Vlad Tepes Dracula

Vlad Tepes Dracula (1431-1476)

Also during this time, arguably the most famous historical figure (and the one I’m most fascinated with) that became associated with vampirism surfaced. His name was Vlad Tepes Dracula (1431-1476), Prince of Wallachia, an ancient kingdom which is now part of Romania. His three reigns of Wallachia were in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476.

His double name of Tepes (meaning “Impaler”) and Dracula (after his father title, Dracul, meaning Devil or Dragon…the ‘a’ added on to mean ‘son of…’) suited him quite appropriately. His post-mortem name of Tepes (Impaler) originated from his preferred method for executing his opponents, impalement.

Vlad was also known as a bloodthirsty tyrant who had ordered thousands of people impaled for his pleasure. In Turkish, he was known as “Kazikli Bey” which means “Impaler Prince”. Vlad had become the nations hero for liberating his lands from the Ottoman invaders.

Four centuries later, Bram Stoker would write the infamous novel “Dracula”.

Vlad Tepes Dracula (1431-1476)

Vlad III the Impaler; also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad Draculea and Kazikli Bey in Turkish.

December, 1431 – December 1476)

Prince of Wallachia, now part of Romania. Vlad had three reigns in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476.

Vlad is best known for his exceedingly cruel punishments that he imposed during his reign. He’s also argueably most famouse for serving as the inspiration for the name of the Vampire in Bram Stoker’s popular Dracula novel.

As king, Vlad maintained an independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire. In Romania Vlad is viewed by many was a Prince with a great sense of justice and hero for defending Wallachia against the Ottoman Empire.

Vlad’s Romanian surnamae Draculea is derived from his Fathers title Dracul, meaning “The Devil” or “Dragon”. His father was a member of the Order of the Dragon created by Emperor Sigismund.

Vlad’s post-mortem name of Tepes, meanning Impaler came from his preferred method of killing his opponents. In Turkish history, he was known as “Kazikli Bey” which means “Impaler Prince”.

IN THE BEGINNING

Vlad’s father, Vlad II Dracul was born in 1395. He was the illegitimate son of an important early Wallachia ruler.

Vlad Dracula’s mother was Princess Cneajna of Moldavia, daughter of Moldavian prince Alexandru cel Bun.

Vlad III had three brothers, the oldest, said to be named Mircea, born sometime before 1430 and briefly held his father’s throne in 1442. In 1444 he was sent by Vlad Dracul to fight in his place during the crusade against the Turks that ended with the Varna defeat and met his end along with his father in 1447. It’s presumed he was buried alive alongside his father. Vlad IV, also known as Vlad Calugarul — Vlad the Monk, was born somewhere between 1425 and 1430. He was Vlad’s half-brother.

As a young man, Vlad II joined the court of Sigismund of Luxemburg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, whose support for claiming the throne of Wallachia he eventually acquired. In 1431 Vlad II was inducted into the Order of the Dragon — that same year Vlad III was born. The purpose of the Order was to protect Eastern Europe and the Holy Roman Empire from Islamic expansion as embodied in the campaigns of the Ottoman Empire. At the age of five, young “Vlad” was also initiated into the Order of the Dragon.

Vlad II made clear his status by displaying the symbol of the Order in all public appearances. The old Romanian word for serpent — drac — is now the most casual way of saying the devil but while the people of Wallachia gave Vlad II the surname Dracul it’s purely coincidence that the name is a connection to the devil or any other dark power. His son, Vlad III would use the surname Draculea — eventually known as Dracula.

In Wallachia the crown to the thrown was not passed automatically from father to son. Instead, the leader was elected by boyars with the requirements that the Prince who was elected had to have royal lineage. This type of elective monarchy often resulted in family disputes, assassinations and instability. Eventually the house split in two: between the descendants of Mircea the Elder, Vlad’s grandfather; and another prince, Dan II (Danesti faction). This caused feudal states and struggles between central administration and noble control of the country. In addition to the inner feuds, Wallachia’s two neighbors, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were seeking control of southeastern part of Europe turning Wallachia into a battle ground.

Vlad’s father was under constant political pressures from the Ottoman sultan. Being threatened with invasion, he gave up his two younger sons as hostages so that he would keep his promise of being the vassal of the Sultan.

These years were said to be influential in shaping Vlad’s character as he was often whipped by his Ottoman captors for being stubborn and rude. He developed a well-known hatred for Radu and for Mehmed, who would later become the sultan. According to some research, he also distrusted his own father for trading him to the Turks and betraying the Order of the Dragon oath to fight them.

In 1436 Vlad II became Prince of Wallachia. In 1442 he was removed from the thrown by the Hungarians after years of opposing various initiatives for war against the Ottoman. They accused him of being disloyal.

In 1443, with the help of the Turks who he had connections with, Vlad II regained the thrown of Wallachia and until the later part of 1447, Vlad II was assassianted by orders of Hungary by means of scalping — “scalping”, for the Turks, meant cutting the edges of the face and pulling the face’s skin off, while the person was still alive and conscious. The assassination took place in the marshes of Baltoniallegedly under the orders of John Hunyadi. Vlad’s older brother Mircea was also dead at this point, blinded with hot iron stakes and buried alive by his political enemies at Targoviste.

