Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people. -Heinrich Heine
Elizabeth Báthory
The Life of The 16th Century Blood Countess
Childhood and Education
Born, August 7, 1560.
Witness to executions, including one where a gypsy, convicted of selling his children was sewn up into the belly of a horse and left to die with the animal.
Highly educated, spoke Hungarian, German and Latin.
Craved knowledge and meanings for words such as buggery which required not only a definition, but a display of the term.
Marriage and Adult Life
Engaged to Ferenc Nadasy, the "Black Hero of Hungary" at age 11.
Brief affair with peasant man produced a daughter, who was given, along with money, to a peasant.
Becomes aware of effects of blood.
Married, May 8, 1575.
Husband teaches different forms of torture.
Honey torture, involving stripping a girl naked, smearing honey over her, and leaving her outside to be the victim of any insect that happens by.
Later, Elizabeth would use her own version of this involving water and a cold winter night.
Reputed to be one of the most beautiful women in all of Europe.
An iron maiden, that when activated, will pull the victim inward,
and force spikes into her.
A cyndrical cage, that is too narrow to sit in, and too small to stand in. It has spikes on it, and when the cage is hoisted and rocked, the vicitm will skewer themselves on it.
Variation: The cage is hoisted, but the victim is poked at with a red hot poker, and impales themselves.
Trials
First trial, held on January 2, 1611 at Bytca (pronounced Byt-cha)
Seventeen testomonies including her four accomplices, Helena Jo, Dorka, Katharina, and Ficzko.
A maid, identified as "Zusanna" testified that she was aware of a list, written in the Countess's own handwriting, of the names of six hundred victims.
Second trial held on January 7, 1611.
Elizabeth was not allowed at either trial.
Sentencing and Death
Three of her cohorts were senctenced to horrible deaths and mutilations.
Katharina was exonerated by Dorka, Helena Jo and Zusanna, and was left to be dealt with at a later date.
Elizabeth was never convicted of anything, and remained for the rest of her life walled up inside of her room, under "Castle Arrest."
On August 21, 1614, a guard, who had never seen the countess, wanted to get a look at the Countess who was still, at the age of 54, reputed to be one of the most beautiful women in all of Europe. Looking in through one of the slots left open for food and air, he discovered Elizabeth lying face down. The Blood Countess was dead.
Sources
Due to differences in screens, browsers and platforms, it is near impossible to get these to align in proper bibliographic style.
Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Book of Werewolves. London: Smith, Elder, 1865. Reprint. New York: Causeway Books, 1973: 139-141.
Codrescu, Andrei. The Blood Countess. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1995.
McNally, Raymond T. Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983. Reprint. London: Robert Hale, 1984. Reprint. London: Hamlyn, 1984.
Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994: 31-36.
