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The Bloody Countess

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Has anyone ever heard about the Countess Bathory? What I've heard is mostly based on what other people thought they knew about her and her history, but I haven't gotten any first hand accounts. What I'm mainly interested in is her torture methods. I know that she used the iron maiden, poured freezing water over naked girls until they froze in place, and had a special cage constructed lined with knives and blades. Is her reputation for sadistic creulty merited or is it just another gruesome fairy tale? And if it is true, could you give more information.
 
Countess Bathory

I think there was an old Hammer film based (loosely) on her life sometime in the 60s - Countess Dracula.
 
From what I remember hearing, she would bathe in the blood of young girls, in an effort to maintain her yuthful appearance. When "convicted" of her crimes, instead of putting her to death, they walled her up in a room. She is supposed to be real and you can usually find mention of her in texts that also mention Vlad the Impaler.
 
By all accounts she was a pretty nasty piece of work. She delighted in torturing her victims (usually peasant girls ostensibly employed as servants) for the slightest misdemeanour. Legend has it that she killed hundreds of girls and it was only when she ran out of peasant stock and moved on to higher class girls that her activities were put to a stop . . .

Carole
 
Re: Countess Bathory

Timble said:
I think there was an old Hammer film based (loosely) on her life sometime in the 60s - Countess Dracula.
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Ingrid Pitt, played the Countess, I think. It was during Hammer's late 60's, blood, tits and bum phase. ;)
 
Nothing like a bottle of good, blood red wine and a Hammer Horror film on TV to watch while you drink . . .

Carole
 
Not to derail discussion of the Bloody Countess, but here is Ingrid Pitt's website for those who are interested in her films and haven't already been to the site:

http://www.pittofhorror.com/

Many just discuss her great beauty and dismiss her otherwise, but I think she is a fine actress and an intellegent woman as well.

Sorry to always be sending links, but they are often interesting!
 
lizard23 said:
.... I had a quick flick through and it seemed to be mainly a discussion of whether the woman was basically a serial killer or just the victim of superstitious gossip .....
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Countess Dracula is a very interesting book but probably a bit disappointing to any vampire lovers out there.

From what I can remember the author basically concludes that Bathory (who was a real, historical character) was the victim of the political machinations, gossip and innuendo of those who resented the presence of a powerful and land-rich woman in a male-dominated society. It was all about blood - but not in the neck-chomping, Vincent Price kind of way.

That's not to say that she wasn't a bit strange.

As a child she was forced to watch a criminal (a Gypsy, I think) stitched into the carcass of a dead horse and left to die there. I think that would fuck anyone up.

Apropos of nothing I seem to remember that Siouxsie and the Banshees used this incident as an inspiration for a B-side to one of their singles. Always a bundle of laughs that mob weren't they?.
 
There is a novel by Andrei Codrescu called "The Blood Countess" . It flashes back and forth between her life and the life of a male
relative who thinks he is possessed by her. I'm not sure how much of the information on her life is true, but it's intresting.
 
They do say that the stories about Elizabeth Bathory were made up by local villagers. After her husband (the Count) died, she lived on as the Countess of her particular village, keeping her dignity and her control over the ppl of whatever the place was (I can't remember the name).
She was apparently approached by a very wealthy man of either her town or a neighbouring town. He was married but he requested that she be his mistress. It's said that when she refused, he and his wife blamed Elizabeth for the almost-affair, saying she seduced/bewitched him, called her a witch and started rumours about her bathing habits consisting of young girls' blood.
Actually I remember being told that ppl in Europe in the middle ages believed bathing would make you sick, so if that's true, it would be surprising if she bathed more than twice in her life (as soon as she was born and just after she died)...
 
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