Executive
Summary
The Women’s Initiative for Change is a national
non-profit organization dedicated to lowering teen pregnancy in America through
awareness. We intend to use social media
advertising as well as traditional advertising in order to spread awareness.
Product/Service
Introduction
Teen pregnancy is one
of the biggest social and economic problems in the United States. Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of
high school, end up in poverty, and seek public assistance than mothers who
wait to have children till they are 20.
Sons of Teen mothers are more than twice as likely to land in jail as
average. (National Campaign to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy)
The
Women’s Initiative for change is an Iowa City based
nonprofit geared towards lowering teen pregnancy.
Mission
Statement
Our mission is to
improve the living conditions in the United States by lowering teen pregnancy.
Products
and Services:
Lowering
Teen Pregnancy by pushing a bill to make contraceptives readily available to women,
even if they are under
Current
Status
The
Women’s Initiative for change is in the planning stage of development.
Milestones
to be completed:
·
Feasibility Analysis and Market testing
·
Business Plan completion
·
Applying for Tax Exempt Status
·
Fundraising through Happy Hour and Teen
dance nights.
·
Obtaining Government Grants
Funding
Sought
We seek $20,000 in
grant money and donations.
Legal
Status and Ownership
We are a non-profit
organization started by Modesta Matos-Acosta.
Management Section
Executive
Director
Modesta
Matos-Acosta- I will do everything from managing the office, to marketing the
organization, to setting up fundraising events.
In
a year I will bring in two other staff members
A.
Marketing Intern-They will market the organization and advertise our
services through the use of the social media such as Facebook, twitter, and the
website. They will also use direct mail,
flyers, etc. to market
B.
Fundraising Intern- They will plan and implement fundraising
events. They will aid in everything from
setting up the event, to advertising it.
I will also employ
advisors from time to time
Lawyer
Fundraising Expert
Marketing Expert
Marketing Section
Industry
The Women’s Initiative for Change is
in the Family Planning and abortion clinics industry. The major players in this industry are
Planned Parenthood, which is 58.3% of the industr and IntegraMed America, which
is 7% of the industry. The industry revenue should grow 1.5% in the next
year. This industry has a positive
outlook because of the Obama Administration; government funding makes up a
large part of the industry’s revenue.
It is also spurred on by an increase in the
demand for birth control. (IBISWorld)It is a highly concentrated industry with
85% of the establishments having less than 20 employees. Industry assistance is
also high in this industry. The family
planning and abortion clinics industry is in the Growth cycle of the industry
life cycle.
As it shows in the chart on the
right, Federal funding for family planning should increase in the coming years.
Competition
·
Planned
Parenthood- The industry giant does everything from providing women with free
contraceptives, to making people aware of risks associated with unprotected
sex, and abortions.
·
National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy- national
campaign that seeks to educate people about the risks of unplanned pregnancy
and unprotected sex. They do a good job
of showing statistics to support all of their claims.
·
Avoidthestork.com-
Online campaign that uses awareness to try to lower the pregnancy rate in
Iowa. They are extremely effective in
getting their message across and have used television commercials and radio
broadcasts to inform people about the risks of unplanned pregnancy.
Target Market
Direct Target Markets
·
Our target
market is teens between the ages of 13 and 19.
We are especially targeting teens from at-risk communities. These will be the direct recipients of
·
Politically we
are targeting the President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate of
the United States in order to pass our
bill
Teen Pregnancy
in the United States
The Problem
·
23 % of Unplanned Pregnancies are to girls under the age of 20.
·
The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of
developed nations.
·
Over one-third (35%) of all local U.S. school
districts that have policies on sexuality education require that abstinence be
taught as the only appropriate option for unmarried people and that
contraception either be presented as ineffective in preventing pregnancy or not
be covered at all.
·
Among school districts in the South—where birthrates
are significantly higher than the national average—that proportion is 55%
Why it’s a
Problem
School Facts:
- Parenthood is the leading
reason why teen girls drop out of school
- Less than half of teen mothers
ever graduate from high school and fewer than 2% earn a college degree by
age 30.
- Children of teen mothers do
worse in school than those born to older parents—they are 50% more likely
to repeat a grade, are less likely to complete high school than the
children of older mothers, and have lower performance on standardized
tests.
- About one-fourth of teen moms
have a second child within 24 months of the first birth
Relationship:
- 8 out of 10 fathers don't marry
the mother of their child.
- Absent fathers pay less than
$800 annually for child support,
Child:
- More than half of all mothers
on welfare had their first child as a teenager.
- Two-thirds of families begun by
a young, unmarried mother are poor.
