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The Romanians - or more properly the Wallachians - called him Vlad Tepes. Vlad the Impaler.

He and his father both belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a secret society set up by the Pope to fight Muslims and protect Christianity. The Romanian word for Dragon was Dracul. Dracul also meant "devil." As his father was called Dracul, the son, Vlad Tepes, was called Dracula or son of the Dragon, or little Dragon.

Despite the account given here about Dracula's death, all that is know for certain is that he died in a battle with the Turks and was killed by having his head cut off, possibly by a traitor in his own force. His head was apparently sent to Constantinople where the Sultan had it displayed on a pike.

There was a grave uncovered in a Church where Dracula was supposedly buried and the corpse had no head.

Dracula, in addition to his problems with the Turks, also had problems with foreign settlers - German Saxons - in his Country, problems arising from the conflict between Orthodox and Latin Christians, and problems with his aristocrats - the Boyars - as well as with the ruler of Hungary and some German potentates.

The stories about Dracula and his fiendish activities were transmitted to us by his enemies - the Germans and Hungarians.

The fact that his own people had a very different view of him indicates these stories may have been biased.

It was a violent, cruel age, and a Choirboy is not the kind of character needed to deal with the Turks who were a violent and aggressive enemy.

I think westerners should re-appraise Dracula and regard him in the same light as other Christian leaders who fought to keep the Muslim enemy from defiling European soil with their polluted presence. And for a time,e he did succeed. The Turks learned to fear the man called Vlad Tepes.

Modern Europeans could learn a lot from Vlad "Dracula" Tepes.
May God bless you Vlad Tepes, wherever you are. Europe owes you a debt of gratitude.

For more, see also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad

"He was greatly disliked, but the bufferzone between Central Europe and the Ottoman Empire made Vlad a crucial player in the defense of Christendom.

At times, he and his army would pass over the frozen Danube and invade Ottoman territory (mainly in present-day Bulgaria) and cause great mayhem. In one of his invasions, he is supposedly to have killed more than 20,000 Turks. This, in turn, caught the attention of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who himself laid siege on Targoviste. Vlad fled but left impaled corpses of Muslims and used the scorched earth policy. He ordered the burning of crops, the poisoning of wells, and the killing of all domestic animals. He freed convicted criminals and encouraged those who were afflicted with leprosy and the bubonic plague to mingle among the Turks.

Mahmud Pasha lamented that "for six leagues not a drop of water was to be found. The intensity of the heat caused by the scorching sun was so great that the armor seemed as if it would melt like a lighted candle."