Elizabeth Bathory (1560 - 1614) was a countess accused of murdering hundreds of women.
Elizabeth Bathory (1560 - 1614) was a countess accused of murdering hundreds of women.
In honor of the spookiest month, we’re revisiting our favorite Womanica episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery all October. Join host Jenny Kaplan — with a few special introductions — as she takes you back in time, highlighting women like Sadie the Goat, Marie Laveau, Patricia Krenwinkel and more who were ruthless, vengeful, and mystical. The riveting stories of these women are sure to keep you up at night.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Brittany Martinez, a producer here at WMN, and I’m so excited to be introducing this “best of” episode of Womanica.
Today’s episode originally came from our “Villainesses” theme, in August 2019.
This Womanican was a 16th century Hungarian countess who allegedly murdered hundreds of local young women and bathed in their blood. Some even say she was the inspiration for Dracula.
I read a lot of horror novels and hearing that this woman had an influence on the modern vampire genre is so interesting to me.
Now here’s host Jenny Kaplan to talk about Elizabeth Bathory.
Elizabeth was born in 1560 into an extremely prominent Protestant family of Hungarian nobility. Her family controlled the territory of Transylvannia, and her uncle Stephen was King of Poland. We know very little about Elizabeth’s early life, other than the fact that she was raised at her family’s castle.
In 1575, when Elizabeth was just 15, she was married to the son of another powerful Hungarian family, Count Ferencz Nadasdy, and moved to a castle given to the couple as a wedding gift from Elizabeth’s husband’s family.
Elizabeth had four children, and as far as we can tell, her life appeared to be relatively normal until her husband’s death in 1604. That’s when rumours started circulating that Elizabeth was committing acts of murder and extreme cruelty in the castle.
People apparently found it hard to believe. For five years, accounts saying peasant women had been murdered were ignored. Finally, in 1609, claims that Elizabeth had murdered noblewomen started attracting actual attention. King Matthias of Hungary felt it necessary to investigate and ordered a noble named Gyorgy Thurzo to figure out what was happening.
He took depositions from more than 300 witnesses and survivors living in and around Elizabeth’s castle who supposedly verified the stories of serial murder and sadism. He also found physical evidence, not least of which was the presence of dead, dying, and mutilated girls imprisoned in the castle. Based on the interviews and the physical evidence, Gyorgy Thurzo determined that Elizabeth had tortured and murdered more than 600 young women with the assistance of her loyal servants.
Elizabeth and her servants were arrested on December 30, 1609. Two years later, the servants were put on trial and three were executed. Elizabeth herself was never tried, likely because this would have been a public embarrassment. Instead she was put under house arrest in her own castle, where she remained until her death.
The story of the countess who murdered hundreds of young women in her castle quickly made its way into the national folklore, and over the centuries the story evolved. For example, many versions of the Elizabeth Bathory story claim that she murdered young girls so that she could bathe in the blood of virgins as some sort of beauty treatment. Others claim that she had vampire-like tendencies and needed to drink their blood. These and other claims, were generally recorded years after Elizabeth’s death and are not historically reliable.
Still, Elizabeth’s infamy persists to this day. She is often compared to Vlad the Impaler, and some insist that she served as source material for the masterpiece novel Dracula..
Moreover, while documents exist from the 1611 trial supporting accusations against Elizabeth, many modern scholars question the veracity of the evidence.
Elizabeth, after all, was a powerful woman of her time, made more so by her control of her husband’s massive estate after his death. An interesting note is that King Matthias owed Elizabeth a rather large debt. That debt was forgiven in exchange for letting Elizabeth’s family manage her captivity. As such, historians have suggested that the acts attributed to her were politically motivated slander designed to allow her relatives to appropriate her vast land holdings.
All month, we’re bringing you the best of villainy, magic, and mystery. Tune in tomorrow for another of our favorite episodes.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!