Erzsébet Báthory

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Erzsébet Báthory (Elizabeth Bathory in English; (August 7, 1560 - August 21, 1614), was a countess in what is now Transylvania.

She is the most famous serial murderer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She was accused of torturing and killing many girls and young women (20 -2000 victims). Her diary says that there were 612 people that she killed, but there may have been more or less.

[edit] Life

She was born in present-day Hungary on August 7, 1560 and died on August 21, 1614 in Čachtice (Hungarian: Csejte) in present-day Slovakia.

She spent her childhood at the Ecsed Castle. At the age of 11, she was forced to be engaged with the fighter Francis Nádasdy. In 1575, she married Nádasdy. In 1578, he became the chief commander of Hungarian troops in their war against the Turks. He was known as a very brave, but also very cruel person.

Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Elizabeth was his home, the Čachtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trenčín, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) along with the Čachtice country-house and seventeen nearby towns. The castle itself was surrounded by a peasant village and rolling hills. In 1602, Elizabeth’s husband bought the castle from the emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a property of the Nádasdys. Since battles with the Turks kept her husband away from the castle, Elizabeth became the lady of the castle.

Elizabeth had six children; however, two of them died at an early age:

Anastasia Báthory, illegitimate daughter (born 1574). Anna Nádasdy (born c. 1585). Katalin (Katherina) Nádasdy (born c. 1594). Miklos. Orsolia (Orsika) Nádasdy. Paul Nádasdy (1598 - 1650).

Her husband died in 1602.

[edit] Crimes

No one knows when Elizabeth started to kill young women. It is thought that she started between the years 1585 and 1610. Both her husband and her relatives knew about her crimes, but they did not stop her. She was always improving her torturing methods, and her brutality was becoming greater.

While her husband lived, she kept her activities to a low level, but upon his death any good influence he may have had on her were completely gone. The people living around her castle hated her so much that she only left the castle under an armed escort.

The people whom she murdered, her victims, were at first local female peasants, many lured to Cachtice by offers of well-paid work, but when word spread of the countess's crimes, the supply of new women began to dry up. It was then she began to kill daughters of lower nobles, who were sent to her castle by their parents to learn noble manners. In the early 17th century, parents of high position often wished their daughters to be educated in the social graces. Soon, she was kidnapping girls.

In 1610, she was caught and imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she stayed until her death four years later.