As much as I know - being Hungarian and all - that our historians basically agree on that she actually brought sick girls to her castle and she tried to cure them, using her property as a kind of hospital for the girls but of course as it was filled with sick people, many of them died. Also there was an intense political pressure on her as a widow as she refused to re-marry and she had more power as a women than many man did and of course in that time period it was unacceptable. Hence came the 'witch-hunt' and her demise. I think she was more of a victim than a murderer.
Many women led without such a cult to get rid of them, I don't think the fact that she was a women in political power, had anything to do with it, otherwise monarchies simply wouldn't have existed at all. There was a female king of Poland after all, and the countless Queens in History in immense political power, such as Isabella I of Spain, Elizabeth of England, etc... There was even Maria Theressa in charge of all of the HRE at a moment in time (Empress). I think her opponents generally thought she was a vampire of sorts, like many would think if they heard of Vlad the Impaler, Vampiric Accusations are rather unique and old or rooted into the fables of the Balkans area. I don't think she killed that many as accused -- I at least hope not lmao, that'd be quite the spooks -- but I don't think her being in such political power as a women, had much of a factor in it.
@tomato gang Female rulers have existed, yes, but mostly as exceptions. Women had always had men as their guardians, and only as a widow you had the same rights as men, which was seen as something temporary and disappeared if you remarried (something that was highly encouraged, not only because widows often could have a hard time economically without a husband but also because a healthy household was considered consisting of a married couple). Thalia told us that there was an intense political pressure on Bathory as a widow as she refused to re-marry - that wasn't something unusual. The norms of that time said that it was unnatural for a woman to not be married. I can go deeper into it if you want. However, for many years in many countries it wasn't allowed for a woman to inheret thrones and other higher statuses, for example in Sweden the law changed around the 1500s with Gustav Vasa, who made a change that created the possibility for women to inheret the throne, but only for the reason that he wanted his heritage to continue being the ones in power, not because he thought women had the same capability to rule. For example, Queen Kristina ruled Sweden under the 1600s only because she had no male relatives who could take over the throne when her father died, but if she married she would've transferred her power to her future husband and turned into a sidepiece instead of a main player. Therefore she decided to never marry under the time she ruled. It's true that she is remembered as a good queen and other queens and women in power has existed in history, but they only became women in power because a man of an equal social status didn't exist, so they settled with the worst-in-case scenario while waiting for a man to take over. Women has always been looked down upon and people have always disapproved them having a leading role in politics, since the medieval ideal of a woman was that women should be passive, retracted, married and pious. A woman who didn't fit into the mold of a calm, christian woman felt like a threat to the natural order of life. Men were the ones who were supposed to be active and in charge. It simply wasn't logical for the medieval and high-medieval people that women and men could have equal standings. They just simply didn't believe that women had the capacity of thinking as logically as men. Women had the role as a power intermediary in the medieval times, while the power became executable when men got a hold of it. So I definitively think that Elizabeth Bathory being a woman had a hand in the uproar against her. It obviously isn't the only reason, much more factors must lay behind such a defamation of a rich and mighty woman as her, but you certainly can't just ignore that factor. edit: Also, Queen Kristina was highly pressured to get married. It was a constant thing she had to argument against. Much like Bathory.
Not to say that women didn't have a role in politics - they most certainly had, but indirectly, not formally. If someone wanted to change a countries opinion of something, for example religion or some political thing, you could often go to the wives, sisters and daughters of influental men for the means of persuading them so they can in turn persuade the men in power. And of course women has been "in the shadows" in politics generally, but since they weren't even considered indepedent (as I said, men had the guardianship over them) they weren't relevant in the slightest in the formal discussions in politics and documents.
