I've read many different accounts of the activities of Countess Bathory but there seems to be two different viewpoints.
One is that she was a sick twisted woman who was just a psychopath.
The other viewpoint is that, indeed, Elizabeth Bathory had found a way to extend her life by using the blood of others to bath in (preferably female virgins it seems).

She has to her credit (for lack of a better word) the deaths of over 600 peasants that she killed in order to bath in their blood (along with some other gruesome behaviors) BUT it is said that when she was finally caught, they didn't recognize her when she was brought down. They thought she was her DAUGHTER!

She was in her fifties and it's said she looked as if she were a teenage girl.
Here's some info I've saved to file and I'd like to hear if anyone else has any information on her or what people think she was (truly a vamp or truly a psychopath).

Here's the first of two articles (I'm sorry to say I've lost the links to these articles and if anyone knows or can find them PLEASE let me know. Thank you)


Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová-Nádašdy in Slovak), the Bloody Lady of Čachtice, was a Hungarian countess and the most famous serial killer in Slovak and Hungarian history. She spent most of her life at the Cachtice castle. She and four collaborators are said to have tortured and killed numerous girls and young women (20 - 2000 victims, depending on the source). In 1610, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she died. Her collaborators were executed. Her guilt has never been proven.
Various legends about her life, including the idea that she bathed in or drank the blood of servant girls, are thought by some to have been the origin of numerous vampire myths, the Dracula story, and the trope of the sexually sadistic vampiress in particular
The Báthory lineage
The ancestors of Elizabeth (the Hun Gutkeled clan) came to the Hungarian Kingdom from Scandinavia in the mid-11th century. They held power in what is now Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The Hun Gutkeled emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the early 13th Century and assumed the name Báthory (according to one of their estates Báthor [today Nyírbátor] meaning "valiant") in 1279. Their power peaked during the mid-16th Century, was virtually gone by 1658, and they died out in 1680 (with the death of the wife of George Rákóczi II).
Her parents were from two branches of the Báthory family, the brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the Polish king Stephen Báthory.

Life
She was born in Nyírbátor in present-day Hungary on August 7? 1560 and died on August 21, 1614 in Čachtice in present-day Slovakia.
She spend her childhood at the Ecsed Castle, details from this period are unknown. At the age of 11 she was forced to become engaged with the noble and successful warrior Francis Nádasdy and moved to the Sárvár Castle, where she became entangled with a peasant for a short time. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Vranov, who in 1578 became the chief commander of Hungarian troops in their war against the Turks. He was known as a very brave, but also very cruel person. The Turks feared him and called him the Black Beg.
Nádasdy’s wedding gift to Elizabeth was his home, the Čachtice Castle (situated in the Carpathians in present-day western Slovakia near Trencin- then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) together with the Čachtice country-house and with adjacent 17 villages. The castle was surrounded by a village of peasants and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with outcroppings of the Carpathians. In 1602, Elizabeth’s husband definitively bought the castle from the emperor Rudolf II, so that it became a property of the Nádasdys. Since fights occupied her husband with the Turks, Elizabeth became the lady of the castle. Elizabeth had 5 children; two of them died at an early age. Her husband died in 1602 or 1604, murdered by a harlot in Bucharest, to whom he owed money. Through some strange governance, Elizabeth was next in line to become the King of Poland. At this time she was able to read and write in four languages.
It is unknown when she started to kill young women, but she was doing so for sure from 1585 to 1610. Both her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, but they did not intervene. She was constantly improving her torturing methods and her brutality was increasing. The people living around her castle hated her so much that she only left the castle under an armed escort. But she has also tortured some girls at her properties in Sárvár and Keresztúr. Her victims were initially local female peasants, but later she also killed daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to their castles by their parents to learn noble manners, since in the early 17th Century, parents of substantial position often wished their daughters to be educated in the social graces and etiquettes. When it became known in the surroundings what she was (probably) doing, she had to send “assistants“ to bring young women from more distant regions. And when rumours spread all over the Hungarian Kingdom, she had to have girls kidnapped in order to get them. But it was only after the parish priest of Čachtice and even the monks in (the relatively nearby) Vienna have lodged several complaints with the ruling class in Vienna about cries from the castle that the (new) emperor Matthias II assigned George Thurzo, the palatine of Hungary, to investigate the complaints. Thurzo and his men invaded Čachtice in the morning of December 29 1610 and caught Elizabeth in the act in the Čachtice country-house – she was torturing several girls. She and her four collaborators were charged with sadistic torture and mass murder. Elizabeth was sealed into a closet of her castle without a trial and died there on August 21 1614. For her collaborators see below.

