Myth...

                                                  




 

Aka : Asmodaï, Chammadaï, Sydonaï; creature of judgement

Element/sin : spirit of lustand unfaithfulness   

Shape : a fire-breathing creature with three heads (the first one resembling that of a bull, the second that of a man, and the third that of a ram.), feet like a goose and a serpent tail. He rides a dragon and hold in his hand a Lance with a Banner.

Rank : one of the seven archdemons of Persian mythology; rules 72 Legions of Amaymon’ army

Origin : Persian (Aeshma, evil genie in the Avesta); also a fallen angel

Myths :  appears in the apocryphal Book of Tobit as the demon-lover of Sara, who strangled each of her seven husbands. With the head of a charm given by God, Tobias eventually chased him away before Raphaël locked him in Egypt.He also helped build Salomon’s Temple and even took the throne  of the King.  

Magic : Asmodeus bequeaths his followers with rings engraved with planetary symbols. He teaches men the art of becoming invisible, as well as instructing them in geometry, arithmetic, astrlogy, and the mechanical sciences. He has vast knowledge concerning buried treasures, and can be forced to reveal their site with the help of appropriate spells and incantations. He, amongst the Legions, possessed Jeanne des Anges, the leading nun at Loudun.

Association :  Amaymon; Aeshma; Tubal-Cain and Naamah

Source :  Goetia; Tobit3:8; Testament of Solomon; Legemeton

Quote :

                                                         



 

Aka : Bael, the Lord

Shape : appears sometimes like a cat, a toad, or a man, and sometimes as a three headed beast with spider legs

Rank : the first monarch of hell commanding general of infernal armies; King ruling in the East; rules over 66 Legions

Origin : Caanan but was worshipped by multitudes of different peoples, including the Semites and Israelites. Originally a good God but later evolved into a terrible deity to whom were sacrified children into flames. He has degenerated into merging with other gods (Moloch, ..).

Magic : One of the 72 spirits of Salomon. Bring invisibility and cunning

Association :  massebah

Source :  Jean Wier’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonumius, The Grimoire of Pope Honorius, Goetia

 See: Salaambo (the end of Carthagene)

                                                 



     

Element/sin : demon of lust and gluttony     

Shape : elephant or hippopotamus, a cat

Rank : a headwaiter, or the caretaker of wine cellars of Hell

Origin : Egyptian deity Taueret.

Myths : One of the first monster created by God to guard the Earth               

Magic : "his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly"

Association :  Leviathan

Source : Book of Job, Enoch, Apocalypse, Jean Wier’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Boulgakov, Blake

Quote :


       

Aka : Beelphegor, Belfagor

Element/sin : the demon of ingenious discoveries and inventions

Shape : a phallus, a beautiful young girl

Rank : the archdemon of the Togarini, the sixth of the evil Sephiroth, the Infernal Ambassador to France (Hugo) where he hides in the Louvre museum.

Origin : Baal-Peor, originally a Moabite deity and an idol worshipped in Shittim by the Israelites

Myths :  A medieval legend tells how Belphegor set forth from hell to investigate rumours concerning the happiness and misery of married coupled on earth. For a while he lived among men, imitating all the intimacies that men experienced. He is said to have fled back to hell in horror, happy that intercourse between men and women did not exist there. This is the reason why the name of Belphegor is sometimes applied to misogynists and licentious men.

Magic : difficult to summon, though he distributed riches with great generosity, if the conjuror is agreeable to him. His gifts are also the power of discovery and ingenious invention

                                               

VLAD  DRACULA

Vlad Tepes  (1431-1476 )

Son vrai nom

Vlad est issu de la dynastie princière des Basarab, à l'origine du toponyme Bessarabie (qui désigna initialement la Valachie avant de désigner une partie de la Moldavie). Le premier représentant marquant est Basarab le Grand qui délivra le pays de la vassalité hongroise. Selon les historiens Mihnea Berindei et Matei Cazacu, ce nom pourrait être turc (signifiant "père sévère"). Selon l'historien Pierre Năsturel, ce Besserem-Bem des chroniques turques pourrait être une déformation de Bessarion-Ban ("Ban" étant un titre hongrois de vassalité équivalent à "marche" et ayant donné le nom du Banat).

Ses surnoms

Vlad Basarab a eu de nombreux surnoms: Ţepeş (« l'Empaleur » en roumain), Drăculea (« Dragonneau » en roumain, d'où Dracula - son père Vlad II le Dragon ayant été membre de l'Ordre du Dragon), mais aussi Kalles, Ibnes, en turc Suzgeç ou Kaziglu Bey, en allemand Gotveren... Ces surnoms dont il a été affublé après sa mort, n'ont jamais été utilisés de son vivant, et n'apparaîssent qu'à partir de 1550.

