[45] [27][28], She wrote a will in September 1610, in which she left all current and future inheritance possession to her children. He had also received the castle Bujak from King Albert of Habsburg. I was researching about it today and I found a family tree of her husband Ferenc Nadasdy. After the death of the count on the battlefield in January 1604, horrifying suspicions of torture, murder and vampirism were voiced against Elizabeth. A real person, born in 1560, died in 1614. The youngest son, Nicolaus III (d. 1506), bishop first of Syrmia and after 1474 of Vc, excelled as a renaissance scholar and served as counselor to King Matthias Corvinus. [15] The woman was paid for her actions, and the child was taken to Wallachia. She had received it as a wedding gift from her husband, the famed Hungarian war hero Ferenc Ndasdy. Most of the witnesses testified that they had heard the accusations from others, but did not see it themselves. This family was literally so powerful, they had multiple branches. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. In 1573,[9] Bthory was engaged to Count Ferenc Ndasdy, a member of the Nadasdy family. Wikimedia CommonsA late 16th-century copy of the now-lost portrait of Elizabeth Bathory, painted in 1585 when she was 25 years old. Countess Elizabeth Bthory de Ecsed (Hungarian: Bthori Erzsbet, pronounced [batori rebt]; Slovak: Albeta Btoriov; 7 August 1560 - 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the family of Bthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia).. Bthory and four of her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of . Bthory was born into prominent Protestant nobility in Hungary. Imprisonment allowed family members to take control of the powerful widow's possessions (her sons-in-law knew beforehand that her arrest was coming). The testimony that Bathory had listed 650 victims was a secondhand accounting of what a court official had discovered yet the official who'd supposedly seen this information didn't testify. Bathory, a scion of a powerful Hungarian family and the product of inbreeding between Baron George Bathory and Baroness Anna Bathory, called the Csejte Castle home. Corrections? [18] In 1610, Matthias II assigned Gyrgy Thurz, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. One day, Thurzo showed up to Bathorys castle with armed guards. From 1585 to 1595, Bthory bore four children. [18] This does not contribute to the notion of a Catholic/Habsburg plot against the Protestant Bthory, although religious tension is still a possible source of conflict, as Bthory was raised Calvinist, not Lutheran. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the Late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary. It seems most likely that the claim of Thurz's discovering Bthory covered in blood has been the embellishment of fictionalized accounts. The fact that a large debt owed by Matthias to Bthory was canceled by her family in exchange for permitting them to manage her captivity suggests that the acts attributed to her were politically motivated slander that allowed relatives to appropriate her lands. Gabriel Bthory, the younger brother of Stephen XII, was the last male member of the Ecsed line. Her family controlled Transylvania, and her uncle Stephen Bthory was king of Poland. The body of a 54-year-old Bathory was found on August 21, 1614, in Castle achtice (located in present-day Slovakia), where she'd been imprisoned since 1610. While I have no doubt she might have reached the sadistic level she was, I believe her upbringing where her parents tortured and mutilated their servants, combined with the sadistic nature of her husband helped her reach that level much quicker. Transylvania is also infamous for the reputation of . Countess Elizabeth Bathory, or Erzsbet Bthory, was a wealthy and powerful Hungarian noblewoman whose relations included an uncle who was king of Poland and a nephew who was prince of. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. Login to find your connection. Today, Elizabeth Bathory is infamously remembered as the "Blood Countess" who killed up to 650 girls and women in the Kingdom of Hungary. I never new much about Elizabeth Bathory other than her obsession with Virgin blood and the occult, but boy did some of these accounts just turn my stomach. Elizabeth was born August of 1560 to a powerful branch of the royal family in Hungary. Gyrgy Ndasdy is also supposedly the name of one of the deceased Ndasdy infants, but this cannot be confirmed. Elizabeth Smart spent nine months in captivity after being abducted from her home at age 14 in 2002. Elizabeth Bthory (or Erzsbet, to use the Hungarian spelling) was born into a Hungarian noble family on the 7th August, 1560. The Simolin family possessed large estates in Prussia and Courland and members served the Russian Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine as diplomats. In the early part of the 17th century, a Hungarian countess named Elizabeth Bathory was accused of murdering some 650 women across what is today known as Slovakia. The third son, Stephen V (d. 1493) excelled as a military commander and was made Voivode of Transylvania, the first of a long line of Bthory rulers of that country. Elizabeth I was a long-ruling queen of England, governing with relative stability and prosperity for 44 years. [3] She was imprisoned within Castle of Csejte. The family divided into two major branches, which descended from the sons and grandsons of Yes, there are descendants of Elizabeth Bathory that are living today. and Andrew's sons George (d. 1307), Benedict (d. 1321) and Briccius (d. 1322) for their military services by granting them Btor in the county of Szabolcs. Craft, Kimberly, "Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsbet Bthory." In the early modern period, the family brought forth several Princes of Transylvania and one King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (Stephen Bthory). According to Biographics, Bthory also had a steady supply of victims since she had almost 400 peasant women and girls working as servants across her estates. The Bthory coat of arms, granted in 1325 to the sons of Briccius, was styled in reference to this legend: three horizontally placed teeth surrounded by a dragon biting its own tail,[4] Her trial was not fair by the standards of her