Afer her husband s death she enhareted all he s wealth.It turned out to be qiute a business woman ,which wasn t very vell tolerated . The base"blood queen" story is that some of her servitors died and were burried in secrecy .This was a good motive for local landlord to accuse her of whichcraft .Before her husband died she had a happy marrige and 5 children.
some other things to add was that during her trial there were no first-hand witnesses to these crimes. all of them were either second-hand witnesses who heard it from someone else or her servants that had been tortured which even then would not have counted as a proper witness to her crimes. furthermore,, the Hungarian crown, as well as the palatine of Hungary (the men sent to investigate her crimes) both, were considerably in debt to her and at her arrest and death, all debts were forgiven by her heirs. her crimes are almost 100% false considering there were so many deaths there was no letter of complaint and there was NO SINGLE WITNESS that was able to properly convict her those that did under torture were quickly executed.
I'm Hungarian, and I officially love you now just for pronouncing Erzsébet :"D I just love how you take up stories and step into the skins of the characters and real historical people.
Another wonderful work of beauty. Lady Bathory was an artist drawing from the flesh an blood of those more beautiful than her sadistic yes but God's be damned for intervening for they did not this life thrives on death such yearning
I am a huge fan of the fact that you put the two version of her history into the song. Because to be honest, we really do not know what happened there and therefore it is hard to decide, but her legend is mostly about the first version, so many people just go with that. Good job and I am as always excited to hear your songs. Plus I find your spelling of her name extreamly beautifull
We do know actually that it was a framed trial and as the song says, all of the witnesses were tortured and the confessions were forced. She was innocent and she was killed for the Báthory estates. Her name is in Hungarian. Her family name should be Báthory tho, not Bathory. Báthory Erzsébet
Could you recommend any good sources? I am curious about that case but I never had a good materials to read about that. And I know that her name is Hungarian, but it is hard for foreginers to speak that. Even in Poland, when we had the king with the surname Báthory, I think many people would pronouce it wrong form the gramatical point of view.
Sadly, I can't seem to find any decent English source. I studied history and there is ample literature in Hungarian, but English articles are rather simplified. In reality, she was the child of 2 Báthory's, so most of the Báthory estates were unified under her rule and her husband was the famous Nádasdy Ferenc, an outstanding soldier who died in 1604 in the 15 years war. By all accounts, she seemed to be a decent, enlightened woman. She supported widows and funded schools and took part in both Hungarian and Polish politics. Since her husband was busy fighting, she was handling all the estates and we are talking about one of the, if not the richest Hungarian noble. However, when her husband died, her son was still only 6 years old. We don't know for sure what was the plan of Thurzó György, who was the nádor (highest rank after the king), but it was surely motivated by greed and religious matters. Erzsébet was reformed, as many Hungarian nobles at the time, but the king was a Habsburg, a Catholic, same goes for Thurzó. In 1610 she was randomly arrested in her castle by Thurzó and 2 noblemen. The servants were quickly interrogated, tortured and executed. Erzsébet herself was under house arrest, but she was never tried. II. Matthias didn't have the balls to go after the richest aristocrat 4 years after the Bocskai-rebellion. Practically they put her in a windowless room and only gave her food. She died 4 years later, maybe even lost her mind. It's really hard to understand what was the plan exactly. Thurzó and Erzsébet hated each other, but this is extreme. And taking the estates of the richest noble would have completely delegitimized the king. Probably they were hoping to take over the estates, but maybe realized that it would have caused too much turmoil or maybe they wanted to influence the heir. Hungary at this time had a Habsburg king who ruled over northern and western Hungary and we also had a ruler in Transylvania, who also had claim for the Hungarian kingdom. Báthory also had ties in Poland, so maybe they wanted to make sure that this powerful noble family won't turn against the Habsburgs. Being reformed at the time kinda put you on a blacklist.
