Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Queen

I have been watching an anime (Ghost Hunt) and it featured a woman who bathed in maiden's blood to stay young. It was gross, but I wanted to know more about it. I searched it in Google and the first result had a name: Elizabeth Bathory. (Search it yourself or click: Search)


My eyes were then opened to the life of Elizabeth Bathory. 

Her full name is Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was born in Transylvania on August 7 1560. She knew three languages in her early life: Latin, German and Greek. She was also the niece of the king of Poland.
She married Ferenc Nádasdy when she was fifteen and he was 26. She had six children, two of them had died at an early age.
Wikipedia says her husband died at 47, while bathory.org claims he died at 51.
She adored her complexion, though others thought of it as normal (but no one ever told her). She wanted to stay young and stay as beautiful as she is.

"Maintaining her youth and vitality became central to this developing plot; the absolute divine right to power she understood was hers to keep and protect would be essential to the attainment of all that she sought. Vanity, sexual desire, drive for political power all were seamlessly blended into a central primordial passion. If she lost her youth, she could forfeit all."

 One day, she was in a bad mood and raked her nails on a servant girl's face, because of a minor mistake. Some blood dropped upon her skin and later, she claimed that the part of her skin where the blood was dropped, look fresher and younger.


She consulted her alchemists for their opinion and they--not wanting to disappoint her--recalled an incident where the blood of a young virgin caused a similar effect to an aged woman.


With this clear proof, she believed that she could maintain her youth. She, together with her 'witches' went to find young, virgin girls at the country side.

And every now and then, a really lovely young girl would be obtained. As a special treat, Elizabeth would drink the child's blood: at first from a golden flask, but later, as her taste for it increased, directly from the stream, as the writhing and whimpering body hung from the rafters, turning pale.When back in the castle, each batch of young girls would be hung, alive and naked, upside-down by chains wrapped around their ankles. Their throats would be slit and all of their blood drained for Elizabeth's bath, to be taken while the heat of their young bodies still remained in the thickening and sticky crimson pool.

After five years, she noticed that the bodies did little effect to her skin. She decided that such blood was defective and she needed better blood.

In early 17th century Transylvania, parents of substantial position wished their daughters to be educated in the appropriate social graces and etiquettes, so that they might gain the 'right' connections when ripe. Here was an opportunity.
In 1609, Elizabeth established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time from proper families, and to correctly finish their educations. Indeed, their educations were finished.
Assisted by Dorotta Szentes (known also by the graceful diminutive "Dorka") these poor students were consumed in exactly the same beastly fashion as the anguished peasant girls who preceded them. This was too easy, and Elizabeth became careless in her actions for the first time in her dreadful career. During a frenzy of lust, four drained bodies were thrown off the walls of the castle.

The villagers have seen the girls, and word eventually reached the Hungarian Emperor Matthias II. Because she was a noble, she could not be excecuted. Her companions were burned alive, but she remained alive, locked in a tiny closet in her castle.


She died four years after.


Learn More About Elizabeth
A longer, but more detailed, explanation
Wikipedia's version