- Children who live apart from
their fathers are 5 times more likely to be poor than children with both
parents at home.
- The daughters of young teen
mothers are 3 times more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
- The sons of teen mothers are
twice as likely to end up in prison.
What Can Be
Done:
·
Education that
not only teaches abstinence, but also teaches students about proper use of
contraception.
·
Free and
readily available contraception.
How:
·
We are pushing
the Prevention First Act, which is a bill that would give family planning
programs another 700 million and make it
illegal to deny women access to contraceptives based on discrimination.
Product/Service
Challenges and
Risks
·
Procuring
funding.
·
Getting the
prevention first act enacted poses major political challenges. It will be opposed by conservatives and
religious groups.
Costs
Item
Rent on office
space 9,600
Fundraising
Events 500
Legal Fees 400
Total: 10,500
Services
Change
in Legislature:
We wish to aid the Prevention First Act to becoming enacted. This would make contraceptives such as birth control more readily available and
We wish to aid the Prevention First Act to becoming enacted. This would make contraceptives such as birth control more readily available and
Overall Marketing Strategy
Since the regular American policy to social and economic problems
is to wait until they reach disastrous proportions before taking action, our
strategy is to convince everyone, that immediate action is necessary. We must show the President, the Senate, the
House of Representatives, and the American people that if we maintain the
status quo, many people will never break out of the cycle of poverty and how
that affects the overall economy.
In order to do this we must
spread awareness of how large of a problem teen pregnancy is in America, as
well as how it specifically affects the rest of America, even if they aren’t a
teen parent. For example, teen pregnancy
costs the American’s taxpayers 9.1 billion, according to a 2006 report by Saul
Hoffman, Ph.D. and published by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy.
Positioning
We
are a national campaign with a specific target; lowering teen pregnancy. There
are similar national programs such as the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy and avoidthestork.com in Iowa. However, we are willing to join with these
groups in order to serve the purpose of lowering teen pregnancy.
Points of Differentiation
·
We have one
major goal: to get the Prevention First Act enacted
·
Taking a
preventative role to a very real social and economic problem of teen pregnancy
·
Targeting teens
that are in areas that make them most susceptible based on research, which is
teens in rural areas in the Southern United States.
Pricing
Strategy
Our
services from the mentoring to the campaigning for a change in legislature are
all free to clients.
Fundraising
Strategy
Events
1.
Teen Nightclub
on Fridays-
On
the second Friday of each month we will throw a dance party for teens that are
13-19 years old. We will rent out a
space downtown in Austin and provide non-alcoholic drinks and pizza and charge
5 dollars at the door. This way we will
raise money as well as give teens alternative activities for
entertainment.
2.
Happy Hour
We
are throwing every month on the fourth Tuesday because it tends to be a slower
night for bars and they are more likely to rent out their space. We will charge 10 dollars for entry into the
bar that we rent out, which will get the customer two drinks as well. The price is cheap enough that we’ll attract
people in their 20’s and 30’s that frequent bars for a deal on Tuesday, and
they can also feel good about their money going to charity. We will advertise
these events through Face book and Twitter as well as through the local
newspaper and ads placed around Austin.
Advertising
Strategy
Internet
and social networking: This will be our
biggest median for reaching teens that need our services as well as reaching
the President, the Senate, and House of Representatives in order to implement
policy changes. We will have our own
website in order to spread our message, but we will also be using many other
websites such as:
Change.org
Change.org
is a popular website for people who wish to implement social change by banding
together and signing petitions that they agree with and sending them to people
with political power to change these things like Governors, Senators, and the
President. This will be a useful tool
for us to garner support for lowering teen pregnancy by enacting the Prevention
First Act, if there is enough support.
Facebook
Facebook
is an extremely popular social media tool that we will use to spread our
message quickly and reach a large population.
This will be especially useful for spreading the news about our
mentoring program.
Twitter
Twitter
is another popular social media website that we will use to reach politicians
for enacting the Prevention first act, and to reach the American public about
our program.
Newspaper:
We
will create a public press release that we will deliver to the newspapers in
the area such as: The Austin Daily Herald, and the Austin American-Statesman.
We will also deliver our press release to nationally renowned newspapers such
as The Chicago Sun Times, and The New York Times.
Mail:
We
will use this medium in order to spread facts and figures about the detrimental
effects teen pregnancy has on the American Economy. These will be sent out to everyone.
Jessica
Closes the Gap
In the Merchant of
Venice things are not what they seem.