Sa vie et ses actions s'inscrivent dans le contexte extrêmement mouvementé du milieu du XVe siècle pour l'Europe de l'est. Le Saint-Empire romain germanique et les pays chrétiens d'Europe de l'ouest, en particulier les royaumes d'Autriche, de Hongrie et de Pologne sont sérieusement menacés par la poussée de l'Empire ottoman, qui vient de faire tomber définitivement l'Empire byzantin avec la chute de Constantinople le 29 mai 1453. Les régions qui se situent entre les deux empires constituent le dernier rempart de la Chrétienté (catholique et orthodoxe) contre les Musulmans, et sont le théâtre de batailles acharnées. Les sultans consolident leur contrôle sur Constantinople, et assiègent les Balkans, jusqu'à se rendre maîtres de la plus grande partie de cette région, futurs États modernes comme la Serbie, la Hongrie, la Roumanie, la Bulgarie, l'Arménie, et la Grèce, pour être finalement arrêtés aux portes de Vienne (Autriche).

Vlad Ţepeş connaît déjà une célébrité importante de son vivant, répandue surtout par les marchands saxons de Transylvanie, et par Mathias Ier Corvin le Juste (Matthias Corvin), le roi de Hongrie. Il est en effet connu comme étant un souverain cruel qui empale ses ennemis. Il aurait empalé dit-on des centaines de milliers d'hommes, et en particulier, les négociants allemands de Transylvanie, membres de la vieille noblesse, les paysans qui se dressaient contre lui, ainsi que les prisonniers turcs. En étant plus cruel encore que ses ennemis, il permit ainsi d'insinuer le doute parmi les Turco-ottomans quant à leur supériorité guerrière dans la guerre qu'ils livraient aux chrétiens des Balkans.

Cette popularité s'est vraiment propagée avec la diffusion du personnage de Dracula, inventé par Bram Stoker pour son roman en 1897. Ce roman ne se base pourtant pas directement sur le règne cruel de Vlad Ţepeş. C'est une fiction censée se dérouler en Transylvanie et au Royaume-Uni au XIXe siècle. Néanmoins, en raison de son règne sanglant, Vlad Ţepeş Dracula a été immortalisé par Stoker sous la forme d'un vampire buvant le sang de ses victimes. L'image de la Transylvanie, par le biais de Vlad Ţepeş, est maintenant associée pour longtemps au comte vampire Dracula, dont le nom est celui du Diable.

Origines de la légende
Sa vie est connue grâce aux sources écrites qui relatent les faits et gestes de Vlad III, prince de Valachie au milieu du XVe siècle :

Selon certaines de ces sources, Vlad Ţepeş était un monstre, un modèle de cruauté. Il était aussi une brute qui aimait répandre le sang, le feu, la mort partout (on prétendait même qu'il buvait le sang de ses victimes, qu'il « sauçait » son pain avec !), qui tuait tous ceux qui se mettaient en travers de sa route, en leur réservant des morts atroces, dont celle du pal, sur lequel la victime pourrit pendant des jours à la vue de tous. Ses victimes se comptèrent en milliers, en dizaines ou en centaines de milliers selon ces sources.

Cette thèse d'essence occidentale, trouve son origine dans la haine et le ressentiment de ses adversaires, les marchands saxons et les boyards de Valachie, qui ont toujours lutté pour conserver leurs privilèges dans ces régions. La diffusion d'écrits favorables à cette version en Europe a été fortement encouragée par Mathias Corvin, roi de Hongrie, qui cherchait à justifier son changement d'attitude : après avoir soutenu Vlad dans toutes ses actions contre les Turcs, il soutint son frère Radu III l'Élégant (Radu cel Frumos), qui était le candidat des Ottomans et chef des armées ottomanes, alors que Vlad était vaincu et lui demandait de l'aide, seul à Braşov. Il valait mieux faire passer Vlad pour un monstre incontrôlable.

Au début du XIXe siècle, cette thèse a été relancée par la publication en allemand des Histoires de la Moldavie et de la Valachie de Johann Christian Engel, qui présente Vlad Ţepeş comme un tyran sanguinaire.

Mais selon les chroniqueurs orientaux,

« Vlad Ţepeş était un chef qui utilisait la terreur pour se faire respecter de ses ennemis, un adversaire redoutable et respectable. On peut citer A. Bonfini ou L. Chalcocondil, ainsi que l'auteur anonyme des Histoires slavonnes, qui ont de l'admiration pour ce voïvode autoritaire mais juste, qui a utilisé toutes les méthodes pour consolider un pouvoir central, et pour faire régner l'ordre sur ses territoires. »


En réalité, telle qu'elle est corroborée par les sources primaires, Vlad Ţepeş a persécuté les boyards valaques au profit du "vil" peuple pour asseoir son pouvoir, et pour financer ses campagnes militaires il a augmenté les droits de douane des marchands saxons de Transylvanie en Valachie. Ce sont ceux-ci qui, au moyen de gravures sur bois et de libelles reproduits à des centaines d'exemplaires, l'ont pour la première fois représenté en vampire sanguinaire se repaissant de chair humaine et buvant du sang, attablé devant une forêt de pals. Selon leurs libelles, Vlad aurait systématiquement fait écorcher, bouillir, décapiter, aveugler, étrangler, pendre, brûler, frire, clouer, enterrer vivants, mutiler atrocement et bien sûr empaler tous ses contradicteurs.

