of the Dragon” to defend Christian Europe from the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. The emblem of the order was a dragon, wings spread, defending a cross. Vlad Tepes’s father was known as “Vlad the Dragon” in honor of his courage in warfare against the Turks. Therefore Vlad Tepes (Vlad III) became at his birth Vlad Dracul or “Son of the Dragon.”
In present day Romania, Vlad Dracul is regarded as a national hero for his success in resisting the invading Ottoman Turks and for establishing at least a brief period of peace, independence, and sovereignty. To call Vlad Dracul a shape-shifting creature of darkness while a tourist in Romania would be comparable to visitors to the United States naming our Colonial hero and leader George Washington a vampire.
However, there does exist a historical connection between Dracul and the first true vampire in our Gallery. In 1476, Steven Bathóry of Transylvania, whose family crest also bears the image of a dragon, helped Vlad Tepes regain his throne. In 1560, Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Bathóry was born.
Born into a family of aristocrats, Elizabeth Bathóry inherited a dark reputation from her family. The name of Bathóry had either been that of the wisest rulers or the most depraved despots.
At age 15 Elizabeth, known for her beauty and her flawless complexion, became engaged to Ferenc Nadasdy on New Year’s Eve 1575. Nadasdy was another family name with a sinister reputation, and the young Count Ferenc had a streak of barbaric cruelty and intense sadism running through him.
Together they were a perfectly matched pair. Elizabeth was constantly at Ferenc’s side as the jaded young aristocrat dabbled in the dark arts. An intelligent, educated woman, Elizabeth could read and write in four languages and was completely capable of managing the affairs of the castle or uttering complex satanic rituals. Elizabeth and Ferenc were married on May 18, 1575, with a wedding that included about 4500 guests. Elizabeth retained the Bathóry name because her family’s name was more powerful than that of her husband.
History records that Vlad might have tortured, roasted, boiled, and impaled as many as 100,000 enemy soldiers….
It is likely that Elizabeth would have remained just another depraved aristocrat if her husband had stayed at home to keep her happy. Instead, Ferenc vented his lust for blood by becoming one of Hungary’s greatest warriors, earning the title of The Black Hero for his constant battles against the Turks. In 1578, Nadasdy was named the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army, and he led the troops to fight another war with the Ottomans.
Although Nadasdy was often away for months at a time, in 1585 Elizabeth bore their first child, a daughter, Anna. A few years later, another daughter, Ursula, and a son, Andrew, were born, but they died at a very early age.
With Nadasdy so often engaged in warfare for long periods of battle and blood, the castle guests began taking on a strange appearance, as Elizabeth’s personal serving maid Iloona Joo and two lesbian witches named Darvula and Dorka summoned bizarre acquaintances from all over the countryside to amuse their lonely mistress. Some of the visitors claimed to be vampires or werewolves. Others were witches, wizards, and alchemists.
Many hideous and gruesome experiments were performed by these disciples of Satan, which often featured the torturing of servant girls to enliven a dull afternoon. Jonas Ujvary, the castle’s chief torturer, would select girls from the staff on whom to practice his skills with branding irons and executions, including beheadings. Johannes, a dwarf, would sometimes flog a young woman to death while the crowd counted aloud the lashes. On other occasions, he sliced off pieces of the women’s flesh and passed the bits and pieces around the circle of the guests, eager to sample the gory appetizers before the main course of a lavish feast. Stoked on cruelty and several bottles of wine, the evening would climax with a sexual orgy unmatched in all of Europe for its licentiousness.
By 1598, two more children, Kate and Paul, had been born to Elizabeth and Ferenc; and the Countess, said to be a loving mother, devoted herself to rearing her children—with the help of a number of governesses.
When Ferenc died in battle in 1604, Elizabeth found herself a single woman in her forties. She began to be concerned that she was no longer young and beautiful and that she may have difficulty finding another consort.
It was when she had begun to fear losing her legendary beauty that we can envision a scenario that was said to have begun with a serving maid who made the mistake of spilling a small portion of the wine that she had been pouring for her mistress. To emphasize her displeasure, the Countess struck the girl in the face and sent a splattering of blood on her hand.
When Countess Bathóry brushed the drops of blood away, it seemed to her that the skin beneath appeared softer and younger.
Elizabeth Bathóry, the Countess of Blood (illustration by Ricardo Pustanio).
Quickly the Countess summoned Iloona Joo and asked if the dark arts held the recipes for potions to preserve youth. “Yes, my lady,” the woman answered. “There are such potions locked in the secrets of the black rituals.”
The Countess considered this, then told the woman that she believed that she had just discovered a vital element to the secret of eternal youth. She summoned the guards and had them bring the serving maid whom she had struck. While the burly men held the terrified girl firmly in their grasp, the Countess drew a pan of blood from her veins.
Ignoring the unconscious maid who had slumped to the floor, Elizabeth Bathóry began bathing her body with the blood she had stolen. “You see,” she exclaimed to Iloona Joo, who had watched the entire proceedings carefully. “My complexion has improved immediately. I have found the secret of remaining eternally youthful. I need never know the ravages of age. All I have to do is bathe in the blood of maidens.”
Elizabeth Bathóry believed that she had made the discovery at just the right time, for the mirror had begun to reveal the lines of age encroaching upon her once flawless beauty.
With a desperate passion for retaining her allure, the fiery-eyed Elizabeth Bathóry of Hungary set out to keep a regular supply of maidens in stock to bleed for her bath. For eleven terrible years the peasants in the village below the Bathóry castle cowered behind the locked doors of their houses after dark and listened to the wailing cries of the young women being snatched up by the terrible black carriage that rumbled through the streets.
Maidens, kidnapped from the village, were brought directly to the pens in the basement where they were fattened, then bled for the Countess’s daily bath.
The horrible acts of torture, murder, and the gruesome blood baths could not go on forever. Beginning in 1602, Istvan Magyari, a Lutheran pastor, began making protests with the court in Vienna regarding the atrocities being committed by the Countess. Although other voices were soon added to that of the Pastor, the accusations against a woman of such a well-respected name were ignored until 1610.
A Bathóry or not, King Matthias at last decided, the rumors about Countess Elizabeth had to be investigated. The raiding party on the castle was led by Juraj Thurzo, the Palantine of Hungary, on New Year’s Eve, 1610. Thurzo, a cousin of the infamous countess, had discussed the accusations made against Elizabeth with members of the family, none of whom wished to have her found guilty of such terrible crimes as those being levied against her. None of them wished to surrender the Bathórys’ ownership of vast lands and wealth to the Crown. An informal agreement was reached where Elizabeth might be secreted in a nunnery. Those plans for sanctuary were forgotten when the raiding party arrived at the castle.
Although the men had been warned and had listened to all the rumors, none were prepared for the ghastly sight that lay before them
Although the men had been warned and had listened to all the rumors, none were prepared for the ghastly sight that lay before