Guilt
More than 300 people were interrogated before her death between 1611 and 1614. Despite several interventions by the emperor, a regular trial never took place and the whole case remained open. The reason for this might have been that the palatine Thurzo did not want a trial against a member of the high gentry (with which he was reproached already at that time). Moreover, Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Báthory was the ruler of Transylvania and Thurzo did not want get into troubles with Transylvania. And finally, Thurzo’s properties were adjacent to those of Elizabeth and Thurzo was interested in her properties.
Many scholarly sources mention the strong possibility that she was falsely convicted by the political opponents of the family, mainly because the Báthory family owned large areas of land and were wealthy. The existing historical documents show lack of investigation, omitted evidence and decisions kept in tight local political circles. Some of the most dramatic charges against her, that of Satanism and vampirism, are thought to have been either deliberate falsehoods or folklore that grew up around an unliked figure. Some people claim that the vampire legends could have been exaggerations of actual medical help provided for peasants; at that age it was very unusual that a noble cared about the health of her servants, and bloodletting was practiced by medical authorities for many years. Modern supporters of the vampire legends attached to her life are either unaware of or choose to ignore historical documents and letters that would possibly ruin the otherwise dramatic tales.

Motives
Her deviation might have genetic reasons, because many of both her father’s and her mother’s ancestors were very brutal individuals (e. g. the Transylvanian ruler Sigismund Báthory who liked to have his retainers killed). Legends, however, say that she was killing the girls in order to bathe in their blood and, thus, stay forever young or improve her complexion. Alternatively, it is believed that the Báthory family was inbred and that this may have helped cause various psychotic disorders that the family was known to have.
It should be noted, however, that brutality was relatively widespread at the time. People arrested under suspicion of crimes and sometimes even witnesses were tortured for their confessions, and punishment of the poor or of political enemies was often death.

Collaborators
Elizabeth’s collaborators were Dorottya Szentes [Dorota Sentéšová], János Ujváry (called Fickó) [Ján Ujvári], Illona Jó and Katarína Benická [Katalin Benick]. Except for Katarína (whose guilt could not be proven), they all were executed (burned alive) at Bytča on January 7, 1611.
Their confessions and testimony against Báthory were taken under torture by Thurzo.

Legends
The following lists some of the best known legends about Elizabeth Báthory. Although they are partly based on statements made by those interrogated after 1610, their truthfulness cannot be verified.

Torture
While interrogating Turks, her husband employed a device of torture: articulated claw-like pincers, of silver; which, when fastened to a whip would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that he abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle.
Aware of Báthory's preoccupations, her aunt had introduced her to the flagellation of others, a taste she quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's silver claws, she generously indulged herself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slavic debtors. She preferred to whip her subjects on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, so that she could watch their faces contort in horror at their fate.

Vampirism and Satanism
Báthory began to gather those who claimed to be witches, sorcerers, seers, wizards, alchemists, and those who would practice the most depraved deeds in league with Satan.
She also reportedly became obsessed with youth and vitality, desiring to acquire political power. According to the most famous legend, she struck a servant girl and drew blood when her pointed nails raked the girl's cheek. The wound was serious enough that some of the blood got onto Báthory's skin, and she became convinced that it had improved her complexion. Alchemists informed her that the blood of a young virgin just might have such effects. Báthory reasoned that if she bathed in the blood of young virgins -- and in the case of especially pretty ones, drank their blood -- then she would become gloriously beautiful and strong. Báthory began to roam the countryside by night, hunting for suitable girls. Each batch of young girls would be hung upside-down by chains, wrapped around their ankles. Their throats would be slit and their blood drained for a bath or shower. Occasionally, she would drink blood: at first from a golden flask, but later, directly from the dying body.
After five years, Báthory began to realize that the blood of peasant girls was having little effect on the quality of her skin. In 1609, she established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time finish their educations. Assisted by Dorottya Szentes and Anna Darvulia (a woman thought to be her lover), these students were killed by Báthory. However, during a frenzy of lust, four bodies were thrown off the castle walls.

