by Tony Thorne
9 The document is in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
10 In the Nádasdy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
11 Extracts from the eulogy are quoted in Nagy, Az Erös Fekete Bég.
12 From the Nádasdy archive in Budapest.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 William Lithgow, Travels and Voyages through Europe, Asia and Africa for Nineteen Years, 12th edn, Leith, 1814.
17 Bozai, ‘Hungarian Aristocratic Women’.
18 Ágnes R. Várkonyi, Connections between the Cessation of Witch Trials and the Transformation of Social Structure Related to Hygiene, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1991.
19 Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts, Semmelweiss Museum, Budapest, 1993.
20 Ferenc Schram, Magyarorszägi Boszorkányperek 1529–1768, Budapest, 1970 and 1982.
21 In the Nádasdy archive in Budapest.
22 Ibid.
23 Sándor Takáts, Régi Magyar Asszonyok, Budapest, 1982.
24 R. A. von Elsberg, Die Blutgräfin. Elisabeth Báthory, Breslau, 1894.
25 The chronicles record that two months after Paul’s death on 15 October his widow held court in Čachtice; if the portraits were hung there around that time, they were perhaps rescued by the Zays when Čachtice was taken over by the Esztergom Chapter and then by the Pest Veterans’ Hospital after the execution of Francis Nádasdy II in 1671.
26 Károlyi Lajos, Ecsedy Báthory E., and Jónas Zaborský, Báthoryátka, both 1870. The former reproduces a portrait which seems to be the same as that printed by von Elsberg.
Chapter Six
1 The correspondence referred to here is in the Thurzó family archive at Bytča, and was explored by the Hungarian historian Zsuzsana Bozai in her as yet unpublished thesis, ‘Hungarian Aristocratic Women of the Seventeenth Century’ (Budapest, 1995).
2 Jozef Kočiš, Alžbeta Báthoryová a Palatín Thurzó, Martin, 1981.
3 Ibid.
4 Oxford History of Hungarian Literature, ed. Lórant Czigány, OUP, Oxford, 1984.
5 Denis Sinor, History of Hungary, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1959.
6 The letter is in the Nádasdy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
7 The letter is in the Thurzo archive at Bytča.
8 The Chronicles of Csejthe, assembled from fragments found at Humenné by András Komáromy and published in Történelmí Tár, Budapest, 1899.
9 Máté Szepsi Laczkó (d. 1633) in Emlékezetül Hagyott Írások (‘Writings from Memory’), Dacia Könyvkiadó, Romania, 1983.
10 In the Nádasdy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
11 Ibid.
12 In the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
13 See p. 179.
14 Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet – Igazsága, Budapest, 1993.
15 The letter is in the Nádasdy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
16 Unfortunately, Elisabeth’s connection with this contraption, which is a long way from the intricate effigy decorated with breasts and pubic hair described by the legends, is not supported by any recorded testimonies. In any case, many experts now think that iron maidens, like chastity belts, were invariably nineteenth-century fakes.
Chapter Seven
1 This account of the career of Stephen Báthory is adapted with permission from the text of a lecture delivered by Dr Gábor Várkonyi at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, 28 November 1995.
2 State Papers in the Public Record Office, London.
3 Denis Sinor, History of Hungary, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1959.
4 See p. 118.
5 The living Cardinal Andrew is portrayed in the plate section.
6 The Latin History of Hungary and Transylvania by István Szamosközy (1565–1612), plagiarised in Pál Enyedi’s eighteenth-century Cantus of the Perils of Transylvania.
7 Bartolomej Revický, Báthory Erzsébet, Piešt’ány, 1903.
8 Valentine Penrose, La Comtesse Sanglante, Mercure de France, Paris, 1957.
9 Péter Bornemissza (or Bornemisza), Ördögi Kisértetekröl, 1578.
10 Revický, Báthory Erzsébet.
11 Andrei Codrescu, The Blood Countess, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995.
12 Jozef Kočiš, Alžbeta Báthoryová a Palatín Thurzó, Martin, 1981.
13 Stephen’s life is alluded to by, among others, László Nagy in A Rossz Hírü Báthoryak, Budapest, 1984; Elisabeth’s brother’s correspondence was analysed by Zsuzsana Bozai in her unpublished thesis, ‘Hungarian Aristocratic Women of the Seventeenth Century’ (Budapest, 1995).
14 Sándor Makkai, Órdögszekér, Budapest, 1925.
15 The letter is in the Nádasdy family archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
16 The letter to Andrew Keresztúry is in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
17 The document is in the records of the Vasvár-Szombathely Chapter (protocols of 1610) in the Vas County Archives.
18 In the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
19 The letter was discovered among the Miscellaneous Papers of the Nádasdy family in the Hungarian National Archives.
20 The letter is in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
21 Nagy, A Rossz Hírü Báthoryak.
22 In the Bytča Archive.
23 George Závodský, ‘Diarium’, preserved in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
24 In the Bytča Archive.
25 Ibid.
Chapter Eight
1 The letter is in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
2 The letter in Latin is in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
3 Quoted in Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet – Igazsága, Budapest, 1993.
4 The certified evidence is in the Thurzó archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
5 See p. 69.
6 See also p. 69.
7 The letters are in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
8 In the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 The document was summarised by von Elsberg from the original in the Imperial Treasury Archive in Vienna.
