Fifteen Facts About Elizabeth Bathory (Noble Woman) History's Most Murderous Female

Who was Elizabeth Bathory? the foremost murderous woman within the history of the planet , consistent with the Guinness Book of World Records. This Hungarian countess, who flourished within the late 16th and early 17th centuries, tortured and killed anywhere between 50 and 650 young women for pure pleasure. She reportedly bathed in their blood to stay herself young and sexy, watched them freeze to death for fun, and was allegedly one among the inspirations for the character Dracula.

These Elizabeth Bathory facts are just a part of this intriguing woman's story. the important lifetime of Elizabeth Bathory included her role as an incredibly rich and powerful noblewoman in Hungary/Transylvania. She was the niece of a king, mother of a secret bastard , and a sexually adventurous dame who also happened to enjoy torturing women. Well-educated, she spoke several languages and spawned many gory legends that persist until today .

As A Child, She Witnessed Terrible Scenes Of Torture

As a touch girl, the spoiled, petulant Elizabeth was never chastised for any bad behavior, albeit she was susceptible to fits of rage and violence. From the time she was a lass , she experienced seizures, wild mood swings, and terrible migraines.

She also observed scenes of horrific torture, including one episode where she watched local authorities slit open the belly of a living horse, cram a criminal inside it, and stitch it closed, leaving the living criminal to writhe and struggle until both the human and therefore the horse were dead.

She Had A Secret bastard At 13 And Married A Sadistic Husband

After taking a devotee at age 13 and parturition to a secret bastard , Elizabeth was married shortly before turning 15 to a nobleman named Ferenc Nadasdy. He was allegedly as into dark stuff as his wife, cruelly torturing Ottoman captives and sticking pieces of paper between his servants' toes and setting them ablaze . For his ferocity in battle against Ottoman Turks, he earned the nickname "The Black Knight."

Her Aunt Was Rumored To Be A Murderous Bisexual Witch

Elizabeth came from one among the foremost powerful noble families in Transylvania. Her uncle, Stephen Bathory, married the queen of Poland and was a fierce warrior, but things went left when it came to her aunt, Klara Bathory. Contemporary accounts state Klara took a devotee who killed her husband, but rumor has it she smothered her second husband herself. Other accounts have Klara as a bisexual murderess who practiced sorcery in her spare time and instructed Elizabeth within the dark arts. (Of course, the sexuality of powerful women has also been wont to condemn them, so all of those rumors got to be crazy a grain of salt.)

Eventually, Klara was imprisoned, but the legend grew: She became referred to as a sexually rapacious vixen who seduced her prison guards. Another story claims Klara and one among her male lovers were captured by an Ottoman pasha, who skewered the young man on a spit, and therefore the Ottoman garrison repeatedly raped Klara.

She Supposedly Bathed In Virgins' Blood to stay Herself Young

Elizabeth was reputed to possess bitten her young female victims and sucked blood from their wounds, making her one among the inspirations for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Reportedly, later in her murderous career, she also bathed within the blood of the virgins she tortured, believing this is able to keep her forever young and delightful . However, these stories of her literal bloodbaths come from a later account that mythologized and maybe exaggerated her cruelty.

She Made Girls Freeze To Death within the Snow Or Burned Them With Hot Irons

After marrying The Black Knight, Elizabeth expanded her torture tactics. She stuck young girls in spike-lined cages and hung them from the ceiling and threw others within the snow, tossing cold water on them in order that they froze to death. Elizabeth enjoyed putting red-hot coins into servant girls' palms; she also thrust pokers into the hearth and used them to burn her servants' faces. To top it off, she also tore off their fingers with pincers.

She Smeared Girls In Honey And Sent Them To Be Attacked By Bees

Following the suggestion of her husband Count Nadasdy, Elizabeth smeared servant girls in honey and put them outside for a full day in order that they would be bitten by bugs and stung by bees. Though the 2 were frequently separated, Nadasdy would send his wife torture advice from the battlefield while he was away as a kind of "love letter."

She May Have Engaged In Cannibalism

Along with the opposite ways she terrorized imprisoned girls, Elizabeth supposedly bit off chunks of their flesh. consistent with some stories, she forced one girl to cook and eat her own flesh - and she or he may have partaken of human meat herself.

After Her Husband's Death, She Grew Even More Violent

Eventually, Elizabeth outgrew her husband's torture tactics and commenced to find out new methods of wreaking havoc on those round her , especially servant girls. She wrote to Nadasdy that her servant Thorko had taught her a replacement method of cursing: "Beat a black hen to death, then smear the blood on your enemy or his clothes to condemn him."

