Elizabeth Bathory was born 7 august 1560 as the daughter of Baron George and Baroness Anna Bathory.
Her family was one of the oldest and most wealthiest of Transylvania. She had many powerful relatives - a carninal, a princes and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary. The most famous relative was King Steven of Poland. (1575-1586)
Elizabeth was also highly educated, she spoke Hungarian, German and Latin.
She was married of to Count Ferencz Nasdasdy when she was 15, he was 26. The count added her surname to his, so the countess could keep her name. They lived in the Castle Csejthe in the Nyitra country of Hungary.
The count was often away from home fighting against the enemies of Hungary. His nickname was "the Black Hero of Hungary".
While he was away, Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult. She began torturing the servant girls with help of her old nurse Iloona Joo. Her other accomplices included Major Johannes Ujvary, Thorko and two forest witches named Darvula and Dorottya Szentes.
After Ferencz died in 1600, Elizabeth's hated mother-in-law was send away.
Elizabeth was very vain and afraid of getting old an losing her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing, Elizabeth slapped the girls hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately though her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She ordered Thorko and the major to strip the maid, cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth then took a bath in this blood.
Over the next 10 years, Elizabeth`s servants provided her with new girls for blooddraining and blood baths.
Untill one of her intended victims escaped and informed the authorities about what was happening at Castle Csejthe.
King Mathias of Hungary ordered Elizabeth`s own cousin, Count Cuyorgy Thurzo, governor of the province to raid the castle.
On December 30, 1610 they raided Castle Csejthe. They were horrified by the terrible sights in the castle.
In the main room they found one girl dead, drained of all her blood and another girl alive whose body had been pierced with holes. In the dungeon they discovered several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced. Below the castle, they found exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.
Elizabeth was put under house arrest. A trial was held in 1611 at Bitcse. She refused to plead guilty or innocent and never appeared at the trail.
A complete transcipt of the trial was made at the time and is still obtainable today in Hungary.
Major Johannes Ujvary, testified that about 37 unmarried girls had been killed, 6 of whom he personally recruited to work at the castle. The victims were tied up and cut with scissors. Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess herself.
Elizabeth`s old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed.
(There was a list found in the castle, on which there were the names of some 650 young girls.)
All the people involved in the killings, except the Countess Bathory and the two witches, were beheaded and cremated. The two witches were burned alive.
King Mathias II, demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which meant solitary confinement for life. Stones were brought to Castle Csejthe to wall up the windows and doors of the bedchamber with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed.
In 1614, four years after she was walled in, one of the guards found her lying dead on the floor.