Elizabeth  Báthory has been referred to as a real-life female ‘Dracula” or “Blood Countess” who loved to bathe in blood. It has been suggested that she was responsible for the murder of more than 650 young women and ordered the construction of a torture device called the “Iron Virgin”, which was carved in the shape of a woman’s body, and then dressed in a rich costume, draped with a long wig. As the story goes – a maidservant would be asked to adjust a jewel at which point the”Iron Virgin” would snatch her up and stab her with spikes attached to its chest until the poor girl bled to death.  Nice – not! So who exactly was Elizabeth Báthory?

She was known as “Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed” who was born on August 8, 1560, to a noble family in Nyírbátor, Hungary, where she spent her childhood at their Ecsed Castle. At the young age of 12 she was betrothed to 18 year old Ferenc Nádasdy. However, at the age of 13, Elizabeth became pregnant to one of the servants, and when Ferenc found out, he delivered a blunt punishment of castration to the young servant. Ferenc later married Elizabeth on 8 May 1575 when she was 14 1/2 years old.

The stories of her sadistic serial murders and brutality were verified by more than 300 witnesses and survivors; as well as physical evidence and the presence of horribly mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. Elizabeth vowed that her soul would be resurrected and inhabit the next body to be born on the 8th day of August. Despite the evidence against her, Elizabeth was neither tried nor convicted, but promptly imprisoned upon her arrest in December 1610 within Čachtice Castle, where she remained until her death four years later which occurred on 24 August, 1614.

She is gone…but she’s not forgotten…. this is the story of a woman gone rotten!

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