The Life of Elizabeth Bathory

Some consider her one of the most noted serial killers ever. And some say she was just insane. Either way you slice it the gruesome and tragic life of Elizabeth Bathory will be remembers forever.

Elizabeth was born 1560 into a well noted and powerful family in Transylvania. There were relatives that held positions such as prince and prime minister of Hungry. Some say that at the age of 5 lady Bathory began to experience violent seizures. Which could have contributed to a mental disorder.

At the age of 15 she married Count Ference Nadasdy(age 26) and lived with him in castle Csejthe. Count Ference was known all around the region for his war efforts. The locals even gave him the name "The Black hero of Hungry". Which meant that he was gone a lot fighting wars. There for she was left alone a lot. Searching for ways to cure her boredom, Lady Bathory began dabbling in the dark arts. Which ultimately lead her to torturing her young servant girls.

In the year 1585 Elizabeth had her first child, a girl named Anna. A few years down the line she birthed 3 more children, 2 girls named Ursula, and Katherine, and a boy named Paul. Many close friends and family members had said that she was a very good wife and mother. And was also known to be quite intelligent.

After being married for 25 years Elizabeth's husband died at the age of 51. Immediately after the death of Count Ference, she sent her mother-in-law(who lived with them at the time)away. For they never got along due to the mother-in-law's highly dominant personality.

As Elizabeth got older, she grow very fearful of losing her beauty to age.

One time while one of her young female servants was combing her hair, she accidentally pulled her hair, Elizabeth immediately slapped the girls hand. She had hit her so hard that the servant began to bleed. And some blood droplets had landed on Elizabeth's hand, as she looked down at the blood on her hand she thought the blood had made her skin become quite youthful looking. So she began to rub the blood into her skin, for hope that she had discovered the secret of eternal youth. She then had one of her advisors strip the young servant girl of her clothes, and begin making cuts all over her body. They then began draining the blood from the cuts into a tub so that she would be able to bathe in it.

For the next 10 years, Lady Bathory continued her gruesome ritual of bathing in womens blood, so that she could retain her youth. Along with draining the blood of her servants, she would torture them for month. Doing things such as poking them with scissors, and putting them into a cage hung from the ceiling with short heated spikes, so that she would be able to shower in their blood.

On one such occasion while torturing a servant, she escaped from the castle and made it to authorities. She told them of all the disturbing thing happening in the castle. Which lead to the raiding of her castle.

Upon entering the castle authorities found girls dead and alive all over the castle, most of which had deep cuts all over their bodies. Also, they found the bodies of about 50 women buried around the castle. They also found Elizabeth's diary, which depicted the tortures of over 600 women.

It was due to these events that she would later become known as the "Blood Countess"

After the Horrific discovery, Elizabeth's advisors were burned alive. And being that Elizabeth was from a highly respected family, she was sentenced to house arrest, and was contained to the room where most of the tortures occurred. They then proceeded to wall up all the windows and doors, leaving only a small space for food to be passed to her.

Elizabeth Bathory eventually died in August of 1614 at the age of 54.

The story of Elizabeth Bathory has been kept alive even to this day, by noted heavy metal band Cradle Of Filth, who's album "Cruelty And the Beast" is based on her life.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory,

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabeth-bathory.htm