1. (1431–1476),

2. 
The noun drac "dragon" itself continues Latin
draco. Thus, Dracula literally means "Son of
the Dragon". In Modern Romanian, the word
drac has adopted the meaning of "devil" (the
term for "dragon" now being balaur or
dragon). This has led to misinterpretations of
Vlad's epithet as characterizing him as
"devilish".

3. 


Vlad was born in Transylvania in 1431 to Vlad II Dracul, future
voivode of Wallachia. Vlad's father was the son of the
celebrated Voivode Mircea the Elder.
Vlad spent his early formative years in Sighișoara. During the
first reign of his father, Vlad II Dracul, the Voivode brought
his young son to Târgoviște, the capital of Wallachia at that
time.
The Byzantine chancellor Mikhail Doukas showed that, at
Târgoviște, the sons of boyars and ruling princes were welleducated by Romanian or Greek scholars commissioned
from Constantinople. Vlad is believed to have learned
combat skills, geography, mathematics, science, languages
(Old Church Slavonic, German, Latin), and the classical arts
and philosophy.

4. 
The Byzantine chancellor Mikhail Doukas
showed that, at Târgoviște, the sons of boyars
and ruling princes were well-educated by
Romanian or Greek scholars commissioned from
Constantinople. Vlad is believed to have learned
combat skills, geography, mathematics, science,
languages (Old Church Slavonic, German, Latin),
and the classical arts and philosophy.

5. 
As the son of the Dragon, Vlad Dracula was
expected to become, by his adolescence, a
warrior. Even though the first-born Mircea would
be first in line to the throne of the principality,
the father looked upon all of his sons — Mircea,
Vlad and Radu (born in 1435) — as champee elite
to the family name. They learned how to steady
a bow, wield a blade and ride bareback before
they reached the age of their scholastic studies.
The art of fighting came foremost.

6. 
In chain mail made to fit their small bodies, with
broadswords equally balanced, and on Arabian
ponies, they dashed through the edelweissstrewn forest beside Sighisoara clipping gnarled
sycamores and poplars they pretended were
oversized sultans. While Carpathian eagles
looped overhead, watching curiously, and as
woodpeckers careened out of the way, the
Dragon watched his little Davids taking on the
imaginary Goliaths. He timed their charges,
graded their legionnaire skills.

7. 

"er liess kinnder praten die musten ire mütter
essen. Und schneyd den frawen den prüst ab
den musten ire man essen. Danach liess er sie
all spissen."
He roasted children, whom he fed to their
mothers. And (he) cut off the breasts of
women, and forced their husbands to eat
them. After that, he had them all impaled

8. 
During an outdoor festival of St. Bartholomew at
Sibiu, Dracula had 20,000 citizens arrested and spiked
in one afternoon. Claiming that they were either
treacherous bourgeoisie, or supporters of that
element, he had them - men, women and infants impaled on the outskirts of a neighboring forest. As
was his custom, he had his servants draw up a solitary
dining table of fine food and wine so that he might
enjoy his lunch by watching the tortures at close
range. He occasionally had a servant dip his bread in
the blood of the dying souls so that he could savor the
taste of life.

9. 
Estimates of the number of his victims range
from 40,000 to 100,000. According to the
German stories the number of victims he had
killed was at least 80,000. In addition to the
80,000 victims mentioned he also had whole
villages and fortresses destroyed and burned
to the ground.

10. 
Impalement wasn't a Dracula creation; if you
remember, he learned about it while a boy in
Adrianople. The French employed it before the
guillotine. Spaniards and Hungarians used it. But,
according to Ray Porter's account, "The Historical
Dracula," impalement became an art form in Dracula's
hands. "Dracula usually had a horse attached to each
of the victim's legs and a sharpened stake was
gradually forced into the body," he explains. "The end
of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that
the stake was not too sharp; else the victim might die
too rapidly from shock."

11. 
Studying the chronology of Dracula's crimes
makes it easy to understand why his reign,
though horrific, managed to go unchallenged by
his own people or by other governments for six
long years. For one thing, because he slew so
many Turks in recognized time of conflict he was
able to sustain the crusader image; foreign
dignitaries who heard of the vast impaling
applauded him for saving Romania. The
domestics, who knew better, who knew that
they too were objects of his mania, remained
silent by intimidation