Prince Vlad Dracula
(1431-1476/7)
Famous for
the character of the same name in Bram Stoker’s book, Vlad Dracula was a
Romanian prince who repulsed the Ottoman Turks from his country. He earned the moniker
Impaler (Tepes in Romanian) for his bloodthirsty practice of impaling his
enemies, erecting whole “forests” of impaled—alive—enemies.
There are
reports of cruelty and torture, but never consumption of blood or any kind of
vampiric traits. Western Europeans, Germans, Russians, and Ottomans feared and
conflated his reputation, but the people of Eastern Europe (particularly
Romania and Bulgaria) regard him as a hero for repelling the Ottomans.
Countess Elizabeth
Bathory (1560-1621)
Less
well-known than Vlad, Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary was a rampant serial killer
of teen girls. She lured girls to her castle at first with the promise of work
as servants, but later opened it up as a school for girls to learn proper
etiquette and courtly behavior. She tortured them in various ways, including
biting their flesh.
After her
trial, she was sealed into rooms in her castle; she died four years later. Court
records say she killed 80, but numbers vary all the way up to 650 from
witnesses. After her death, stories spread (many from surviving witnesses, but
not corroborated) that she bathed in and drank blood to preserve her beauty.
Transylvania
Because
Vlad and Elizabeth are in adjacent countries separated by the Carpathian
mountain range, the pervasiveness of stories from the region (many perpetuated
by Gypsies), and the remoteness of the area, this region of Eastern Europe has
become vampire central.