The charges leveled against Báthory have been described by several historians as a witch-hunt. Other writers, such as Michael Farin in 1989 have said that the accusations against Báthory were supported by testimony from more than 300 individuals, some of whom described physical evidence and the presence of mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. In a 2018 article for Przegląd Nauk Historycznych (Historical Science Review) Aleksandra Bartosiewicz stated that when Báthory was persecuted, the accusations were a spectacle to destroy her family's influence in the region, which was considered a threat to the political interests of her neighbors, including the Habsburg empire.
