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I have written a story on Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess:

Elizabeth Bathory was born in Hungary in 1560, approximately a hundred years after Vlad the Impaler died. at the age of 15, Elizabeth was married to Count Ferencz Nadasdy, who was 25. The Count added her surname to his, so Elizabeth could keep her family name Bathory. After the marriage they moved to Castle Csejthe a mountaintop fortress overlooking the village of Csejthe, which lies in the north-western part of Hungary.throughout all the 25 years they were married, Elizabeth was often left to herself, and her life became more and more boring.

Elizabeth made Castle Csejthe into a place of pure evil. She would always find excuses to inflict punishment and torture, upon her young servant girls. She preferred to have the victim stripped naked and then whip the girl on the front of her nude body rather than the back. not only for the increased damage this would do, but so that she then could watch their faces contort in horror at their most grim and burning fate. Another favorite was when she would stick pins, in various sensitive places on the victims body, such as under fingernails. In 1600 Ferencz died and Elizabeth's period of real terror began. First off, she sent her hated mother-in-law away. Secondly, she would have peace to enjoy a new kind of bath, that nobody was to known of.

Shortly before her husband died something happened, that changed Elizabeth's life. She was now close to 40 and time, had taken it's toll on her appearance. Elizabeth tried to conceal the wrinkles through cosmetics. But this could not cover the fact, that she was getting old and close to losing her beauty. Then one day it happened. A young chambermaid accidentally pulled Elizabeth Bathory's hair while combing it. The infuriated Countess slapped the girl's head so hard, that blood spurted from her nose, which splashed upon her own hand. Where the blood had touched her skin, Elizabeth immediately thought it took on the freshness of her young chambermaid's skin. She then got hold of Johannes Ujvary and Dorka to undress the young girl, upon holding her arms over a big vat, then they cut her arteries. After the young girl was dead Elizabeth then stepped into the vat, and took a bath in her chambermaid's blood. She was now sure, she had found the secret of eternal youth through this vampirism. She had discovered that blood is life.

Over the next ten years, Elizabeth Bathory's evil trusted helpers provided her with beautiful young girls, from some neighboring villages, upon the cover of hiring them as servants to Castle Csejthe. Back in the castle, the young girls would be mutilated and killed, so the Countess could take her blood baths. Sometimes, she would even drink their blood, to gain some sort of inner beauty. But soon Elizabeth began to realize that the blood of simple peasant girls, was having little effect on the quality of her skin.Better blood was now required. Elizabeth then started picking girls from some of the surrounding lower nobility. These noble girls were consumed in exactly the same beastly fashion as the peasant girls who preceded them. However, with the disappearance of girls of noble birth, Elizabeth was now becoming very careless in her actions. People who lived in the neighboring villages, had already begun to talk. And soon the rumor about the horror in Castle Csejthe reached the Hungarian Emperor.

The Emperor then ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, the Count Cuyorgy Thurzo, who was governor of the province to raid the castle. On December 30, 1610. A band of soldiers led by Elizabeth's own cousin, raided Castle Csejthe at night. They were horrified by the terrible sights in the castle. A dead girl was lying in the main hall, drained of blood, another girl, who had her body pierced, was still alive. In the dungeon they later discovered, were several girls waiting in prison cells, some of whose bodies had been tortured. Below the castle, they found the bodies of some 50 dead girls. During the trial 1611, a register with the names of around 650 victims, was found in the Countess's living quarters. she got her punishment, when the Hungarian Emperor demanded her condemn to lifelong imprisonment in her own castle. Stonemasons were brought to her Castle Csejthe, to wall up the windows and the door to the bedchamber with the Countess still inside. Here she would spend the remaining days of her life, with only a small opening for food to be passed to her. In 1614, four years after she was walled in, one of the Countess's jailers found her food untouched. After peeking through the small opening in Elizabeth's walled-up cell, he saw her lying face down on the floor. Elizabeth Bathory the "Blood Countess" was dead at the age of fifty-four.

Some people consider Elizabeth to be a vampire although there is no record of her ever drinking blood. What is your opinion of her?

She certainly was a sick, demented woman, but because she didn't require the consumption of blood, it doesn't classify her as a vampire.

From what all I have read on her she only liked to bathe in blood. This was a daily ritual and required the blood of virgins.

even though she may never have drank blood she may have been a type of psy vampire

She only bathed in the blood because she firmly believed it would preserve her beauty. It didn't. She was merely a twisted, insane woman.

Ummm well she did think that but I personally don't think she was beautiful to begin with! have you seen pics of her? Maybe she should have bathed more? Hahahaha!

She is at the very least, got to be my favorite serial killer of all time. And who can deny that is what she was?
No, I do not think that she was a true vampire, though for obvious reasons (the desire to bathe in the blood of virgins) she did have something of a fetish at work.

Apparently, people back in the day thought she was attractive. That's beside the point. She felt that her 'beauty' would be preserved by the blood of virgins.

