As you know, Dracula is an 1897 novel by an Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.

But who was Dracula? A real vampire?

So, let's get back to the history.

Vlad II (c. 1390 – December 1447), known as Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon"), was a duke of Wallachia. He was the father of Mircea II., Vlad Calugarul, Vlad the Impaler (Later called Dracula) and Radu, the Handsome.

Vlad II received the surname Dracul in 1431, after being inducted into the Order of Dragon (in Latin Societas Draconistrarum) which had been founded by the King of Hungary in 1408. (In Romanian Dracul means Dragon.)

In 1444, the King of Hungary fought against the Ottoman (turkish) Empire. The General of the King was John Hunyadi (the father of Matthias Corvinus Hunyadi, who became the king of Hungary in 1458).

Hunyadi demanded that Vlad II. fulfill his oath as a member of the Order of the Dragon and a vassal of Hungary. Vlad was commanded to join the campaign but declined.

The Christian army was destroyed in the Battle of Varna.

In 1447, John Hunyadi led an invading army against Wallachia, much due to the allied stance Vlad Dracul had taken with the Ottomans.

Vlad Tepes had been trained in military tactics by the Ottomans, and was placed on the throne with the support of the Ottoman army.

Following family traditions and due to his old hatred towards the Ottomans, Vlad decided to side with the Hungarians. To the end of the 1450s there was once again talk about a war against the Turks, in which the king of Hungary Matthias Hunyadi, known as Matthias Corvinus or Matthias the Fair-minded would play the main role. Knowing this, Vlad stopped paying tribute to the Ottomans in 1459 and around 1460 made a new alliance with Matthias.

So, Vlad III., Prince of Wallachia, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler (in Romanian Vlad Å¢epes, or as the son of Vlad Dracul simply Dracula - Son of Dracul, in English son of dragon) (November/December 1431 – December 1476), was a Wallachian Voivode.

Darcula’s second wife was a Hungarian Countess Ilona Szilágyi, the cousin of Matthias.

Vlad Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks on December 14 of 1476. His body was decapitated by the Turks and his head sent to Istanbul where the Sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that the Impaler was finally dead.

How became Dracula the Evil himself?

Vlad Dracula's reputation was considerably darker in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe. In the West, Vlad III. has been characterized as a tyrant who took sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing his enemies. The number of his victims ranges from 40,000 to 100,000. The atrocities committed by Vlad in the German stories include impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives, cutting off limbs, drowning, and nailing people's hats to their heads. His victims included men and women of all ages, religions and social classes, children and babies. Impalement was Dracul's preferred method of torture and execution.

Death by impalement was slow and agonising. Victims sometimes endured for hours or even days. Vlad often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles in the outskirts of a city that constituted his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The corpses were often left decaying for months.

So, this historical character became the most famous vampire of the world...