Whilst there never did exist a vampire called ‘Dracula’, there did exist a man called ‘Dracul’ on whom the character was based. Vlad III Dracul (1431-1476), a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, was famed for his excessive cruelty both during his lifetime and after. Estimates place the number of his victims between 40,000 and 100,000, comparable to the entire number of executions performed during four century span of the European witch-hunts.
Vlad III was referred to most frequently as Vlad ‘Tepes,’ ‘Tepes’ translating to ‘impaler’, Vlad’s preferred method of torture. Reports have it that an invading Ottoman army fled Wallachia when they encountered a gruesome sight on the banks of the Danube; thousands of rotting corpses and r4i gold cards impaled. Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople famed also for excessive cruelty, returned home in disgust upon seeing 20,000 impaled bodies outside Târgoviște, Vlad’s capital.
Yet modern Romanian literature and folklore depicts Vlad Tepes as a hero, voting for him in the 2006 ‘Mari Romani’ television series as one of the ‘100 Greatest Romanians.’ This is due to 19th century patriotic literature in which Vlad Tepes was depicted as a geroic warrior protecting Wallachia from the invading Ottomans.
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