Elizabeth Bathory was definitely a social vampire, the kind that was legally sanctioned by her society. As a member of the nobility, she could exploit the peasents in her territory in any way she desired. Using people to satisfy one's own selfish cravings is a form of vampirism, and Bathory's behaviour was largely overlooked by the ruling class, who considered peasents as material property. Bathory didn't get into any trouble with the authorities until she started to prey on the daughters of the nobels. Had she stuck to just killing peasent girls, she probably could have continued her reign of terror indefinitely.

She definitly wasn't a vampire. She was a sick woman, gelous on other girls youth and beauty. If anyone would actually study her life in detail and analyse it i am sure a certain menatal condition would be diagnosed and she must have some really serious issues of self-esteem.

Excellent thread and replies about Contessa Elisabeta Batory.

Side note: The Countess was a distant cousin of the Basarab family - the family of the Impaler.

It always amused me that people more closely associated Vlad III as a vampyr rather than Elisabeta due to Bram Stoker needing a name for his protagonist and having been told a bit about Prince Vlad from a Professor Arminius.

I do not believe she was vampyr. I believe she was a mass murderer foolish enough to get caught. She took the saying "For the Blood is the Life" FAR too seriously.

Vlad, isn't it funny though how every controversial character related to vampirism in that time has somehow romanian blood? And i agree whith you on that one...she needed a reality check for sure.

She was obcessed with Blood, in my personal opinion she was a Vampire.. I love her and have read coutnless things about her life... She was a very interesting and fascinating person...
Enjoyed your post..

*Smiles at Vitriol*

Well, as for Romanians (and Italians), one must chalk it up to our proclivity to seize life, no?

The presence of blood, even in great quantities, does not automatically mean vampire. As has been stated in earlier posts in this thread, the lack of requirement for blood should have been your first clue that she was not a vampire.

Smiles at Vlad....very well said indeed.

Of course she was not a vampire. She was just mentally sick as a lot of people that are legend now.

For the most part she was just a grade A (no this is not the politcally correct term) nut... But I do have to say one thing, I sure do have an interesting namesake.

very well written, but I believe if you check in the forum archives there is already a forum post about this....good information though for the newer people on the site:)

I love your account of the story! Very good.

she was no vampyre, just someone who was bathing in the blood of virgins

She might have been vampiric, if she drank the blood. But if your body's pores open up, would she not be consuming it through her skin? Then I ask you, then would she be considered vampiric?

Don't beleive she was a Vamp either, She just had a extreme blood fetish. The media has just put her into the Vamp. category due to the connection of blood to the both. She was more like a deranged seriel killer.

Bathory was not some vampire, just like everyone wants to see her as one. She had mental disorders up the yang, not to mention that torment of underseverents back then wasn't such an uncommon thing, till they reached the level that she has expressed on those that worked in her mannor.

When people believed she bathed in blood because of the buckets they had full of it, it was due to the fact of how she tortured them and how much water they had to use to clean up the mess.

Eventually she was locked away in her room and was given food and water daily for her crimes. Eventually she ended up dieing, probably of malnutrition of something to that extent.

- Sin

I dont think she was a vampire, but there is reputed evidence out there that she is known to have occasionaly consumed/ drank the blood of her victims...I have also done a section on my profile on Elizabeth Bathory.

I don't think there is even a question that she fits the vampiric profile in my mind. Even if she didn't drink blood, she still preyed on other people for the sake of having theirs. And further, she did it with the idea that it made her look younger. So, yes, I feel she qualifies.

- D

Personally I don't think she was a vampire. She had a severe blood fetish and she must've been mentally unstable (think about how nobility back then often married cousins etc - which lead to mental instability in further generations), and as it back then was normal to have severe and brutal punishment to crimes, she must've seen some horrific things since she was little. It was all considered 'normal', except she took it to a whole different level.
So derainged, yes, insane, yes, serial killer (which can become addictive), yes. A vampire? I don't think so.

I don't know much about her, thank you for the story. it was definitely worth the read and worth reading everyone's comments. I guess I would call her more serial killer than vampire

she is def one of the more colorfull and interesting people in history.

she was sick... mental,,,,but not a vampire.... she was a sick person

she was no vampire, she gives vampires a bad name. She was a selfish, vain woman who had no clue of what true beauty is. She should never be forgotten though as it teaches her a lesson.

I remember reading about her while I was in college and her story gave me the shivers. Few things do that. I dont think it was necessarily what she did as much as why she did it. Superficial people creep me out more than anything. I dont know if I really believe she was a vampire. I've always been on the fence on that. I think if anything she was probably just simply insane, but I guess its one of those things we'll never know.

wow. i feel redundant saying this, but i'm going with the crazy vote.

I believe I read somewhere that her husband used to torture her and he was some sort of black knight figure, (thought I read it in a book in the school library once) who was fairly malevolent.

Grand post by the way.

