Ancient History

Almost everyone has heard of Count Dracula, a character created by author Bram Stoker. The character is based on an actual person, though he wasn’t a Count. The real Dracula was a Romanian prince known as Vlad the Impaler. However, about a hundred years after his death came a Hungarian Countess that would shock the world.

She was Elizabeth Bathory, a beautiful noblewoman born into a prestigious family who became one of the world’s worst serial killers. Sometime between the late 1590’s and 1610, Elizabeth is believed to have killed more than 600 peasant women in order to bath in their blood.

Legend has it that the Countess Bathory was prone to violent fits of rage. One evening, as a young servant girl was brushing the Countess’s hair pulled too hard, causing Elizabeth to turn and strike the girl. It is said that some of the girl’s blood landed on Elizabeth’s hand and she noticed that her skin seemed smoother.

It was also said that as time wore on, Elizabeth began bathing in the blood of young peasant girls, as it helped her to retain her youth and beauty. Some experts think that this may have had less to do with the blood itself, but more for the iron in the blood and that the Countess may have had an iron deficiency.

It was when she began killing young noblewomen that her deeds were brought to light. Her family had decided to put her into a convent, but it came too late. The King had decided to have the Countess tried for the killings. According to known documents recording the proceedings, the Countess did not act alone. Several other people were tried for crimes of murder and witchcraft. They were tortured, decapitated, and burned at the stake.

Elizabeth Bathoy was never brought to trial due to the powerful nature of her family. However, during the trials of her accomplices, she tried to flee the country. She was caught by one of her own family members and imprisoned into her own castle by being walled up inside her bedroom, with a few vent holes and a slot for food. She died three years later and was taken back to her family’s lands.