This Is Metal as F%$#

I don't know why I am so stoked about this, but the fact that Vlad the Impaler probably wept blood amuses me way too much.

Some researchers have extracted genetic information from his letters and there are indications of a condition called hemolacria.

The eponymous villain of Bram Stoker's classic 1897 novel Dracula was partly inspired by a real historical person: Vlad III, a 15th-century prince of Wallachia (now southern Romania), known by the moniker Vlad the Impaler because of his preferred method of execution: impaling his victims on spikes. Much of what we know about Vlad III comes from historical documents, but scientists have now applied cutting-edge proteomic analysis to three of the prince's surviving letters, according to a recent paper published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Among their findings: the Romanian prince was not a vampire, but he may have wept tears of blood, consistent with certain legends about Vlad III.

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We have some idea of what Vlad looked like, thanks to contemporary descriptions that admittedly are a bit biased by the prince's brutal reputation. For instance, papal legate Nicholas of Modrussy described Vlad as "not very tall, but stocky and strong, with a cruel and terrible appearance, a long straight nose, distended nostrils, a thin and reddish face in which the large wide-open green eyes were framed by bushy black eyebrows, which made them appear threatening." And there are several accounts, per the authors, of Vlad shedding tears of blood.

Hoping to learn more about Vlad and the general environment in which he lived, the authors of the new study turned to three letters written by Vlad Dracula addressed to the rulers of the city of Sibiu. The first two were written in 1475, one of which includes Vlad's personal signature; those letters have been stored in the Sibiu archives for more than 500 years and were never subjected to any kind of restoration efforts. The third letter was written in 1457 and was restored in Bucharest in the 20th century, although the authors state that the process was carried out in such a way as to minimize any biological or chemical contamination of the document.

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All told, the team identified 100 ancient human peptides—31 of which were deemed of particular interest—and an additional 2,000 peptides from bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and green plants. Those 31 human peptides were related to blood proteins or the respiratory system, as well as ciliopathy or retinal diseases, or inflammatory processes, per the authors. One of the letters from 1475 contained three peptides specifically associated with proteins of the eye's retina and tears. The authors thus concluded that Vlad III may have suffered from a medical condition known as hemolacria, in which a person sheds tears of blood, as well as skin inflammation and respiratory illness. He may also have been exposed to plague-related bacteria or fruit flies and other pests, based on the non-human peptides analyzed.

There are caveats, of course, most notably the fact that the authors cannot entirely rule out the possibility that the human proteins could have come from other medieval people who may also have handled the documents. However, "It is also presumable that the most ancient proteins should be related to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who wrote and signed these letters," the authors concluded.

Analytical Chemistry, 2023. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01461 (About DOIs).

 This is why I love history.