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Regional introduction
Countess Erzsébet Báthory (Elizabeth) is one of the most misjudged woman in history, depicted as an evil, blood thirsty sadist, a vampire. She holds the Guinness world records for the most prolific female murderer. She was none of the aforementioned. She was an extreme wealthy beautiful women, with soft pale skin and long black hair.
In 2008, finally, a Slovak-made film attempted to clear Countess Erzsébet (Elizabeth) Báthory’s name, although the title of the film “Countess of Blood” and the DVD cover refereed to her as a Vampire. I presume for marketing purposes to cash in on her notoriety.
This is very ironic since Countess Erzsébet Báthory was Magyar aka Hungarian. The Slovaks since 1920, tried to erase the history, culture, heritage, and everything else they could that reminded anyone that their territory formerly belonged to be Hungary. Her former residence Castle of Csejte is now located in Slovakia, (now known as Čachtický hrad) which used to be part of Hungary since the Magyar’s occupied the Carpathian basin, meaning Central Europe in the 9th century. Upper Hungary was just about the only region apart from Erdély aka Transylvania, (awarded to Romania after WWI) that was not occupied by the Ottoman Turks for 150 years. At the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, the Kingdom of Hungary was dismembered and lost 60% of its former lands.
Background history of Countess Erzsébet Báthory
Erzsébet Báthory was born on 7 August 1560, at the family estate in Nyírbátor, Royal Hungary. She spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. As a child, Báthory suffered multiple seizures that may have been caused by epilepsy. Her father was Baron George VI Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been voivode “Vajda in Hungarian” of Transylvania. The Vajda was the highest-ranking official in Transylvania within the Kingdom of Hungary from the 12th century to the 16th century. Her mother was Baroness Anna Báthory (1539–1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó, also voivode of Transylvania, who was of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the niece of the Hungarian noble Stephen Báthory (1533–1586), the king of Poland, the grand duke of Lithuania of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and prince of Transylvania. Her older brother, Stephen Báthory (1555–1605), served as the Chief Justice of Hungary.
The Báthory family had played an important part in Hungarian history since the 13th century. By the 14th had several distinct branches, including those of Somlya and Ecsed. Justice of Hungary. Erzsébet’s cousin Zsigmond and nephew Gábor would also become Princes of Transylvania, and both were good allies of Erzsébet. Erzsébet Báthory was not only extremely wealthy by own her accord, in fact, the most powerful woman in Hungary. She was well educated, able to read, write and speak in Latin, German, Hungarian, and Greek when this was a rarity in this period, even for the highest nobility. It is not clear if she spoke Slovak.
The so called sadism Countess Erzsébet Báthory
Countess Erzsébet Báthory’s supposed sadism was a symptom of mental illness resulting from genetic defects due to inbreeding is contradicted by the Báthory family tree itself. The Ecsed and Somlya branches of the Báthory family had separated many generations before the marriage of Erzsébet’s parents. Anna Báthory of Somlya and György Báthory of Ecsed were separated by seven generations from their last common ancestor, which comes to a two-hundred-year distance and six intervening ancestors on each side.
As a young noblewoman of Erzsébet had to be familiar with basic healing techniques so that they could manage the health care of the people living on their estates. Erzsébet’s knowledge of healing methods, patient care, and medicinal herbs was based on the Transylvanian healing practices learned from her mother and the flora of her parents’ estate in Ecsed. Some of these methods, practices, and herbs were unique to Transylvania and eastern Hungary, and would not be recognized elsewhere in the country. When Countess Báthory had brought her “foreign” medicinal practices to western Hungary, some people inevitably found them strange, mysterious, and suspicious and even called them witches. The healing activity conducted at Erzsébet’s castle of Sárvár was met with particularly strong suspicion, as it involved a Croatian midwife-healer named Anna Darbúlia: an outsider whose healing culture was completely alien to the locals. The midwife joined Erzsébet’s personal staff so that women patients would not have to be treated by male barbers who had commonly assisted doctors at the time. Anna’s specialty was a surgical intervention.
