Arrest & Crimes Of Elizabeth Báthory
Despite the sensationalized arrest and numerous crimes allegedly committed by Elizabeth Bathory, it’s a little known fact that she was actually never even convicted of murder. Rumors began to spread of what was going on around the countryside; women disappearing in various areas, whether by force or mysterious abductions. Naturally, after so many kidnapped women, someone began to catch on; this was a Lutheran priest, who brought the rumors to attention both in public, and in the courts of Vienna, demanding a response. Despite the severity of the claims he made against Elizabeth Bathory, the response from authorities was delayed. To clarify by what I mean by delayed; the priest made his outcries for a response in 1602-1604, and there wasn’t a response until six years later, in 1610.
Finally, in 1610, the king sent a military official to investigate the circumstances, while also sending two other notaries to collect evidence against Bathory. Before Bathory’s arrest, the king at the time, King Mattias of Hungary, negotiated Elizabeth’s punishment. She was connected to some of the most influential nobility in the region at the time, rulers and land-owners. Had the king made the decision to execute Elizabeth Bathory, he would have lost favor from various ruling houses, making himself a possible target in a region already torn by considerable internal conflict. When Elizabeth was arrested in December of 1610, the men sent in to collect evidence discovered dying, and dead women, as well as women who had been imprisoned, as well as four of Bathory’s servants, believed to be accomplices. Despite the fact that Elizabeth Bathory was such a heinous figure, she was never allowed a trial, and instead remained locked in her castle for the rest of her life. However, her accomplices were allowed to stand trial, and then were punished, one with life imprisonment, the others with death.
The tortures Bathory was accused of were numerous:
- Severe beatings that went on until the victim eventually died
- Burning and mutilating hands, faces, or genitals, as well as other body parts
- Biting and tearing flesh from the faces, arms, or other parts of the victims’ bodies
- Freezing them to death, by throwing cold water over them repeatedly outdoors in winter
- Performing amateur surgery on the victim
- Starvation