Background Information
Family, Early Life, Marriage, Sadistic Behaviour and Mental Illnesses
Family Information
Elizabeth Bathory was born to György – George VI Bathory (c. 1522 – 1570) and Anna Bathory (m. 1539 – c. 1574) on c. 7th August 1560. Her parents came from two separate branches of the Bathory clan; her father was of the Ecsed branch and her mother originated from the older family branch, Somyló. Therefore, Bathory was in fact a product of inbreeding between the royal family (Craft, 2011). However, such inbreeding trends were not uncommon in the aristocracy of 16th Century Eastern Europe as this ensured the absolute purity of the noble line.
Báthory Family Seal, which depicts three teeth in the centre surrounded by a dragon.
“(The Bathory family) were richer than the King of Hungary himself, King Matthias. They owned more property, and had much vaster wealth than he had.” (Professor Raymond McNally, 2012). Not only were her parents and herself richer than the King, several other relatives of Elizabeth Bathory held quite noble positions in society. Her maternal uncle, Stefan Bathory (1533 – 1586) was King of Poland. As well as her uncle, her nephew was the Prince of Transylvania and was considered to be the most glamorous renaissance prince and several other relatives on each branch of her family were Voivodes of Transylvania, knights, cardinals and judges.
“The Bathory family was not only a dynasty of heroes, but had enormous power in Central Western Europe.” (Tony Thorne, 2010)
Early Life and Marriage to Fernencz Nadásdy
Elizabeth Bathory was considered to be quite intelligent, being that she was fluent in four languages: Hungarian, German, Latin and Greek. At the time, even males who received prime education were only fluent in one language (Meeg, 2007).
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In 1571, 11-year-old Elizabeth Bathory became engaged to 16-year-old, Fernencz (Ferenc) Nádasdy de Nádasd et Foharasföld “The Black Hero of Hungary” (1555-1604) – probably an arrangement within the circles of aristocracy (Holloway, 2014). It was typical for young girls of noble status to be engaged during childhood (Craft, 2009). This young couple were married on the 8th of May, 1575 at Castle Varannó in current Vranov, Slovakia.
Portrait of Ferenc Nadasdy painted by Benjamin Block, 1656.
Between her engagement and marriage to Ferenc Nadasdy, at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth Bathory gave birth to an illegitimate child who had been fathered by a peasant boy (GeoCities, 2009). This child was cast out of the royal family almost immediately.
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In the first ten years of their marriage, Bathory and Nadasdy did not have any children. However, between 1585 and 1604, when Ferenc dies, Elizabeth bore him two daughters and a son who had survived throughout infancy. All accounts suggest that Bathory was a good mother despite her sadistic behaviours (Meeg, 2007).
During Ferenc’s military career, fighting in the Ottoman-Hungarian Wars, he could be away from his wife and children for up to 10 months in a year.
Sadistic Behaviours and Mental Illnesses
However, the Bathory family were definitely not as glamourous as they seemed as her family had an extensive history of mental illnesses, in particular, Elizabeth’s Bathory’s uncle who suffered from immense schizophrenia (GeoCities, 2009). Bathory herself suffered from many seizures throughout her childhood, thought to be caused by epilepsy which likely steamed from inbreeding (H2G2, 2017). She was also reported to have a vicious temper which frequently exploded into monstrous fits of rage (Meeg, 2007) and showed many signs of malady at her young age (GeoCities, 2009).
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Many of Elizabeth Bathory’s family members were also considered to be sadistically cruel or suffered from other vices, particularly her aunt – rumoured to be a witch or devil-worshipper – who instructed her in Satanism, the ‘art’ of sadomasochism and sadistic behaviours. Her eldest brother, Stefan, was also accounted for as being a reputed lecher (History.com Staff, 2009).
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At the time of Elizabeth’s birth, Hungary was a cult of savagery and aristocratic bravura, (Arun, 2012) ruled by Austria (a Christian country) which was constantly involved in wars with the Turkish Muslims. Elizabeth's country, her home, was consistently and permanently at war all throughout her lifetime. She was constantly exposed to images of mutilated soldiers and beggars who had come back from war. When she was younger, she was also subjected to many horrible crimes; she had witnessed a gypsy – who was caught stealing – being sewn up inside the body of a dead horse and left to die (Meeg, 2007). As Elizabeth Bathory grew up in an atmosphere where torture and cruelty were part of everyday experience she may have believed that this was normal behaviour and there is an extreme possibility that she suffered from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder (Arun, 2012).
Hungarian defenders in Belgrade (1456) part of the Ottoman Wars in Europe.