@@ERAUsnow I think you need to revisit the whole era and dig a bit deeper. Erzsébet's uncle was the polish king, his cousin the Transylvanian Prince and under her rule the Báthory and the Nádasdy estates were united. She was very close to her cousin and the Habsburgs feared losing power in Hungary more than some potential allies. There are thousands of proofs for that. There is no real evidence of her guilt. All the witnesses were executed right away and we are talking about peasants. They didn't even dare to trial her, just put her under "house arrest". Most of the times Wallachia and Tranysylvania were vassals of the Turks. What kept them at bay was simply the distance from COnstantinaples and the huge fucking castles that took months to take each
@@ERAUsnow First of all its Habsburgs, no p. Thats not how the world works. There were rumors and people used it to their advantage, it wasn't orchestrated by the King. However you are strongly overestimating the power of the king. As I said they didn't dare to put Erzsébet on trial, thats how powerful the king was. It would had angered the rest of the nobles and might have swayed them to Transylvania and they might have just elected a Hungarian king, as they did just a few years earlier when Bocskai became a Hun king.
This has been haunting my mind for days. I studied and wrote about Erzebet Bathory back in my youth. She's one of those figures, like Catherine de Medici, who have twin legends depending on who you read, and are all the more fascinating for that. And Karliene, your voice is amazing on this one. 😍
I would love a song about Peter Niers. He was a 15th century German serial killer that supposedly killed over 500 people for satanic rituals. However, most of the information about him is either from a ballad about him from the time or his confessions, extracted under torture. As such his story is almost as clouded as Bathory's.
🤔🙄 Gilles De Res confessed too in horrible crimes,rapes,bloodsucking,cannibalism etc. under unbearable tortures... And it known nowadays his case was fabricated! 'Cause of his property: he was a richiest man after king,! Afterwords he was justified by Parisian tribunal as not guilty in all deeds...
I wouldn't doubt that a lot of the accounts and accusations were exaggerated and made up. Elizabeth Bathory was absurdly powerful and wealthy because of her heritage, education, leadership and husband. The timing of the accusations and how it was handled was very convenient for those accusing her (her husband was a war hero and very much dead leaving behind her and Thurzo to take care of their heirs, wealth, position, and property. As mentioned by other comments, the King of Hungary was said to owe debt to her, and the royal treasury was not exactly flush with funds due to mismanagement if I recall correctly. Plus, as some have mentioned, Thurzo's relationship with the Countess was somewhat inconclusive in being either rocky or just professional. Also, Religion as well.
Yeah, I think she probably did kill a lot a people, but I feel like it would be noticeable if 650 people just went missing, not to mention that it takes a lot of blood to fill a bathtub even a small one unless she had water in the tub and mixed the blood in with it,
@@hithere911 I don't think there is this much evidences of her presume murders. When you look at the historical contest, it is more likely to be a set up, in order to obtain her properties. How could more than 600 young women, especially virgins, could have gone missing without people making the link between her castle and the disparitions.
@@Asia-zd1rg *proved Mind sending me a link to this? I would like to cross-reference in order to make a more informed opinion, since most historical events in general are points of contest due to lack of clarity.
What better way to get us into the Halloween spirit than with a song about the first historic vampire. Countess Bathory was supposedly the only one who could rival Vlad Tepes bloodlust. I wonder if the Impaler Lord will get a song of his own.
I like how you refer to her as the "first historical vampire" rather than Vlad. After all, Bathory was the only one of the two to be "vampiric" in any way. Vlad III was a machiavellic hero who only with his own actions and with a VERY small army managed to stop the Ottoman empire from invading his lands and enslaving his people. He never actually tortured of mistreated his own people. He did however use guerrilla and fear tactics, and did horrible things to spies, traitors and enemies, and impaled them(once again, for fear tactics). Vlad was also a Christian believer, yet in the end he was betrayed by those at the head of his religion and by the rest of Europe that had hid being his lands(treating his country as a buffer state), even refusing to lend him troops to fight off the invaders. Vlad was handed over to be executed by the demand of the leaders of the Ottoman empire, and the rest of Europe demonized Vlad. On the other than, Vlad III, the Tepes(Lord Impalor), the Dracula(son of the Dragon, since his father was the one with the title of Dracul) is still regarded to this day in Romania as a national hero, and even more so in the Romanian region of Wallachia, the very same one which Vlad III ruled and protected to his bitter end. Also, Bran Stoker is actually he first person to associate Vlad III with being a vampire. Before that, he was just viewed as a hero in his homeland, and demonized in other places. However, it is also a fact that Bran Stoker never actually looked up Vlad's history in detail at all. He just picked him to be the vampire of his story because of the ambiance of the location and due to Vlad being easy to pick as a demon-like person.