The Second Article
History of Erzsébet
1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. Her family had many powerful relatives -- a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary are among these relatives. The most famous relative was Istvan (ISHT-vahn) Bathory (1533-86). Istvan was prince of Transylvania and king of Poland from 1575-86. It has been said that at around the age of 4 or 5, Elizabeth had violent seizures. These may have been caused by epilepsy or another neurological disorder and may have something to do with her "psychotic" behavior later in life.
1575: Age 15, Elizabeth married Count Ferenc (pronounced FAIR-entz) Nadasdy (NAW-dawzhd with silent y). The Count was 26 years of age. The count took Elizabeth's surname so that she could keep her name. They lived together in Castle Cséjthe (which in Hungarian is pronounced CHAY-tuh). In Slovak this Castle is named Cachtice (pronounced CHAKH-teet-suh). [To this day there is rivalry between the Hungarians and the Slovak's and you will get a blank expression if you refer to the "wrong" name.]
The count spent a great deal of time away from home fighting in wars and for this he was nicknamed "The Black Hero of Hungary". While her husband was away Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult. For a brief time Elizabeth eloped with a "dark stranger". Upon her return to Castle Cachtice the count did forgive her for her leaving. Back at the castle, Elizabeth couldn't tolerate her domineering mother-in-law. With the help of her old nurse Ilona Joo, she began to torture the servant girls. Her other accomplices included the majordomo János Ujvary (pronounced YAH-nosh OOEE-vahr-yuh), Thorko, a forest witch named Darvula and a witch Dorottya Szentes.
The first ten years of their marriage, Elizabeth bore no children because she and Ferenc shared so little time together as he pursued his "career." Then around 1585, Elizabeth bore a girl whom she named Anna, and over the following nine years gave birth to two more girls, Ursula and Katherina, and in 1598 bore her first and only son, Paul. Judging from letters she wrote to relatives, she was a good wife and protective mother, which was not surprising since nobles usually treated immediate family very differently from the lower servants and peasant classes.
1600: At age 51, Count Ferenc died in battle and thus began Elizabeth's period of atrocities. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away from the Castle. By this time it is thought that she had dabbled into some forms of sorcery, attending rituals that included the sacrificing of horses and other animals. Elizabeth, now 40 years old, grew increasingly vain and she feared the thought of aging as she may lose her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentally pulled her hair while combing it. Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood. The girls blood fell into Elizabeth's hand and she immediately thought that her skin took on the freshness of her young maid. She believed that she had found the secret of eternal youth. Elizabeth had her majordomo and Thorko strip the maid and then cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.
1600 - 1610: Elizabeth's henchmen continued to provided Elizabeth with new girls for the blood-draining ritual and her blood baths. Elizabeth went out of her way to see to it that the dead girls were given proper Christian burials by the local Protestant pastor, at least initially. As the body count rose, the pastor refused to perform his duties in this respect, because there were too many girls coming to him from Elizabeth who had died of "unknown and mysterious causes." She then threatened him in order to keep him from spreading the news of her "hobby" and continued to have the bodies buried secretly. Near the end, many bodies were disposed of in haphazard and dangerously conspicuous locations (like nearby fields, wheat silos, the stream running behind the castle, the kitchen vegetable garden, etc.). But one of her intended victims escaped and told the authorities about what was happening at Castle Cachtice. King Mátyás (MAHT-yash) of Hungary ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, Count György (pronounced DYERD-yuh) Thurzo, governor of the province to raid the castle. On December 30, 1610 they raided the castle and they were horrified by the terrible sights. One dead girl in the main room, drained of blood and another alive whose body had been pierced with holes. In the dungeon they discovered several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced several times. Below the castle, they exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.
1611: A trial was held at Bitcse. Elizabeth, who refused to plead either guilty or innocent, never appeared in the trial.. At this trial Johannes Ujvary, majordomo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. The trial revealed that most of the girls were tortured for weeks or even months. They were cut with scissors, pricked with pins, even prodded with burning irons onto short spikes in a cage hung from the ceiling to provide Bathory with a "blood shower". Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess did it herself.
Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed. In fact, Elizabeth killed 612 women -- and in her diary, she documented their deaths. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survives today in Hungary. Of the people involved in these killings, all but Countess Bathory and the two witches were beheaded and cremated.
Due to her nobility, Elizabeth was not allowed by law to be executed. The tow accomplices had their fingers torn out and were burned alive. The court never convicted Countess Elizabeth of any crime, however she was put under house arrest. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in her torture chamber and stonemasons were brought to wall up the windows and doors of the with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed. King Mátyás II demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which really meant solitary confinement for life.
1614: On July 31 Elizabeth (age 54) dictated her last will and testament to two cathedral priests from the Esztergom bishopric. She wished that what remained of her family holdings be divided up equally among her children, her son Paul and his descendants were the basic inheritors though. Late in August of the year 1614 one of the countess's jailers wanted to get a good look at her, since she was still reputedly one of the most beautiful women in Hungary. Peeking through the small aperture in her walled-up cell, he saw her lying face down on the floor. Countess Elizabeth Bathory was dead. Her body was intended to be buried in the church in the town of Cachtice, but the grumbling of local inhabitants found abhorrent the idea of having the "infamous Lady" placed in their town, on hallowed ground no less! Considering this, and the fact that she was "one of the last of the descendants of the Ecsed line of the Bathory family", her body was placed to the northeastern Hungarian town of Ecsed, the original Bathory family seat
More Information:
All records of Elizabeth were sealed for more than a century, and her name was forbidden to be spoken in Hungarian society.
Unlike most females of the time, Elizabeth was well educated and her intelligence surpassed even some of the men of her time. Elizabeth was exceptional, becoming "fluent in Hungarian, Latin, and German... when most Hungarian nobles could not even spell or write... Even the ruling prince of Transylvania at the time was barely literate". Some modern scholars and contemporaries of hers postulated that she may have been insane, thus accounting for her seemingly inconceivable atrocities, but even a brief glance into her past reveals a person fully in control of her faculties.
Dracula, created by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was based, albeit loosely, on the Romanian Prince, Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Raymond T. McNally, who has written four books on the figure of Dracula in history, literature, and vampirism, in his fifth book, "Dracula was a Woman," presents insights into the fact that Stoker's Count Dracula was also strongly influenced by the legends of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Why, for example, make a Romanian Prince into a Hungarian Count? Why, if there are no accounts of Vlad Dracula drinking human blood, does blood drinking consume the Dracula of Stoker's novel, who, contrary to established vampire myth, seems to appear younger after doing so? The answers, of course, lie in examining the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
It was largely Slovak servants whom Erzsebet killed, so the name "Csejthe" is only spoken in derision, and she is still called "The Hungarian Whore" in the area.

