Prince Charles is campaigning to save the forests of Transylvania, inspired by his ancestral links to Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century nobleman better known by his patronym, Dracula.
Rapid economic growth in Romania - which is now part of the EU - means that the forests of the Carpathian Mountains are under threat from development and logging.
The Prince is calling for the forests, some of the last untouched wilderness areas in Europe, to be protected before they are lost, like the woodland that once covered Britain.
Count Dracula is related to Britain's royal family both genealogically and through a medical condition that gives sufferers a thirst for blood.
It is believed that Queen Mary, consort of George V, was related to the 15th Century slayer Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula
Vlad is said to have dispatched more than 100,000 Turkish warriors in battle. The vampire legend was fed by his predilection for eating bread dipped in his victim's blood.
And it is known that porphyria, an iron deficiency, which is thought to lie behind the vampire myth and may have spurred Vlad's taste for blood, has run in the Royal Family.
Rapid economic growth in Romania - which is now part of the EU - means that the forests of the Carpathian Mountains are under threat from development and logging.
The Prince is calling for the forests, some of the last untouched wilderness areas in Europe, to be protected before they are lost, like the woodland that once covered Britain.
Count Dracula is related to Britain's royal family both genealogically and through a medical condition that gives sufferers a thirst for blood.
It is believed that Queen Mary, consort of George V, was related to the 15th Century slayer Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula
Vlad is said to have dispatched more than 100,000 Turkish warriors in battle. The vampire legend was fed by his predilection for eating bread dipped in his victim's blood.
And it is known that porphyria, an iron deficiency, which is thought to lie behind the vampire myth and may have spurred Vlad's taste for blood, has run in the Royal Family.
