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Europe was terrorised with the vampire plague for centuries. The Ancient Greeks feared a human like demon that drank the blood of the living. The Nordic population believed the dead came alive in their graves and became evil and violent.

Vampires were last reported in England in 1300 AD, but they still haunted the rest of europe for years to come.

15th century
Prince Vlad Dracula, 'Vlad the Impaler', rules a Transylvanian province called Wallachia. He was beheaded in1476 after he had 300 prisoners burned alive, but was also accused of skinning, roasting, and chopping people up like ingredients for a meal. He was feared throughout europe for his bloodthirsty deeds. He earned his nickname by impaling thousands of prisoners on wooden stakes.

1611
The countess Elizabeth Bathory was bricked into a room as punishment for killing 650 young girls. She bathed in their blood in the belief that it would keep her young. She lured maids to her castle with promises of jobs and money, then locked them in the dungeons and 'milked' their blood for ten years.
1729
Arnold Paole, a Serbian Soldier was attacked by a vampire in Greece. A delegation came from Belgrade to examine the vampires victims. Paole and his victims were staked and burnt.
 
1820's
Lord Byron, with Dr Polidori write "The Vampyre". Creating Lord Ruthven the vampire.
1847
Varney the Vampire was published. Written by Thomas Prest who also wrote 'penny dreadfuls'."The Feast of Blood" is set in 1730's England.
1863
There is a vampiric epidemic in Bulgaria.
1897
Dracula by Bram Stoker makes its first appearance.
Max Schreck
1922
Max Schreck plays the vampire in the unparralleled masterpiece "Nosferatu".
1927
Lon Chaney Snr. appears in "London after Midnight". Bela Lugosi plays Count Dracula on stage.
Lon Chaney
Bela Lugosi
1956
Lugosi is dead, he is buried in the red lined, black cloak that he wore as the Count.
1958
Christopher Lee plays the undead count in the first Hammer Dracula movie, "Horror of Dracula".
Christopher Lee

1992
Francis Ford Copolla directs "Bram Stokers Dracula" with Gary Oldman.

1994
Tom Cruise is Anne Rices Lestat in "Interview with a Vampire".
 
 
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