Dracula (Reality)
A Romanian prince, Vlad Dracula (1431 - 1476) was the son of Vlad Dracul, who was a member of the Order of the Dragon. He spent several years as a prisoner of a Turkish Sultan named Mehmed II, while his younger brother Radu was taken in by the Sultan. Vlad escaped and returned to Romania, becoming its reigning prince. He was feared throughout Eastern Europe as a tyrannical monster, and he tortured and killed thousands of people. He earned the name Tepes, which was Romanian for the Impaler, as his favorite form of torture was to impale people on wooden poles. He was forced to flee Romania when the Turks took over and Radu took the throne, and spent many years in a Hungarian prison, till they agreed to support him in his quest to re-take the throne. However, they would only do this if he converted to Roman Catholicism. He succeeded in in his endeavor, but was assassinated shortly after.
It is unknown what happened to his body, for at the beginning of the 20th century, his tomb was opened to discover it was empty.
