Video: Truth and fiction about the bloody Countess Bathory - an obsessed sadist or a victim of intrigue?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
They call her the most brutal female killer in history … There are so many legends associated with her name that it is very difficult to separate truth from fiction. So, they say that she was even the muse of the famous Italian artist Caravaggio. Was not Countess Bathory really an unjustly condemned victim of the intrigues of those who hunted her money and land? And how could Caravaggio meet her?
The Hungarian Countess Erzhebet (Elizaveta, Elzbieta) Bathory entered the Guinness Book of Records as the woman who committed the largest number of murders, with about 650 victims on her account. For sophisticated methods of torture, she is called Dracula in female form. In addition, she was one of the richest women in Europe at the time. When Emperor Matt instructed the Palatine Gyordu Thurzo to investigate numerous murders, he, according to one version, fabricated evidence against her in order to take possession of her land and gold.
Even if the Countess was unfairly defamed, 650 casualties are too high for a trumped-up case. As they say, there is no smoke without fire. Consider the facts that have survived to this day. The Bathory clan was ancient and noble. The countess's ancestors often entered into incestuous marriages, which is why the members of the family suffered from epilepsy, insanity and drunkenness.
Erzsebet also suffered from these diseases - perhaps this explains her uncontrollable fits of rage. As a teenager, Erzsebet became engaged to the nobleman Ferenc Nadashdi and settled in Slovakia, in the Chahtice castle.
The exact time of the Countess's crimes is unknown - somewhere between 1585 and 1610. Erzhebet killed local peasants, tortured and severely punished servants for any offense. The Countess whipped the maids with a whip, dragged them by the hair, drove the needles under her nails, and beat them sadistically. According to legend, she bathed in the blood of her victims to prolong her youth. And apparently, she succeeded - she was one of the most beautiful women of her time.
Oddly enough, most of the legends about the bloody countess arose not in the 16th-17th centuries, but in our time, and the cinematography contributed to the mythologization of her image. In 2008, Y. Yakubisko's film "The Bloody Countess - Bathory" was released, after which her name was associated with the name of Caravaggio. According to the film, the Italian artist is captured in Turkey, from where Nadashdi brings him as a gift to his wife. And of course, against the background of bloody events, the love story of the countess and the artist unfolds. In fact, this is fiction from start to finish.
How could Caravaggio meet the Hungarian countess? There are indeed several blank spots in his biography, but biographers are sure that he never traveled further than Malta and could not get to Hungary in any way. And at the end of the XVI century. and did live in Milan.
Putting aside the speculation that Bathory was Caravaggio's mistress and vampire, there remains an equally terrifying story about a serial killer who took the lives of hundreds of girls. History knows even more terrible cases: little monsters - four of the most brutal killer kids
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