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One of histories great survivors - how do YOU compare? Life in Dracula's day was hard, brutal, and often short. His own father gave him over to the Turks as a child hostage, then took a course of action almost certain to get him killed. His father and elder brother were murdered, his younger brother has shifting loyalties. Dracula's reputation for brutality led to him being considered a match for Blood Drinker Sultan Mehmed II, and may have led to the rumor that he was a blood-sucking vampire. His amazing sense for adapting to a chessboard of rapidly changing political loyalties, and his reinstatement after repeated imprisonments may have led to his reputation for rising from the dead. And the heraldic use of wolf teeth may be the source of the legend that vampires have fangs. Dracula literally lived among his enemies, and knew their ways more thoroughly than many of his contemporaries. He also learned that the nobles closest to him could turn against him at any moment. Disrespect or treachery, real or perceived, brought instant retaliation. It's not politically correct to point out today, but sometimes your best bet for survival is making it clear that you are very able and very willing to kill anyone who crosses you. When the Christian world was threatened by violent Muslim psychopaths, Vlad outdid them. In a world that once against feels battered by waves of Muslim violence, Vlad approach finds a new audience. Let's be honest: one reason that vampires appeal to the popular culture is because they refuse to take the abuse we ourselves feel powerless to resist. Kill them - if you can! - and they just come back at you again. Vlad Dracula was defeated, decapitated, burned to ash - and still influences politics and pop culture six centuries later. The only thing that sparkled about Vlad was his sword. Wallachia derives from a Saxon word for foreigner, in the same way that Saxons called their subject Britons in the west Welsh. A noble but bloody dux bellorum named Arthur united his Christian people a millennium earlier to stand against the pagan Saxon onslaught. Vlad, for all his cruelty, delayed the Muslim conquest of the Balkans for years to decades, leading to comparisons with King Arthur. When life hands you lemons... impale them!

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9781491254271

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Lord BRIAN WILKES has worked in the field of genealogical and heraldic research, leading to contacts with many of the titled families of the world. While studying the works of the late Baronet Sir Iain Moncreiffe, he was surprised to learn the extent of the British Royal Family's Balkan ancestry, including descent of the current monarch and her heirs from Vlad II Dracul and even the Prophet Muhammed! Ennobled by the Orthodox Order of St. Anna in 2011 and by the Kingdom of Ghassan in 2012, Baron Wilkes is active in charitable and humanitarian causes in several countries, including wildlife and nature preservation in Romania with his distant kinswoman, Princess Brianna Caradja. He is the author of over 60 books.

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