Some say they myth arises out of tales of Prince Vlad Tepes, who was born in 1431 and died 1476.  He ruled the kingdom that is now know as Romania.    He was born in the town of Sighisoara in Transylvania.  That is where Northern Romania is today. His name Tepes when translated from Romanian means "impailer."  He was called the Impailer because he favorite form of Execution for his Enemy's was impailing them.  Impailing is an extremely gruesome death if you have a a probelm with this do not read on.  To impail, a long stake would be stuck into the body between the legs and hoisted veritcaly into the air.  The victim would be weighted at the wrists with probaly sand bags or if they were heavy then thier own body wieght.  Gravity would push the stake further into them until it made it to the heart killing the victim.  (stake through the heart, sound familar?)  He even enjoyed the executions so much that he would set up a banquet in the field of the dieing and enjoy supper amoung the tourtured souls, suffering a slow and painful, not to mention BLOODY death.   To protect his kingdom The Impailer would hold mass executions in the forests surrounding his domain and leave the executed corpses suspended as a warning to any enemys.  This made him very infamous to all surrounding lands. 
In addition to his title of "Impaler," Vlad was also known as "Dracula," which means "son of the Dragon." Originally, this title came about because his father (also named Vlad) belonged to the Order of the Dragon, an order formed by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund for the purpose of defeating the Turks. The elder Vlad used the dragon symbol on his coins and went by the name "Dracul" ("dragon" or "devil"). Hence the diminutive "-a" on his son's name, Dracula. As the younger Vlad's talent for torture became known, however, the name Dracula came to be interpreted more and more as the sinister "son of the devil."

the time in which Dracula Ruled was riddled with polical Turmoil.  Dracula was over thrown twice, and died violently in1476.  He was suposed to be buried in a cathderal he patronized.  however rumors surrounded his death and it was belived that his body was not in the tomb.  The tomb later and no body found.  This just adds to myths surrounding Dracula.
 

I had a little help with this page.  I got alot of the information of the net.   I had seen this on In Search of Dracula a tv speical before but needed specifics.  So if you want to know everything humanly possible about Vlad the Impailer  You can find alot of his history at

 

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