After Ferenc Nádasdy died in 1604, his widow Elizabeth Báthory ran the Čachtice estate from the castle above the village. In 1610 King Matthias II ordered an investigation, run by Juraj Thurzó — palatine of Hungary, the highest office below the king, and the man the dying Nádasdy had asked to look after his family — whose notaries questioned more than three hundred people; many said that young women in her household had been beaten and had died. At the end of 1610 Thurzó seized the castle, and in January 1611 four servants were tried: Ilona Jó and Dorota Sentešová were burned, Ján Ficko beheaded and burned, Katarína Benická jailed for life. Báthory herself was never charged and never tried; she was confined in her own castle and died there on 21 August 1614. There was no trial because a trial suited nobody powerful — a conviction would have forfeited the huge Nádasdy estates to the crown, the crown owed the family a large war loan, and quiet confinement let the family keep the land and let the king off the debt.Po smrti Františka Nádašdyho v roku 1604 spravovala čachtické panstvo z hradu nad obcou jeho vdova Alžbeta Bátoriová. V roku 1610 nariadil kráľ Matej II. vyšetrovanie; viedol ho Juraj Turzo — uhorský palatín, najvyšší úrad hneď po panovníkovi a človek, ktorého umierajúci Nádašdy poprosil, aby sa o jeho rodinu postaral — a jeho notári vypočuli vyše troch stoviek ľudí; mnohí vypovedali, že mladé ženy v jej domácnosti bili a že zomierali. Na konci roka 1610 Turzo hrad obsadil a v januári 1611 stáli pred súdom štyria služobníci: Ilonu Jó a Dorotu Sentešovú upálili, Jána Fička sťali a telo spálili, Katarína Benická dostala doživotie. Samotnú Bátoriovú nikdy neobvinili a nikdy nesúdili; uväznili ju na jej vlastnom hrade a 21. augusta 1614 tam zomrela. Súd sa nekonal preto, lebo nevyhovoval nikomu mocnému — odsúdenie by znamenalo prepadnutie obrovských nádašdyovských panstiev kráľovi, panovník rodine dlhoval veľkú vojnovú pôžičku a tiché väznenie nechalo majetok rodine a kráľa zbavilo dlhu.
