Various horrors and scary stories have long agitated and attracted humanity. No wonder so many chilling books and films have been invented. But often what happens or has happened in real life turns out to be a hundred times more terrible than invented opuses. An excellent example of this is the cruelty of Elizabeth Bathory. Her sophisticated and creepy epic evokes disgust and fear even among the most courageous and calm people.
Starting path
Mysterious and gloomy Transylvania, in which the young Elizabeth was born, and without her was famous for its horrors. Everyone knows the story of Tepes, nicknamed Count Dracula. Bathory has tastefully continued the bloody traditions of the cruel count.
But the insane ruler mocked his enemies - the Turks - to instill fear and protect his land from conquest. The countess's biography is replete with torture of people only for her perverse pleasure. She tried so hard that she went down in history as one of the cruelest maniacs.
The full name of the countess is Alzhbeta (Erzhebet or Elizaveta) Batorova-Nadshdi. She was born in 1560 in the small Hungarian settlement of Nyirbator. The family was wealthy, but strange in its own way. The origin of each member of this clan belonged to the same branch of the clan: the head of the Gyord family was the brother of the governor Andras Bathory, and his wife Anna was the daughter of the governor Istvan the Fourth. The countess herself was the niece of the king of Poland and Lithuania - Stefan Batory by her mother. In total, the family had four children.
The whole family, in one way or another, suffered from severe mental and physical illnesses: schizophrenia, epilepsy, alcoholism, gout and rheumatism.
Elizabeth suffered especially from rheumatism. Living conditions in a damp castle could not fail to cause this serious ailment among its inhabitants. As a young girl, the Countess often flew into a fierce rage for no particular reason. But genetics was not the only one to blame for such psychopathic licentiousness - medieval traditions and the general brutality of the time contributed to this.
From childhood, they tried to educate the unhealthy aristocrat with dignity and give a suitable education: she was taught Greek, German and Latin. The whole race was devoutly Calvinistic. Perhaps it happened that it was religion that was the cause of the tragedy in the life of a harsh woman.
Personal life
The privileges of a noble noble family were enormous, but when political considerations demanded it, the girl at the age of ten was married to the son of an influential person. Ferenc Nadashdi and Erzsebet played a luxurious wedding five years after their engagement. The celebration took place in a huge castle, there were more than four thousand guests.
The position of his wife's clan turned out to be much higher than that of her husband Ferenc. This circumstance allowed Elizabeth to remain with her last name and insist that her husband be called from now on: Ferenc Bathory. Despite her young age, the countess already knew how to insist on her own and impose her will on anyone. The couple soon moved to the territory of Slovakia, to the huge Chahtitsa castle. After her husband had to leave for Vienna, the young wife dominated a huge estate, which consisted not only of a family nest, but also seventeen small villages.
Ferenc's frequent absences and his participation in battles in no way prevented the Countess from arranging her personal life and having children without a husband, continuing the famous Bathory family. After some time, Elizabeth married Miklos Zrinyi.
It is precisely known about the birth of the countess of five children. And also some facts show that before getting married, the girl at the age of thirteen gave birth to a daughter from a servant. The enraged Ferenc brutally executed the offender, but what happened to the baby is not known for certain.
Nurses and governesses were involved in raising legitimate children. The ruler herself led the subjects entrusted to her with a stern hand. During the war, she had to calm down and console people whose relatives were killed or captured.
After the death of Ferenc, according to his will, Count Gyorgy Thurzo, the palatine of Hungary, looked after the countess.
Murder Investigations
In the 1600s, the ruling house of the Gasburgs received information about the unthinkable atrocities at the Bathory estate. It was said that the countess tortured beautiful virgins with cruel tortures and, after their death, was washed in the blood of victims to preserve their beauty.
Despite the terrible crimes that took place in the Chakhtitsa Castle, the investigation was ordered only eight or nine years after the complaints about the cruelty of Elizabeth. Such an important matter was entrusted to her guardian Thurzo, who executed it in a short time: the peasants were interviewed in just five days. More than three hundred witnesses confirmed the guilt of the countess and her entourage. Three of her assistants were burned to death after being tortured.
Elizabeth was accused of the death of more than six hundred people. After the end of the case, all documents, diaries and portraits of Elizabeth Bathory were destroyed. Even the memory of the monstrous maniac terrified her contemporaries.
Death of the bloody countess
Elizaveta Bathory was sentenced to imprisonment in the Chakhtitsa castle. The woman was walled up in a small room with a small hole for water and bread.
The Countess held out on this exercise for three whole years. In August 1614, the insane killer died.
The life story of this world famous maniac formed the basis of many legends, fiction and documentary books, films. Her contemporaries did not manage to erase the memory of her. The countess's atrocities have no justification, no more or less worthy explanation, except for her depraved nature.
