Elizabeth Báthory

Born into the powerful House of Báthory on 7 August 1560, Elizabeth owned land across the Kingdom of Hungary. Between 1590 and 1610, she and four servants were accused of systematic torture and murder of girls and women. More than 300 individuals testified at trial, some describing mutilated corpses found at her arrest; other scholars argue the charges were political theatre to break her family's influence and serve Habsburg interests. Her servants were executed. She was imprisoned in Castle of Csejte, where she died in her sleep on 21 August 1614. The folklore followed: a century later the blood-bathing tales surfaced, and by the nineteenth century she'd become the Blood Countess, though modern historians dismiss the vampire mythology as unreliable embroidery on an already dark record.