Dracula

By most accounts, Vlad III was born to a wealthy Impaler family in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern-day Romania, where his father was a "voivode," or ruler. The true nature of his family was kept secret from the other nobles of Transylvania and in 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor, inducted Vlad’s father into a knightly order, the Order of the Dragon. This designation earned Vlad II a new surname: Dracul. The name came from the old Romanian word for dragon, "drac." His son, Vlad III, would later be known as the "son of Dracul" or, in old Romanian, Drăculea, or Dracula.

The Order of the Dragon was devoted to a singular task: the defeat of the Turkish, or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II's (and later Vlad III's) home principality of Wallachia was frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian forces repulsed the invaders.

In 1442, Dracula was sent away from Transylvania to be tutored. He learnt the art of sorcerery from mystics in Africa, alchemy and swordsmanship in the Far East and philosophy in Greece. However, whilst away, Vlad's father was fighting to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia, a fight he would eventually lose. In 1447, Vlad II’s vampiric nature was discovered and he was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by local noblemen who lay siege to his castle and burnt him alive. Dracula's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed alongside his father.

Not long after these harrowing events, in 1448, Dracula embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. He had decided the time for hiding was over and utilised the full extent of his vampiric powers, along with a growing army of his race, to take back his father’s throne. According to legends that circulated after his death, Dracula then invited hundreds of local boyars to a peace banquet and — knowing they would challenge his authority — had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies impaled on spikes. Soon after hearing of his victory, thousands of Vampires flocked to Wallachia to settle in what Dracula called ‘The Promised Land’.

However, seeing the rising darkness in Wallachia caused a panic the surrounding regions. The surviving Hungarian forces, led by Clan Bemelle, join with their old enemies the Ottomans to oust Dracula from his throne and in August 1462, Vlad was forced into exile, unable to defeat his much more powerful adversary, Mehmet II.

In 1476, Dracula made one last effort to reclaim his seat as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole back the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, while marching to yet another battle with the Ottomans, Dracula and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambushed, and Dracula was killed.

There is much controversy over the location of Dracula’s tomb. It is said he was buried with a stake through his heart in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. But recently, historians have questioned whether Dracula might actually be buried at the Monastery of Comana, between Bucharest and the Danube, which is close to the presumed location of the battle in which Dracula was killed, according to Curta. There are some who believe that Dracula never perished and still haunts the world today, waiting to reclaim his birth right…