Vlad the Impaler is trending after Prince Charles claimed that he’s related to the 15th-century Romanian warlord who helped inspire Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire novel, Dracula.
Impaling was Vlad’s favorite form of torture and execution, hence the posthumous sobriquet given to the nobleman who was known as Dracula during his time. It’s estimated that as many as 100,000 people were victims of the sadistic tyrant.
The heir to the British throne was touring Romania and touting the importance of conserving Transylvania’s forests when he revealed the genealogical nugget: Dracula is a distant ancestor of his great-grandmother, Queen Mary.
