Fact Check: Behind the Claim King Charles' Ancestor is Vlad the Impaler
Claim:
King Charles III descends from "Count Dracula," also known as Vlad the Impaler.
Rating:
When King Charles III of England unveiled his new portrait in May 2024, he set the internet aflame with controversy. The red portrait received passionate, but mixed, reactions. Some internet users took the opportunity to share the claim that the monarch supposedly was related to Vlad the Impaler, also known as Prince Dracula (or "Count Dracula" in fictional tales), and had bragged about it in the past:
King Charles proudly admitted that his bloodline goes all the way back to Vlad the Impaler, better known as Dracula.
Vlad the Impaler’s bloodlust and cruelty was said to have inspired the most famous vampire of literature.
Vlad watched as his men cut off victims’ limbs while he… pic.twitter.com/yPDIVBFgne— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) May 14, 2024
Others made the same claim about Dracula. Several social media accounts claimed not to be surprised by the bold — some said bloody — choice for the style of the painting:
As a result, we delved into the genealogy of the House of Windsor, and we found this rumor to be true.
Vlad the Impaler
Vlad III — known as Vlad the Impaler or Voivode (Prince) Vlad Dracula — was born in Wallachia (modern Romania) some time between 1428 and 1431, and he died either in 1476 or 1477. He was the son of Prince Vlad II Dracul ("Dracula" means "son of Dracul," son of the dragon, as King Sigismund of Hungary had knighted and inducted Vlad the Elder into the Order of the Dragon).
Dracula's childhood was difficult as the Ottoman Empire kidnapped him and his brother to guarantee his father's loyalty. When Hungary invaded Wallachia, his father and older brother died at the hands of Wallachian boyars (nobles). This prompted Dracula to return to Wallachia, the first of many campaigns to reconquer his father's voivodate (principality). Dracula would go on to fight and punish the boyars for their rebellion, but also the Ottomans, to whom his younger brother had remained loyal, and the Hungarians. Assailed from all directions, Vlad III chose unqualified violence and became famous for it.
Besides poisoning wells and sending people infected with the plague among his enemies, he is most known for impaling anyone who stood against his authority — which is how he earned the "Impaler" nickname. Once, to deter the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet, Dracula left a battlefield, but not without having all dead bodies skewered, turning the field into a "forest of the impaled" — some 20,000 bodies held up on spears.
The prince's cruelty became the topic of books and pamphlets in Germany, which helped create his legend.
King Charles' Ancestor
In a 2011 documentary about the Carpathian mountains, King Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales, boasted about his notorious ancestor. "The genealogy shows I am descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country," he punned to the presenter.
Using genealogy websites and other documents, we were able to follow his ancestry and confirm that he descends from the cruel 15th-century ruler through his maternal great-grandmother, Mary of Teck, Queen Consort, wife of King George V:
(Public Domain)
Mary's father was a German Duke. It's from his branch of the family that we were able to trace her roots to the violent prince of Wallachia. We first found Mary's family tree on the website of a self-proclaimed "unabashed royal watcher" based in California. To confirm the blog's claims, we used the website Geni.com, which allows users — amateurs and professionals alike — to collaborate as they research and establish famous and less-prominent genealogies.
Starting with the Geni page of Mary of Teck and following the ancestry through her father and his forebears, we were able to arrive to Vlad Dracula through the two separate ways indicated on the blog's family tree.
The claim that this might explain the blood-red portrait, however, is beyond our ability to verify.
Sources:
Analie, Land of. 'The Bloody Ancestors of the British Royal Family'. The Land of Analie, 6 Nov. 2012, https://landofanalie.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/the-bloody-ancestors-of-the-british-royal-family/.
---. 'The Bloody Ancestors of the British Royal Family'. The Land of Analie, 6 Nov. 2012, https://landofanalie.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/the-bloody-ancestors-of-the-british-royal-family/.
Article, Holly Black ShareShare This. 'New King Charles Portrait Sparks Backlash for "Blood-Red" Palette'. Artnet News, 15 May 2024, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/king-charles-portrait-2487305.
Family Tree & Family History at Geni.Com. https://www.geni.com/family-tree/html/start. Accessed 16 May 2024.
Marie, Abbagail. 'The Dracula Book You've Never Heard Of'. Medium, 19 Nov. 2022, https://medium.com/@abbagailmarie/the-dracula-book-youve-never-heard-of-b2d72e8a0eb8.
'Mary of Teck'. Geni_family_tree, 26 Apr. 2022, https://www.geni.com/people/Mary-of-Teck/6000000001324056123.
Oliver, Amy. 'Romanian Tourist Board to Use Alleged Links between British Royalty and DRACULA to Boost UK Visitor Numbers'. Mail Online, 5 Nov. 2012, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228040/Prince-Charles-heir-Draculas-blood-line-link-used-boost-tourism-Romania.html.
Stilwell, Blake. 'The Insane Way Vlad the Impaler Turned Back an Enemy Army'. Military.Com, 23 Mar. 2022, https://www.military.com/off-duty/2020/02/26/insane-way-vlad-impaler-turned-back-enemy-army.html.
Team Wild Carpathia. Wild Carpathia 1. 2020. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoO0qxlfYrQ.
'Vlad Dracula, V, Tepelus of Dracula'. Geni_family_tree, 21 May 2022, https://www.geni.com/people/Vlad-Dracula-V-Tepelus-of-Dracula/6000000010575432214.
'Where Does The Word "Dracula" Come From?' Dictionary.Com, 22 Oct. 2020, https://www.dictionary.com/e/dracula-fish/.
Vlad the Impaler | Biography, Dracula, Death, & Facts | Britannica. 30 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vlad-the-Impaler.
