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Ilona was the wife of Vlad III and the princess consort of Wallachia.
400 years after Ilona's death; she was reincarnated as Mina Murray.
Biography[]
Ilona was Vlad III's wife during his human lifetime. Though very little is shown about their life, it is clear through flashbacks that their marriage was a remarkably happy one. In the animated web comanpion Dracula Rising, she is mentioned to have come from a peasant's background. When once asked if she was frightened by her husband's bloody tendencies, she replied that she knew he had it in him to be a good man and change the world for the better. A painter once complimented her as an "otherworldly beauty" with porcelain skin, blue eyes and raven hair.
The couple's happiness was cut short when Vlad gradually became disillusioned with the Order of the Dragon and turned against them. In retaliation for his defiance and treason, Ilona was abducted and Vlad was arrested and tortured before being turned into a vampire. Just mere moments before her death Ilona told him that they were bound body and soul and that they would meet again. Vlad desperately wanted to believe her but he did not share her faith and was forced to watch as his beloved princess was burned at the stake, while he was condemned to suffer as a vampire. While confined and starved in his coffin for almost four centuries, Vlad grieved Ilona’s death further fuelling his thirst for vengeance.
When Vlad introduces himself into Victorian London society as an American entrepreneur named Alexander Grayson, he meets Mina Murray; who is revealed to be the reincarnation of Ilona.
Throughout the series; Ilona appears in several flashbacks, hallucinations and dream sequences.
Trivia[]
- The character is based on Ilona Szilágyi who was Princess Consort of Wallachia and the second wife of Voivode Vlad III of Houses Basarab and Draculesti, better known as Vlad The Impaler. Though only a small footnote is known about her life, it is known that she was the daughter of Michael Szilágyi, a Hungarian count and regent, and his wife Margit Báthory, making her an ancestress to the notorious serial killer Erzsébet Báthory. Through her father's side Ilona was also a cousin to the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus.
- The couple met during Vlad's four year imprisonment in Hungary. Following his release in 1474 the pair were married, and were settled in stately home in Badu. The marriage produced two sons: Vlad Drakwlya, who unsuccessfully laid claim to Wallachia in 1495, the name of the second son is unknown. Ilona also step-mothered Vlad's eldest son from his first marriage, Mihnea The Evil. Some historians believe Vlad and Ilona may have also had a daughter named Zaleska, who may have been the inspiration for the character of Marya Zaleska in the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter.
- Some historians argue that Ilona was actually Vlad’s first wife who according to legend threw herself from Poenari Citadel into the river to escape capture from the advancing Ottoman army, while his second wife was another member of the Szilágyi family named Jusztina, possibly another cousin of King Matthias Corvinus.