The idea of a midwife performing surgery – an activity reserved for male doctors and barbers at the time – was more than the wary locals could tolerate. Her activities were distorted into tales of butchery and torture. The villagers were terrified they would meet with divine punishment, should they accept the “witch’s” foreign healing practices. The cultural and religious conflict had played a major role in Erzsébet’s persecution as well, led by Ponikénusz, the Lutheran pastor whose sectarian hatred of the Calvinist lady would become a powerful weapon for the person who trumped up the charges against her; Count Thurzó.
It is interesting to note the religious involvement of Erzsébet and her mother Anna. In 1545, almost uniquely among European women, Anna Báthory called a religious council of all Calvinist ministers serving on her lands. Erzsébet would also be raised in the Calvinist faith, which she would not renounce at her marriage to her Lutheran husband Ferenc Nádasdy. During this time the Calvinists were involved with rebellion against the Catholic Habsburg rulers, supported by her relatives in Transylvania and all these played important facts in the false Court judgment against later on.
The marriage of Countess Erzsébet Báthory
In 1573, Báthory was engaged to Count Ferenc Nádasdy, in what was probably a political arrangement within the circles of the aristocracy. He was the son of Palatine Tamás Nádasdy de Nádasd et Fogarasföld and Orsolya Kanizsai. Báthory and Nádasdy were married at the palace of Varannó, (Vranov nad Topľou, Slovakia), on 8 May 1575. She was only fifteen.
Erzsébet’s husband Ferenc Nádasdy In 1578, became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Ottomans. He was popularly known as the “strong black bey,” a formidable warrior fighting the Ottoman Empire’s invasion of Hungary. Ferenc would become one of the most powerful Hungarian noblemen of his time. Their surviving correspondence suggests that their marriage was reasonably happy. They had five children that we know of, but only two daughters and one son would live to adulthood. Her husband Ferenc died on 4 January 1604 at the age of 48, perhaps due to war wounds, when Erzsébet was 44. One daughter, Anna, would marry a grandson of Miklós Zrínyi, known as the Hero of Szigetvár; the other, Kata, became the wife of György Drugeth of Homonna. History remembers little about their son Pál who, due to his young age at the time, suffered the direct consequences of his mother’s persecution. Pál is best known for his work on translating and publishing the Bible in the Hungarian language. His son, Ferenc Nádasdy III, became involved in the anti-Habsburg Wesselényi conspiracy and died at the hands of an executioner.
Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Báthory was his household, Castle of Csejte situated in the Little Carpathians near Vág-Ujhely and Trencsén (present-day Nové Mesto nad Váhom and Trenčín, Slovakia). The castle had been bought by his mother in 1569 and given to Nádasdy, who transferred it to Elizabeth during their nuptials,[together with the Csejte manor house and seventeen adjacent villages.
With her husband away at war, Báthory managed business affairs and the estates. This role usually included responsibility for the Hungarian and Slovak people, providing medical care during the Long War (1593–1606), and Báthory was charged with the defense of her husband’s estates, which lay on the route to Vienna. The threat of attack was significant, for the village of Csejte while Sárvár, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman-occupied Hungary, was in even greater danger. Countess Báthory was a truly independent woman, not a pushover, spoke what is on her mind, trained to fight with a sword, unlike her counterparts. She raised an army of her own to protect surrounding properties and the route to Vienna. She demanded reimbursement for these costs from the Crown, which were ignored by the King. There were several instances where Báthory intervened on behalf of destitute women, including a woman whose husband was captured by the Ottomans and a woman whose daughter was raped and impregnated.