If she makes a song on Vlad III Tepes, then I'd like it to be more about him being a tragic hero, a machievellic one for sure, but a tragic hero nonetheless who did all that he did for the sole sake of protecting his people of Wallachia from the Ottoman empire invasion, and yet was still betrayed by his religion and by the rest of Europe, and was demonized. I think that would make a great song.
sancturillore I see Vlad as a hero myself. The reason I call Countess Bathory the first historic vampire because I believe she died years before Vlad was even born. I could be wrong about that, but I was under that impression after watching a documentary about the origin of the vampire a few years back.
sancturillore I think that's how he should be portrayed. But most can't see past the horrid methods to notice that his results were unquestionable. Which led to the betrayal and selling him out to the Turks. The Impaler Lord deserves to be known as more than what fiction paints him to be. I would say the Turkish name for him which translates to "the Impaler Lord," but I don't know how to spell it.
The Blood of Virgins actually means blood that has never been used in rituals before. Thus, if you use your blood in something before getting caught, her spells wouldn't work as well as they would otherwise.
I guess the lack of it might be because there is so much muddled history, interpertations and evidence surrounding her that no one really knows what's really accurate. What a shame...
She is actually very known in Vampire Lore, literally playing any major Vampiric game would tell you, for example the Warhammer Fantasy genre, literally has an item named after her (Blood Chalice of Bathori), Dracula is speculated to have been inspired by her and Tepes, etc... She is a very commonly featured vampiric story.
SHE is actually my favorite woman. I love how you've been doing songs about these queens who just owned history. Truthfully I would just love solo TV shows of all of them like they did for Elizabeth the 2nd.
"And so it came to pass that the Countess, who once bathes in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins, was buried alive… And her castle in which so many cruel deeds took place fell rapidly into ruin. Rising over the buried dungeons in that god-forsaken wilderness, a solitary tower, like some monument to Evil, is all that remains." this video/song reminds me of this line from a game....if you know you know :P
Got to be honest I don't know who was more Vamperic? Tepes or Bathory? The Impaler or the Blood Countess? Food for thought......just stop looking at my veins Karliene!
Bathory was the only one of the two to be "vampiric" in any way. Vlad III was a machiavellic hero who only with his own actions and with a VERY small army managed to stop the Ottoman empire from invading his lands and enslaving his people. He never actually tortured of mistreated his own people. He did however use guerrilla and fear tactics, and did horrible things to spies, traitors and enemies, and impaled them(once again, for fear tactics). Vlad was also a Christian believer, yet in the end he was betrayed by those at the head of his religion and by the rest of Europe that had hid being his lands(treating his country as a buffer state), even refusing to lend him troops to fight off the invaders. Vlad was handed over to be executed by the demand of the leaders of the Ottoman empire, and the rest of Europe demonized Vlad. On the other than, Vlad III, the Tepes(Lord Impalor), the Dracula(son of the Dragon, since his father was the one with the title of Dracul) is still regarded to this day in Romania as a national hero, and even more so in the Romanian region of Wallachia, the very same one which Vlad III ruled and protected to his bitter end. Also, Bran Stoker is actually he first person to associate Vlad III with being a vampire. Before that, he was just viewed as a hero in his homeland, and demonized in other places. However, it is also a fact that Bran Stoker never actually looked up Vlad's history in detail at all. He just picked him to be the vampire of his story because of the ambiance of the location and due to Vlad being easy to pick as a demon-like person.