^ Welcome to UM! About the Countess, she may have drank blood, but nnot to survive. That is a LONG post BTW

I've always found Elizabeth Bathory facinating

The simplest answer is usually the right one...

The simplest answer is usually the right one...

I agree she was a very sick, twisted psychopath.

She was a sick, mean lunatic, nothing else... they are quite common in noble families

Off:I was delighted to see that the spelling of the names and places are correct... Hungarian is a really nasty language, but the writers took care

i agree....

although this behaviour could of spurred on vampire reports...

Thank you for the kind welcome!
Sorry about the length of the post but she's not an easy person to describe and I didn't want people, who knew nothing about her, to have to go through a nasty websearch. Thus, I did it for them. heeh
From most of the replies thus far, it seems people are in agreement that she was a psychopath. I think I'd agree. The only fact that counters it, isn't really a fact at all, that being, that at the age of 50 she looked 18. There are people who, for whatever reason, age very well. I'm sure we've all met someone in our lives who when they give their age, we're startled by it as they look 20 or more years younger. I know I have.
Thanks again for the nice welcome.
Fayd

I read this once...

That when her people rose up against Bathory she fled. Her people instead found her daughter and tried her for her mothers crimes or as a conspirator.

As always, real events become twisted and exagerated over time.

Now that IS interesting because one of the things in the reports on the crimes she committed etc. was that Bathory seemed completely and totally clueless. It's said in many reports that the woman truly didn't seem to know what she did wrong.
If, indeed, that report is correct and it was her daughter that was arrested instead of her mother and tried for her mothers crimes...
I could see why she would seem so completely clueless.
Back in those days, it wasn't unusual for a child to be raised (fostered) out to a relative. As a matter of fact, it was the norm for the nobel classes so...
Wouldn't that have been a trip?
The daughter returns home as all of this is coming down, her mother takes off, and she's sitting there saying, "I have no idea what all this bruhaha is about."
God, talk about injustice! What a thought!
I just hope the real one got tried and bricked into that little room they gave her to live in the last few years she lived. Frankly, it's always rather bothered me that she didn't seem to pay for the crimes she orchestrated. A lot of other people were killed for their part in it but her? She was put in a small room for the rest of her life. It just doesn't seem quite right in my mind.

Fayd

if that is indeed the case...

then i wonder what happened the mother/the real killer

Who knows...she prob moved to Romania and gave birth to Vlad Dracula

We all know of the blood disorder that made Vlad crave blood, and that it is hereditary, and also that Vlad Dracul did not have the same cravings. So perhaps Bathory had this condition also and passed it onto Dracula.

thats all very possible...

do any people today have the condition that makes a human crave blood?

Yes, though it's very, very rare.

It's a condition that causes the sufferer to become addicted to the blood. The smell and feel of it mostly, not the taste.

This addiction also has a huge alergic effect on the person. And over time they lose weight, their skin becomes white and pasty, the sun hurts their eyes and their eyes become bloodshot and baggy. All up, they become sickly and weak.

This disease usually kills the sufferer at a young age...it has been confirmed that Dracula had this condition though it's uncertain whether he died of it or not.


It is very possible Bathory had the same condition (as she enjoyed bathing in blood).

Wow, I usually don't read the long posts, but I did this one. I found it fascinating. I've heard of her, but never read such detail. I don't believe she was a real vampire, just a truly sick and heartless woman. Thanks for posting, and welcome!

Actually, from everything I've read, the myth about her bathing in blood was just that: a myth. It came about after her death, I believe, and was never mentioned in the long, detailed trial that lead to her living out the rest of her life locked up.

Here is the BEST link I've ever read about Bathory. Very thorough and detailed, it examines many aspects of her life and the mythology surrounding her..... http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers...countess_1.html

The first chapter in this article is a bit too re-enactment for me.... but the rest takes the story out of historical fiction and into historical documentation and study.

Hope this helps!