Countess Erzsébet Báthory was not the evil bloodthirsty witch she was portrayed as, this is very clear from her actions. In fact, she was caring and helpful to her subjects providing available health care for them. One of her alleged crimes of bathing in blood was just hearsay, totally unproven. In reality she took warm baths with herbs and red flower petals to keep her skin supple and young looking, not as claimed with virgin’s blood.
Upon her husband’s death, Erzsébet’s wealth and property were combined with the Nádasdy family’s wealth and property that she now had the right to manage. In her widowhood, Erzsébet became the owner of one of the largest estates in all of Hungary. Her lands and fortresses had stretched all the way from the east to the southwest of the Hungarian kingdom. Ferenc had been married to Báthory for 29 years. Before dying, Nádasdy entrusted his heirs and widow to Count György Thurzó.
Countess Erzsébet Báthory in many ways became a threat to the Habsburg king. She was wealthy enough to finance and support a looming rebellion, if she wanted to. She also was a threat and an impediment for Palatine György Thurzó’s quest for power.
Thurzó, under the guise of protecting the nation’s interests, deftly satisfied his own ambitions as soon as he was elected in 1609 as the Palatine of Hungary. Palatine György Thurzó soon leads the investigation into Countess Erzsébet Báthory’s crimes to capture her immense wealth.
Dishonourable conduct of György Thurzó
The Thurzó family was a relatively recent addition to the Hungarian aristocratic dynasties traditionally entrusted with national offices. György Thurzó himself was a second-generation nobleman full of tremendous ambition and a boundless desire for the quick acquisition of wealth and power. Thurzó’s hunger for prominence was sharpened by the fact that his mother, Kata Zrínyi, had been the daughter of the legendary Hero of Szigetvár, Miklós Zrínyi. Although the majority of Thurzó’s own estates had been located in Upper Hungary, he had also acquired the property in Moravia through his second wife, Erzsébet Czobor.
Count György Thurzó had become Palatine of Hungary in late 1609. The title of Palatine gave its bearer nearly absolute power over national affairs; when applied to legal issues, this power often manifested itself as an unfettered autocracy.
Upon the death of Erzsébet’s husband Ferenc Nádasdy, Thurzó was hellbent to capture all the wealth that he could from her. He only succeeded in her house arrest later on and with the false accusation of being a serial killer and torturer of a young woman and the myth that she was a Vampire, the so-called Blood Queen.
In the meantime, Thurzó took numerous bold steps to increase his wealth, power, and authority. Naturally, his master plan to empower his dynasty would include his only son and heir, the talented but sickly Imre. To join his family with one of the most powerful families of Transylvania, the Palatine arranged his son’s marriage in 1618, to Baroness Krisztina (Christina)Nyáry de Bedegh et Berench, daughter of Pál Nyáry. It is worth noting the reasons.
The Nyáry kinship
The Nyáry family was one of the older noble families in Hungary. After the Ottoman invasions in 1526, Captain Ferenc Nyáry, among several members of the family became successful mercenary soldiers fighting the Turks. Ferenc Nyáry with his private cavalry of huszars participated in the Election wars of Schmalkalden in Germany on the behalf of Emperor Charles V, Habsburg. In 1535, Ferenc Nyáry was elevated to the rank of Baron. The family owned several castles and surrounding estates in Upper Hungary, and later on in Transylvania too. Lörinc Nyáry, the nephew of Ferenc, participated with him in all of his military campaigns, and upon his death inherited his wealth and the rank of Baron. Baron Pál Nyáry was the son of Lörinc Nyáry. Pál, in his own right was a though and courageous warrior himself, holding many important titles and properties.
Pál was put in charge for the defence of castle Eger in 1596. The Ottomans launched a siege of Eger that lasted from September 20 to October 12, 1596. The 7,000 defenders of the fortress, mostly foreign mercenaries, rebelled and took Nyáry hostage forcing him surrender the Ottoman forces commanded by the Sultan Mehmed III himself. The Turks slaughtered most of the mercenaries, and kept Pál Nyáry as the prisoner of the Sultan. A few weeks later during the battle of Mezökeresztes, Pál Nyáry escaped.
