Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
The "Blood Countess"
1590-1614
The daughter of George and Anna Bathory, Elizabeth Bathory has the reputation of being one of the first reported vampires. At age 15 she married 25 year old Count Ferencz Nadasdy. After marriage the two of them moved to the infamous Castle Csejthe. The Count was always leaving home to do battle against the Turks, which left Elizabeth alone at home and very bored. To keep herself occupied she began to visit her aunt, Countess Klara Bathory. It was at this time that she began her intrest into the occult. A known witch and maid, Dorothea Szentes (aka Dorka), began to teach her varius forms of black magic and witchcraft. Assisted by her nurse, manservant, and another maid, the group began to torture the female servents of Castle Csejithe in an underground chamber. In the year 1600 Count Ferencz died. It was about this time that the Countess began to bathe in the blood of the tortured young women based on the idea that the blood might hold the secrets of eternal youth. The women where tortured, stabed, and hung from the celings so that Bathory could shower in the blood that flowed from their bodies. Eventualy Bathory began to notice that she wasn't getting quite the results she'd wanted. She decided to go after Noble blood, assuming that better blood would have better results. Unfortunitly for her, word spread of the missing nobles. On the 30th of December, 1610, her own cousin,Count Cuyorgy Thurzo, and a band of soldiers raided the castle. They found about 50 dead bodies, and several tortured women in the dungeon below. One woman was even found, still alive, with her body pierced open. In 1611, a register was found in Bathory's living quarters with the names of over 600 victims. Her three female accomplices where sentenced to have their fingers torn from thier bodies and later to be burned alive. Her fourth accompice, was beheaded, drained of his blood, and burned with the three women. Elizabeth Bathory, however, was walled up inside her room until her eventual death at age 54. At the time of her death she was still considered to be one of the most beautiful women in all of Europe.
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