Dans quelle mesure Vlad a-t-il vraiment usé de ces cruels procédés ? Rien ne corrobore qu'il les ait davantage pratiqués que ses contemporains, mais il l'a fait de manière à frapper les esprits, en osant martyriser non seulement des criminels ou des voleurs, mais aussi des aristocrates comploteurs ou des marchands étrangers jugés malhonnêtes en 1457, en 1459 et en 1460, et surtout, un ambassadeur turc, Hamza Pacha, et son chambellan Thomas Katavolinos, qui avaient tenté de de s'emparer de lui par ruse en 1461. Cela conduisit à une nouvelle guerre contre l'Empire ottoman mais surtout, inspira à toutes les cours d'Europe un sentiment d'horreur à l'égard de Vlad.

Ce sont quelques-uns de ces libelles qui, parvenus à la Royal Library et au British Museum de Londres où il se trouvent toujours, ont pu tomber sous les yeux de l'écrivain Bram Stoker et lui ont fourni une partie des idées grâce auxquelles il forgea son personnage de Dracula


Biographie

La légende dit qu'il serait né à Sighişoara, ville de style gothique en Transylvanie en 1431, où l'on montre sa maison natale. Toutefois les historiens roumains n'ont pas de certitudes à ce sujet: la plupart soulignent que les voïvodes valaques naissaient et grandissaient en général à Târgovişte, capitale et cour princière de Valachie. Le seule construction historique que l'on peut rapporter avec certitude au règne de Vlad, c'est la tour de Chindia à Târgovişte. Et la seule partie de sa jeunesse qui sont corroborée par des textes, ce sont ses premières années passées à la cour de son père, Vlad II le Dragon (Vlad Dracul).

En 1442, il est envoyé comme otage au sultan Murad II, avec son jeune frère Radu III l'Élégant (Radu cel Frumos) ; il est retenu en Turquie jusqu'en 1448, et son frère jusqu'en 1462. Cette période de captivité turque a joué un rôle important dans la montée au pouvoir de Vlad. Probablement a-t-il adopté dans cette période son attitude intransigeante face à la vie.

La lutte pour le trône

Dans cette première moitié du XVe siècle, le trône de Valachie est disputé par les familles cousines, des Basarab-Dǎnescu et des Basarab-Drǎculescu. Les Dǎnescu appellent les Hongrois pour les aider, sous prétexte de combattre les Ottomans, alors que les Drǎculea négocient avec eux.

En 1447, le père de Vlad, Vlad II le Dragon (Vlad Dracul), conclut une paix avec les Ottomans. En novembre 1447, Iancu de Hunedoara, voïvode de Transylvanie et gouverneur de Hongrie depuis 1446, qui était en guerre contre les Turcs, entreprend une expédition punitive en Valachie en partant de Braşov. Vlad II est capturé et tué à Bǎlteni, avec son premier fils Mircea II le Jeune (Mircea cel Tânăr). Iancu de Hunedoara se proclame lui-même le 4 décembre 1447 voïvode des régions transalpines à Târgovişte. Ce titre lui permet d'installer un Dǎneşti, le fils de Dan II, Vladislav II de Valachie (Vladislav) sur le trône de Valachie.

En 1448, Vlad III l'Empaleur rentre alors d'Andrinople, soutenu par une cavalerie turque et un contingent de troupes prêtées par le pacha Mustafa Hassan, et profite de l'absence de Vladislav, éloigné de Târgovişte par les combats à la deuxième bataille de Kosovo, pour monter sur le trône. Mais Vladislav le chasse deux mois plus tard (octobre-novembre 1448) lorsqu'il revient, et il doit s'exiler en Moldavie, où règne Bogdan II. Il se lie d'amitié avec le futur Étienne III le Grand (Ştefan cel Mare).

Plus tard, Iancu de Hunedoara (János Hunyadi en hongrois, Jean Hunyade en français), qui partait défendre Belgrade, lui confie une armée pour défendre le sud de la Transylvanie. Vlad Ţepeş en profite, avec l'aide de boyards de Munténie pour reprendre le trône de Valachie en écrasant et tuant Vladislav II en août 1456. Vlad commence sa plus longue période de règne — six ans — pendant laquelle il sait qu'il ne peut garder sa place qu'en la défendant chèrement contre tous ceux qui la convoitent. Afin de consolider son pouvoir, il s'efforce de centraliser l'autorité, de la même façon que Mathias Corvin en Hongrie, ou Louis XI en France. Il fallait pour cela éliminer sans pitié tout ceux qui pouvaient la déstabiliser. Il a donc installé un régime de terreur dans l'aristocratie, de telle façon que tous le redoutent et le craignent.
   