After his escape, he was summoned by Emperor Rudolf I of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Hungary, up to Prague, with the charge of Treason. However, it was dropped soon after his arrival. This incident turned Pál Nyáry against the Habsburgs. He was was given the opportunity to become Prince of Transylvania, by the anti-Hapsburg leaders, but he turned it down in favor of István (Stephen) Bocskai. As Krisztina was related to the Báthorys on her mother’s side, she would not only eventually inherit her father’s wealth but some part of the tremendous Báthory wealth as well. Which she did, but only after her young husband Imre Thurzó died in 1621. As a result, Krisztina became the most wealthy and sought-after widow by status climbing nobility at the time. After the arrest Countess Erzsébet Báthory, her children were taken away by the crown. Krisztina, related by her mother’s side became the legal guardian of Anna Báthory, the daughter of the Countess, until she married.
Krisztina converted to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism. She married Count Esterházy, on 21 July 1624, who became the next Palatine after György Thurzó died. Ironically the Thurzó family never got any of the combined wealth of Báthory and Nyáry family, all went to Count Esterházy. Their third son Paul, of Nicholas, Count Esterházy of Galántha, and his second wife Baroness Krisztina Nyáry of Bedegh, in 1681, was made a Knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece. On 8 December 1687, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor issued a princely diploma elevating Paul to a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire for his military successes against the Turks during the reconquest of Hungary and his loyalty to the House of Habsburg.
Relevant Historical facts
Contrary to popular but erroneous Western beliefs, Hungary had never been a territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Hungary always was a separate kingdom with independent statehood. Several times the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was also the King of Hungary, but not always. During this time Emperor Rudolf II – who had held court in Prague between 1608 and 1613 – had initially claimed both titles but was deeply affected by the anti-Habsburg uprising led by Transylvanian prince István Bocskai. Rudolf abdicated the Hungarian throne in favor of his brother Matthias, who would only become Holy Roman Emperor upon Rudolf’s death in 1613. The persecution and imprisonment of Erzsébet Báthory occurred during this brief period of Matthias II’s reign as King of Hungary.
Transylvania was a separate principality within the Kingdom of Hungary, ruled by Erzsébet’s nephew Prince Gábor Báthory during 1608–1613. After the twice forced abdication Transylvanian Prince Zsigmond Báthory – Erzsébet’s cousin, was held captive by Emperor Rudolf II in the principalities of Oppeln and Ratibor of Silesia. Prince Zsigmond Báthory ended up the ruler three times 1586–1598, 1598–1599, and 1601–1602. Initially, royalist and pro-Habsburg István Bocskai 1605–1606, was promoted to succeed Zsigmond Báthory the former Prince of Transylvania. However, Bocskai changed alliances very quickly. After Bocskai died in 1606, Zsigmond Rákóczi was elected as the Prince from 1607–1608 but abdicated in favor of Gabriel Báthory, who all supported the independent Kingdom of Hungary. This anti-Habsburg stance strengthened the Habsburgs’ desire to acquire dominion over Transylvania and multiplied their attacks on the Báthory family.
Transylvania clung to its separate status both in the shadow of the Turkish invasion and against the Habsburgs’ ever-increasing hunger for dominance. Transylvania’s political independence not only irritated the Habsburgs in their quest for absolute power but also limited the scope and methods of their royal sovereignty over Hungary. As Transylvania held strong support for the Hungarian kingdom’s efforts toward independence from Habsburg rule, it was considered explicitly dangerous
Upon Bocskai’s passing, Rudolf II – who had not yet given up the Hungarian throne – was determined to prevent another Báthory from becoming Prince of Transylvania. Rudolf’s aim was to knock the much-supported Gábor Báthory out of the line of succession because the Báthory dynasty had owned the largest family estate in all of Transylvania, independent from Habsburg oversight. Despite the Habsburgs’ best efforts to the contrary, Gábor Báthory became Prince of Transylvania in 1608, the same year that King Matthias II ascended the Hungarian throne. Like his uncle István Báthory before him, Gábor also expressed ambition to acquire the Polish and Hungarian thrones. Gábor’s aspirations placed Matthias II in an immediate conflict of interest with the Báthory family.
