Prince Charles says he’s related to original vampire

This Twilight thing is getting out of hand.

Prince Charles: Proud soldier of green causes armed with a spot of Earl Grey.

The Associated Press reports Prince Charles says he’s related to another famous prince — Vlad the Impaler, progenitor of vampire legend.

Why is the prince so eager to be linked to one of history’s bloodiest figures? Because he’s an environmentalist.

Prince Charles spends a considerable amount of time and money touring the planet promoting various green causes, and by saying he’s related to the hero of Transylvania, he can say he has a vested interest in preserving the forests of Romania.

Charles’ interest in Transylvania, the mountainous interior region of Romania, is not new. Weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, I was in Transylvania and the tiny town of Sighisoara, one of the best-preserved Medieval cities in all of Europe, was still abuzz about a visit by Charles, who’d visited to vocally oppose the creation of Dracula Land, a vampire-themed amusement park planned for the outskirts of Vlad’s hometown.

Charles was able to help drive a stake through the heart of that project.

A local pub had a picture of the prince, who has a home in the region, on the wall. He’d allegedly stayed at the hotel upstairs — the same building that Vlad called his boyhood home in the 1400s, according to local lore.

Vlad, unbeknownst to many, is the founding father of modern Romania. He’s a hero there for battling invading Turks and preventing eastern Europe from falling under non-Christian rule. Calling him a vampire is a good way to get punched in Romania.

Irish novelist Bram Stoker chose the remote corner of Europe as the scene of his famous 1897 novel “Dracula.” He never bothered to visit. If he had, he may have gotten impaled on something.