February 2: Countess 'vampire' Elizabeth Báthory is brought to trial

Countess Elizabeth County was tried for murdering 610 girls in order to take blood to preserve youth.

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian) is a countess of the Hungarian family of nobility, famous for being beautiful and cruel. She is probably one of the most murdered women recorded in history to date.

The cruelty, especially the excitement of her blood-craving, contributed to Bram Stoker building the image of Count Dracula for the novel of the same name. Especially Countess Elizabeth only murdered young girls by believing that by taking and bathing the blood of these young women, she could help her stay young.

The most bloodthirsty countess in history

The number of victims murdered by Elizabeth Countess is accused of up to 650 people, however the true number is 610 people discovered by a court in her diary. However, this book was never published outside, it was rumored that in that notebook it was recorded in detail the scenes of massacre of young women at the countess's castle.

Hungarian king Matthias II finally heard the words about Elizabeth and ordered Count Thurzó György, Elizabeth's cousin, to investigate.

On 12/30/1610, Thurzó with two witnesses and a group of soldiers broke into the castle and was horrified at what he saw: a dead girl was in the middle of the hall, her whole blood was drained; another girl was still alive but her whole body was slashed, and some other girls were hung up.

Csejthe Castle today

The case became too scary. King Matthias asked Thurzó to execute Elizabeth, but the earl successfully persuaded the king that it would severely affect the nobility and ask to postpone the trial. On January 7, 1811, the Royal Supreme Court met under the trial of Theodosious Syrmiensis de Szulo and 20 judges at Bytča. Elizabeth was also offered a death sentence, but with royal blood, moreover, considering the merits of her husband, Count Nádasdy Ferenc was exempted from this sentence but suffered a life-long imprisonment at Csejthe Castle.

Her date and time of death are not clearly defined. It is only known that on August 21, 1614, after nearly four years of detention, a prisoner did not see her touch the food that looked through the door, seeing the countess lying face down on the floor.