August
31
/ 2019
Has a 16th-century Italian noble woman, Maria Balsa, wife of Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, Count of Muro Lucano and Lord of Acerenza, (Italy) been identified as the illegitimate daughter Vlad III Tepe, also known historically as Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia and popularly known as Count Dracula? Analyses of paintings of Vlad over Europe hint at his membership of the Order of the Dragons, but the family crest of Maria in the town of Acerenza may hold hidden clues to her ancestry, or was the seven-year-old war orphan an imposter? [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"64296","attributes":{"alt":"Depiction of the genealogy of Vlad III Tepe, the Impaler, in Bran Castle (Image: Courtesy Dr Roberto Volterri)","class":"media-image","height":"700","style":"width: 449px; height: 700px;","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"449"}}]] Depiction of the genealogy of Vlad III Tepe, the
