The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the Late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary.

In the early modern period, the family produced several Princes of Transylvania and one King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (Stephen Báthory).

[5] A further division occurred under the great-grandsons of Ladislaus (latter half of the 15th century): John and Stephen dropped the name Báthory and founded the Szaniszlófi family, while Nikolaus continued the Somlyó branch.

Luke possessed wide estates in Szatmár and was granted by King Charles Robert the lordship of Ecsed, where he built the castle called Hűség (loyalty).

The youngest son, Nicolaus III (d. 1506), bishop first of Syrmia and after 1474 of Vác, excelled as a renaissance scholar and served as counselor to King Matthias Corvinus.

The Ecsed branch commonly sided with the Habsburgs: Stephen VII, who had escaped the battle, fled with Louis' widow to Pozsony (now Bratislava), where he organized the election of Ferdinand of Austria as King of Hungary.

George and Anna Báthory produced the most infamous member of the family, Elizabeth, a widow Countess who was eventually tried and found guilty in a show trial of murdering hundreds of young peasant girls over the course of twenty years.

According to the opinions of a majority of historians, legends such as her bathing in the blood of the young women were based on later rumors; the charges themselves were most likely false, trumped up in order to steal her lands from her.

The Simolin family possessed large estates in Prussia and Courland and members served the Russian Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine as diplomats.