Unfortunately, numerous rumors and legends evolved over time. In her own day, Countess Báthory was simply
referred to as the Infamous Lady. Two hundred years later, with a vampire craze sweeping Europe, legends had
already morphed her into the Vampire Lady. In her own time, servants washed away her victims' blood or covered it
with ash; two hundred years later, German author Michael Wegener invented the story that she bathed in this blood
as a magical means of sustaining her youthful appearance. History has painted the Countess as an insane
murderess; yet original letters, trial transcripts, and depositions indicate a far more complicated figure--the wife of a
national war hero, a mother, generous benefactor, and socialite who routinely attended court and even the king's
coronation, just months before her arrest. Unfortunately, by the 21st century, the accounts of her life have become
so fictionalized that the Countess is little more than a caricature.