Contre les Turcs

Début 1462, Vlad se sent plus fort, et la participation que lui promet Mathias en personne dans une expédition contre les Turcs l'enhardit jusqu'à briser son allégeance envers les Ottomans. Il lance alors une campagne contre les Turcs sur le Danube, tuant plus de 30 000 hommes. Vlad provoque la colère du sultan Mehmed II, fils de Murad, lorqu'il refuse d'accéder à la demande des émissaires turcs pour le paiement du tribut au sultan. Lorsque les émissaires du sultan refusent d'ôter leur turban en face de lui, il s'assure qu'ils les garderont ainsi en les clouant directement sur leur tête. Quand le sultan apprend l'exécution de ses émissaires, il décide de punir Vlad en envahissant massivement la Valachie. Un autre objectif du sultan est de transformer cette terre en province turque. Il entre en Valachie avec une armée trois fois plus importante que celle de Vlad. Sans alliés, celui-ci doit se résoudre à se retirer à Târgovişte, à brûler ses propres villages, et à empoisonner les sources sur sa route, de façon à ne plus rien laisser à boire et à manger à l'armée turque.

Lorsque le sultan arrive à Târgovişte, il est confronté à une vision d'épouvante : sur des centaines de pals, les corps de nombreux prisonniers turcs sont dressés, une scène terrifiante qui fut surnommée « la Forêt des Pals » (la légende a grossi le chiffre jusqu'à 20.000). Mehmed, fatigué et affamé, reconnait sa défaite, et s'en retourne à Istanbul (la scène, décrite par Victor Hugo, dans La Légende des siècles, témoigne de cet incident étonnant). Mehmed II préfère laisser sa place au combat à Radu III l'Élégant (Radu cel Frumos), le plus jeune frère de Vlad, candidat des Turcs pour le trône de Valachie.

À la tête de l'armée turque et d'hommes qu'il convainc de rejoindre son camp plutôt que d'obéir à Vlad, il poursuit son frère jusqu'au Château Poenari, sur l'Argeş. D'après la légende, la femme de Vlad, qui veut s'échapper d'un cachot turc, se donne la mort en se jetant du haut de la falaise - une scène exploitée par Francis Ford Coppola dans le film Bram Stoker's Dracula. Vlad, qui n'est pas le genre d'homme à se suicider, réussit à s'échapper du siège de sa forteresse, en empruntant un passage secret à travers la montagne. Radu le Beau monte sur le trône de Valachie le 15 août 1462.

Prisonnier en Hongrie

Vlad revient en Transylvanie pour rencontrer Mathias qui, pense-t-il, arrive à Braşov pour se porter à son secours. Mais les autorités locales de Brasov ont déjà changé d'avis en reconnaissant Radu comme souverain depuis deux mois, et Mathias, qui constate la situation, et qui est « aidé » dans sa décision par les commerçants saxons, fait arrêter Vlad par un chef hussite connu, Jan Jiskra en novembre 1462. Vlad est maintenu prisonnier à Buda pendant douze ans, libéré, il retourne à Bucarest.

La fin tragique

En 1476, Vlad est reconnu à nouveau comme prince de Valachie, mais il ne se réjouit que peu de temps de son troisième règne. Il est assassiné à la fin du mois de décembre 1476 à Bucarest (ou au début de janvier 1477 selon certaines sources). Le corps de Vlad Ţepeş est décapité et sa tête envoyée au sultan, qui la pique sur un pieu comme preuve qu'il est bien mort. Vlad Ţepeş est enterré au monastère de Snagov, sur une île proche de Bucarest. Selon l'historien réputé Constantin Rezachevici, ce tombeau pourrait être situé sur la localité du monastère de Comana (Constantin Rezachevici „Unde a fost mormântul lui Vlad Tepes?“ (II), Magazin Istoric, nr.3, 2002, p.41).

Des études récentes ont montré que le « tombeau » de Vlad Ţepeş au monastère de Snagov ne contient que quelques ossements de chevaux, datés du néolithique, et ne correspondent pas aux vrais restes du prince valaque.

D'après le livre de Radu Florescu et Raymond McNally ("A la Recherche de Dracula"), il y a deux tombes à Snagov. la première à l'entrée de la chapelle et la seconde au pied de l'autel. On s'accorde généralement à dire que c'est la seconde qui était censée contenir le corps (décapité) de Dracula. En 1932, une mission archéologique roumaine ouvrit cette tombe et n'y trouva que quelques ossements mâchonnés. L'autre tombe fut également ouverte. L'équipe d'archéologues y découvrit un squelette d'homme en très mauvais état, privé de sa tête, une épée, une médaille de l'Ordre du Dragon, une couronne, les restes d'une cape violette et une bague de femme, cousue à l'intérieur de ce qui fut autrefois la manche d'une vêtement (tradition d'amour courtois très répandue en Europe à la fin du Moyen-Age et que Dracula put apprendre lors de ses séjours avec son père à la cour de l'Empereur Sigismond à Nuremberg).

