true crime

Erzsébet Báthory

  Erzsébet Báthory, born August 7 1560, Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary.

  --early years--

   Báthory was born in 1560 on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Royal Hungary. She spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was Baron George VI Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been voivode of Transylvania. Her mother was Baroness Anna Báthory (1539–1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó, also voivode of Transylvania, who was of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, Elizabeth was the niece of the Hungarian noble Stephen Báthory (1533–1586), the king of Poland, the grand duke of Lithuania of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and prince of Transylvania. Her older brother, Stephen Báthory (1555–1605), served as a judge royal of Hungary.

As a child, Báthory suffered multiple seizures that may have been caused by epilepsy. At the time, symptoms relating to epilepsy were diagnosed as falling sickness and treatments included rubbing blood of a non-sufferer on the lips of an epileptic or giving the epileptic a mix of a non-sufferer's blood and piece of skull as their episode ended.

A proposal made by some sources in order to explain Báthory's cruelty later in her life is that she was trained by her family to be cruel. Stories include a young Báthory witnessing brutal punishments executed by her family's officers, and being taught by family members involved with Satanism and witchcraft. Again, there is no hard evidence for these claims, and so they remain unsubstantiated.

Báthory was raised a Calvinist Protestant. As a young woman, she learned Latin, German, Hungarian, and Greek. Born into a privileged family of nobility, Báthory was endowed with wealth, education, and a prominent social rank.

At the age of 13, before her first marriage, Báthory allegedly gave birth to a child. The child, said to have been fathered by a peasant boy, was supposedly given away to a local woman who was trusted by the Báthory family. The woman was paid for her actions, and the child was taken to Wallachia. Evidence of this pregnancy came up long after Elizabeth's death, through rumors spread by peasants; therefore, the validity of the rumor is often disputed.

--married Life--

   In 1975, Báthory was engaged to Count Ferenc Nádasdy, a member of Nadasdy family, in what was probably a political arrangement within the circles of the aristocracy. He was the son of Baron Tamás Nádasdy de Nádasd et Fogarasföld and Orsolya Kanizsai.[citation needed] Báthory and Nádasdy were married at the palace of Vranov nad Topľou (Varannó in Hungarian) on 8 May 1575.

Nádasdy's wedding gift to Báthory was his household, Castle of Csejte situated in the Little Carpathians near Vág-Ujhely and Trencsén (present-day Nové Mesto nad Váhom and Trenčín, Slovakia). The castle had been bought by his mother in 1569 and given to Nádasdy, who transferred it to Elizabeth during their nuptials, together with the Csejte country house and seventeen adjacent villages.

In 1578, Nádasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Ottomans. With her husband away at war, Báthory managed business affairs and the estates. This role usually included responsibility for the Hungarian and Slovak people, providing medical care during the Long War (1593–1606), and Báthory was charged with the defense of her husband's estates, which lay on the route to Vienna. The threat of attack was significant, for the village of Csejte had previously been plundered by the Ottomans while Sárvár, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman-occupied Hungary, was in even greater danger. There were several instances where Báthory intervened on behalf of destitute women, including a woman whose husband was captured by the Ottomans and a woman whose daughter was raped and impregnated.