Countess Erzsébet Báthory becomes a pawn
Erzsébet’s ownership of strategically located fortresses could have assisted her cousin, Prince Gábor Báthory, in a possible quest for the Hungarian throne. Had Gábor sent the Transylvanian army and its allies – some of which had recently intimidated Rudolf II – to Hungary, Erzsébet’s fortresses could have secured their passage. The Báthory properties located in eastern Hungary could have provided similar support for Gábor’s campaign into Poland. Naturally, both of these scenarios would have violated Habsburg’s interests in these two countries. Erzsébet had thus become the pawn and, ultimately, the victim of a political strategy aimed to secure power over the Transylvanian principality. However, Rudolf II, Matthias II, Zsigmond Báthory, and Gábor Báthory were only background players in this political chess game drama. The most significant role was played by Palatine György Thurzó.
In March of 1610, shortly after assuming power, Thurzó became involved in a failed conspiracy attempt on the life of Prince Gábor Báthory. Remarkably, three important events occurred around the same time: Gábor Báthory’s assassination attempt in Transylvania, Zsigmond Báthory’s imprisonment in Prague, and Erzsébet Báthory’s show trial in Hungary. The latter two were accused of capital crimes: conspiracy against the Habsburg rule and mass murder of young noblewomen, respectively. From this point on, all significant episodes in Erzsébet’s case would closely coincide with Palatine Thurzó’s various actions taken against Gábor Báthory.
In the Thurzós’ pursuit of Transylvanian rulership, the Báthorys emerged as their greatest and most successful rivals. He wanted his son Imre Thurzó to succeed. First, by the marriage in 1618 to Krisztina Nyáry, who owned large properties in Transylvania and a considerable in Upper Hungary too, to establish his base for this quest. The biggest fly in the ointment was Pál Nádasdy, son of Ferenc Nádasdy and Erzsébet Báthory. Only a few years Imre’s senior, Pál was also viewed as a potential rival in aspiring to national positions conferred to noblemen in the Kingdom of Hungary. Pitted against the Báthory scion, Imre Thurzó – reputedly of a much gentler nature than his father – had dim prospects for Transylvanian rulership.
By arresting Pál’s mother Erzsébet Báthory on trumped-up charges, the Palatine could compromise the reputation of two powerful rival families – the Báthorys of Transylvania and the Nádasdys of Hungary. This strategy would enable Thurzó to kill three birds with one stone, serving Rudolf’s, Matthias’s, and his own interests at the same time. However, the younger Thurzó would never benefit from his father’s nefarious plan.
The show trial Countess Erzsébet Báthory
A trumped-up charge of killing her young female servants, bathing in their blood to preserve her youth, succumbed to her evil, sadistic nature to take pleasure in the murder and torture of her servants was initiated by a false accuser paid by Thurzó, was brought to the Palatine’s office. Furthermore, allegedly Palatine Thurzó caught the countess in the act of murder while visiting her castle of Csejte.
An investigation was launched into her affairs. The proceedings against Erzsébet Báthory were nothing more than show trial. The proceedings were riddled with serious violations of the justice process of the time. Erzsébet was arrested and imprisoned without any formal charges, summons, trial, or sentencing. Thurzó’s investigation into the alleged murders was highly selective. According to his nationwide rumor campaign, Countess Báthory had maintained torture chambers in every one of her estates and even took some girls on her travels to torture and kill them. However, the investigation had been contained within Western Hungary, the area under the Palatine’s unlimited jurisdiction. Even within this area, only those properties were investigated that were within Thurzó’s personal sphere of influence through his friends and relatives, and those he had been interested in removing from the Nádasdy family’s ownership (mostly in the vicinity of Sárvár, Pozsony, and Csejte). In reality, none of these were proven.