13 As note 12.
14 The original is in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
15 In the Thurzó archive in Budapest.
16 See p. 63.
17 George Závodský, ‘Diarium’, in the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
18 See p. 135.
19 The current interpretation of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century legal conventions was given to the author by Dr Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss.
20 Quoted in Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet.
21 In the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
22 The guest list, from the Thurzó archive at Bytča, is reproduced in Jožef Kočiš, Bytčiansky Zámok, Martin, 1974.
23 In the Hungarian National Archives, Budapest.
24 Denis Sinor, History of Hungary, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1959.
25 Magyarország Törtenete, ‘1526–1686’ section, ed. Ágnes R. Várkonyi, Budapest, 1987.
26 Zsigmond Móricz, Tündérkert, Budapest, 1921.
27 Magyarország Törtenete.
28 The letters are in the Hungarian section of the Haus, Hof und Staatsarchiv in Vienna.
29 In the Thurzó archive at Bytča.
30 Magyarország Története.
31 The references are from the Chronicles of Csejthe, published by András Komáromy in Történelmi Tár, Budapest, 1899.
32 The phrase from the will was probably a coded reference, for the family’s benefit only, to the Čachtice estate as well as the treasury kept there. Čachtice had been a wedding gift from Francis Nádasdy.
33 Chronicles of Csejthe.
34 The document was lodged in the archives of the Esztergom Chapter in Trnava.
35 M
argaret Nicholas, The World’s Wickedest Women, Octopus Books, London, 1984.
36 The will with Paul Nádasdy’s note is in the Nádasdy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
37 (‘Elisabeth Báthory . . . Francisci Nádasdy Relicta Vidua, ante annos propemodum aliquot ob ingentia inaudita, et crudelissima sua facinora in perpetuous carceres detrusa, in eisdem Cheytae misere, tempore nocturno expiravit...’) The sources relating to Elisabeth Báthory’s death were published by Györgyí Gyurikovics in Tudományos Gyüitemény, Budapest, 1839.
38 Ibid.
39 Countess Susannah Lorántffy, for instance, was derided in Catholic pamphlets of 1641 as a cow pulling the wagon of Protestantism (she had merely supported the publication of a new Bible).
Chapter Nine
1 Dr Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss mentions the Istvánffy reference in a footnote in her Báthory Erzsébet – Igazsága, Budapest, 1993, but admitted to the author that she was unsure of its provenance.
2 One of the few surviving copies of Túróczi’s work can be found in the Hungarian Academy of Science Institute of Literature, Eötvös József College Library. The selections quoted are from a new translation by the author and Pál Ritoók.
3 Michael Wagner, Beyträge zur Philosophischen Anthropologie und den Damit Werwandten Wissenschaft, Vienna, 1794.
4 Tudományos Gyüitemény, Budapest, 1839.
5 Max Bauer, Titanen der Erotik. Lebensbilder aus der Sittengeschichte alles Zeiten und Volker, Berlin, 1931.
6 R. A. von Elsberg, Die Blutgräfin. Elisabeth Báthory, Breslau, 1894.
7 ‘Hővér’ (nom de plume of Dezső Rexa), Erzsébet Báthory: Remarks on the Painting by István Csók, from Historical Sources, Grand Hotel, Budapest, 1896.
8 Ibid.
9 Kálmán Benda, Egy Új Forrástudomány: a Psychográfológia, Budapest, 1974.
10 Gabrielle Raskó, A Nöi Bünözés, Budapest, 1978.
11 Barna Marthy, Élet és Irodalom 51–52, Budapest, 1979.
12 Jozef Kočiš, Alžbeta Báthoriová a Palatín Thurzó, Bratislava, 1981.
13 József Antall and Károly Kapronczay, ‘Aus der Geschichte des Sadismus: Elisabeth Báthory,’ in Die Waage. Zeitschrift der Chemie Grunenthal, Rheinland, 1973; reprinted as ‘Tükkel Szurkálta’ in the journal Magyarország, Budapest, July 1974.
14 László Nagy’s comments are taken from the transcript of Társalgó, a discussion broadcast on Hungarian radio on 26 May 1985.
15 In conversation with the author, Budapest, May 1995.
16 Michael Farm, Heroine des Grauens, Elisabeth Bathory, Munich, 1989.
17 Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet.
18 The author is grateful to Dr Tünde Lengyelová in Bratislava and to Zsuzsana Bozai, Tibor Lukács and Pál Ritoók in Budapest for sharing their ideas with him and for reacting to his opinions. Dr Lengyelová and Zsuzsana Bozai also most generously made available to him the results of their own researches in the form of notes and documents.
19 Hungarians are extremely sensitive to what they see as simplistic analogies with their recent regimes, but to an outsider the comparison seems broadly to apply.
