LONDON: Speculation is rife in central European media that

Prince Charles

could become the next king of

Romania

if the country’s monarchy is restored, and give up the

British throne

in favour of his eldest son William.

The 63-year-old British king-in-waiting could stake claim to the throne in Romania because of his “ancestral links” with historical

Romanian

ruler, Vlad the Impaler, and the country’s deposed king, Prince Michael, according to the media. Even Prince Charles had revealed in an interview just a few weeks ago that he is related to Vlad the Impaler. “The genealogy shows I am descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country,” the ‘

Daily Mail

’ quoted him as saying.

In fact, the central European media also claim that Prince Charles’s mother,

Queen Elizabeth II

, is a third cousin to the deposed King whose great-greatgrandmother was Queen

Victoria

, the British newspaper said. Vlad the Impaler was the bloodthirsty nobleman who inspired Dracula while King Michael, now 90, was the last Royal ruler of Romania who reigned from 1927 to 1930 and again from 1940 to 1947.