ok..as i promised i would write something about the bloody lady...since there is ALOT i mean really ALOT stories abou her so i'll just give you guys a little bit of what i get from the stories...here goes
Throughout history Elizabeth Bathory has been called many things. Some people regard her as one of the first vampires. Other people see her as a mentaly ill nobelwoman. Still others view her as excessively cruel and vain. She is the Blood Countess and folktales tell us about her Castle of Vampires and drunken blood orgies. This is as close to the truth as we can get in this day and age.
Elizabeth, sometimes known by her Hungarian name Erzebet, was born into a wealthy and one of the most powerful nobel families in Hungray. Her parents were Anne and George Bathory. Like many noble families of Europe, the Bathorys were extremely inbred and this resulted in many mental illnesses. While she was a cousin of King Stephan of Poland she also had some less mentional relatives like a schizophrenic uncle and an aunt who was bisexual and sadistic. Unfortunately, Elizabeth was not spared from her family's illness and displayed signs of a malady at an early age. Around the age of five she began to have epiletic fits and was all around a selfish, spoiled child. Like many nobel children of Europe she was raised by governesses who's only job was to cater to her every whim. She was also very beautiful and renowed for her fair, smooth complexion and raven tresses. Despite her fits and a slightly antisocial personality she was thought of as an intelligent young lady, although exteremly vain.
By the time she was eleven Elizabeth was engaged to Count Fernencz Nadasdy. The count would later become known as "The Black Hero of Hungary" and a war hero. Like most marriages of the time, it was a political marriage and it's said to have been enginered by her mother. Despite this bethrolment at the age of fourteen Elizabeth gave birth to an illigetimate child who had been fathered by a peasant boy while at her mother-in-law's, Countess Ferencz Nadasday, residence. In May of 1575, long before women's lib, Elizabeth and the Count were married, she only fifteen, and retaining her maiden name of Bathory. The Count took the name of Bathory, this could have been because the Bathorys were much more powerful than the Nadasdy's, making this a savvy political move. Being a lover of war and the fighting, the Count was away for great peroids of time leaving Elizabeth to manage the household. As a result of these long peroids of seperation at the beginning of their marriage few children were born to them and it's very likely that left to her own unchecked devices and the influences of her aunt that she began to experiment with the sadistic practices. Also during this time peroid Elizabeth spent much time visitng her aunt Countess Karla Bathory. It's said this is where Elizabeth began to participate in her aunt's orgies.
As was the custom of the time, servants of the nobility were treated with the greatest cruelty. Elizabeth was shown this at a very early age according to many sources. During her early childhood the Countess witnessed the execution of a gypsy. The gypsy was stuffed into the dissected belly of a live horse and sewn inside in a public spectacle, which was also common during this time peroid. Many nobles and members of the public attended this execution and there was no symphaty or remorse shown. This probably imprinted on the young countess that the lives of commoners were worthless. Due to her early influences of cruelty, while her husband was away Elizabeth gave into her carnal desires and began to develop an interest in dark witchcraft. She was tutored in the ways of tourture and black magick by her servant Thorko and encouraged her sadistic ways. It seems her husband took part in some of her torture, or at least was aware of it. Elizabeth was only in her early twenties.
She began toruturing her servant girls under the premise of punishing them for failure to do trival tasks. Her traget age group appears to be teenage girls. Her various instruments of tourture went from ripping the girls apart with hot pokers, setting them on fire, pouring freezing water over them outside in the winter until they froze to death, and in the summer pouring honey over them and setting them outside for the insects to attack; a trick she learned from her husband. Another favourite toruture of hers was called "star-kicking" which was where oiled bits of paper were placed inbetween their toes and was then lit on fire. She is also said to have riped girls heads apart by pulling their mouths open until they tore at the edges and their necks snapped. (Ouch!) Also, Mrs. Bathory took pleasure in humiliating the girls by having them strip naked and preform household duties in the nude in full view of men. Her husband would often enjoy these torture sessions with his wife when he was home from wars. However, his stomach for the torture of young girls was less than Elizabeth's as it has been noted that he had been known to strom off in disgust.
Eventually, the Count and Countess had children. Elizabeth gave birth to a son and two daughters in her late twenties. Luckily, the children were not included in her tortures, as victims or spectators. They were quickly given to the care of governesses and wet nurses. It's unlikely that their mother's sadistic ways were ever witnessed by them. They were, with the exception of their mother's strange fetishes, perhaps a normal nobel family of the time.
All of this changed in 1604 with the death of Ferencz. His death has been attributed by some to the Countess but there is no solid evidence this ever took place. However, it's commonly accepted that Ferencz did die of poisioning. After the Count's death Elizabeth began to spend most of her time at a manor in Csejthe* (Cachtice) and an estate in Beckov.* This is where Elizabeth began to grow older, and her immense beauty had begun to wane. Her vanity lead her to try to cover this, not unlike many women today, with expensive clothes and cosmetics. Unfortunately, nothing covered the wrinkles and lines that so annoyed her. However, one day a servant girl attending to Elizabeth's hair either remarked something was wrong with her mistress' headdress or pulled her hair. This was a mistake however, because the outraged Countess slapped the girl's face so hard blood spurted from her nose. Some of that blood splashed onto Elizabeth's hand and after rinsing it off, she thought her skin had regained it's smooth, creamy complexion she was once famed for. Thus began her true obsession with blood over which her vanity would regin.
