Now its well known that Bram Stokers Dracula ...
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| Dracula - Christopher Lee |
.... was based very loosely on Vlad III Count Vlad Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler the 15th century ruler of Wallachia in the Carpathian Mountains.
I say very loosely because its doubtful that Mr Stoker knew an awful lot about the count, other than the iconic surname, which he stole for his lead character and the fearsome reputation for blood letting and cruelty that the count had passed down through history.
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| Vlad The Impaler |
In fact the Count was far more cruel than any Vampire, however he is also a national hero in Romania in which Wallachia now exists. So interest in him is still high, 500 years later.
So in 2023 an international team of chemist investigators undertook an investigation of three hand letters written by the legendary figure to see if he left any peptides and proteins and what information might be gleaned about him, especially his medical history.
Because his fingers and hands touched the parchment or paper, they transfer molecules from their skin and this indeed proved to be the case. By applying ethylene-vinyl-acetate (aka a type of sellotape) they picked up more than 500 peptides of which 100 were likely human origin.
Analysis of these found that the fearsome count may well have been an unhealthy man. They found a likelihood that he suffered from ciliopathy, a genetic disorder that damages cells and organs. He also had inflammatory disease that would probably have caused problems with skin and his respiratory tract.
It didn't stop there, he was also likely to have suffered from Hemolacria, a condition that as the name implies means blood in the Lacria gland i.e. Bloody tears. But the final surprise is that they found no proteins derived from an animal diet. This suggests strongly that he was almost wholly a vegetarian.
Kinda ruins the Dracula image a little bit .....
Snippit: King Charles II of Britain is distantly related to Vlad the Impaler. He is Vlad's great grandson, 16 times removed. The connection lineage is through his great grandmother Queen Mary, wife to George V, who was a direct descendent of Vlad IV, who was the half brother to the original Dracula.
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