Prince Charles, 70, accompanied his mother Queen Elizabeth II, 93, as she gave her annual speech at the state opening of Parliament yesterday. The Prince of Wales will take over from the Queen day but his royal links extend way beyond Britain. The Windsor family tree stretches across Europe and extends to Romania where the leader who inspired the Count Dracula books once reigned.

Prince Charles has been primed to become Britain’s next king but the royal’s ties to one European country are being plugged by its tourist board to draw more tourists in.

The Prince of Wales has visited Romania several times over the years and opened up about his blood ties to Transylvania during a visit in 2010.

Prince Charles has distant kinship with Vlad Tepes, the 15th–century Wallachian ruler on whom the Irish novelist Bram Stoker based his Dracula.

According to the Romania Tour Store website Charles is the great-grandson 16 times removed of none other than Vlad the Impaler, through the consort of George V, Queen Mary.

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He discovered his connection to the blood-thirsty ruler on his first visit to the region in 1998.

In a TV interview in 2011 the royal joked: “Transylvania is in my blood.

“The genealogy shows I am descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country.”

In 2012 Romania’s National Tourist Office plugged Charles’ links with the nation to encourage tourism.

Prince Charles’ link with the nation was trumpeted at a leading industry event.

A clip of Prince Charles was used in Romania National Tourist Office promotional YouTube video.

the video claimed Charles can “trace his ancestry back to Romania’s dark and distant past”.

The Royal Family’s links to Romania don’t stop there as they also trace back to Princess Marie of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

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She went on to marry King Ferdinand I of Romania and ruled Romania after the First World War.

The roots of the vampire myth are said to derive from a claim that an iron deficiency known as porphyria ran in the royal family.

Prince Charles is a fan of Romania and has travelled there frequently, he even bought a farmhouse in Viscri, Transylvania in 2006.

Transylvanian-born Vlad the Impaler was killed by more than 100,000 Turkish warriors in battle.

Dracula means “son of the devil” in Romanian and the myth around Vlad was said to have been inspired by his habit for eating bread dipped in his victim’s blood.

Prince Charles and Camilla will embark on a royal tour on New Zealand in November.

Clarence House has confirmed Camilla and the Prince of Wales will be in New Zealand from November 17 to November 23.

Camilla will return to the UK at the end of the week while Charles travels on to Tuvalu.

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