Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431-1476/77), was a member of the House of Draculesti, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known, using his patronymic, as Vlad Draculea or Vlad Dracula. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's patronymic and reputation.[