The Merchant of Venice is essentially a feminist play. Shakespeare’s
message in The Merchant of Venice is that even if someone is at the bottom of
the social ladder, because of gender of religion, they can still rise above
this adversity. Jessica in The Merchant of Venice is strategically used
by Shakespeare as an example of how someone can rise above the social
misfortune that they were born into.
Shakespeare’s The Merchant
of Venice is an optical illusion in literary form. It seems to be literary proof that “Things
aren’t always what they appear”. It’s
called the Merchant of Venice, yet the actual merchant, Bassanio, is a
relatively minor character. It would
seem to be about men, but the female characters are the most important
characters.
Jessica, though a minor
character, actually plays an important role.
She is strategically used to contrast Shylock and to parallel
Portia. Shylock is a socially
disadvantaged outsider in Venice, due to his religion. Shylock often faces prejudice from many
people in the society, even from the legal authority. He is also cheap, greedy, hateful, and
deserves some of the karma that comes his way.
Shylock is almost a stereotypical Jewish character from an anti-Semitic
viewpoint.
Shylock’s only saving grace
is that he is undeserving of the prejudice that the Venetian society deals
him.
“For sufferance is the bade
of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever,
cutthroat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish
gabardine,” (1.3.108-110)
In fact, no one deserves the
treatment he is given by the Christian Venetians. This begs the question of whether Shylock is
evil or is he simply acting reacting to a society that was set against him to
begin with. Shylock seems to be to be
doomed to fail from the beginning. He
only wants what he was promised from the beginning by Antonio and
Bassanio. Antonio agreed that if they do
not pay Shylock his bond of 3,000 ducats in the allotted time then, Shylock
could cut a pound of Antonio’s flesh.
However, in the end, because
of Venetian law, and Portia’s cleverness, Shylock never gets his loan
back. In fact, he is almost sentenced to
death. The Christian court was merciful,
and instead of death for “conspiring to kill a Venetian citizen”, Shylock must
give all of his property to Lorenzo and Jessica, the daughter who abandoned
him, and he must convert to Christianity.
Jessica is Shylock’s
daughter, but familial bonds are where there similarities end. While Shylock is described as old, and ugly,
Jessica is the opposite. According to
Lorenzo,
“For she is wise, if I can
judge of her,
And fair she is, if mine eyes
be true
And true she is, as she hath
proved herself;” (II.6.55)
Shylock is described by his Jewishness, more often than his name.
“And say there is much kindness in the Jew.” (1.3.152) He is often referred to as “the Jew”. However, Jessica is often referred to as
“gentle,” which is similar to gentile, a word for a non-Jew. Jessica is even referred to as Christian, to
the point where people mock the idea that Jessica could be Shylock’s daughter.
“There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between
jet and ivory, more between your bloods than there is between red wine and
Rhenish.” (3.1.36-38)
Salerio compares Jessica and Shylocks kinship to jet and ivory,
meaning that they don’t look anything alike.
By running away
from Shylock, Jessica forsakes her Jewish race and culture for the Christian
religion. Jessica says “I shall be saved
by my husband. He hath made me a
Christian.” This line echoes a line in
the bible. “For the unbelieving husband is
sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her
believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are
holy. “(I Corinthians 7:14) Jessica
could be seen as deserting her father, and being an ungrateful daughter. This indicated that Jessica actually believes
the Christian mores and that she is willing to become Christian because it
follows what she actually believes, rather than because it would be more
convenient at this time in Venice to be a Christian rather than a Jew.
However, Jessica does seem to think through her decision
carefully, and does seem to feel sad after having chosen Lorenzo and society
over her father and culture. It’s clear
that her decision to run away was premeditated.
“What heinous sin it is
in me to be ashamed to be my father’s child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners.”
(2.3.16-19)
Jessica seems to be more ashamed of her father’s
character than his culture and race.
This is shown when Jessica tells everyone at Belmont that her father is
more interested in getting revenge on Antonio than collecting his return on
investment. “ I heard him swear to Tubal and Chus, his countrymen, that he
would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum that
he did owe him” She tells on her father, because she doesn’t agree with his
motives and childish revenge.
Women are the most logical characters, and the most merciful characters.
Jessica is necessary because she is an ideal contrast for Portia.
"The rules of fair play do not apply in
love and war." John Lyly
Frontline
Poisoned Waters Assignment
Major
Problems
Pollution from
agriculture and business- An example is the dead zones in
waterways. Dead zones are areas in the water that have no oxygen because the
chemicals in the water attract an alga that eliminates the oxygen in the water.
Issues:
·
Financial Loss- Billions of dollars of
income from fishing and tourism are lost by the areas around polluted waterways
such as the Chesapeake Bay Area.