The Ottomans invaded Wallachia to protect their political power in the region and the Sultan put Vlad III on the throne as his puppet ruler. His rule at this time would be brief; Hunyadi himself invaded Wallachia and ousted him the same year. Vlad fled to Moldavia until October of 1451 and was put under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II. Fortunately for Vlad he had a close relationship with Moldavia as he spent several years there after his fathers death.

Bogdan was assassinated by Petru Aron, and Vlad, taking a gamble, fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad’s vast knowledge of the mindset and inner workings of the Ottoman Empire as well as his hatred of the new sultan Mehmed II, Hunyadi pardoned him and took him in as an advisor. Eventually Hunyadi put him forward as the Kingdom of Hungary’s candidate for the throne of Wallachia.

In 1456, Hungary invaded Serbia to drive out the Ottomans, and at the same time Vlad III invaded Wallachia with his own agenda. Both campaigns were successful. Soon after, Hunyadi died suddenly of the plague. Nevertheless, Vlad was now prince of his native land Wallachia.

From his first marriage, to a Wallachian noble woman, iti’s said Vlad III had a son, who later became prince of Wallachia as Mihnea cel Rau.

In 1457 Vlad III help his cousin Stephen the Great to Transylvania gain the crown as Prince of Moldavia and was later helped by Stephen to return to the throne of Wallachia in 1476 (…but we’re getting there).

From 1456- 1462 was Vlad III’s main reign and was well documented. Vlad led the life of any other prince of Wallachia — spending most of his time at the court of Targoviste and sometimes in other important cities such as Bucharest. During this time he drafted laws, went to meetings on foreign policy and presided over important trials. He also made public appearnces on relevant occasions such as holidays. He made some additions to the palace in Târgoviste — out of which Chindia Tower is today the most notable remainder, Vlad also made donations to churches and monasteries, one such place being the monastery at Lake Snagov where he is supposed to have been buried.

Vlad’s early reign was dominated with the idea to eliminate all possible threats to his crown. The goal was to reduce the economic role of the country’s highest ranked boyars by executing them and handing the positions to obscure individuals, some of them of foreign origin and whose loyalty was towards Vlad. For the less important functions, Vlad also ignored the old boyars, preferring to knight men from the free peasantry. Vlad acted against these cities with great Saxon populations by eliminating their trade privileges in relation with Wallachia and by organizing raids against them.

In what has been described as a need to solidify his power, early in his reign Vlad gave a feast for his boyars and their families to celebrate Easter. Vlad was well aware that many of these same nobles were part of the conspiracy that led to his father’s assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother, Mircea. Many had also played a role in the overthrow of numerous Wallachian princes. During the feast Vlad asked his noble guests how many princes had ruled during their life times. All of the nobles present had outlived several princes. One answered that at least thirty princes had held the throne during his life. None had seen less than seven reigns. Vlad immediately had all the assembled nobles arrested. The older boyars and their families were impaled on the spot. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were marched north from Targoviste to the ruins of Poienari Castle in the mountains above the Arges River. The enslaved boyars and their families were forced to labor for months rebuilding the old castle with materials from another nearby ruin. According to the reports, they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few of the old gentry survived the ordeal of building Vlad’s castle

Vlad was a Impalement was Vlad’s favourite method of torture but was by no means his only one. The list of tortures he is alleged to have employed is extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive.

No one was immune to Vlad the Impaler’s attentions. The vast majority of his European victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own country, Wallachia. Many have attempted to justify Vlad’s actions on the basis of nascent nationalism and political necessity. Most of the merchants in Transylvania and Wallachia were Saxons who were seen as parasites, preying upon Romanian natives of Wallachia, while the boyars had proven their disloyalty time and time again

His actions were likely driven by one or more of three motives: personal, as his father and older brother were murdered by unfaithful boyars, or political vendettas, and the establishment of iron-fisted law and order in Wallachia.

Vlad lived with a serious threat to his power as W allachia was in a consistant state of war. It had been in this state since his grandfather, Mircea the Elder’s death in 1418. Vlad used strict methods to restore the order of the country to get economic stability, as he knew it was his only chance against outside enemies.

The biggest threat to Vlad’s power was the war in southeastern Europe between the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom. Going with his known hate towards the Ottomans, Vlad sided with the Hungarians. At the end of the 1450′s there was talk of war against the Turks. The King of Hungary — Matthias Corvinus would take the lead role and knowing this, Vlad ceased all tribute to the Ottomans in 1459 and made his alliance with Corvinus official. The Turks attempted to remove him but failed and later in the later part of 1461 to 1462 Vlad crossed into the southern part of Danube and brought total devastation to the area between Serbia and the Black Sea. It’s said he left over 20,000 people dead.

In response, the Sultan — Mehmed II — gathered an army of over 60,000 troops and in spring of 1462 marched towards Wallachia.

