Madam Bathory was a Hungarian land owner related to many of the eastern European royal families.
She may have been epileptic and a treatment for this was to rub blood into the lips as a cure.
Later in life she reportedly killed up to 650 people in her lust for blood. Some say this was a reaction of trying to cure her illness.
Due to her royal connections, when she was found guilty for these murders and the torturing of her victims, was to escape execution. She was taken and imprisoned in a windowless room in Čachtice Castle in solitary confinement for the last 4 years of her life before dying in 1614.
The suite of rooms she was kept imprisoned had the entrance bricked up, leaving her only a small opening for air and the passing her food and drink.
Some view her imprisonment as a political conspiracy with trumped up murder charges because she was protestant and not catholic like most of the European royalty at the time. Another reason might have been her wealth inherited from her husband and human greed for her money and estates, .
Her supposed actions of cruelty and blood lust gave her the name of Countess Dracula with a comparison to Vlad the Impailer and her reputation brought further legend of bathing in the blood of her victims and a spate of horror films about her. Although there is no evidence of her doing so, some say she and Vlad had inspired Bram Stoker to write the novel Dracula
Now back to the good stuff. Here are some great pictures from a website of a similar name to hers.
Emma
