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40 Fang-tastic Facts about the History of Vampires

Tim Flight October 24, 2019 26 min

Wiertz Museum - The Premature Burial — The Premature Burial by Antoine Wiertz, 1854. Wikimedia Commons

17. People suspected Eleonore von Schwarzenberg of being a vampire and gave her a vampire burial

Princess Eleonore von Schwarzenberg, depicted by Maximilian Hannel in 1771, was a suspected vampire. Wikimedia Commons

‘Eccentric’ is the best word to describe Princess Eleonore von Schwarzenberg (1682-1741). She kept wolves as pets, and drank their milk, believing wolf milk made her fertile. It worked – well, she gave birth to two children – but later in life, Eleonore suffered from cervical cancer. With no proper treatment, she gradually wasted away, becoming pale and thin. And it seems this made people think her a vampire. No one attended her night-time funeral in Český Krumlov and, in an unusual event for the time, a surgeon performed an autopsy. Oh, and someone placed a massive stone slab over her coffin…

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk