Essay On Elizabeth Bathory

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Bloodbath Since the dawn of time, the desire for immortality and eternal beauty has all but governed humans as a species. A fallacy that such a thing could be procured as the proverbial fountain of youth has consumed, destroyed, and even sent some into a spiraling descent of madness. From the destitute to the affluent and everyone between, no one has ever fully escaped the hypnotic lure of the notion of being forever young and beautiful. The journey to acquire such an unattainable object has even motivated some to implement unspeakable and deplorable acts against their own kind. One individual in particular, a late Hungarian Countess by the name of Elizabeth Bathory, is a perfect example of lust for perfection and beauty taken too far. Born in 1560 into one of the wealthiest families in Transylvania, Elizabeth Bathory was an erudite woman proficient in multiple languages (Alchin). The location of her birth is positioned within the Carpathian Mountains and is a province of Romania. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, black magic and cultism were often practiced by even the most esteemed members of the community. Participation in secret rituals and on-goings were not unheard of for the religious, wealthy, or established governmental figureheads. Elizabeth was rumored to have encircled herself with known witches and those who were acquainted with the black arts (Hambly). At sixteen years old, Elizabeth was married to Count Ferenc Nadasdy and it is said that “around this time, she was influenced by a sadistic aunt, Karla Bathory, who initiated her into the torture of servant-girls” (Hambly). Elizabeth and Ferenc were married for just shy of thirty years, and for the first ten of those the couple remained ba... ... middle of paper ... ...ect his family name as much as possible Count Thurzo, Elizabeth’s cousin, talked the King into letting him lead his own foray on the castle on his terms. The King agreed and on a night near Christmas, Thurzo led a small army to Castle Cachtice and apprehended several of Elizabeth’s accomplices. Elizabeth was detained but was not taken away with the rest of her entourage. Those that she kept closest to her were quickly put on trial and found guilty on all counts. They were all burned at the stake after being tortured into producing evidence against their dear Elizabeth. Elizabeth met a different kind of punishment for her actions; instead of a trial being held and the family name facing certain ruin, she was holed up in one of her castles and left to die of old age with only a slight space for food to pass through the door left open to the external world (Alchin).

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