Based on the East European legends of "vampirism", one of the undead who gains life through the sucking of human blood, "Dracula" and the tales from Vlad Tepes, are the most powerful creations of terror ever conceived. There is something about the ability to change from a bat to human form and then back again, which has terrified and yet enthralled generations of young and old alike. It was this ability to frighten and yet enthral people, which has allowed the successful transformation of the novel to the screen, from the 1927 silent version of the film "Nosferatu" to the Bela Lugosi ( Bram Stoker worked as a stage hand for Bela Lugosi) film in 1931 and finally to the latest film by Francis Ford Coppola in 1992.

A group of Wallachian noblemen, bringing with them a princely sceptre, made most people living in Nurberg, the city of imperial diets, defy the cold weather and take part, on 8th February 1431, in an important historic event. Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, conceded the ruler-ship of Wallachia to Vlad, who had been living in the court for eight years. Emperor Sigismund gave a necklace to Vlad and a golden medallion with a dragon engraved on it, the badge of the knights of the Order, bearing the name of the mystical animal.

Waiting for his coronation, Vlad with his family went to Sighisoara in Transylvania, where he set up a mint using the engraving of the medallion, a dragon, to emboss his coins. The Romanians, whose language was Latin, nicknamed Vlad, "Dracula", (from the Latin Draco-Onis, meaning Devil/Dragon). This nickname was eventually used as Vlad`s descendants surname. His second son, Vlad, was taken hostage by the Turks and then went to live with his uncle Iancu de Hunedoara, a Romanian nobleman whose daughter married Vlad and he became prince of Wallachia in August 1456.

Known as one of the most dreaded enemies of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad Dracula started organising the states army, the laws applying to the death penalty. The law on the death penalty became one of impaling. All those considered as enemies would fall to this law, highwaymen, robbers, beggars, priests that betrayed the state, treacherous noblemen, usurper Saxons who tried to have him replaced with either his cousin Dan cel Tanar, meaning Dan the Young, or by his natural brother, Vlad Calugarul, meaning Vlad the Monk.

The Ottoman historians called him Vlad Tepes, but he always signed with his father`s name, Vlad Dracula. This is testified in Bucharest`s first documentary mentioning of the family, dated 20th September 1459 and in the portrait of Odhsenbach Stambuch from Stuttgart. Arrested by his brother-in-law, Matei Corvin, because of a treacherous malvolent, Vlad Dracula spent more that ten years in prison at Visegrad, near Buda. Back on the throne in 1476 with the help of Stefan cel Mare, meaning Stephen the Great, prince of Moldavia of the Senate of the Republic of Venice and of the Pope Sixt 4th, Vlad resumes his fight against the Ottoman`s and towards the end of the same year, he is killed at Snagov by Laiota Basarab, who followed him to the throne of Wallachia.

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