Family
Vlad II Dracul was a member of the House of Drăculeşti lineage, and son of Mircea cel Bătrân, and was known to have murdered members of the rival princely House of Dăneşti, a not-so-distant relation to his own father's House of Basarab, and gained power in Wallachia, upon returning from exile in Transylvania in 1436.
The identity of Vlad's first wife is unknown. His second wife, Princess (Cneajna) Vasilissa of Moldavia, was the eldest daughter of Alexandru cel Bun and paternal aunt of Stephen the Great of Moldavia.
Of his legitimate children, Mircea was the eldest, his mother's identity being unknown. Vlad Călugărul was the product of Vlad and one of his mistresses, a Wallachian noblewoman called Călţuna. Vlad Ţepeş and Radu werbiebe both sons by his marriage with Princess (Cneajna) Vasilissa .
Vlad, having numerous mistresses, also fathered several illegitimate children, including another son named Mircea (the name Mircea being a family favorite due to Vlad's father, Mircea cel Bătrân, a popular Wallachian voivode). Radu Florescu documented on page 193 of his book, "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces" that the Holy Roman Emperour Ferdinand I granted a patent of nobility January 20, 1535 to Ladislas Dracula and his brother John, affirming their direct descent from Vlad and making specific mention of "the ancient insignia of Ladislas's family" having been the same as that of the Bathory family--i.e., gules (red) a sword covering three wolf teeth.
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