Elizabeth Báthory

Elizabeth Báthory (born August 7, 1560, Nyírbátor, Hungary—died August 21, 1614, Castle Csejte, Hungary [now in Čachtice, Slovakia]) was a Hungarian countess who purportedly tortured and murdered more than 600 young women in the 16th and 17th centuries. Báthory was never put on trial, and she spent her final years imprisoned at her home, Castle Csejte (now in Čachtice, Slovakia).

Family

Báthory was born into prominent Protestant nobility in Hungary. Her family controlled Transylvania, and her uncle, Stephen Báthory, was king of Poland. She was raised at the family castle in Ecséd, Hungary. In 1575 she married Count Ferencz Nádasdy, a member of another powerful Hungarian family, and subsequently moved to Castle Csejte, a wedding gift from the Nádasdy family. From 1585 to 1595, Báthory bore four children.

Accusations and imprisonment

After Nádasdy’s death in 1604, rumors of Báthory’s cruelty began to surface. According to various witnesses, she would beat and starve her victims as well as cut off their fingers and jab them with needles. Though previous accounts of the murder of peasant women had apparently been ignored, the claims in 1609 that she had slain women from noble families attracted attention. Her cousin, György Thurzó, count palatine of Hungary, was ordered by Matthias, then king of Hungary, to investigate. The count palatine determined, after taking depositions from people living in the area surrounding her estate, that Báthory had tortured and killed more than 600 girls with the assistance of her servants. On December 30, 1609, Báthory and her servants were arrested. The servants were put on trial in 1611, and three were executed. Although never tried, Báthory was confined to her chambers at Castle Csejte. She remained there until she died in 1614 at age 54.

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Doubts about her guilt

While documents from the 1611 trial supported the accusations made against her, modern scholarship has questioned the veracity of the allegations. Báthory was a powerful woman, made more so by her control of Nádasdy’s holdings after his death. The fact that a large debt owed by Matthias to Báthory 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.