Erzsébet Báthori, also known as the Blood Countess or Countess Dracula,
is one of the most contradictory women in Hungarian history. She allegedly
killed more than 600 servant girls and bathed in virgin girls’ blood to retain
her youth – but nowadays more and more historians think that she was only a
victim of a conspiracy in order to get her lands in Transylvania and weaken the
power of the Báthori family.
She was born in 1560 and she was only 15 years old, when she married
Ferenc Nádasdy, a young nobleman and captain, who was known as the “black bey”
by the Ottomans. After her husband died in the Fifteen Years War (1604), she
was left alone with her children. She was an influential and powerful
noblewomen, who held a great amount of land in Transylvania and lived in the
castle of Csejte. Her uncle was a Transylvanian lord, who ruled that part of
the country and who opposed the Habsburgs. There were no signs of her insanity
until her trial, which started in 1610, but the whispering had already started
about her cruel nature and her tortured servants. She left her fortune to her
children and denied the charges against her. In her trial, several witnesses
and survivors claimed that the Countess murdered almost half a hundred servants
and young girls and to retain her youth, she bathed in her victims’ blood.
According to the myth, when she was captured there were still dead and dying
people in her castle. As she was a noblewoman, she could not be put on trial,
sentenced to death or sent into prison, but she was captured by her son-in-laws
and Count Thurzó and she was put under arrest in her castle and walled up until she died.
Her partners were beheaded.
Historians think that she was not worse than the other noblewoman of her
age; although she may have tortured her servants, she could not murder 400-600
people in such a short time. There are proofs that it is also unlikely that she
bathed in virgins’ blood as human blood thickens too fast. They also claim that
it was only a conspiracy, as she was not there when her trial occurred and
there was no legal verdict. Most of them think that the main cause of Báthori’s
trial was that the Habsburgs wanted to get her large amount of lands. Count
Thurzó’s personal hostility could be another cause. There are several theories why Thurzó hated Báthori so much, some historians claim that he was in love with the Countess, who rejected him and some of them claim that he was motivated by the great amount of money involved in the case.
In the last few decades Báthori has appeared in popular culture a lot,
mostly as a vampire or a serial killer and she is also known as Countess
Dracula or The Blood Countess. There have been several books and films
published about her life, such as Julie Delpy’s The Countess (2009) or Bathory
(2008) and her character also appears in a vampire story called Fright Night 2 (2013). Her true story
has never been revealed, but historians favours the theory that she was only
the victim of a conspiracy trial because of her power and lands in
Transylvania.
References
Szabó, K. (2010). Mítosz kontra
valóság, avagy igazságot Báthory Erzsébetnek? Retrieved from http://www.rubicon.hu/magyar/oldalak/mitosz_kontra_valosag_avagy_igazsagot_bathory_erzsebetnek/
Kleisz, Á. (2013). Báthory
Erzsébet: Tömeggyilkos vagy áldozat? Retrieved from http://www.origo.hu/tudomany/tortenelem/20131219-bathory-erzsebet-grofno-tomeggyilkos-vagy-artatlan-aldozat.html
BBC History Magazine. (2014). Az
ártatlan tömeggyilkos. Retrieved from http://index.hu/tudomany/tortenelem/2014/08/21/bathory_erzsebet_az_artatlan_tomeggyilkos/
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