After that faithful day, Elizabeth became conviniced blood was the fountain of youth. Her accomplices, servants who fancied themselves witches, Helena Jo, Dorka, and Darvulia agreed with her that bathing in blood, ecspecially that of virginal young women, would restore her lost youth. After this, the real blood baths began. She would kill young women in the most horrific ways possible so that she could bath in their blood, usually while it was still warm. However, they were never killed simply and humanly, often she would torture them for weeks or months before finally killing them. Her victims were pricked with pins, cut with scissors, prodded with sharp spikes or buring irons, and other horrific deaths. Along with bathing in their blood the Countess is reputed to have bitten them on the neck and breast and drank their blood also. Eventually, Castle Csejthe where she lived the majority of her adult life had a complete torture chamber. There was even a huge cage which hung from the ceiling with holes drained in the bottom to provide Elizabeth wtih a blood shower.
During her manical reign of terror she killed hundreds of young girls. She started with pesant girls but when her supply of fresh virginal peasant women had run out, she began to tourture and kill young nobel women. She would convince young nobelwomen, of a lower rank than herself, to come for a visit. At one point she even set up a school for young nobelwomen of lower stations to come. However, they too became her victims. It is said that she killed upwards of 600 young girls in her quest for beauty. Even a noble woman like herself could not continue this sort of slaughter withough being questioned.
Elizabeth's downfall began when she requested a Luteran pastor, Reverand Andras Berthoni to secretly bury her bloodless corpses. Once he saw the young women's corpses he began to become suspicious of what was going on in Castle Csejthe and started listening to the pesant rumours of Castle Csejthe being the "castle of the vampires." Before his death, Berthoni wrote about his supicions regarding Elizabeth in a note. A cousin of Elizabeth's, Count Thurzo came to Csejthe Castle after reading the note. Reverand Berthoni's successor, Reverand Janos Ponikenusz, Count Thurzo, and some castle servants found Elizabeths' torture chamer on New Year's Eve of 1610. To their horror, they not only found a torture chamber, but a great number of mutilated bodies of young women and the blood-soaked Countess herself.
After this gruesome discovery, Count Thurzo wasted no time in prosecuting those who were responsible. Elizabeths' cohorts where charged with vampirism, witchcraft, and the praciticing of pagan rituals. All but two were beheaded. The two not beheaded had their fingers pulled off with red hot pokers and were then burned alive.
For political reasons, and this must be kept in mind, the Countess Elizabeth Bathory never attended the trial of her accomplises or her own trial. Nor was the Countess herself ever put on trial for the same as her cohorts. She was charged on a purely criminal basis. Because she was a nobelwoman, Elizabeth could not be sentencted to death. Thus, she was sentenced to life imprisonment at the top of her castle in a tower with no windows or doors. The only opening was a small hole which allowed food to be passed thourgh once a day. This is where the Countess passed the rest of her life. Elizabeth Bathory died alone and in darkness in August of 1614, a captive in the cell to which she was sentenced.
In today's society how such a crime could happen is a question that often comes up. We have laws, legislation, and restraints were are to follow and must always mind. Everyone is subject to these laws and legislation, in our society there is no immunity. However, in seventeenth century Hungry, this was not the case at all. There were laws which the Parliament of Hungary set down however the nobility were excluded from criminal prosectution. (Though after the horrible crimes of Elizabeth were exposed, the law which forbade the aristocracy from being persecuted as criminals was repealed.) Therefore, Elizabeth commited most of her crimes under criminal immunity. Just because of these laws however, does not make a ruler like Elizabeth. There have been many rulers who ruled as she did and did NOT commit such acts. It seems our Countess was predisposed to violence and sadism and the laws of her day only allowed this side of her personality to go unchecked. This predisposition was most likely caused by the mental illness which ran in her family due to constant inbreeding.
Another factor in these crimes was Elizabeth's vanity. The bloodbaths for which she is notorious and the deaths of an estimated 650 young women are a testiment to her extreme vanity. There are a great number of eloquent accounts of Elizabeth's immense beauty, which was something highly regarded in a woman. Intelligence was not, therefore the Countess most likely placed more value on her looks than her intelligence and so when she realised her beauty was fading she was losing her worth as a woman. She would stop at nothing to regain this comodity, and trusted in her sorcery as she had been taught and had so enjoyed to regain it.
These crimes continued for so long unchecked because Elizabeth was an arisocrat. She was administering "justice" and ruling her land as she saw fit, just as her ancestors did. It's speculated the only reason she was ever brought to trial was because the Parliment wished to considlate her family's land. Another theory was that her folly was preying on young noble women. The young girls of the nobelity were the only victims which were "missed" so to speak. The aristocracy regarded peasants as infereor and did not put value upon their lives. To kill a peasant in seventeenth century Hungray was nothing, however, the government, made of ariostocracy, would certainly miss perhaps their daughters, nieces, or cousins.
P/s: so much for a little bit of the story huh? LOL sowe guys have no tyme 2 summeris the story so i'll just copy and past the story from http://www.geocities.com/ and you guys can also read from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/bathory/countess_1.html ok that's all guys sowe again :P
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