Elizabeth Báthory: The Vampire of Hungary
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2022
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
The inspiration behind countless gothic novels, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is said to be one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, accused of the murder of 600 girls during the late 16th century. Dan talks to Professor Kimberly Craft, a legal historian who has spent over a decade researching the life and trial of Countess Báthory and over a year translating original source material into English. Where does the truth lie, a conspiracy started by her enemies or a psychopathic vampire?
Produced by Beth Donaldson and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History It. She said to be one of the most prolific |
| 0:06.9 | serial killers of all time. The name we have for an English is Elizabeth Batori, Countess |
| 0:15.6 | Elizabeth Batori. She was a Hungarian, a Hungarian noblewoman. She owned gigantic swaves of land |
| 0:23.4 | in the Kingdom of Hungary at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th |
| 0:28.4 | time of huge religious turmoil, military confrontation between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman |
| 0:35.8 | Turks and a time of misogyny, of witch hunts, of conspiracy. It is alleged that she tortured and |
| 0:45.0 | killed hundreds of girls, up to 600 girls, between 1590 and 1610. And indeed, she didn't contest |
| 0:53.9 | the fact that many young women had been killed in her service or around her castle. She's been |
| 1:01.5 | the subject of endless gothic novels. She's intimately tied up with the fable of Dracula. There was a film |
| 1:07.5 | in 2008, a film in 2009, both about her. Never has there been more interest in this remarkable woman. |
| 1:16.8 | I want to talk to Professor Kimberly Kraft. She's a professor of legal history and she has |
| 1:23.0 | gone back and translated all the documents that she could find around the witness gathering and |
| 1:28.4 | the trial of Countess Batori back at the beginning of the 17th century. She thinks the truth lies |
| 1:35.3 | somewhere in between, innocence and psychopathic vampire. The truth, as ever, is more nuanced, |
| 1:43.3 | more conflicted and in some ways more difficult. Kim Kraft has written a book which she talks about |
| 1:50.6 | at the end of the podcast. You can go and find out more as Halloween approaches. It might be |
| 1:54.1 | the perfect thing to read. But in the meantime, folks, here's the podcast. Enjoy. |
| 2:04.4 | Kim, tell me about this Countess. Who was she? Where was she born? |
| 2:07.6 | I did. Countess Elizabeth Batori, very enigmatic person in history. She was born in 1560. So we're |
| 2:16.8 | really talking about the timeframe of roughly Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare and all the explorers |
| 2:23.6 | coming to the New World. And she was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, which at that time had been |
| 2:30.8 | taken over by the Austrian Habsburgs who were trying to form a dynasty around Europe. Meanwhile, |
... |
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