, King of Poland and Hungary. . [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. Seeing that from a young age she would laugh at the torment of the servants I think it wouldve been only a matter of time. Her family betrothed Bathory to Count Ferencz Ndasdy when she was 11 or 12. The family divided into two major branches, which descended from the sons and grandsons of Yes, there are descendants of Elizabeth Bathory that are living today. This is thought to be one of the reasons she became obsessed over blood. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her virgin victims' blood to retain beauty or youth. [3] The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court. [10] Legends describing her vampiric tendencies, such as the tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, were generally recorded years after her death and are considered unreliable. On December 30, 1609, Bthory and her servants were arrested. [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. Instant DIGITAL DOWNLOAD . [36] It is difficult to know how accurate his account of events is. If all the stories about her are true, then she is likely the most prolific and vicious female serial killer of all time. [8][9] Some scholars have suggested that she served as one of Bram Stoker's influences for writing the novel Dracula but the evidence to support this is slim. What was Elizabeth Bthorys childhood like? 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. MINIATURE framed painting art. Another woman, who'd supposedly used magic to aid Bathory, was also soon killed. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. How did they find each other? [1], In 1279, King Ladislaus IV rewarded Andrew's brother Hodos[2] Bathory, a scion of a powerful Hungarian family and the product of inbreeding between Baron George Bathory and Baroness Anna Bathory, called the Csejte Castle home. She suffered from epilepsy as a child, possibly from familial inbreeding. Being creative was fun for a while, but, we, at ElizabethBathory.Org, no longer publish educational material, nor details about the portrait for security reasons, just an image of the painting, once lost, then found, without commentary, and at considerably lower resolution. [35] In his book Hungary and Transylvania, published in 1850, John Paget describes the supposed origins of Bthory's blood-bathing, although his tale seems to be a fictionalized recitation of oral history from the area. Her father was George VI Bathory, the voivode of Transylvania, the senior government official in this region, approximating to eastern Romania today, but which was then, like Hungary, a constituent part of the broad territories of the Habsburg . Elizabeth was not the mother of the youngsters she murdered, yet ''she was related by blood or marriage to nearly all the victims named in the testimonies'' (Thorne 31). It turns out that King Matthias II owed Bathorys late husband, and then her, a sizable debt. These servants denied their culpability in the murders but admitted to burying multiple victims, though the number in their accounts varied between 36 and 51. She tried to cover it up by saying the girl committed suicide. 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