In spite of all that we know about Vlad Dracula, he is still somewhat of an enigma. Not only are there still unsolved mysteries about his life and death, but there has been much speculation about the exact nature of the connection between Vlad and the Count Dracula of Bram Stoker's classic novel. Most assume that Stoker, inspired by accounts he had read or heard about the fifteenth-century Wallachian ruler, made a conscious decision to base the character of Count Dracula on the historical personage. But this assumption is highly speculative. All we know for certain is that Stoker borrowed the name "Dracula" and a few scraps of information about Wallachian history from William Wilkinson's An Account of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820).