STORAGE – This Hungarian countess is said to have tortured and murdered hundreds of women between the late 16th and early 17th centuries… A dark legend widely questioned by historians, as Anne-Perrine Couet explains in her the author of the book. biography in comics.
Its menacing shadow hangs over our popular culture. Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614), known as the “Bloody Countess”, inspired many books, movies, songs, comics, video games… the most prolific serial killer of all time! But if the Hungarian woman today is inseparable from the vampire myth, isn’t it said that she bathed in the blood of a virgin to preserve eternal youth? – And the historical reality?
Cartoonist Anne-Perrine Couët tried to divert the truth from the legend. The result is a biographical comic, Bathory, the accursed countess, published by Steinkiss in September (1). The author and illustrator paints a nuanced portrait of the Countess, a woman of strong character, perhaps the victim of a plot to oust her from power. To defend this theory, Anne-Perrin Couette collaborated with the Hungarian historian Gabor Varkony, who at the end details the lack of value of the hundreds of testimonies presented during the trial against the countess.
With special attention to clothing and embellishments, Anne-Perrin Couy revisits the fate of this powerful woman and brings an entire era to life. Drawn in pencil and then subtly colored in ocher tones digitally, his comic strip provides delightful immersion.. Meeting at the source of the myth.
Miss Figaro. – How did you discover Elizabeth Bathory and why did you want to tell her story in comics?
Anne-Perrine Couet. – I really like horror movies and genre literature. When we are interested in the character of the vampire, Elizabeth Bathory enters the spectrum of what we know, because legend has it that this countess inspired the myth of Dracula. When I started thinking about comics around a female historical figure, I told myself that I was interested. I did some research and pretty quickly came across an article that said maybe the whole legend was fake. It made me want to know more.
Accused of murdering dozens or even hundreds of young women, Bathory is completely innocent and the victim of a conspiracy in your comic. Is that a belief based on your research, or a subjective bias meant to counterbalance the now-widespread dark legend?
I worked with Hungarian researcher Gabor Varkony from the University of Budapest, who is a consultant on several projects that talk about the Countess. In the works he participated in, and on which I based my comic strip, there is no doubt that in Hungary at that time there was a form of violence that the powerful could use against their servants or servants. “low” class people. So there could be beaten servants, ill-treated people… and it didn’t pose any particular problem of conscience. The relationship of dominance was present.
There has been extensive research that has shown that most of the allegations against him were most likely false.
Anne-Perrine Couet
As for the legend that says Elizabeth Bathory would kill 650 women by bathing in their blood; (supposedly to preserve eternal youth, editor’s note), extensive research shows that most of the accusations against him were most likely false, that the deaths described by witnesses were almost impossible. In my opinion, Bathory was not related to his time. he used the same force, the same pressure as his contemporaries, but to turn him into a bloodthirsty killer from there, no.
Your story opens and revolves around a trial where witnesses were visibly tortured to suppress Elizabeth Bathory. What do historians say about this trial?
The trial was organized by courtier Giorgi Turzo, accompanied by other persons. As the countess was imprisoned without being present, those who were heard were her close servants. They were subjected to several weeks of torture, according to the exact codes and manuals of the time, to force them to confess and go in one direction or another. Moreover, the trial was later rewritten with an approximation of the translation (some pronouns in Hungarian are difficult to understand), so the testimony is indeed very unreliable and questioned by historians.
While her husband Ferenc Nadasdi fought against the Ottomans, Elizabeth Bathory took care of managing their domains. Duties that increase with the death of a spouse. Was this a rare situation in the late 16th and early 17th centuries?
Historian Gabor Varkony explains that it was very common at the time for women, not necessarily widows, to take over the management of certain daily tasks, estates, taxes, etc. The countess’s voice was heard, not because she was a woman of character, but because she was a Bathory. Blood first! Their family was so powerful that no one would think of questioning their exercise of power because of their gender.
I have a university degree, so the question of sources and documentary resources was important to me.
Anne-Perrine Couet
At the end of the book, you offer this historian Gabor Varkony a full page to summarize “the story behind the legend”, complete with chronology, additional notes, bibliography and pictorial sources. Is it a way to legitimize your point and anticipate critics accusing your comedy of an ideological reading of history?
I have a university education, so the issue of sources and documentary resources was very important to me. In addition to defending against criticism, it was a way to honor Gabor Varkony’s work and the super rich exchanges we were able to have. He would also send me photos when he visited churches or monuments to show me, for example, carved wood. He has been delving into the subject for years and is preparing an exhibition with the Hungarian National Museum; he also offered to participate in it by working on graphics.
How did you work to find the right representation of Bathory’s build and personality?
I based myself on a picture, a portrait, appropriating it a little. I also undertook research on the clothing level. In his work The Bloody Countess (1962), Valentine Penrose recalls “Too high forehead” another book states “sticky ears” Bathory… I was inspired by it. In several works of fiction, Elizabeth Bathory is in conflict with her husband or someone else in love, but when we read their letters, we see that they were, after all, very much in love. Whenever he went to war somewhere, they wanted to meet again, and they made sure to see each other between each period of conflict. In the descriptions I was able to read, he was also, and above all, a man proud of his rank, his family.
Tell us about the character of Anna Darvulia, the ‘witch’… What do we really know about this person and her influence on Elizabeth Bathory?
His name appears in some correspondence, but there are questions about his existence. Darvulia is a contraction of two terms (2), so one wonders if this character was not invented from scratch to justify additional charges against the Countess (her abusive behavior, cruelty, etc.). It made me want to make her a witch, but also a storyteller. The letters say that the Countess continues to protect Darvulya, so I imagined her as a friend, someone from her inner circle.
Many works refer to the black legend of Bathory, which dates back to the 18th century, sometimes embellishing it with a historical varnish. How to explain this success?
It is true that even today Elizabeth Bathory continues to appear in fiction, in video games, in comedies… under this mythical aspect that we set in the background. There is a kind of erotic, morbid fascination. The character has completely returned to this yoke. I remember during my first research I listened to a historical podcast where a man really enjoyed talking about murders, violence, a seductive woman… It made me question what a story or a phenomenon is that keeps us going for several centuries. after
Are there nuanced representations of Bathory away from the erotic-vampire myth?
There is a very good film by Juraj Jakubisko, Bath (Chronicles of Erzebet. attacked the kingdom in France, editor’s note), which I discovered when I was finishing cutting my comics. Luckily I haven’t seen it before because it pretty much says what I wanted the book to say. The costumes and sets are gorgeous, the director has found the right tone…and there is a sense of humor too.
(1) Bathory, the accursed countess, by Anne-Perrine Couët, Steinkis, 146 pages, 22 euros.
(2) “Even the name Darvulia, a nickname, variously transliterated, is mysterious; it is not Hungarian, it does not seem to be Slovak, unless, as may be supposed, it is a combination of the words “dar” (“give” or “gift”) and “bol” (“disease” or “pain”), which rather found in Croatian or Serbian languages. (Excerpt from the book Countess Dracula. The Life and Times of Elizabeth Bathory by Tony Thorne)
Source: Le Figaro
