The first Tudor and the Blood Countess

August 7th is not a date I’m likely to celebrate, for on this day in 1485, Henry Tudor landed at Milford Haven in Wales, and began the march that would lead to Bosworth Field and eventually to the Showtime series, The Tudors, both of which I’d expunge from our collective memories if I could. And one of history’s more monstrous figures was born on this date in 1560. Elizabeth Bathory is the Hungarian countess often compared to Vlad the Impaler, who is said to have been the inspiration for Dracula. The countess was accused of the most horrific crimes, of torturing and murdering hundreds of young girls, and lurid tales were told of her bathing in the blood of virgins in an attempt to retain her own youth and beauty. How much of this is true? I honestly don’t know. All I can report is that the accusations were made, and while she was not brought to trial herself, her accused accomplices were found guilty and put to death. She was bricked up in a windowless chamber at Cachtice Castle, with air vents and slots for food and water to be slid in to her; amazingly enough, she survived for three years in this living entombment.
Sorry the stories are so gruesome today—the coming of the Tudors and a mass murderer. But our news is not much better; that massacre at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin is as brutal as any medieval murders. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.