Inspiration for Dracula 'may have cried tears of blood', claims research

The historical figure believed to be the inspiration for Count Dracula may have cried tears of blood, researchers claim.

Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian prince in the 15th century, was reportedly the basis for the fictional vampire, created by Irish writer Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel Dracula.

Vlad, also known as Vlad III and Vlad Dracula, was killed in battle sometime between the end of 1476 and the beginning of 1477. He got his name because he impaled his enemies from the Ottoman Empire on stakes.

While academics are divided about whether Stoker used Vlad as one of his inspirations for Dracula, the link has lasted into modern media.

In director Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, actor Gary Oldman plays a version of Vlad the Impaler who becomes Dracula after drinking the blood from a stone cross in a chapel after finding his wife dead.

Read more: The new Dracula movie that’s getting praise from Stephen King

A new study says letters written by Vlad show evidence that he suffered from a condition called hemolacria, or the presence of blood in tears.

Researched analysed proteins from the documents, dating back to the 1400s.

Professor Vincenzo Cunsolo, from the University of Catania in Italy, and an international team harvested peptides and proteins from three rag paper letters, written in 1457 and 1475.

They were written to the rulers of Sibiu in Romania by a man describing himself as "prince of the Transalpine regions" and signed as "Vlad Dracula".

Professor Cunsolo said: "Our proteomic data, although it cannot be considered exhaustive alone, might indicate that, according to some stories, he probably suffered, at least in the last years of his life, from a pathological condition called hemolacria, that is, he could shed tears admixed with blood.

"Additionally, he also probably suffered from inflammatory processes of the respiratory tract and/or of the skin.

"To our reckoning, this is the first time such research has been carried out and has helped to bring to the limelight the health status of Vlad Dracula the Impaler.

"It cannot be denied that more medieval people may have touched these documents, but it is also presumable that the most prominent ancient proteins should be related to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who wrote and signed these letters."