·
Health- Polluted waters harm human
being’s health as well as kill animals that come into the areas, especially in
the “dead zones.”
Pollution from Urban
Sprawl- Urban sprawl is the pattern of people moving away
from urban areas into the surrounding suburban areas.
Issues:
·
Environmental Cost- People living in
suburbs are more dependent on cars than people living in cities. Also, larger houses and lawns emit more
pollution.
·
Other Costs/ Externalities- Greater
dependence on cars creates greater dependence on oil for the whole
economy. Also, the social costs of
increased driving include lowering the air quality in the area.
Possible Solutions
·
Encouraging organic farms- We could
create a 5% fine on soda in the United States.
The money from the fine could go towards organic farming in the
U.S. Replacing large inorganic farms
with small, organic farms would cut back on fertilizer runoff into
waterways. This would lower the health
and financial impact of the dead zones.
·
Enacting an impact fee for each city
based on how far the development is from the city center, like the one in
Lancaster, California. This would help
ensure that downtown areas would not become financially desolate areas because
of urban sprawl.
Elizabeth
Bathory: The Countess of Cachtice
“Countess Elizabeth Bathory checked her reflection in the mirror as
the young servant girl brushed the shining, jet black hair on which she prided
herself. The tiniest lines were
beginning to gather around her eyes and the Countess regarded them with
alarm. The servant girl was annoying her
too, with her clumsy brush-strokes.
Scared that her mistress might fly into one of her rages, the girl
nervously pulled the brush too hard through the long hair. The Countess screamed with rage. Turning on the cowering girl, eyes blazing,
she lashed out, her long nails gouging a deep scratch in the maidservant’s
hand. Enough blood was spilt to splash
her own hand before she banished the girls from her presence with an angry
tirade.
“But a few days later, the Countess noticed that this same patch of
skin seemed to be looking particularly radiant.
She felt a delicious thrill of excitement. Could she have discovered the secret of
eternal youth?”[1]This
event is said to have inspired her downfall into an extreme murder spree and to
have been a catalyst for her most depraved acts. This story is just one of the many myths
about Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived in 17th century Hungary.
These included hanging beautiful virgins upside down and slitting their
throats, or “allowing the blood to drain off into a pool in which she bathed.”[2]She
is also accused of being a witch, a werewolf, and a lesbian.
Although none of these stories are likely to be true, the truth is
even more shocking. Not only was able to
kill 650 girls and escape detection for many years, but she also escaped a
trial and an execution. How was she able
to do this? Elizabeth Bathory’s
immensely powerful political ties, the unstable political background in Hungary
in the 17th century, and the legal situation allowed her to be able
to murder more than 650 girls, remain undetected for more than 20 years, and
still did not receive a trial or an execution.
There is substantial proof that she murdered many young women and
got away with it for many years but how or why, is a mystery. Even more
baffling than how Elizabeth covered her tracks is what would influence someone
to do these gruesome murders with absolute disregard to human life. Elizabeth had
extremely negative influences in her childhood that may have led her to believe
that violence towards the peasantry was acceptable.
One such event was when Elizabeth was six years old. At Ecsed, the Bathory family castle, there
were a group of gypsies hired to play music for a party. One of these gypsies was later accused of
selling one of his children to the Turkish enemies; he denied this charge and
explained that the Turks had stolen his daughter. Now being cleared of these charges, the
guards had searched him and found bundles of cash in his pockets, which he
couldn’t explain. The gypsy was judged
guilty at castle Ecsed and sentenced to death.[3] It seems as if they had already wanted to
accuse the gypsy man of something just because of his ethnicity, and because
the Count and Countess’s word will be taken over the gypsy’s about the
truth. They, the Magyars which is the
upper-class Hungarian race, could seemingly accuse someone of a lower class and
a different race of whatever they felt like for any reason.
The gypsy’s sentence was carried out as follows: Three soldiers
split open the abdomen of a horse; they shoved the gypsy inside with his head
sticking out of the horse. Then they
sowed the stomach of the dead horse back up.
In Elizabeth’s diary she talks about how after her disgust at the smell
of the dying man and horse she actually giggled at the incident[4]
Perhaps she had already been taught that peasants were less than human and had
witnessed others of her class utilize severe violence towards the lower
classes, which in this case was the gypsies. Another instance of Elizabeth’s
family being extremely cruel towards the peasantry was with her cousin, Stephen
the prince of Transylvania. When the
peasants of Transylvania revolted, Stephen had the ears and noses cut off of 54
of them.[5] Seeing
this kind of behavior from one’s own family could definitely influence a child
to believe that violence was commonplace.
