King Charles goes to “Dracula’s Land.”
King Charles III
“He is the great-grandson of Vlad the Impaler”, reports the British press. “King Charles’ first trip abroad after the coronation will be a holiday in the land of Dracula,” writes the British publication The Sun. The monarch owns “at least ten properties” in Romania, adds the cited source, who states that King Charles III is the great-grandson of Vlad epes. King Charles, aged 74, is coming to Romania next month, where he “owns at least ten properties, being a descendant of Vlad the Impaler”. President Klaus Iohannis will officially receive King Charles III at the Cotroceni Palace. The visit, however, will mostly be a short vacation in Transylvania, with the monarch coming without Queen Camilla, according to the cited source.
Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century ruler also known as Vlad Dracula, claimed to have killed 23,000 people in his battles against the Ottoman Empire. The legendary name Tepeş was inspired by Bram Stoker’s book, “Dracula”. King Charles is believed to be Vlad’s great-grandson through connections with King George V’s wife, Queen Mary. Charles usually comes to Romania every year in May or June, where he likes to walk in the hills or paint near his house in Viscri. He spoke fondly of relaxing in the Carpathian Mountains, saying the land was “in my blood”. “There is a sense of continuity here. A virtuous circle in which man and nature are in balance,” the King once said about Transylvania. Charles and Camilla relaxed at Sandringham, Norfolk, for a few days last week after the coronation. The newly crowned couple is set to make an official trip to Kenya this year. A visit to France, which has been postponed, is expected to be planned this summer. The king canceled his annual skiing trip to Klosters in the Swiss Alps in March for the first time in 45 years amid fears he could injure himself before the coronation.
By Sara Colin
