Story of Vlad The Impaler - All parts

during a time of immense change and transition one of the world's most enigmatic and contentious rulers were born vlad iii dracula son of vlad ii dracul and later known as vlad japesh or the impaler vlad was born in the transylvanian city of jigishara likely near the end of the year 1431 while currently located in transylvania due to his father's designation as military governor of the region dracula was in fact a future candidate for the position of voivode of velachia according to valakian tradition any son of a previous voivode was eligible to fill the role and given that young dracula was the legitimate son of a later two-time holder of the title it comes as no surprise that his focus seldom strayed from the throne supplementarily dracula's grandfather mirchia baltran was and is considered one of the most monumental rulers of wallachia in his era this ancestry and birthright meant that vlad dracula was inevitably going to become part of a bitter and bloody feud between the two warring lines of the house of basaraba the deneshdi and the drakuleshti before he could be a proper contender to the valahian throne vlad dracula was raised by the woman of its household in jigishara like any young boy of his prestige he would have been taught all the basic necessities of princehood such as their native language basic manners correct dress code and of course the idea that he was superior to other men and destined for sovereign greatness the boys would have also spent a substantial amount of time maintaining their physical fitness starting at a young age and being held to somewhat spartanistic standards when not learning training or likely messing around as children do in their free time vlad would have also attended church with the rest of his family his parents at this time were catholic but it is possible that dracula and his youngest brother radu were baptized in an orthodox church this of course would be significant given the importance of the orthodox faith to the valachian leadership the boys likely attended catholic mass on a regular basis while living in transylvania after a support change by emperor zikas moon vlad dracul was finally able to secure his place as voivode of olajia moving the family's home to the capital city of targovesh day by the start of 1437 here dracula's life would have begun to change as he now required to learn more lessons of maturity and adulthood by this point the young future prince would have much less time for childish antics and instead would be expected to begin practicing things such as horsemanship swimming the use of a variety of weapons and combat techniques and formal education in the topics of world history language and politics also during this time vlad dracul submitted to sultan murad ii of the ottoman empire creating an alliance with the turks which lasted only a few short years the consequences of this union being ended came in 1442 when vlad drakul accompanied by his two youngest sons vlad and radu accepted an invitation from sultan murad to have a meeting with him in his court immediately upon arrival vlad dracul was arrested and chained and his sons taken away to egrega's fortress while vlad tracoul would only spend a year in ottoman custody he agreed to leave his sons in the hands of the sultan as part of an extensive agreement to secure his freedom and return to valachia sworn on both the quran and the bible vlad around 11 years old at this point and radu roughly seven years of age were now alone in a foreign country around people whose language they could not speak nor understand while specific details and time frames are not clear we do know that the brothers were initially kept hostage in agrigas before later being moved to tokat and then adrian opal at which point they would have been brought on trips to other palaces such as that in menisa alongside the sultan's court even as hostages vlad and radu's education would have continued as one of the sultan's goals would have been to create a trusted future with vallahi and voivodes who would be loyal to the ottomans the treatment remained fair as long as the boy's father stayed true to his agreement vlad was known to have been more of a challenging child and teen than his younger sibling uncooperative and short-tempered at times it was not unusual for punishment methods such as the whip to be used in an attempt to tame the young dracula in contrast and likely what sparked the lifelong hatred between the brothers radu was recognized as a more agreeable protege and quickly attracted the attention of both men and women with his exceptional beauty one of the most notable admirers of vlad's child brother was the soon-to-be sultan and son of morad ii mehmed ii the future conqueror of byzantium despite essentially growing up together vlad and mehmed would never spark enough of a friendship to prevent the bloody contention they would later spend their adult lives engaging in on top of vlad's unwillingness to fall in line and his new turkish peers his father was also beginning to stir the pot back in vallahia having previously only sent a minute contingent under his eldest legitimate son mircha to support the crusaders of the 1443 long campaign vladrakul was now creeping dangerously close to breaking his promises he made to sultan morad fortunately after meeting with the governor general of transylvania john hunyadi and seeing the small number of christian forces vladrakul opted to once again send no more than a small contingent to