The Vampiric Countess

Lady Alcinia Dimitrescu debuted in June 2020 for the game Resident Evil 8. The trailer showed a tall, beautiful, vampiric woman clad in a white dress and a black hat. Fans immediately fell in love with her, and her appearance in the upcoming game release.

While her role was completely original for the game, her character was inspired by a very real countess (and other sources not part of this blog). Even her castle was based on Peles Castle in Romania – though there isn’t a bloody story to this castle (at least that we know of yet…)

I’m talking about the infamous Elizabeth Báthory, the Countess made urban legend from the House of Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman, and serial killer from the late 1500’s to early 1600’s.

Elizabeth Báthory was born in Hungary August 7, 1560 into a wealthy noble family. Not just a wealthy family – uncle was Stephen Bathory, the king of Poland.
At 15, in 1575, she wed Count Ferencz Nádasdy. He was both a nobleman and a distinguished soldier known as the Black Knight of Hungary because he helped conquer castles in the Ottoman-Hungarian Wars. She was born quite wealthy, one of many children. She was married, and the marriage resulted in lots of land – this time in Transylvania and Hungary. Nadasdy’s family gifted the newlyweds their new home, Castle of Csejte.

The couple would have four children, who were raised by a governess. At the age of 48, Count Ferenc Nádasdy would die of unknown causes in 1604.
There probably wasn’t foul play, the stories found relate to the Count suffering from some ailment with his leg that would ultimately lead to his demise. Though it would probably be more interesting if there was speculation that she murdered her husband. But no. Just the ailments of the early 1600’s being fatal.

With his death, Elizabeth Bathory was even more wealthy and powerful. Soon after she became a widow, rumors of torture and murder of peasants would begin circulating. These would be ignored, given the power that Bathory held, and that this wasn’t a crime at the time. Young daughters of lesser gentry –would come to her castle to create a connection to the high ranked Countess. Unfortunately, these young girls would be murdered at the hands of Elizabeth – which would ultimately be the cause of her being caught.

These murders caught the attention of many, one of which was minister István Magyari who would take these rumors to the courts.

In 1609, Mattias II – king of Hungary – would assign György Thurzó (Bathory’s own cousin) to investigate the accusations. By the end of the year there will be over 52 witnesses, and Elizabeth Bathory would be arrested. By early next year, there would be over 300 witnesses.

Though she was never tried – servants would be on trial, where three of them would be executed for testifying against the countess.

For her crimes, she was confined to her longtime home Castle of Csejte for the remainder of her life. She would die in her sleep in August of 1614 and be buried in the church of Csejte, though the castle does not bear her name at any possible graves.

But that is what was documented. But that’s not talking about anything Vampiric – or even mentioning numbers of victims, or mass graves that we expect to read about currently. There should be a lot more drama to this story – pardon the words, the victims of the countess definitely would not appreciate that – but the story is lacking the embellishment you would expect.
I was absolutely struck by the story behind this “case” because of its level of mythological content.

What do I mean? You ask.

First thing, the story is that she tortured and murdered 650 young girls and bathed in the blood of the virgins to stay young.

The Vampiric Countess… but we’re saying she found the time in 5 years to start, thinking of a plan to stay young, and then commit all these murders – 650 – in 5 years. And she still owned property and had social responsibilities and was in bereavement, and had four children. That lady would have to never sleep EVER to have enough time to commit these atrocities. That’s not to say she was completely innocent, but the story was definitely embellished. Evidence states she was probably sadistic and killed a few gentry daughters. But hundreds of girls so she could bathe in their blood? Same area as the Dracula myth? Something seems off…

Next part – Mathias II… this king owed her and her family a lot of money, remember her uncle is a king, and her husband was very wealthy and controlled land in Hungary and Transylvania. So, this king’s debt was wiped clean by her arrest and conviction of these crimes. This fact leads modern scholars to believe that she was slandered so her estate could be split up and all that wealth redistributed.

Another embellishment, though this time it is in the Countess’ favor; she was confined to her castle – and walls built around her tower, brick by brick, until she would never see anyone ever again. But the reality is she was confined to her castle to live out her natural life. No bricked into a tower; what she was given was essentially house arrest in Castle Čachtice.

Another thing I did notice that caught my attention was that young Bathony suffered from “falling sickness” – what we know as epilepsy. At the time of the 17th century, apparently treatments for epilepsy included rubbing the blood of non-affected individuals onto the lips of the sufferer to make an episode pass…
Remind you a little bit about bathing in people’s blood? It does to me.
This case sounds like she might have been sadistic, and maybe killed a few people (not to diminish the vileness of this) but this isn’t the same level of depravity that the story has inherited over the years.

There were also no mass graves – or graves of any kind for these victims. Where would 650 women’s bodies be hidden? But no trace… and a very powerful, well connected woman’s arrest was a very good strategic plan to disperse that power.

So was she a serial killer? A vampire? A sadist? A killer not defined as “serial”? Or a victim of political propaganda? Obviously, there could be an assortment of those that are true, but she’s probably not an actual vampiric countess.

But, her name carries infamy and intrigue. Now, over four hundred years later, evidence is being reexamined to maybe clear her name.

References:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Bathory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory%5D

https://notesonhungary.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/the-bloody-countess/