After being engaged to Ferenc Nadasdy, Elizabeth had another
experience that would influence her for the rest of her life. Elizabeth had moved into her future mother-in
law, Ursula’s castle. There Elizabeth
was impregnated by a peasant lover.
Ursula quickly made arrangements for Elizabeth to be taken to a Bathory
castle in the countryside to have her baby in secret. All the while Ursula told everyone that
Elizabeth was sick. After giving birth
to her daughter, Elizabeth was forced to give her up to a peasant family, who
would raise her. This event must have
caused Elizabeth serious embarrassment, if it didn’t completely derail
her. The simple fact of having been
impregnated by some of the peasant class, especially when she came from the
most prominent family in Hungary must have been extremely embarrassing. Then having to give her daughter up for a
peasant family to care for could also be linked to her hatred of the peasants .[6]
It would be useful in order to understand Elizabeth’s treatment of
peasants and how she escaped detection we must first understand the complete
backdrop of Hungary; what kind of an era she lived in and what the laws
were. Before Elizabeth Bathory was born
in 1514, the peasants of Hungary were all obligated to join the military and
fight against the Turkish forces. The
government tried to disband the military right away, once they realized that
they had put all of the serfs together in an army, and given these serfs weapons. One man, George Dozsa also realized the
potential of this army, and led the army of peasants to revolt against the feudal
lords. Dozsa’s peasant army was defeated
by soldiers under the feudal lords in July.[7]
After this peasant revolt, a
new law called the Tripartitum was instated as a punishment for the
peasants. It meant that peasants could
no longer travel, as they were completely tied to the land they worked. This new law also meant that serfs were
judged to be innocent or guilty of a crime based solely on the lord’s word.[8] A
peasant could leave in theory, but in practice they could be accused of any
crime by the lord and forced to pay for this “crime” with work.[9]
Not only did the laws of Hungary work in Elizabeth’s favor, but so
did the Political atmosphere. The political station of Hungary in the 17th
century was extremely shaky. After the Hungarians are defeated by the Turks at
the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary is split into three different areas: Southern
Hungary, Western Hungary, and Transylvania.
Southern Hungary is under the “allegiance of the Sultan of
Constantinople,” which implies that it is occupied by the Turks. Western Hungary is under a puppet government
to the Holy Roman Empire. Northern Hungary or Transylvania remains somewhat
independent of the Hapsburgs or the Turks.[10]
Hungary is the closest European nation to the Turkish Empire and
constantly under threat from them. There
were many raids from Turkish invaders and war with the Turks never resided
while Elizabeth was alive. [11]The
brutal war with the Turks also meant that violence and torture were fairly
commonplace. It also meant that people live in constant fear of attack and this
strengthens the powers of those protecting the city. This includes the Countess Bathory who would
have had direct power and responsibility for the villagers in the nearby towns.
The Countess herself had control
over the area surrounding her castle at Cachtice.
With this kind of extreme social power that nobles held and the
instability of Hungary at this time, it is less surprising that Elizabeth
Bathory was able to commit murder without being caught. Elizabeth was a member of the Bathory family,
which was the wealthiest and most powerful family in Hungary. The Lord Palatine
of Hungary, which is “the highest legal authority in Hungary” was her cousin by
marriage, George Thurzo.[12] Elizabeth’s
most powerful cousin, Stephen Bathory, was king of Poland, and later became
Prince of Transylvania. These close familial ties to powerful leaders is what
allowed Elizabeth’s murder sprees to go unpunished for so long.
Although the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II may have heard of
Elizabeth’s crimes from the complaints made by the peasants of Cachtice to his
officials, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to make an enemy of the ruling
Prince of Transylvania. Arresting
Elizabeth certainly would have made relations with her cousin Stephen and
therefore, Transylvania, sour.
Much of Elizabeth’s torturing is completely influenced by her
lovers. Elizabeth’s torture of her peasants didn’t begin until after Elizabeth
and Ferenc Nadasdy married. Ferenc had
earned the nickname of “the black night of Hungary” for his viciousness towards
the Turks. He was well-known in the military for the skilled torturing
techniques he used on captured Turkish soldiers. Ferenc spent many afternoons teaching his
wife, Elizabeth, new techniques he had learned.[13]
One technique he showed Elizabeth was called “star kicking.” A maid was forced to undress and honey was
rubbed all over her. Then she was forced
to stay outside for a day, while the bugs and the bees stung her. Often times, the maid would pass out from the
pain, which was seen as a mysterious “falling sickness” to Elizabeth and her
accomplices. In order to cure the
“falling sickness”, the star kicking technique was employed. One of Elizabeth’s accomplices would put a
piece of fire-lit paper between the toes of the passed out maid. The girl would “see stars, and kick” [14]
When her husband was away at war, Elizabeth took out her boredom on
her servants. She was especially harsh
towards servants that tried to escape.
