The Living Life of Elizabeth Bathory

Author: Caysie Smith

            When you think of vampires, you probably do not think about the “Blood Countess” who began to lurk amongst the people in 1560 (Joshi 6). However, the people like Joshi who do know about Elizabeth Bathory acquaint her to be part of a very powerful family in Hungry (6). If you were to look up Elizabeth Bathory, you would not find anything about her being wise and adored by the people. In fact, you would be told Elizabeth was once a cruel aristocrat who, according to what you believe, may or may not have been a vampire. Although the decision to believe if vampires are real or not is up to the individual, it is known for certain that Elizabeth Bathory practiced being one (Joshi 6).  

Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory

As Elizabeth grew up she found that she enjoyed watching other people suffer in pain. Even as a child she liked to torture her pets (Bullock 239). Some believe she liked watching and conducting such horrors because she grew up having to cope with seizures and severe outrages (Melton 41). Since Elizabeth was very wealthy, she possessed a great amount of servants. Elizabeth took a certain interest in the girls who she was in charge of. Unfortunately, this interest was used for supplying Elizabeth in what she enjoyed most, which was torturing (Joshi 6). Elizabeth loved to bestow great amounts of physical pain on these girls from slapping, biting, cutting, and other sadistic actions. Sometimes Elizabeth would even settle for death of the peasant girls.

Elizabeth’s pleasures were taken up a notch when she was told that drinking virgin’s blood would keep her from aging. So, being such a ruthless woman, Elizabeth not only murdered and drank the girls’ blood, but also bathed it. Since Elizabeth came from such a powerful family, servant girls’ blood became too “weak” for her she began devising a plan on how to get virgin’s blood from other wealthy families.

Elizabeth decided to open up a school for aristocrats’ daughters. However, Elizabeth had no intentions of teaching these little girls anything. When word got out that the families’ daughters were missing, Elizabeth’s school was raided and all horrors were exposed (Joshi 6). The Blood Countess’s accomplices went to trial and were murdered by the government. However, Elizabeth was convicted and pleaded innocent of her crimes even after a journal was found in her hand writing a list of more than 650 names of all the girls she tortured and murdered.

               

 Works cited:

Bullock, David L. “Bathory, Elizabeth (1560-1614).” Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopdeia. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 2. Detroit: Yorkin Publications, 2000. 239-244. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.

“Elizabeth Bathory.” Angelfire.com. N.p, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

“Elizabeth Bathory.” Photograph. Evilladies. Evil Ladies, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2012.

Joshi, S.T. Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, California. Greenwood, 2011. Ebook.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopdeia of the Undead. Canton, Missiouri: Visible Ink Press, 2011. Print.

Sheppard, R.Z. “Gothic Whoopee.” Time 146.7 (August 1995): 70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.

“Vampire.” Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Ed. J. Gordon Melton. 5^th ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. 1620-1623. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.

Links for further research:

Evil Ladies
http://evilladies.com/serial-killers/countess-of-blood-elizabeth-bathory/ 
Articles and information about evil women in history

Weird Encyclopedia
http://www.weird-encyclopedia.com/Bathory-Elizabeth.php
 Articles and stories about many unsolved legends and myths

How Stuff Works
 http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/hungarian-countess-serial-killer1.htm
Research by Josh Clark about the life of Elizabeth Bathory as one of the world’s most brutal murderer