Trouver un corps dans cette tombe n'est finalement pas très étonnant : Dracula avait abjuré sa foi orthodoxe et s'était converti au catholicisme pour pouvoir remonter sur le trône et être soutenu par Matthias. Il était donc considéré comme un hérétique par les moines orthodoxes qui mirent son corps en terre. Un hérétique certes mais de sang royal : on lui accorda donc de reposer dans la chapelle (certainement grâce à l'influence des frères Bobrin, ses gardes du corps) mais à l'entrée. Ainsi, les fidèles et les moines marchaient sur sa tombe chaque jour en signe de mépris.

Avec l'avènement de la génétique, on s'intéressa de nouveau au corps trouvé dans la chapelle en 1932 pour tenter de l'authentifier en comparant son ADN à celui des descendants de Vlad III encore en vie. La nouvelle se répandit alors que le corps ainsi que tous les objets découverts avec lui avaient mystérieusement disparu des réserves du Musée d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Bucarest, peut-être ont-ils été volés. Ils restent à ce jour introuvable.

La légende contemporaine : Dracula

On ne sait pas exactement pourquoi Bram Stoker a pris comme modèle pour son personnage de fiction le prince de Valachie du XVe siècle. Quelques-uns ont proposé l'idée que Stoker aurait rencontré un professeur hongrois de l'Université de Budapest, Arminius Vambery (Hermann Vamberger), et il est possible qu'il ait pu avoir des informations sur Vlad Ţepeş. En outre, le fait que le Dr Abraham Van Helsing mentionne son ami Arminius dans le roman de 1897 comme source de ses connaissances sur Vlad Ţepeş semble être en faveur de cette hypothèse. De même, le seul lien réel entre le Vlad Ţepeş historique (1431-1476) et le mythe littéraire moderne du vampire est le livre de Stoker ; Bram Stoker s'est servi des sources populaires, de détails historiques et de quelques expériences de sa vie personnelle pour donner la vie à une créature complexe. D'autre part, les adversaires politiques principaux de Vlad - les Saxons de Transylvanie - se sont servi du sens de diable du mot roumain drac pour jeter le discrédit sur la réputation du prince. En effet, ils auraient pu associer les deux sens du mot roumain, dragon et diable pour expliquer une relation plus étroite entre Vlad Ţepeş et les vampires.
Revenir en haut Aller en bas   

  The Impaler


Impalement was Dracula's preferred method of torture and execution. Impalement was and is one of the most gruesome ways of dying imaginable. Dracula usually had a horse attached to each of the victim's legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mothers' chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake. .

     

ERZSEBET BATHORY(Elizabeth Bathory) 

The Blood countess(1560 - 1614)

Erzsebet (also written Elizabeth) Bathory was born in 1560 to a wealthy and prominent family during a time of war between the Turks and Austria-Hungary armies. She was the daughter of Baron and Baroness George and Anna Bathory.  She had many powerful relatives: a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary. Though frequently cited as Hungarian, Erzsebet is more likely to belong to the Slovak Republic (During this time, her land shifted hands between the armies of Europe.) Most of her adult life was spent at Castle Cachtice, near the intersection of Austria, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic.

In 1571, her cousin Stephen (1575-86) became Prince of Transylvania and additionally assumed the throne of Poland. He was a very effective ruler, but his plans of uniting Europe against the Ottoman Empire were foiled by the invading armies of Ivan the Terrible.

Prince Steven Bathory of Transylvania participated in an expedition led by Vlad Dracula in Walachia in 1546 to recover his throne. A Dracula fief, Castle Fagaras, became a Bathory possession during the time of Elizabeth. Both families had a dragon design on their family crests.

At fourteen Erzsebet gave birth to an illegitimate child fathered by a peasant boy and conceived at the chateau for her intended mother-in-law, Countess Ursula Nadasdy. She married Count Ferencz Nadasady on May8th 1575, when Erzsebet was fifteen and Ferencz twenty-six. Erzsebet retained her own surname, while the Count changed his to Ferencz Bathory. She took over household affairs at Castle Sarvar, the Nadasdy family estate while Ferencz headed for the battlefields and began scoring victories against the Turks as early as 1578. He eventually earned the nickname "Black Knight of Hungary". He also lent the Hungarian Crown a great deal of money to finance the war against the Turks.

Erzsebet Bathory was a woman of exceptional beauty. Her long raven hair was contrasted with her milky complexion. Her amber eyes were almost catlike, her figure voluptuous. She was excessively vain and her narcissism drove her to new depths of perversion. The Countess would spend days in front of her large dark mirror she had designed herself. It was so comfortable that it even had supports on which to lean one's arms, so as to be able to stand for many hours in front of it without feeling tired.

Erzsebet gave birth to another three daughters, Anna in 1585, Orsika (Ursula), Kato (Katherina) and eventually one son, Paul in 1598.

While Ferencz was away on one of his military campaigns, the Countess began to visit her lesbian aunt, Countess Karla Bathory. Klara was a sort on nymphomaniac who also enjoyed killing people in the Roman way. Her four husbands died (the first two perished by her hand) and she was finally raped by an entire Turkish garnison before being stabbed to death.

