The Real Count Dracula: Prince Vlad III the Impaler

Although vampire stories have existed for hundreds of years, they became firmly entrenched in Western culture with the 1897 release of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula." Since then, Count Dracula and similar vampires have been the subject of countless movies and books. Although these vampire stories are a relatively modern invention, the character of Count Dracula is actually based on a historic figure - Vlad Dracula who lived in the Romanian province of Wallachia in the 15th century. This man, who became prince of Wallachia and adopted the title Vlad III, is popularly known as Prince Vlad the Impaler because of his great cruelty.

Although the extent and nature of his cruelty has been the source of some controversy of the years, virtually all of the sources agree that Prince Vlad III ruled his territory with an extremely hard hand. He apparently prescribed death for almost every infraction of the law and by all accounts he preferred impalement to all other forms of capital punishment. Normally, victims would have their feet tied to horses while a sharpened stake was forced into the body. Usually, the stakes entered through the anus and came out the mouth. Care was taken to make sure that the stakes were not so sharp as to kill the victims too quickly. It sometimes took hours for the victims to die as Vlad wanted his victims to suffer a slow death. After the victim was impaled, the stakes were usually driven into the ground where the victim would often be left for months to serve as a warning to others.