This is where the stories and even the history books seem to fail Elizabeth. Some recounts tend to make a monster of a monarch. Nothing is clear here about what is true and what is not as Elizabeth was never tried nor convicted of any crimes.

The well known stories are of Elizabeth killing and draining the surrounding area of virgin girls to bathe in their blood in order to keep her skin young and beautiful. This started with an incident where a servant girl, a virgin of course, pulled Elizabeth’s hair while brushing it.Elizabeth slapped the girl splitting her lip and getting blood on her hand. She was said to have noticed right away that the blood seemed to make her skin more youthful and vibrant.

Stories of young girls being brought to the castle under the pretense of paid work at the castle as maidservants and then corralled in the dungeons until called for ran rampant in the country. It was said that these girls would be hung upside down by chains around their ankles and would have their throats slit to allow their blood to drain out for Elizabeth’s baths. Elizabeth was then rumored to have bathed in the blood while it was still warm from the girl’s bodies.

An image of a woman in a tub full of a red liquid is most associated with Elizabeth Bathroy.Images such as this are all to common when her name is mentioned.