Erzsebet became acquainted with the art of inflicting pain and death, in the same time she was also developing an interest in Black Magic. Thorko, a servant in her castle, instructed her in the ways of witchcraft, at the same time encouraging her sadistic tendencies. Erzsebet wrote one day to Ferencz:


Her husband, when he was home, also took part in torturing the servants, giving her lessons from his own experience of torturing war prisoners. When the Countess became romantically involved with a black-clad stranger with pale complexion, dark eyes and abnormally sharp teeth, the villagers who believed in vampires had more reason toe be wary of Csejthe Castle. Perhaps, to the imaginative, the stranger was Dracula himself, returned from the grave. The Countess returned alone from her sojourn with the stranger and some of the villagers stated that her mouth showed telltale signs of blood. When Count Nadasdy returned he quickly forgave his wife's infidelity.


BLOOD BATHS

As Erzsebet aged and her beauty began to wane, she tried to conceal the decline through cosmetics and the most expensive of clothes. The story says that one day a servant girl accidentally pulled her hair while combing it and Erzsebet slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately though her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She thought she found the secret of eternal youth.

Following the witch's instructions, Erzsebet had her evil henchmen kidnap beautiful young virgins, slash them with knives and collect their blood in a large vat. Then the Countess proceeded to bath in the virgin's blood. When she emerged from the blood she had seemingly regained her youth and radiance.

 Erzsebet's minions procured more virgins from the neighbouring villages on the pretext of hiring them as servants. As the body count grew, Bathory's servants dumped the corpses outside the castle. When local peasants found the dead bodies, drained of blood, rumours quickly spread that vampires inhabited the old fortress.
When Darvulia died or disappeared, Erzsebet almost fifty found herself aging even more, complained to her new witch about the uselessness of the blood baths.

In fact, more than complain, she threatened to kill her if she did not stop at once the encroaching and execrable signs of old age. The sorceress named Erzsi Majorova argued that Darvulia's method had not worked because plebeian blood had been used. She assured that changing the colour of the blood, using blue blood instead of red, would ensure the fast retreat of old age. She managed to attract twenty-five impoverished noblewomen in 1909 who in exchange for happy company, would receive lessons in fine manners and learn how to behave exquisitely in society. A fortnight later, only two were left.

Erzsebet accused one of them of killing others for jewelry and then committing suicide. But even though Erzsebet tortured young noblewomen and accompanied the blood baths with witchcraft rites, she could not retrieve her lost youth. For over a decade she perpetrated her acts of vampirism, mutilating and bleeding dry 650 maidens.

 Reverend Andras Berthoni, a Lutheran pastor of Csejthe, realized the truth when Erzsebet commanded him to bury secretly the bloodless corpses. He set down his suspicions regarding Erzsebet in a note before he died. The Countess was becoming so notorious that her crimes could no longer be concealed. In 1610, the Bathory family secretly decided to spirit the Countess off to a convent for the rest of her days, but before this could be accomplished, Megyery deposed a formal complaint against her before the Hungarian Parliament.


The Tortures of Elizabeth Bathory

The tortures Elizabeth Bathory inflicted upon women included:

• beating the servant girls with a heavy cudgel
• stucking pins into the upper and lower lips of the girls, into other parts of their flesh, and under their fingernails
• having the women stripped naked and forcing them to perform their household duties in full view of men
• forcing the servants to go on fasts with nothing to eat or drink for days
• having cold water poured over naked girls, while they were outside in the cold and snow, until they froze to death
• having girls submerged in a frozen river in winter
• having iron keys and coins heated red-hot and forcing girls to hold them
• having naked girls smeared with honey and then forcing them to stand outside for twenty-four hours and endure bites from insects
• placing paper between the girls' toes and setting it on fire (called "star kicking")
• putting her fingers into one girl's mouth and pulling until it split at the corners
• setting pubic hair on fire
• thrusting the hot iron into the face of the servant if a collar was not properly pressed
• scorching girls with fiery swords or tongs
• pouring scalding water on servant girls
• biting and ripping out the flesh of the servants
• cutting off fingers with scissors

ERZSEBET BATHORY(Elizabeth Bathory)

The Blood countess(1560 - 1614)

Gilles de Laval, Marechal and Baron de Rais (Rays, Rayx or Retz)



Gilles de Rais (also spelled Retz) (autumn of 1404 – October 26, 1440) was a French noble, soldier, and one time brother-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He was later accused and ultimately convicted of infanticide - torturing, raping and murdering dozens, if not hundreds, of children. Along with Erzsébet Báthory, another sadistic aristocrat acting more than a century later, he is considered by some historians to be a precursor of the modern serial killer.

Gilles de Rais was born in 1404 in the château of Machécoul, near the border of Brittany. His father was Guy de Montmorency-Laval, from the house of Laval who had inherited, via adoption, the fortunes of Jeanne de Rais and Marie de Craon.

His father died when he was nine, and his mother immediately married again and abandoned her two children to die two years later c.1415. Gilles and his brother René must have felt alone in the world.