After her husband died in 1604, Elizabeth became even more extreme. Records from her later trials indicate Elizabeth shoved needles underneath girls' fingernails or into their faces. She would bite chunks of flesh from their bodies or poke their breasts with sharp pincers.

The 'Blood Countess' Was Reputedly Also Very Promiscuous

Nicknamed "The Blood Countess," Elizabeth was said to possess an almost unlimited libido. additionally to the teenage romance that produced an bastard , then her husband, the count, Elizabeth seduced an area hunk named Ironhead later in life. Rumors of bisexuality only hail from centuries after her life.

Elizabeth May are An Inbred Psychopath - Or A Victim Of The Patriarchy

In an effort to know why Elizabeth was so murderous, scholars have investigated every aspect of her life. Was she clinically insane thanks to incest? in any case , her parents were distant cousins (they were from different branches of the Bathory family), but that was pretty common in Renaissance Europe and not everyone from that point period was a serial murderer . Others have argued that various brutalities she may have witnessed as a child may have triggered her sadistic ways.

But perhaps Bathory's misdeeds were exaggerated due to her explicit sexuality, seen as a threat to the patriarchy. Her pursuit of multiple lovers, in and out of the wedding bed, could are seen as threatening to the institutions supported by the male authorities who later condemned her. After all, we only know a couple of basic facts about her life, and tons of her negative reputation comes from later accounts.

Elizabeth Tripped Herself Up When She Tried To Expand Her Torture Tactics

For variety of years, Elizabeth was content to torture - and potentially bathe within the blood of - young peasant girls who came to serve her from nearby towns. But eventually the oldsters of local Average Janes caught on to her brutal ways and stopped sending their daughters up to her castle.

In her later days, Elizabeth became more daring. She began fostering young noblewomen from poor families across Transylvania and even Croatia, offering to show them at a faculty for women supposedly run out of her castle. But the oldsters of aristocratic girls could and did make a political fuss that caught the eye of local authorities (although conflicting reports state she may have passed local peasant ladies off as noble girls).

Elizabeth also gave herself away when she murdered a famous choir singer who couldn't - or wouldn't - belt a tune for her. Unlike a poor peasant from the country, this well-known singer was immediately missed when she disappeared.

The King Of Hungary Finally Discovered Her Terrible Crimes

Allegedly jealous of the Protestant Bathory-Nadasdy family's wealth, Matthias II, the Catholic king of Hungary, picked abreast of these allegations about Elizabeth and decided to urge even. He and his parliament ordered the royal deputy in Hungary, Count George Thurzo, to research her. Perhaps they were suspicious because they believed in witchcraft, or perhaps a sexually powerful woman was threatening to their beliefs. Also, if Elizabeth - by now a widow - was tried and convicted, then all of her wealth would revert to the crown and every one of the debts the king owed to Bathory would be erased.

Thurzo was a lover to the Bathory family, however, and he helped Elizabeth escape prosecution. As a result, Elizabeth wasn't placed on trial herself, but her accomplices were.

Elizabeth Was Walled Up In Her Castle For Life

In the fall of 1610, Thurzo began gathering testimony and evidence against Elizabeth. He raided Elizabeth's chief residence in December and located disfigured and dismembered bodies. The trial began quickly, in January 1611: the primary only included peasant witnesses, which was a plus for Elizabeth. She wasn't allowed to represent herself, however, and she or he didn't appear in court, although her accomplices were tortured to admit her crimes. Her guilt was probably predetermined.

Elizabeth was eventually convicted and walled up in her chamber at her family castle in Slovakia. She only survived for 3 more years, dying in 1614.

Elizabeth May Have Murdered 650 Young Women

Between her servant girls and therefore the local noblewomen she recruited to "tutor," Elizabeth slaughtered and tortured many young women. Over 10 years of torture, she reputedly brutalized 650 different ladies, that number reported by a peasant girl who was a witness to those crimes. But she was only officially charged with the murder of 80 women. what percentage did she kill? We'll probably never know.

The Ruins Of Her Castle Still Stand

Where did Elizabeth commit her misdeeds? Her primary residence was at the striking castle of Cachtice, located in modern Slovakia, which she received as a gift on her marriage as a teenager . There she tortured servant girls and buried them, and there she was imprisoned for all times . Today, the castle's ruins still stand, a legacy of either a grievous misrepresentation of a sexually adventurous woman, or one among the world's most infamous serial killers.