Vlad 'The Impaler' III Dracula

The (possible) 'inspiration' for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Vlad Tepes, the Prince of Wallachia was born in 1431 in Transylvania. He is a popular folk hero in Romania and Moldova even today.

His reign is best known for its cruelty. True to his name, most of the victims were impaled, often thousands at a single time.

The pamphlets also claim that to massacre more victims at once, he would herd captured enemies over cliffsides onto beds of spikes below.

From these victims he was able to create an infamous
"forest of the impaled" surrounding his capital to dissuade
any attacking army from invading.

He was brought up at the court of King Sigismund of Hungary. Sigismund, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, founded a secret order of knights called the Order of the Dragon to defend Christianity from Ottoman expansion. Vlad was inducted into this order and was then known in Wallachia as "Vlad Dracul" - Vlad the Dragon. In Romanian Drac- means both "dragon" and "evil" while -ul is a suffix, Dracula means son of the Dragon, but he signed his name as Draculea or Draculya, the Devil's son.
With royals inbreeding for centuries Vlad has a very interesting family tree.

"I am the monster that breathing men would kill. I am Dracula."
read more at the Wikipedia Article

Streaming Videos:
Vlad the Impaler: Most Evil Men in History
Vlad the Impaler aka Vlad Tepes aka Vlad Dracul (the inspiration for Dracula) GV