The bloodshed and the killing, according to normal in most societies are male concerns. At the same time history knows not a few interesting cases about women murderers. It say that chronicles known stories of people of the “weak” sex, on whose life account was up to 100 corpses, and even more. Still, some of them especially distinguished themselves.
‘Beauty requires sacrifice’, or life story of Elizabeth Báthory
To the east of Bratislava among the picturesque spurs of the Carpathian Mountains towering ruins of Čachtice Castle. Its mossy wall crumbled ceiling collapsed, revealing a deep, dark cellars. What is left of the castle, it is indeed a grim sight. And if outside these walls you happen to hear the story of the guide about the atrocities of “Bloody Countess” Elizabeth Bathory, who lived here four hundred years ago, then your heart would frozen from horror.
Noblewoman from a known family Bathory, “Chahtitskaya pani” is not in vain considered to be a champion on the number of murders of women. Although the exact number of victims of Mrs. Elizabeth is not known, it is assumed that the Countess sophisticated send to the other world about 650 young girls whose blood noble madam allegedly drank or used as a liquid for washing hoping to extend her own youth.
The fate of the noble women in this harsh world was determined once and for all: early marriage, children, farm. The same was waiting for Elizabeth,who in childhood was betrothed to the son of the Count Ferenc Nadasdy. Her father died early, her mother went to live in another castle, and precocious high girl was to her own. Nothing good came of it. At age 14, Elizabeth gave birth to a son from footman. Guilty disappeared without a trace, like a child, and she was hastened to marry. The couple settled in Chait one of 17 Bathory family castles.
But soon after this marriage, her husband went on a campaign against the Turks, and has since been home not often.
Left alone, Elizabeth desperately bored. She wanted to escape from the mountain wilderness and go to the ball in Vienna or Pressburg, where everyone would see the beauty of her.
At that time the Countess still did not kill anyone. Though she was not sinless: in the absence of her husband she has got a lover, a neighbor landowner Ladislav Bend. One day the two of them raced on horseback along the road and engulfed with mud some ugly old woman. “Hurry, hurry, my beauty! she shouted. Soon you will be the same as I! At home Elizabeth stared for long at the Venetian mirror. Did the witch was telling the truth? Yes, she is already over forty, but her form just perfect, and the skin is elastic. Although there is treacherous wrinkle in the corner of the mouth.
At the beginning of 1604 her husband died from a fever in one of the campaigns. The neighbors pitied the widow, and no one knew what was waiting for her servants in a quiet town at the foot of the castle.
Erzsebet Bathory tirelessly sought means to bring back the leaving beauty rummaging in old grimoires (collections of magical rituals and spells), then applied to the sorceress. Once an old witch Darvulyu, who was living near Chait, came to her. Looking at her, the old woman said with confidence: “Blood is needed, madam. Bathe in the blood of women who did not know the man, and youth will always be with you. From this the terrible story ofBloody Countess began….
Even if the story about drinking blood would be pure fiction, there is remain testimony of three hundreds witnesses about different kinds of torture, one worse than the other, that countess Bathory applied against young handmaidens. Numerous servants were recruited “for slaughter” from the common people, and then Mrs. started to eat girls alive just for fun by biting of their limbs or face, or, for example, tortured them by starving or cold. In addition, a variety of tools were used.
In 1610, complaints about Erzsebet Bathory reached the Hungarian king, who ordered to initiate an investigation, and soon the Countess was arrested and convicted. Court did not impose a death warrant, so as not to cover the influential clan of Bathory with disgrace. Therefore, the Countess was punished otherwise she was imprisoned in the castle Shahtitskom in the chamber with no windows and doors, with only two openings for ventilation and feeding.
Bathory cronies, meanwhile, was brutally tortured and hastily executed, in not less sadistic way, than acted the Countess Erzsebet with her young victims. Three years later that terrifying woman died a natural death in the dungeon of her castle. But even three centuries later, world cinema has labored a few dozen movies in purple tones about the Bloody countess and her numerous atrocities.
