ELIZABETH BATHORY: The Blood Countess

Today, we have something a little different.  This woman had remarkably little political power.  She was a Hungarian Countess who was born in 1560.  Her name is Elizabeth or Erzsebet Bathory.  This woman of noble birth eventually lead an utterly despicable life.  She has been labeled as the most prolific female serial killer (meaning she killed the most people).  An interesting aspect to this was that she couldn't be prosecuted by anyone because of her noble birth.

Elizabeth was married to Ferenc Nadasdy, who eventually became high commander of the Hungarian army.  He gave her his home (Castle Csejte in the Little Carpathian Mountains).  Beautiful by birth, Elizabeth was eventually overcome by boredom and vanity.  Legend has it that she was remarkably cruel to the staff of the castle, but it wasn't until she hit a young servant and a small amount of blood got on her skin.  She apparently wiped the blood away to reveal more luscious, youthful, and beautiful skin underneath.  According to the lore, she then had systematic and sadistic torture session with young girls around the area.  She even bathed in their blood.  No matter how much of this legend is true, Elizabeth showed her cruelty in other ways.  Eventually, she decided that simple peasant-girl blood was not enough.  She opened a school for girls in her home.  All of these girls were of noble birth.  Nobles began to cry to the king, a not so distant relative of Elizabeth, for something to be done.  However, because of her noble birth, Elizabeth could not be sentenced to death for her actions, but they knew she was guilty.  She woke up one morning to find herself bricked into her own apartment in her castle with only a little hole for the transportation of meals.  She died in that apartment.


For more information on the crimes and life of Elizabeth Bathory, check out these links.


A TruTV Article about Elizabeth


A Weird Encyclopedia Article

And a Sneak Peak at the next Blog:

EMPRESS MATILDA: The First Queen of England (almost)

This is Empress Matilda of England.  She was born on February 7, 1102 and died on September 10, 1167.  She was the daughter of Henry I of England and came very close to becoming the first queen of England (as it turns out England would not have its first female ruler until the tumultuous reign of Mary  I in 1553).  She was also the granddaughter of William the Conqueror.  She is called Empress Matilda because she was married to Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, at the age of 12 (she was betrothed to him at age seven!).  Upon his death in 1125, Matilda was left with no heir to his throne, and she returned to England.  After her brother, William Adelin's, death by drowning, she was the only legitimate child of King Henry I.  Her cousin, Stephen of Blois, survived, but her direct line of inheritance meant that she came before him in the line of succession.  She was officially named by her father as his successor.  Henry I made sure that all nobles and barons doubly signed to support Matilda's claim to the throne in the event of his death.  Henry I died on December 1, 1135, and Matilda was away with her second husband in Anjou.  While she was at a crucial distance, Stephen of Blois moved to steal the crown away from the rightful heir to the throne.  Stephen was actually supported by most of the nobles and barons whom had signed their support to Matilda.  Beginning in Normandy, Geoffrey (her second husband) and Matilda lead a military campaign that won nearly all of Normandy from Stephen.  This lead to Geoffrey and Matilda becoming the Duke and Duchess of Normandy, respectively.  It was not until 1139 that Matilda gained the military strength to challenge Stephen directly in England for her inheritance.  In February 1141, Matilda's army defeated Stephen and took him captive.  She took on the title of Lady of the English, and waited for her coronation.  The people, who had largely been supportive of her, were ready to welcome her into London.  Unfortunately, in a political misstep, Matilda refused to halve the Londoners taxes.  This meant that the people turned their backs on her and closed to city gates.  Stephen was free by November 1141, and was ready to fight Matilda again.  After many more military defeats and the humiliation of having to pretend to be a corpse in order to escape, Matilda ceded the throne to her cousin. The entire Civil War was called "The Anarchy."  The story, however, does not end there.  After the death of Stephen's son, Eustace, Matilda's oldest son was named the rightful heir to the throne of England.  Her son became Henry II.  In fact, her grave reads "Great by Birth, Greater by Marriage, Greatest in her Offspring: Here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife, and mother of Henry."

Matilda was the first woman to have a direct chance of becoming queen of England.  While she did rule for a short time in 1141, most scholars do not place her as a monarch within British history.  She fought for her inheritance, and I think we owe her at least the kindness of a mention in the history books.  Even if she only ruled for a few months, she plunged England into a Civil War for those few months of power.  She was so convinced that she deserved England (rightfully so) that she actually fought for her legitimate claim to the throne.  It is a sad commentary on the sexism at the time that the nobles and barons would not support her like they said they would simply because she was a woman.

