Hello Everyone,

First of all before I take my twist on the subject of Mother’s Day I would like to thank all of you beautiful and wonderful mothers out there and wish you a most sincere and wonderful Mother’s Day this year. But now I would like to focus a minute of your attention on a mother in history that is hardly recognized as being a mother. She was born in Transylvania in 1560 and died in 1614 after being isolated for her crimes. If you haven’t’ guessed it by now her name was Elizabeth Bathory.

Who She Was:

She was born into a wealthy family and married into one as well. These were not just wealthy families alone but families with power. Dukes, cardinals, knights, and other politicians, so to speak. During that time she had six kids of her own that sources vary upon the relationship she had with them. I imagine, however, that she didn’t have them around much when she was committing her 80 to 600+ murders. Sources say she was instructed forma young age in different dark arts such as sadomasochism and Satanism. Whether this is true or not I will leave it up to you, the reader, to do some research and interpret it for yourself.

Upon her trial she was convicted of 80 some, of the murders and was sentenced to isolation in one of the castle’s wards or wings where she survived for three years before passing away.

Rumors:

Rumors depict her as drinking the blood of her victims or bathing in the blood. Some say this is where the word “bath” came to be used commonly because of her last name, yet I’ve heard it used in older times and have a different opinion about that.  Supposedly the local people knew that something was going on for some time but couldn’t convince anyone of power to uphold the law because of her hierarchy position. To me its sounds like another version of the power and wealth being above the law in those days. Regardless, if it was me, and I saw a lot of my village folk disappearing I think I would have considered skipping town.

Aftermath:

Well the eerie part to me was the rumors and how close to fact many of them were from my research. I also wonder how much her family and those around her wanted it to be forgotten. Obviously she died in the end but that did not keep her story from being told and herself as being recognized as one of the first vampires. Also the number of victims is up for debate but I have a feeling it might have been a higher number because the count she was accused of were simply the ones they found evidence of.

As for her kids….well….I just wonder if they got her anything for Mother’s Day.

Thanks for Reading and Happy Mother’s Day,

Joshua Crane Dowidat

Desert Shadows