Prince Charles has revealed his love for the Transylvanian countryside on a new BBC radio show, leading many commentators to speculate it’s probably in the blood, because the future King of England is in fact an actual blood descendent of the the real life Dracula – Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia more commonly known as “the Impaler” wasn’t a nice guy. In fact he was an industrial strength psychopath, responsible for carnage and slaughter on an epic scale. So terrible were Vlad the Impaler’s deeds that horror writer Bram Stoker based Dracula on him.
Ironically, the famous literary vampire’s evil ways pale into insignificance when compared with the rivers of blood that the sadistic tyrant from Transylvania caused to flow. Lording over an area that encompasses much of modern-day Romania, Vlad ruled his subjects with an iron fist and an even sharper stake.
The moustached monster enjoyed nothing more than skinning, boiling, decapitating, blinding and roasting his victims, of whom there were thousands. He was also partial to cutting off people’s ears, noses, limbs, and sexual organs.
Yet what Vlad loved more than anything else was to impale people, hence his nickname. Driving a stake through a victim’s buttocks until it protruded out of their mouth was as gruesome and hideous as it sounds.
Even worse, Vlad had his stakes oiled and smoothed to ensure the victim would ensure a terribly slow and excruciatingly painful death. The psychopathic prince is said to have killed tens of thousands of people in a single day using this method.
Apparently Vlad the cad was related to Queen Mary, consort of George V, – Prince Charles’ great grandfather. And rather than play down his connections to the bloody and brutal slayer, in a 2011 documentary about the Carpathian mountains, Prince Charles made humorous references to “ Grandpa Dracula” and quipped, “‘The genealogy shows I am descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country.”
The Telegraph reported in 2012 that links between the British Royal Family and Vlad the Impaler were being exploited by the Romanian tourist board to lure tourists to the eastern European country.
As for Prince Charles, he just cannot resist the ancient call of the “ old country ” and has been making frequent trips to Vlad’s old stomping ground since 1988.
Prince Charles owns two properties and a foundation in Transylvania, which the Daily Express reports helps maintain the historic landscape and traditional farming methods such as scything.
Prince Charles is apparently beguiled by the enchanted and foreboding forests of Transylvania where wolves still howl their lament through the long winter nights and bears still prowl in much the same manner they did centuries ago.
“It just seemed to me, particularly this area of the Carpathian mountains, to be literally the last unspoilt, untouched area.”
Prince Charles is so besotted with the wildflower meadows of Transylvania, he has created his own version at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire, using seeds gathered from the Carpathian region.
“I hadn’t been aware just how extraordinary this part of the world is with all its biodiversity, and wildflower meadows.
“The association of the wildflowers, the butterflies, the whole thing. Why shouldn’t more people have access to that?”
Sowing seeds is a lot more positive than sharpening stakes, as Vlad’s blood descendent Prince Charles said, “Something in our soul, I think, responds to wildflower meadows.”
(Photos By Chris Jackson/Getty Images/Wikimedia Commons)