For example, Pola, a 12-year old servant had escaped from the castle.
Dorka, and Helena Jo, two of Elizabeth’s main accomplices, found Pola and
brought her back to the castle. Elizabeth
went into one of her extreme rages. She
grabbed Pola and threw her into a cage that was hauled by a pulley, which
Elizabeth had had constructed for this purpose.
The cage had spikes on the inside, which Pola tried to avoid, but Ficzko
maneuvered the ropes to make the cage move from side to side and “Pola’s flesh
was torn to bits.”[15]
After her husband died, Elizabeth found a new lover in Anna
Darvulia, who was a well-known sadist and dabbled in the dark arts. Many of Elizabeth’s other accomplices feared
Darvulia because they believed that she was the catalyst for Elizabeth’s
killing sprees and because Elizabeth took orders from her. Anna Darvulia had also taught Elizabeth many
new torturing techniques. One of these
is called the cold-water technique. This
is where a maid was told to undress and then forced outdoors in the
winter. Cold water was poured over the
maid from above. Everyone that was
subjected to this “technique” died.[16]
After Anna Darvulia died, Elizabeth found a new lover in Ezri Majorova,
who was the widow of a tenant farmer.
Although Darvulia had advised Elizabeth to only kill peasant girls,
Majorova though it was a good idea to also murder girls of the nobility.[17] Bringing noble women to her castle was more
difficult and she had to entice them by throwing a party and killing them would
not go unnoticed.[18]
Elizabeth’s murder of noble girls bred rumors and eventually all of
those tortures and mass killings that Elizabeth and her entourage committed
became public knowledge. Although long
before Elizabeth’s trial, the peasants of the city of Cachtice had a general
idea of what was going on at the castle, they had no power to do anything about
it. They lodged a formal complaint about
the cruelty of Ferenc Nadasdy and his wife toward their servants to the Holy
Roman Emperor Rudolph’s officials. [19]
However, they were ignored because they saw the death of Slovak peasants as a
small price to pay politically compared with openly denouncing a member of the
Bathory clan. Besides, Elizabeth’s cousin
Stephen was King of Poland and the Holy Roman Emperor wanted peace with Poland,
and Elizabeth’s other cousin George Thurzo was Lord Palatine of Hungary. This is the position directly below the Holy
Roman Emperor and it’s possible that Thurzo made sure these complaints never
reached the Emperor.
Besides the peasantry, the clergy also denounce Elizabeth openly. The
pastor, Janos Ponikenusz, the local priest at Cachtice also had heard of
Elizabeth’s crimes from the local peasants. Janos decided to investigate it for
himself and finds nine bodies of girls, who were obviously tortured in the land
between his church and the castle. The
pastor writes a letter to his superior Elias Lanyi saying “Oh such terrible
deeds, oh such unheard of cruelties: To my mind there has not existed a worse
killer under the sun.” [20]However,
Pastor Ponikenusz’s letter never reaches anyone, because Elizabeth’s
accomplices stop him from sending the letter and send him back to the
church. The Pastor and his church are
fully dependent on Elizabeth for the money she donates to their church.
It isn’t until two noblewomen whose daughters had been killed and
Imre Megyery file a complaint to the new Holy Roman Emperor, King Matthias’s
officials that anything is done about Elizabeth’s crimes. [21]
Imre Megyery is Paul Nadasdy’s (Elizabeth’s son) tutor. Imre isn’t a peasant; he is a member of the
lower noble class, in fact he is distantly related to the Bathorys. After Megyery hears about the murders going
on at Cachtice castle, and rallies the Hungarian nobles, the Hungarian
Parliament is summoned to hear their testimony against Elizabeth. Everyone was outraged that along with
torturing and killing peasants, Elizabeth had also tortured and killed girls of
noble birth.[22] After this the Lord Palatine, George Thurzo,
was forced to take action.
Although it isn’t surprising that Elizabeth was sentenced to life
imprisonment, it is surprising that Elizabeth wasn’t put on trial for her
crimes. Instead George Thurzo himself decided
to sentence her himself without the Holy Roman Emperor’s knowledge.[23] He sentences her at dinner with their family
in front of other high officials in the family and says “You, Elizabeth, are
like a wild animal; you are in the last months of your life. You do not deserve to breathe the air on
earth, nor see the light of the Lord.
