Vlad III

Prince Vlad III, later known as Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, inspired the fictional vampire Count Dracula. He served as the sovereign and ruler of Ungro-Walachia and duchies of Amlas and Fagaras several times during the latter half of the 15th century. He was the son of Vlad the Great, from whom he inherited a position in a Christian society called the Order of the Dragon. This was the origin of his sobriquet "Dracula," which in English means "Son of the Dragon."

A tyrannical ruler who was much feared by his enemies, he was a hero to his people as he protected them from the Turks. To that end, he fought against the Muslim forces of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, as led by his younger brother Radu the Handsome, in Constantinople in 1462. During this time, he was briefly engaged to Erimem, a companion of the Fifth Doctor.

Four hundred years after his death, the reports of his brutality inspired a fictional vampire character of the same name. As the Doctor told his companion Peri Brown, the real version of Dracula — in spite of the absence of fangs, bats and walking down the sides of castle walls — was actually worse than his fictional namesake. (AUDIO: Son of the Dragon)

The embodiment of Dracula lived on after his death and took part in World War I. (IW: The Found World)