Being alone does things to the head! Really you think of weird things... Just look at a wall with no sound around you no tv no music no anything for three hours and you will start to see weird stuff. I think that may she was in a way a vampire. But also what about the people that eat human flesh? It was found that 50 to 60% of people at one time ate human flesh for no other reason then it was there. That is insane but in our blood and DNA....

Read your article and this post and I still say she was a very unique individual. I had the opertunity to read a book about her once, a few years back, it talked of many of the things that she did during her life time.

Will see if I can locate the book again.

I would still define her as a vampire as she saw taking blood as a way to prolong her life. Too bad for her it did not work out very well in the end!

i dont believe she was a vampire, i think she is more like an older version of modern day serial killers.

She certainly was a sick, demented woman, but because she didn't require the consumption of blood, it doesn't classify her as a vampire.

honestly i beleive that she was the most twisted, and insane insane psycopathic killers of all time but the fact that she bathed in the blood of virgins doesn't qulify her as a vapire, but mainly someone who just liked the feel of blood and how it feels when it touched her skin. it is a posibility that when the servants blood splatered on her hand, that the plasma in the blood was absord into her skin to supply the skin cells some neutrients to help her hand look a little better but in my opinion she was just delusional.

No one here requires the consumtion of blood, so by that definition no one here is a vampire and we are all on the wrong site. The definition that I have heard the most on this site would seem to make her one. Maybe the term vampire needs to be defined more clearly here. She did not need blood but thought she did.

There is an article in the Member's Articles Section of the site that details the life of Bathory. It was written by Crowgirl.

I totally agree with him.....a vampire can be defined many ways and in one of the ommon ways she would be a vampire.

There was actually a segment done on her on a show that was on discovery channel called "Deadly Women." If anyone has an opportunity to see that, it was a very intriguing series.

I keep hearing so many refer to her as insane..there is a huge world of difference between a psychotic and a psychopath.

- D

I believe she was nay a vampire. She did like to bathe in the blood of female virgins, however this was more of a fetish to keep her youthful beauty. Or so she believed it would.

If the nobles and other higher society members would have took notice to her when many young women kept being taken into the castle and never seen again.

She was one of the more researched serial killers, most believing she was obsessed with vampirism. However, she was merely desiring eternal youth. In her 40s.. it could now be classified most likely as a mid life crisis, or realization.. and she went a little off the deep end, and to too many extremes.

I think she was more mentally sick.

i agree with LaMuerte she was a selfish insane woman who was very vane and crazy all she was worried about was her looks because she didnt like being ignored

How are we the ones to lay judgement on her or anyone else for that matter, I believe that yes she may have been a little missguided and/or missled by her vainity although I also think that she must have had a similar taste for blood and therefore I call her a "Vampire"

Just because she failed to keep her existence secret doesn't mean that she was not of my own kind.

I agree with marquisgothique Elizabeth was a social vampire, horribly insane but also a very vain woman. I believe because she was alone most of the time she probably felt like she was ugly and to make herself feel better always tried to magnify the beauty she saw in herself. So that's why she saw that young blood could keep her beautiful.
Yes In a way I believe she was a vampire, because just consuming blood doesn't make you a vampire, actually feeling blood and admiring it also does.

she wasnt a vampire... she was more a dark whitch.. she dealed with dark magic and occultism... a vampire is classified by the need of blood to survive (only talking about sangs here) but bathory didnt need blood to survive she needed it for her beauty...

to those of you who said she was mentally ill or something like that.. you should now that she wasnt.. she was better educated then most males that time and used her intelligence to hide her activities...

She just had a bad habit of drinking people's blood.

She prolly suffered dehydration or something.

I agree with most of you on the fact that the countress was insane, but i would not consider her a vampire.

most of us feed out of need supplying fresh blood to our bodies, some of us because of pure lust.

She took bloodbaths out og fear, fear of the unavoidable, growing old........

A murderous bitch!

Like was already said, she was a very vain and insane woman, who unfortunately had the money and means to be become a serial killer..people here have done excellent research and thank you.

Very informative and well researched. From the way it sounds though, according to what link who pull up on her, she may have had some vampiric tendencies.

there are even moves about her

For some reason when I was little I found her interesting.... There was a funny book on her at my school..... my .. teachers thought I was ... demented.. heh. ^^ Then I found a book on Vlad and thus my interests in history of such things came to be. ^^ I always love reading things about this but I don't know why.

I dont beleive Elizabeth Bathory a vampire, just someone who was demented and to caught up in looking young

Countess Blood is my role model, I have done essays on her many times. As well I have drawn art that I portray a woman in a tower with one window.
She was vampiress to the villagers that she would capture her servants from. Yet I believe that she just lost all sense of humanity after she had beaten that first peasant girl just to bathe in her blood.
Not many mention the Countess anymore, they fear her stories may become reality. Too many times I've heard comments on how she was crazy...they are sadly mistaken. She was a great knowledgeable Royal who just took her mortality into her own hands.