@@hithere911 actually she never did that as that was only an old tale it was never written in history or documented she and two other people said to have killed at least 400 people before their crimes court up with them ot only got worse when her husband died he also was a massive sadist and when he was alive they both use to hurt innocent maids
Oh my god, you actually did a song based on a historical figure from my own country! I love it. The correct (polish) spelling of her name is "Elżbieta Batory" in case anyone wondered. Good job on pronounciation tho.
She was a niece for polish king Stefan Batory, Batory family is partially polish, hungarian, czech and many more, but Erzsebet herself was mostly hungarian. Most royal families were mixed when it came to nationalities
I think an ode to the Will o' the Wisps would be haunting and quite an interesting song for Halloween also maybe a song based on the meeting of Grace O'Malley and Elizabeth I would be an interesting duet?
I love how the song really doesn't seem to take either stories side I mean in the song it is bathory herself telling us what happened. and she wouldn't exactly tell the truth if she was a murderer and if she was innocent she would still say she wasn't guilty because it would be the truth.
Oh Karliene I love your Voice, your Songs ... everything you did and do so so so much!!! Please keep it up! I really enjoy it! You are the best! ! xoxo PS: Sorry if i made mistakes. My english was never the best :) lots of love
Oh my gosh this is wickedly cool. I think you might have given me a brilliant idea of a new book. and your voice is chillingly beautiful. thank you so much for the song! it's amazing. keep doing what you love.
The bloody countess. Elizabeth Bathory, allegedly tortured and bled young women so that she could bathe in their blood. She was bricked up in her room in the end. They left a slot to slide her food. She eventually died.
Love it! Your songs always give me goosebumps! I'd love to hear you dedicate a song to the Female Highwayman Sovay! Your voice would do that song more than justice!!
I don’t really know any of the historical aspects, but this is SUCH a good song for a tragic villain character!! It’s been put on at least two of my private playlists now.
Somehow this wound up playing in my amazon app a few weeks and omg am I glad it did! Actually have had it playing in my head all day and it's been so helpful to get me through dealing with the men in my life.
Somehow this came up on spotify randomness and then figured I look it up on RU-vid to leave a like and subscribe:-) Thank you for this. I love how haunting and eerie this piece is! Well done!
Yup, after all her story is mostly based on things that have been actually recorded to have happened. On the other hand, Vlad Tepes was demonized, and later made into a vampire by Bran Stoker, all of that even though he was actually a tragic machiavellian hero who did all he did for the sake of protecting his people of Wallachia from the Ottoman empire invasion, yet he was still betrayed, slandered, executed and demonized by the Church he believed in and by the rest of Europe. To this day he's still regarded as the national hero of Romania(Wallachia is a Romanian region). Wouldn't this make a great song?
Though at the same time, while I do know a lot about Vlad's history, I don't know much about Bathory, so I might be wrong. From what I do know, both sides of the argument has a good case that can be argued for. So, while Vlad's history utterly disprove him having ill-intent and being "demonic", things are as clear when it comes to Bathory.
@@sancturillore I spoke to a friend who has a degree in history when this song came out, and he said that it's pretty much sure that she was a mass murder, and there were more than 600 deaths attributed to her. And from what I know of human nature... Yeah. I have no trouble believing it.
I question your friends education when the King at the time owed the Countess and her husband a lot of money and had no real intentions of paying the debt back. Once the husband was dead he sent out one of his 'trusted' advisors to torture confessions out of people. I think it's funny how quickly people demonize people in history without reading the full historical documents before passing judgment. I guess it's more wonderous to believe there would be a bloodsucking vampire rather than a wealthy, powerful woman that was made a victim because of her status and lands. It's truly no different than what happened during the infamous witch trials.
Greetings from Slovakia. I'm working in a museum where all the documents about the Elizabeth Bathory court are stored. And I can tell you someting. No blood bath or drinking blood. She was just a sadist. Sad, lonely and crazy sadist. :)
Amazing song , lyrics, and music !!!!! I really love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you very much for you made this !!!!!! I really appreciate you This song and one older song from you the Become the Beast are my favorites of you :) I have made a video from your older song and i'm thinking to make and one also for this too :)