You shall disappear from this world and shall never reappear in it
again. The shadows will envelop you and
you will find time to repent your bestial life.
I condemn you, Lady of Cachtice, to lifelong imprisonment in your own
castle.”[24]
Elizabeth isn’t accused of Witchcraft, although she should have
been. There are many accounts of
Elizabeth doing spells and curses.
Elizabeth tells her husband about a new spell that she is excited to
try. “ Thorko has taught me a lovely new one, choose a black hen, beat it with
a white stick, keep its blood and use it against your enemies in this way; it
you touch with the blood your enemies or their clothes, they will not harm
you.” [25]
In this letter she seems extremely excited to try out this spell and seems to
have done a few spells already.
Witchcraft accusations tends to spread to people that the accuser
knew like close friends and family. Elizabeth
sought after people who had knowledge in witchcraft and sorcery. That is why all of Elizabeth Bathory’s
accomplices in torture and murder were known for their knowledge of the “dark
arts.” Elizabeth’s closest consort and
lover, Erzi Majorosne was well know as the town sorceress and is eventually
burned alive for sorcery.[26] Erzi had also helped Elizabeth to use black
magic to bake a cake that was supposed to poison all of her enemies; the Holy
Roman Emperor, the Lord Palatine of Hungary, and Imre Megyery.[27]
There were many witnesses to the fact that Elizabeth Bathory openly
practiced magic. The local pastor,
Pastor Ponikenusz, attests that before her trial, Elizabeth lost a good luck
charm that she had with an incantation on it and he saw her hurrying over to
the forest to have the forest sorceress, Ezri Majorova, make her a new
spell. The pastor later found her charm
with the incantation on the ground, it read:
“Help me, O Clouds! O Clouds, stay by me! Don’t let any harm come
to Elizabeth Bathory, let her remain healthy and invincible! Send, O send, you
powerful Clouds, ninety cats. I command
you, O King of the Cats, I pray you, may you gather together, even if you are
in the mountains, waters, or on the roofs, or on the other side of the ocean!
May these ninety cats appear to lacerate and destroy the hearts of the king
Matthias and of the red Megyery and of the Judge Cziraky, so that they may not
harm Elizabeth Bathory! Holy Trinity, protect me!”[28]
This incantation certainly indicates that Elizabeth practiced what
people in Early Modern Hungary would have considered witchcraft. This spell could also be seen as a curse
against the King, Megyery, and the judge.
One could explain away how Elizabeth wasn’t accused of witchcraft by
presuming that 17th Century wasn’t a society that persecuted people
for witchcraft, but that wasn’t the case.
Ezri Majorova was accused of witchcraft and eventually burned at the
stake for this, but she was only a tenant farmer’s widow and not as powerful
and wealthy as Elizabeth Bathory.
However, there are other accounts of
women like Elizabeth, wealthy and powerful, that were accused of
witchcraft. An example is Anna-Rosina
Listhius, who is a cousin to the Lord Palatine of Hungary George Thurzo, and is
married to a lord. Anna had, like
Elizabeth, been killing servants for many years. Anna also shared Elizabeth’s interest in
spells and curses and was a known healer.
Anna-Rosina had killed 9 servants in twelve years and was only put on trial
because her recent killings had been girls of noble birth. The greatest difference between
Anna-Rosina’s trial and Elizabeth’s are that Anna was accused of witchcraft and
tried by a court, while Elizabeth was only accused of murder and sentenced by
the Palatine himself, without trial.[29] Although the mass murder’s Elizabeth is
accused of having committed, warrant a trial.
Elizabeth wasn’t given a trial and
consequently wasn’t convicted of witchcraft because it would have been
disadvantageous financially for her family. The Lord Palatine, although he
wouldn’t benefit directly from inheritance of Elizabeth Bathory’s estates, he
might have benefitted indirectly. The
Bathory family actually met together and made a political and financial deal to
everyone in the Bathory clan’s benefit. If the Palatine George Thurzo made sure
that Elizabeth’s money and property couldn’t be confiscated, then the
inheritors would pay Thurzo back at a future date.[30]
Although George Thurzo and her
family may not have known about Elizabeth’s interest in black magic, they were
presumable well versed in the laws of Hungary.
If Elizabeth convicted of Witchcraft, then all of her property would be
seized by the state. Even if Elizabeth
was only convicted of murder, however, two thirds of her property would go to
the judges and the state.[31] Both of these scenarios would mean huge
financial losses for the Bathory clan.