time (torturing witnesses, etc.) At first, all appeared to have been well under Bathorys leadership. No, Bthory was not a doctor/scientist/midwife. But Bathorys case may not have been as cut and dry as it seemed. While Elizabeths husband was away at war, she met a witch named Anna Darvulia. That evidence included numerous bodies and dead and dying girls found when the castle was entered by Thurz. A powerful terror ruled over lands in Hungary in the 16th century. [25], The highest number of victims cited during the trial of Bthory's accomplices was 650, but this number comes from the claim by a servant girl named Susannah that Jakab Szilvssy, Bthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Bthory's private books. While she lived unharmed by any authority for years, many young girls went missing or ended up dead. The countess is also known as one of the bloodiest women in . It was a political arrangement within the circles of the aristocracy. She was born in 1560 to Baron George Bathory and Baroness Anne Bathory ("Blood Countess," par. Elizabeth Bthory was born on a family estate in Nyrbtor, Royal Hungary in 1560 or 1561, the daughter of Baron George VI Bthory and Baroness Anna Bthory. Elizabeth Bthory was born in 1560 to Protestant nobility in Hungary. I also find intriguing that Bathory was not charged with something more serious. [15], Bthory was raised a Calvinist Protestant. In 1602 a priest wrote a letter that discussed the excessive cruelty exhibited by Bathory and her husband towards their servants. Elizabeth Bthory, or Bthory Erzsbet in her native Hungarian, was born in Nyrbtor on August 7, 1560. 1). She would soon be accused of not only torturing but killing hundreds of girls and women who entered her castle. For years, citizens were frightened of Elizabeth Bathory. Such acts weren't illegal at the time Bathory was only punished because her victims were said to have included noblewomen but would still make Bathory responsible for many ruined lives. Although the exact nature of the illness which led to his death is unknown, it seems to have started in 1601, and initially caused debilitating pain in his legs. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/elizabeth-bathory. She was initially buried in the crypt on her estate, but her body was likely moved afterward. By that point, Bathory had reportedly killed multiple victims of noble birth, which concerned the authorities far more than the deaths of servants. During her childhood, Bathory had a neurological disorder, and the environment around her only contributed to her sadistic ways. Just one grandparent can lead you to many As an intelligent, powerful woman who ruled without a man at her side, and as a member of a family whose wealth intimidated the king, his court went on a mission to discredit and ruin her. She also supposedly kidnapped local girls in the area who would never have come to the castle of their own free will. By mid -1596, we know that Erzsbet Bthory had three living children: daughters Anna, Orsolya (Orsika), and Katalin (Kata), and that Erzsbet was pregnant with son Andrs. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. There were many suspected forms of torture carried out by Bthory. This witch inspired most of Bathorys brutal and sadistic killings. The Torture. At the age of 13, before her first marriage, Bthory allegedly gave birth to a child. The intimate nature of Bathory's attacks suggests a sexual motivation, though it's impossible to know with certainty what compelled her to act. According to widespread misbelief, Elizabeth Bthory was one of the most notorious serial killers in history, supposedly murdering over 600 women in her castle during her lifetime. 2008 - 2022 INTERESTING.COM, INC. Another woman, who'd supposedly used magic to aid Bathory, was also soon killed. Better known in the West as Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad Dracula, they were in their own places and ages already infamous, though for different reasons. On December 30, 1609, Bthory and her servants were arrested. Her family controlled Transylvania, and her uncle, Stephen Bthory, was king of Poland. The Countess came from a very influential family. Depictions of Bathory often mention her bathing in the blood of virgin victims in an attempt to recapture her lost youth. "of Btor".[4]. Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. After taking a lover at age 13 and giving birth to a secret love child, Elizabeth was married shortly before turning 15 to a nobleman named Ferenc Nadasdy. While Nadasdy taught her how to torture, yet another person in her life would teach her how to kill. She was born into a powerful and very well connected Transylvanian family. I do wonder though, how coincidental is it that she found a husband that was practicing the same satanist things as her family? Legend has it that. In the 1550s, when Ferdinand briefly gained control of Transylvania in 1551, he installed Stephen's nephew Bonaventura as his lieutenant to govern the country. Bathory Erszabet and Vlad III Tepes are separated by more than a century, but united in the reputation they developed outside of Eastern Europe for cruelty, brutality, and bloodthirstiness. That said, one witness claimed to have seen a book kept by Bathory herself, where she recorded the names of all of her victims 650 in total. Elizabeth Bathory portrait - Bloody Countess, medieval serial killer print, poster (DIGITAL DOWNLOAD) ArtisMortisGallery. Witnesses claimed that Bathorys favorite method of torture was using scissors to mutilate her victims bodies and faces. [34] The story came into question in 1817 when the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time. There are only secondary accounts of her actions. Four of Bathory's servants three females and one male were then arrested, questioned, and subjected to torture. She allegedly expanded her sights and began killing daughters of the gentry who had been sent to Csejte for their education. I wonder if she wouldve grown up to be different if all these people in her life wouldnt have helped her torment her servants. [9], Ndasdy's wedding gift to Bthory was his household, Castle of Csejte,[9] situated in the Little Carpathians near Vg-Ujhely and Trencsn (present-day Nov Mesto nad Vhom and Trenn, Slovakia). 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