20 See p. 234.
21 Many works of fiction and some factual treatments have accused Countess Báthory of nursing ‘abnormal longings’ and, of course, homosexuality is just as much a ‘besetting vice’ of closed institutions as cruelty. But concepts of shame would have prevented any acknowledgement, and perhaps even recognition, of lesbianism; and intensely intimate but platonic friendships between women were common, particularly in societies in wartime.
22 Peter Pázmány, Sermons, Pozsony, 1636.
23 Quoted in Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet.
24 Lithgow, Travels.
25 Gilberto de Mello Freyre, Casa-grande e Senzala, Rio de Janeiro, 1933.
26 Brian Masters, The Dukes, London, 1976. (Some critics questioned the elasticity of the author’s definition of madness, which seemed to include eccentricity and even extreme idleness.)
27 Béla Tóth, A Magyar Anekdótakincs (‘Treasury of Hungarian Anecdotes’), 6 vols, Budapest, 1899–1904.
28 Letters by Edward Barton in Purchas, his Pilgrimes, London, 1625.
Chapter Ten
1 A good recent analysis of witch-trials in Europe is Robin Briggs, Witches and Neighbours, HarperCollins, London, 1996.
2 Éva Pócs, Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki, 1989.
3 The sources of citations are, respectively, Kamocsa 1717 reported in Alapi 1914, Szalonak 1755 reported in Schram 1970, Szeged 1728 reported in Kovács 1899, collected by Éva Pócs in ibid.
4 E. Chishull, Travels in Turkey and Back to England, London, 1747.
5 Father Túróczi used a description of these cellars to introduce his version of the Báthory story (see Appendix). In his work of the 1890s, von Elsberg reproduced a sketch map showing the layout of the cellars as described to him by local people. Today only holes in the ground filled with rubble can be seen in the village by the site of the old château and on the hillside beneath the castle ruins.
6 Earle Hackett, Blood: The Paramount Humour, Adelaide, 1973.
7 The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides, translated into English by John Goodyer in 1655.
8 Béla Tóth, Mendemondák. A Világtörténet Furcsaságai (‘Legends of Hearsay, Curiosities in World History’), Budapest, 1896.
9 Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossary, A Contemporary Narrative of Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, for Sorcery in 1324, published in London by the Camden Society in 1843.
10 The Kyteler case and similar prosecutions are mentioned in Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Witchcraze, Pandora, San Francisco, 1994.
11 These ideas are put forward by the Hungarian historian Gábor Klaniczay in a series of works on witchcraft and shamanism, including ‘The Accusations and the Universe of Popular Magic’, in Bength Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen (eds), Early Modern Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries, OUP, Oxford, 1990.
12 Zsuzsana Bozai, ‘Hungarian Aristocratic Women of the Seventeenth Century’ (unpublished thesis), Budapest, 1995.
13 John Paget, Esq., Hungary & Transylvania, John Murray, London, 1839.
14 Komáromy, Torténelmi Tár, pp. 626–52.
15 Quoted in Bozai, ‘Hungarian Aristocratic Women’.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 The papers of the case are incomplete. Those surviving are in the Esterházy archive in the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest.
19 The legal aspects and the parallels between the Báthory and Listhius cases are explored in Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss, Báthory Erzsébet – Igazsága, Budapest, 1993, and were kindly elucidated for this author during discussions with Dr Szádeczky-Kardoss in Budapest in 1995.
20 (Largely) factual versions of Anna Báthory’s story can be found in András Komáromy, ‘A “Bübájos” Báthory Anna’, Századok, Budapest, 1894, and Bertalan Kis, ‘Báthory Anna Házasságai’, Századok, Budapest, 1899. More recently, her life was neatly summarised in László Nagy, A Rossz Hírü Báthoryak, Budapest, 1984.
Epilogue
1 Borbála Benda, ‘Menus from the Estate of Csejthe, 1623–1625’ (unpublished thesis), Budapest, 1995.
2 D. M. Thomas, Elegy to Isabel le Despenser, 1976.
Notes on Pronunciation
Hungarian
Slovak/Croatian
English equivalent
a
o as in hot
cs
č
ch as in cheese
cz
c
ts as in hits
ć
between ch as in cheap and sh as in sheep
gy
d as in British duke
j
j
γ as in yes
ly
γ as in yes
ó
ó
aw as in British awful
s
sh as in sheep
sz
s as in savage
zs
ž
s as in pleasure
th
th
t as in table
ö
ir as in British girl
ő
as above, with lips pursed
ü
ue as in due
ű
as above, with lips pursed
an accent ´ on a vowel lengthens that syllable, so Báthory = baah–tory
Picture acknowledgements
The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce their works: the Hungarian National Museum, Fotomas Index, Mary Evans Picture Library and the British Library. The publishers would also like to thank Gérécor, Erzsébet Baerveldt, Douglas Adams of Tooley Adams, Matrix Cartography and Tony Thorne.
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in 1997 by
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
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WC1B 3DP
Copyright © 1997 Tony Thorne
The moral right of the author has been asserted
A copy of the CIP entry for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4088 3365 0
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