Read More
Here is her Wikipedia Page

Here is the Wikipedia Page for The Anarchy (the Civil War)



And a Sneak Peek at the Next Post:

BOUDICA: Queen of the Iceni and Antagonist of Rome

To begin with the picture from last time...

This is Boudica.  She was queen of the Iceni, a British tribe from the area that today roughly corresponds with the county of Norfolk.  In AD 60 or 61, Boudica led an uprising against the Roman Empire.  Boudica's husband, Prasutagus, was king of the Iceni.  The Iceni had actually allied themselves with Rome voluntarily.  At Prasutagus' death, Rome ignored his will that stated Rome was to get some of his kingdom while reserving some for his daughters and Boudica.  While Rome didn't agree to this in the first place (Rome often only allowed allied kingdoms to remain independent during the life of the king they were allied with before leaving the entirety of their kingdoms to Rome in their will), Rome did not recognize female inheritance.  Because Prasutagus had no sons, Rome annexed the entire kingdom as if it had been conquered.  They flogged Boudica and her daughters were raped.  This initiated the alliance between the Iceni and their neighboring tribes.  Boudica led these tribes into a revolt that destroyed three cities.  The first of these cities was Camulodunum (now the city of Colchester).  Rome had taken this city to be used as a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers.  Ix Hispana, a Roman legion (or section of an army like a regiment), was sent to stop the rebels, but they were ultimately defeated soundly by Boudica and her army.  Camulodunum was a special target because the Roman soldiers that were discharged there mistreated the locals and built a temple to Claudius at local expense.  In the end, the city was burnt down and only a few soldiers and the commander were left of the soldiers in Ix Hispana.  Second, Boudica turned her attentions to Londinium (or modern-day London).  Suetonius, the current governor of British Rome, came back in order to stop the rebels before they reached Londinium.  Shortly before Boudica's arrival, Suetonius realized that he had no chance at victory because the Roman soldiers were too far outnumbered.  He abandoned Londinium to Boudica and her rebels.  It, like Camulodunum, was burned to the ground with its citizens slaughtered.  Verulamium was next on Boudica's list.  It was burned down much like the other two cities that they attacked before.  All in all, between seventy and eighty thousand people lost their lives in the slaughtering and burning of these three cities.  According to Tacitus, a Roman historian, the Britons (Boudica and her army) had no use for capture of or selling of prisoners.  She and her army only sought destruction and death in retribution for what the Romans had been doing.  This amounted to a feeling of humiliation felt by the Romans.  They were being slaughtered in such numbers and with such ease by a woman?!  In the end, Boudica met with a legion of Romans in a disputed field.  This field was set up to give an advantage to the far-outnumbered Romans.  The narrowness of this field meant that Boudica could not use her huge numbers to overwhelm the Romans.  Also, Boudica could not effectively command her army because they were not nearly disciplined enough for open combat.  This amounted to a defeat by the much smaller Roman forces, who were more disciplined and used to open combat.  Unfortunately, Boudica most likely met her end at her own hand.  It is believed she committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner.

Boudica was a true warrior queen.  She is often forgotten in the annals of history because of her obscurity (the only source of knowledge about her is a Roman account).  She is so ambiguous that no one really knows what happens to her.  She could have committed suicide or ran off into the woods and remained in hiding.  One thing that cannot be forgotten is that she was not only one of the most notable people to oppose Roman rule, but she was a woman who lead an armed force against Rome.  She was a woman who had power and used it.  She is an interesting figure.

Read more...

Here is her Wikipedia Page

Here is her HistoryNet Page

And For a little teaser to the next post (these posts are not necessarily going to go in chronological order...)

Welcome to Women in European History

Welcome to my Women in European History blog!  I am Zachary Harris, teacher of social studies at the high school.  This blog was created for two basic reasons.  The first reason is that I feel women are largely ignored in most history classes.  For example, many people know that Henry VIII of England had six wives, but how many people can name them and say anything about them?  I hope to remedy this truth in small parts.  The second reason this blog was created is because I will take some extra credit questions for my exams from the individual blogs.  There will be roughly 20 blogs per semester and five tests.  Thus, each of these tests will have one question from each of the four blogs posted in the time period of the test.  Each blog will consist of the following: one image of the subject of the post, a little information about the woman mentioned, 2 hyperlinks to find more information (test questions may come from these linked sites), and a sneak peak image of the woman that will be covered in the next post.

Thus, this post will end with a sneak preview of the next post's topic: