Count Dracula

Count Dracula is known by many as the legendary vampire who has been out in the middle of the night sucking blood from the necks of innocent people. His legend is very popular amongst Westerners, but who was the real Count Dracula. Count Dracula was really a man nsamed Vlad who was born in 13th century as the the prince of the Eastern European kingdom of Wallacia. It was located in modern day Romania which was at that time a apart of the Eastern Orthodox Church. When Vlad became king of Wallacia he took the name Vlad Dracula, which meant "son of the dragon". He named himself this after the Order of the Dragon which was an Eastern European Organization dedicated to waging crusades against the Ottoman Turks who sought Muslim expansion into their homeland. However his connection to the dragon would later have him viewed by many as the son of the devil, especially after he commited his most infamous act in his reign.
To psychologically demoralize the Turks and to keep his enemies under control, Vlad Dracula had hundreds of thousands of people (the Turks and political rivals) impaled on wooden stakes, to the point where he would be nick named "Vlad the Impaler". It was at one battle against the Turks that he was finally killed, filling the Ottoman Empire with relief that the impaler was slain. However his castle still stands in the mountains of Romania and many claim it to be cursed. His infamous reign of terror inspired the publishing of the 19th century book "Drqacula". The Romanians today view him as a strong ruler who did what he did in order to stay strong. By the 1960's, Vlad the Impaler became a national hero because of his bravery in defending Romania from the Ottoman Turks despite his blood thirsty methods in impaling people.