Vlad Tepes is alleged to have committed even more impalements and other tortures against invading Ottoman forces. It was reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the Danube. It has also been said that in 1462 Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man not known for his squeamishness, returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside of Vlad’s capital of Târgoviste. Many of the victims were Turkish prisoners of war Vlad had previously captured during the Turkish invasion. The total Turkish casualty toll in this battle reached over 40,000. The warrior sultan turned command of the campaign against Vlad over to subordinates and returned to Constantinople, even though his army had initially outnumbered Vlad’s three to one and was better equipped.

Eventually, Vlad was unable to stop this great army from entering Wallachia and taking over the capital city Targoviste. His only hope was to resort to guerrilla war and constantly organizing small attacks on the Turks. The most important night of these ambushes is when allegedly Vlad and his men dressed as Ottoman soldiers and entered their main Turkish camp in an attempt to assassinate Mehmed.

Vlad’s first wife, whose name is not recorded, committed suicide during the siege of his castle in 1462. Led by his half-brother Radu the Handsome, the Turkish army surrounded Poienari Castle. It is said that an archer who was a former servant to Vlad shot an arrow with a message through Vlad’s main quarters warning that Radu’s army was approaching. Vlad’s wife foudn the message and flung herself off the tower into a tributary of the Arges River flowing below the castle. According to legend she remarked that she “would rather have her body rot and be eaten by the fish of the Arges than be led into captivity by the Turks.”

Today, the tributary is called “Raul Doamnei” –the Lady’s River.

The Turks eventually left the country, but not before installing Vlad’s brother, Radu the Handsome, as the new prince; he gathered support from the nobility and chased Vlad to Transylvania, and by August 1462 he had struck a deal with the Hungarian Crown. Ironically, Vlad was imprisoned by Matthias Corvinus.

It’s debatible on the exact length of time Vlad spent in captivity. Some research suggests that he was a prisoner from 1462 – 1474. Research suggests that Vlad could not give up his favorite sports — he often captured birds and mice which he proceeded to torture and mutilate — some were beheaded or tarred-and-feathered and released, most were impaled on tiny spears. During his captivity, Vlad also adopted Catholicism. and was able to gradually win his way back into the graces of Hungary’s monarch. Vlad really made an impression as he was eventually able to meet and even marry a member of the royal family — a cousin of Matthias. He had two sons with this second wife.

With this information, it’s believed that Vlad III the Impaler’s actual period of time in jail was around 4 years between 1462 to 1466 — It’s unlikely that a prisoner would have been allowed to marry into the royal family.

Before his official release in 1474, Vlad lived with hsi second wife and two sons in a house inside the Hungarian capital

Vlad’s brother Radu the Handsome had died a few years earlier and was replaced by another Ottoman, Basarab the Elder.

Some time around 1475 Vlad was again ready to fight for the power of Wallachia. Vlad along with Stefan Bathory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia with combined forces from Transylvania and Wallachian boyars and Moldavians sent by his cousin Prince Stephen III of Moldavia.

At the approach of Vlad’s army, Basarab and his loyals fled, some to the protection of the Turks, others to the shelter of the Transylvanian Alps.

Vlad took the throne once again but was at a very weak position once Stephen Bathory and the army went back to Transylvania.

The Ottoman army was determined to have Basarab back on the throne and before Vlad could gather support, they entered Wallachia. Vlad was forced to march to meet the Turks with the small forces at his disposal, somewhat less than four thousand men.

There are several conclusions on Vlad III the Impaler’s death. Some research says he was killed in battle against the Ottoman in 1476. Others say he was assassinated by a disloyal Wallachian boyar. Other sources say Vlad fell to defeat surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguards. Still other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was struck down by one of his own men. Vlad’s body was decapitated by the Turks and his head was sent to Istanbul and preserved in honey, where the sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that “Kazikli Bey” was finally dead.

He was reportedly buried at a monastery located near Bucharest, yet the exact place of his burial remains unknown, as excavations at Snagov monastery, usually mentioned as his final resting place, have found no human remains.

THE VAMPIRE LEGEND
Recent research suggests that Stoker knew little of the Prince of Wallachia. Some have claimed that his novel owes more to the legends about Elizabeth Bathory.

Given the history of the vampire legend in Europe it is perhaps natural that Stoker should place his great vampire in the heart of the region that gave birth to the story. Once Stoker had determined on a locality Vlad Dracula would stand out as one of the most notorious rulers of the selected region. He was obscure enough that few would recognize the name and those who did would know him for his acts of brutal cruelty; Dracula was a natural candidate for vampirism. Why Stoker chose to relocate his vampire from Wallachia to the north of Transylvania remains a mystery.

Despite his cruelty, in Romania Dracula is remembered as a national hero who resisted the Turkish conquerors and asserted Romanian national sovereignty against the powerful Hungarian kingdom. His favorite weapon being the stake, coupled with his reputation in his native country as a man who stood up to both foreign and domestic enemies, gives Dracula the virtual opposite symbolism of Bram Stoker’s vampire.

There are some legends saying that Vlad, after being taken captive by the Hungarians, had his eyes taken out and then was buried alive. The next day, they dug up the spot where he was buried and found no corpse. Several years later, there were numerous mysterious deaths at his castle.