Their father's will made provision for them to be brought up by a cousin and educated by two priests; instead they were sent to live with their grandfather, Jean de Craon, who had a violent temper, but was too wrapped up in his own affairs to pay attention to his grandsons. His own son had been killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, so that Gilles became heir to the entire vast fortune. He was an intelligent child who read Latin fluently and loved music. Gilles came from a family of medieval knights, so he was trained in the art if war and chivalry..

He already had a taste for the "forbidden" and secretly devoured Suetonius, with his details of the sexual excesses of the Roman emperors.

Five years later, he went to the court of the Dauphin, the uncrowned heir to the throne, and made a considerable impression with his good looks and fine breeding.

Jean de Craon sought to marry Gilles off to the heiress Jeanne de Paynol; this was unsuccessful. Jean de Craon then attempted to join de Rais with Beatrice de Rohan, niece of the Duke of Brittany, again with no success. Eventually he was able to substantially increase Rais's fortune by marrying him off to Catherine de Thouars of Brittany, heiress of La Vendee and Poitou, but only after first kidnapping her.

Later stories connecting Rais with the legendary wife-murderer Bluebeard may have stemmed from the fact that two of several previous marriage schemes were thwarted by the death of the intended bride. By his marriage to the extremely wealthy heiress, Gilles de Rais became one of the richest noble in Europe, From 1427 to 1435, Rais served as a commander in the Royal Army, 


THE HERO

Rais took the side of the Montfort Dukes of Brittany against a rival house led by Olivier de Blois, Count of Penthievre, who took John VI, Duke of Brittany prisoner. He was able to secure the Duke's release, and was rewarded for this deed by generous land grants which the Breton parliament converted to monetary gifts.

In 1429 he was at Chinon when a seventeen-year-old peasant girl named Jeanne, from the village of Domremy, demanded to see the Dauphin, and told him that she had been sent to defeat the English, who were now laying siege to Orléans. The Dauphin thought she was mad, but decided it was worth a try. He ordered Gilles to accompany "the Maid" (la pucelle) to Orléans, perhaps because he had noticed that Gilles was fascinated by the girl's boyish figure and peasant vitality.

Gilles fought by her side when she raised the siege of Orléans, and again at Patay, when she once more defeated the English. At twenty-four, Gilles was a national hero. Although a few authors have tended to exaggerate the position he held during the latter campaigns, surviving bursary records show that he only commanded a personal contingent of some 25 men-at-arms and eleven archers, and was one of many dozens of such commanders.

However, when the Dauphin decided it was time for the crowning, Gilles was awarded the honour to collect the holy oil with which the king was to be anointed. After the coronation, Gilles was appointed Marshall of France and allowed to include the fleur de lys in his coat of arms. But after her military triumphs, jealous ministers soon undermined Joan of Arc’s career, and the king was too weak and self-indulgent to withstand the pressure. In the following year she was captured by the English, and burned at Rouen in 1431 with the Church and most of the French noblemen consent; she was only nineteen. (Jeanne who has been made a saint since is one of the great figure of France history and a paradox, she saved thousands of people and pushed the English back to their filthy Channel but she was treated with the most cruelty by the very one who profited from her; she was guided by God’s voice but was called a witch and burned…).

Gilles still had one more martial exploit to come--the deliverance of Lagny from the English.  After the coronation of Charles VII, he retired to his estates, at Machecoul, Malemort, La Suze, Champtoce and Tiffauges, promoting theatrical performances and exhausting the large fortune he had inherited.

He spent his time and money in collecting a fine library, including a copy of Saint Augustine’s City of God; but above all he devoted himself to making the religious services held in the chapels of his castles as sumptuous and magnificent as possible.


BLOODY de RAIS 


After the years of glory, Gilles seemed to have found life unbearably dull. During the course of the following year, according to his later confession, he committed his first sex murder, that of a boy. His grandfather willed his sword and cuirass to the younger brother René but died in the following year. Gilles was suddenly able to do what he liked.

One day, a young boy dubbed Poitou was brought to the château and raped, after which Gilles prepared to cut his throat. At this point, Gilles de Sille pointed out that Poitou was such a handsome boy that he would make an admirable page. So Poitou was allowed to live, and become one of Gilles' most trusted mignons.

Gilles' attacks of sadism seem to have descended on him like an epileptic fit, and turned him into a kind of maniac. A boy would be lured to the castle on some pretext, and once inside Gilles' chamber, was hung from the ceiling on a rope or chain. But before he had lost consciousness, he was taken down and reassured that Gilles meant him no harm. Then he would be stripped and raped, after which Gilles, or one of his cronies would cut this throat or decapitate him (they had a special sword called a braquemard for removing the head).

But Gilles was still not sated; he would continue to sexually abuse the dead body, playing with the head in grotesque manner, sometimes cutting open the stomach, then squatting in the entrails and masturbating. When he reached a climax he would collapse in a faint, and be carried off to his bed, where he would remain unconscious for hours.

