Throughout history women, from the lowliest of the working classes to the highest echelons of society have been accused of crimes ranging from witchcraft and vampirism to treason and mass murder. Such accusations stuck particularly when it came to women who held power ? the names that we most associate with maligned women today include those that we will all have heard of. The infamy of women such as Lucrezia Borgia and Elizabeth Bathory have come down to us throughout the centuries and even in the modern world, many women are needlessly and falsely vilified. But just how true were these accusations? The Most Maligned Women in History takes a look at the lives of a number of women whose crimes have been seen as some of the most heinous, just how true the rumours were and whether their reputations are deserved. AUTHOR: Samantha Morris studied archaeology at the University of Winchester and it was there, whilst working on a dissertation about the battlefield archaeology of the English Civil War that her interest in the Italian Renaissance began. Her main area of interest is the history of the Borgia family and the papacy of Pope Alexander VI, however she has a keen interest (and self-confessed soft spot) for Girolamo Savonarola. Samantha has previously written on the Italian Renaissance and runs a successful blog based mainly on the history of the Italian Renaissance, but with snippets of other eras thrown in too. 32 b/w illustrations