Originally, before everyone knew of
Elizabeth’s crime, George Thurzo had planned to send her to a convent. However, before he was able to through with
that, Imre Megyery and the Hungarian nobles hear about Elizabeth’s atrocities
and King Matthias orders George Thurzo to handle the situation. The Palatine does handle the situation, in
the most beneficial way for himself and the Bathory Clan.
Elizabeth Bathory was essentially saved from trial and possible
accusations of witchcraft directly because of George Thurzo’s machinations.
George Thurzo raided Cachtice castle with his men during the holidays, when the
Hungarian Parliament wasn’t in session.
That way he could handle Elizabeth’s arrest his way without the
Hungarian Parliament’s input.[32] Then, he and the Hungarian Parliament wrote
letters to King Matthias to try to convince him that Elizabeth Bathory needed
no trial and George Thurzo had already sentenced her.[33] They tried to say that a trial would take too
long and they wouldn’t financially benefit anyway. Eventually, King Matthias consents, and
Elizabeth Bathory is imprisoned without a trial until her death three years
later.[34] Essentially, Elizabeth was saved by her
family’s power and the political and legal backdrop of Hungary.
Bibliography
Letter from Pastor Ponikenusz to Elias
Lanyi found in Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the
Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987
Letter from the Holy Roman Emperor,
Matthias II to the Hungarian Parliament found in Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997
Letter from the Hungarian Parliament to
the Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias II found in Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997
McLaughlin, Daniel. "The Bloody
Countess." Irish Times (Dublin), September 18, 2007.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/selectdb?vid=1&hid=13&sid=040c6195-f90a-43b7-bcc3-530300c1ed6f%40sessionmgr4
(accessed November 20, 2009).
McNally,
Raymond T.. Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of
Transylvania.. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987.
Stradling, Jan. "Elizabeth
Bathory." In Bad Girls: The Most Powerful, Shocking, Amazing, Thrilling
& Dangerous Women of All Time. New York: Metro Books, 2008. 72-83.
Thorne,
Tony. Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997.
Trial Document found found in Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the
Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 1997
Trial Document found found in Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of
Transylvania.. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987
Letter from Countess Elizabeth Bathory to
her husband Ferenc Nadasdy found in Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997
[1]
Bad Girls: The Most Powerful, Shocking, Amazing, Thrilling & Dangerous
Women of All Time. New York: Metro Books, 2008. P.72
[2] Irish Times (Dublin), September 18, 2007.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/selectdb?vid=1&hid=13&sid=040c6195-f90a-43b7-bcc3-530300c1ed6f%40sessionmgr4
(accessed November 20, 2009).
[3] Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of
Transylvania.. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987. P.20
[4]
Ibid p.21
[5] Countess Dracula:
Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997. p.21
[6]
Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987. p.29
[7]
Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997 p. 20-21
[8]
Ibid p. 21
[9]
Ibid p.21
[10] Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987 p.17
[11]
Ibid 23-24
[12]
Ibid 19-20
[13] Irish Times (Dublin), September 18, 2007.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/selectdb?vid=1&hid=13&sid=040c6195-f90a-43b7-bcc3-530300c1ed6f%40sessionmgr4
(accessed November 20, 2009).
[14]
Trial Document, found in Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the
Blood Countess of Transylvania.. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987 p. 207
[15]
Ibid p.47
[16]
Ibid p.47
[17]
Ibid p.48
[18]
Ibid p.49
[19] Countess Dracula:
Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997. P. 25
[20] Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the
Blood Countess of Transylvania.. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987p.57
[21]
Letter from Holy Roman Emperor Matthias to Lord Palatine George Thurzo, found
in Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the
Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
1997 p.172
[22] Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987pp.67
[23]
Letter from Holy Roman Emperor Matthias to Lord Palatine George Thurzo found in
Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the
Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
1997 p.172
[24] Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987p.84
[25] Letter
from Countess Elizabeth Bathory to her husband Ferenc Nadasdy found in Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997 p.72
[26]
Trial Document found found in Countess Dracula: Life and Times of
Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 1997 p.56
[27] Trial
Document found found in Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the
Blood Countess of Transylvania.. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987 p. 207
[28]
Letter from Pastor Ponikenusz to Elias Lanyi found in Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987 p. 66
[29] Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997 p. 237-239
[30] Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987 p.73
[31] Countess
Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997p. 239
[32] Dracula
Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania..
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987 p. 73
[33]
Letter from the Hungarian Parliament to the Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias II
found in Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the
Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
1997p.174
[34]
Letter from the Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias II to the Hungarian Parliament
found in Countess Dracula: Life and Times of Elisabeth Bathory, the
Blood Countess. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
1997p. 176
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