His accomplices would meanwhile dismember and burn the body. On some occasions, he later confessed, two children were procured, and each obliged to watch the other being raped and tortured.

Gilles was not merely sexually deranged; he was also a reckless spendthrift. He surrounded himself with a retinue of two hundred knights, for whom he provided. He loved to give banquets and fêtes; in 1435, when the city of Orléans celebrated its deliverance by Joan of Arc, Gilles presented a long mystery play about the siege, with enormous sets and a cast of hundreds, playing, of course, the leading role himself. He also provided food and wine for the spectators. Like a Roman emperor he must have felt that he was virtually a god.

In a mere three years he had spent what would now be the equivalent of millions of dollars. Back at Machécoul, he had to sell some of his most valuable estates. His brother was so alarmed that he persuaded the king to issue an interdict forbidding any further sales of land. For a man of Gilles' unbridled temperament, this was an intolerable position. He went into a gloomy and self-pitying retirement.

Years before, when he first went to court, he had borrowed a book on alchemy from an Angevin knight who had been imprisoned for heresy. Alchemy was prohibited by law, and for a man with Gilles' romantic craving for "the forbidden," this must have been an additional incentive to learn more about it. Now, ten years later, with his coffers empty, he realised that black magic might be the answer to his problems.


BLACK MAGIC


Gilles then asked a priest named Eustache Blanchet to find him a magician. Several were tried, but the results were poor until one of them, a man named Fontanelle, succeeded in conjuring up twenty crows whereas the others were not even able to conjure up a few birds. But Fontanelle also claimed he had conjured up a demon called Barron; Gilles was then advised that his only way of learning to make gold was to agree to sell his soul to the Devil. Despite his taste for killing children, Gilles remained a devout Catholic; so deciding to invoke the Devil must have seemed a far more frightening step than murder.

But finally, he and his cousin Gilles de Sille locked themselves in the basement of his castle at Tiffauges, together with Fontanelle, and prepared to converse with demons. The magician warned them solemnly not to make the sign of the cross, or their lives would be in great danger. Sille stayed by the window, prepared to jump out; Gilles ventured fearfully into the magic circle and watched the beginning of the conjuration. The legend says that the three men were brutally ejected from the donjon before the roof collapsed. Fontanelle disappeared, either killed or escaped.

However, Gilles needed money so badly that there seemed no other way than continuing with his magical experiments. In 1439, he sent the priest Blanchet to Italy to search for a more skilled magician; Blanchet returned with a "clerk in minor orders" called François Prelati, a young man of great charm--and also, apparently, a homosexual. It is hard to know whether he was simply a confidence trickster or whether he had some genuine knowledge of the magic arts; but Gilles found him immensely attractive and trusted him completely.

Prelati told him that they would have to offer a child's blood and parts of its body as a sacrifice to the Devil; Gilles agreed but still refused to take the final step, of selling his soul to the Devil. Prelati told him that in that case, he would have to continue the conjurations alone. During one of these sessions, Gilles and his cousin heard loud thumps from inside the room; they looked in and found Prelati "so hurt that he could hardly stand up." He explained that he had been beaten by the demon Barron, and had to take to his bed for several days, during which time Gilles nursed him tenderly.

On another occasion, he rushed out to tell Gilles that he had finally conjured up a heap of gold. Gilles rushed back to see it, but Prelati was there first; as he opened the door, he staggered back and shouted that a huge green serpent guarded it. Gilles fled. When he returned, the gold had vanished, leaving only piles of dust...


EXECUTION


On October 26 1440, Gilles de Rais was brought to the main place in Nantes, to be strangled and burnt with his two associates, Griart and Poitou.

But before he died, he sang the De Profundis in a voice louder than all the rest while standing under the gibbet. He urged his henchmen to "thank God with him for a manifest sign of His love," and to continue praying for a little while longer.

He prayed on his knees, and the hundreds of spectators prayed with him. In his agonies of guilt, he said to the families of the murdered:


When de Rais was theatrically executed, the children's parents, his judges, and hundreds of spectators, gave way to floods of tears. His fellow criminals followed soon after.

His corpse was placed on a pyre, but his relatives were allowed to remove his body before the flames reached it, and he was interred in the nearby Carmelite church. His two companions were less lucky; they were burned alive.

The precise number of Rais's infanticides is not known, as most of the bodies were burned or buried. The number of murders is generally placed between 80 and 200; a few have conjectured numbers upwards of 600. The victims ranged in age from six to eighteen and included both sexes; although Rais preferred boys, he would make do with young girls if circumstances required.

It is important to note here that Gilles was not allowed any testimony in his defence, nor was he given any legal advice or council. The proceedings of the trial were highly irregular, even for trials of heresy. Not one of his 500 servants was summoned to give defensive evidence and his own attendants were tortured and, having testified against Gilles, freed. This treatment is consistent with how the ecclesiastical courts handled witches and heretic trials during this time. Some historians have alleged that Rais was framed for murder and heresy by elements within the Church as part of a diocesan plot to seize his lands.