Each location where witnesses were recruited would first be inundated with rumors of the alleged crimes so that by the time they would testify, the witnesses would be thoroughly familiar with the stories of murder and torture. Among the 300 who would testify, there were no victims who had been hurt, and no eyewitnesses who had seen the actual events. If the charges had been real, eyewitness and victim testimony would have been invaluable for the prosecution. But these witnesses – who had learned about the crimes by word of mouth – testified about several hundred victims, each citing a different number. By contrast, Erzsébet’s alleged partners in crime, who had all been tortured several times before testifying against her, could only come up with a total of 36 victim names. However, these so-called victims of her, many died of well-documented local outbreaks of bubonic plague and typhus.
In October 1610, eight young women at Castle Csejte died in the course of one week, all showing symptoms of an epidemic disease. Their deaths would later be used by Thurzó as an excuse to arrest the countess without formal charges. As Erzsébet was travelling with her daughter and personal staff during this week, she was nowhere near Csejte when the deaths occurred. The sick girls had been quarantined to prevent the spread of their disease and cared for by a midwife-healer named Dóra Szentes and a manservant named János Ficzkó. Upon the countess’ return to Csejte, Dóra – possibly influenced by Thurzó’s fast-travelling rumours – refused to notify her of the deaths. She concealed the bodies in different spots around the estate, hiding some in the grottoes of the castle garden and burying others in the earth of the castle yard. Later that month, Erzsébet found out the midwife’s gruesome secret horrifyingly and scandalously when her dogs found one of the bodies buried in the castle yard.
The verdict and death of Countess Erzsébet Báthory
Following their arrest, Erzsébet and her personal servants were interrogated with a set of prewritten questions. The servants – János Ficzkó, Dóra Szentes, Ilona Jó, and Kata Beniczky – were subjected to torture to confess to the location of dead bodies.
The charges of bloodshed, slaughter, torture, and mass murder were well-suited to create mass hysteria (just like today CNN anyone?) and ruin the reputation of the Báthorys of Transylvania, in particular Prince Gábor Báthory. Palatine Thurzó had alleged that Erzsébet’s victims were young noblewomen; in effect, that a Báthory had blatantly violated the rights of other noble families. Upon a guilty verdict, the weight of such capital crimes and the manipulation of Hungarian nobility would cause widespread outrage and suspicion against Gábor Báthory, isolating him from his supporters. This was the real purpose of Thurzó’s nationwide propaganda campaign that would make Erzsébet’s assumed guilt “common knowledge.”
During her trial, Countess Erzsébet Báthory was never permitted to speak for herself, nor was anyone else allowed to testify on her behalf. Erzsébet’s personal servants only one was spared – although highly mutilated as a punishment, the rest were executed.
She was sentenced to stay in her Csejte castle for the rest of her life. Erzsébet was not allowed to leave her only property remaining, all others were confiscated by the crown. To hurt her dignity further, she was also forbidden to see and correspond with her children. As a high-ranking nobility, she could not be executed for killing her servant, unless it was with the king’s approval, but that would have given her a chance to defend herself. Thurzó did not want that to happen. Erzsébet Báthory would survive the day of her arrest only by four years; she died on 21 August 1614. While imprisoned her nephew Prince Gábor Báthory, and strongest supporter was assassinated in 1613.
The nefarious smear campaign was very effective through out the following centuries, even today, as confirmed by Guinness world records, without any actual proof, only based on historically inaccurate hearsay! So many writers and film producers tried to cash in and ride on her coattail of Gothic horror stories, vampirism about her which are totally inaccurate, all owe an apology to this ill-fated, strong willed tragic woman!
