Elizabeth Bathory The Amazing Lady

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Elizabeth Bathory The Amazing Lady
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What happened to Elizabeth Bathory?

• Elizabeth Bathory, or Countess Elizabeth Bathory,
  was a wealthy and powerful Hungarian noblewoman.
  Her uncle was king of Poland, and her nephew was
  a prince of Transylvania. In 1610, she was
  accused of horrible serial murders and locked up
  in her home, Castle practice, where she stayed
  until she died. Bathory is thought to have killed
  at least 600 people, making her the most prolific
  female murderer in Guinness World Records. Called
  her the Blood Countess because of what she did,
  and Bram Stokers Dracula may have been based on
  her. But its possible that Bathory didnt do all
  the things that have been blamed on her.

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Early Years

• Bathory was born in Hungary on August 7, 1560, in
  the town of Nyrbátor. Bathory got engaged to
  Count Ferenc Nadasdy when she was 11 years old.
  She was thought to be a beautiful and smart girl.
  Some stories about her life say that she had a
  child with a man who wasnt her husband before
  she got married.

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Marriage

• On May 8, 1575, Bathory married Nadasdy when she
  was only 15 years old. After ten years, in 1585,
  they had their first child. Five children were
  born to Bathory. Two of them died as babies, but
  two daughters and a son made it to adulthood.

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Involved in the Murders

• Then, three women and one man who worked for
  Bathory were taken into custody, questioned, and
  tortured. At the beginning of January 1611, they
  went to court. These servants denied being
  involved in the murders, but they did say that
  they buried more than one body, though the number
  of bodies they buried varied from 36 to 51. Not
  only did they blame their mistress and each
  other, but they also blamed Darvulia, a dead
  servant who had worked as a maid and a governess.
  Two of the women and the man who worked for them
  were given death sentences, which were carried
  out quickly. The fourth was not put to death
  right away, and no one knows what happened to her
  after that. Another woman was soon killed, too.
  She was said to have used magic to help Bathory.

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Bathory was Totally Innocent

• But its not likely that Elizabeth Bathory was
  totally innocent. In 1602, a priest wrote a
  letter in which he talked about how cruel Bathory
  and her husband were to the servants who worked
  for them. Bathorys case could have been helped
  by true stories about how harshly she treated
  people from the lower classes. Even though it
  wasnt against the law at the time, and Elizabeth
  Bathory was only punished because some of her
  victims were said to be noblewomen, she was still
  responsible for a lot of broken lives.

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Death

• On August 21, 1614, the body of 54-year-old
  Elizabeth Bathory was found in Castle practice,
  which is now in Slovakia. She had been locked up
  there since 1610. She was first buried in the
  crypt on her property, but its likely that her
  body was moved later.