assist in the future crusading as he was still taking a neutral stance himself he so far has not severely violated his agreement with the turks but was still leaving his sons in precarious conditions mircha however according to michael beham who wrote during the varna crusade is said to have fought bravely in the name of his faith even utilizing cannons for the first time in romanian military history after word of mirch's involvements got out the turks learned of this passive betrayal and dracula himself became cognizant of his father's choice to risk he and his brother's lives surprisingly though even once the ottomans became aware of dracul's deceit and despite his own prediction that his sons would be butchered for the sake of christian peace vlad nor radu were killed or even tortured by the turks however their treatment did become more treacherous in response to dracula's actions this resulted in the hardening of vlad's already rough and stubborn personality and an explicit chain of events that led to radu's ultimate submission to the future sultan mehmed ii regardless of the differing attitudes between the boys it can be assumed that sultan murad still had intentions of using both of them as puppets of valachian loyalty hence his decision to spare their lives meanwhile murad and dracul managed to come to a new agreement in the year 1447 around the same time that's the already superficial kinship between vladrakul and john hunyani faced new challenges hazardously mircher called for the transylvanian governor general's execution in response to his negligent venture at the crusade of varna after drakul had warned hunyadi that the christians did not have the necessary troops to defeat the turks hunyadi was never executed and eventually returned without harm to transylvania though his newfound support of vladislav ii adaneshti seems to hardly be a coincidence in late fall of the same year backed by john hunyadi vladislav ii made the ultimate decision to take the throne by force from dracul and mircha his attempt lining with a boya revolt that led to mircha being seized tortured and subsequently buried alive followed by dracul's assassination later in the night [Applause] when the news found its way to dracula still in custody of the sultan it is said that he swore vengeance against the traitors who tortured and killed his brother and father promising to kill vladislav ii by his own hand whether he had any bitterness left for his father in return for the repeated abandonment he put his sons through is unknown but for the sake of family pride justice or all the voivode in training was not soon to forgive the murderous boyars and his renegade cousin now a free man a candidate for the valvakian throne and an officer in the ottoman army with the support of an inspired sultrin murad the death of dracula's father gave him a promising start to his adult life after a failed attempt by john hunyadi and vladislav ii to defeat the ottomans at kosovo palgia vlad was in a favorable position to finally make a strong bid for the vallahian throne with the backing of the turks who with a true authority in the current situation due to their military control success came to dracula as he ultimately seized power and became voivode of velahia for the first time in 1448. this sudden uprising predictably did not sit well with the hungarians and the allies of john hunyadi who had been taken captive by the serbian despot george brankovich after his defeat to kosovo palgi nikolai of ochna the vice governor of transylvania demanded that vlad come and meet with him to explain the assumed disappearance of hunyadi and justify his unforeseen coup in a letter of response vlad stated that he could not do as the vice governor asked without creating suspicion from the turks and that he had no information on the whereabouts of john hunyadi but that if he had not been killed in battle he would wish to establish peace with the governor upon his return to transylvania this strategic start to his first reign was effective but only while his ottoman aid maintained dominion over the region unfortunately for dracula sultan murad had opted not to follow the fleeing hungarian army after the recent battle at which vladislav ii evaded capture allowing for a quick turning of the tables vladislav was able to gather the remainder of hunyadi's troops though he fails to free hunyadi himself before marching into valahia and defeating vlad's army forcing his cousin to flee the principality altogether after losing the throne to vladislav dracula found himself back in adrianopal with the turks once again he sought refuge under ottoman protection for a short while before fleeing sultan murad's court and making his way to the valachian neighbor of moldavia where he now settled in the court of bogdan ii bogdan was the current ruler of moldavia but he was also dracula's uncle connected through vlad drakul's marriage to bogdan's sister father of the later prince stephen the great bogdan ii allowed the exiled vallejian to remain in his capital city of tsuchava receiving education alongside stephen and serving in the moldavian military this stay lasted from the late 1449 until the fall of 1451 coming to an abrupt end when bogdan was assassinated by his own brother petru aaron lacking many viable options vlad and steven escapes together to transylvania knowing full well that it would be imprudent to risk seeking refuge under the eye of john hunyadi who had been stripped of his titles of viceroy of hungary and governor of transylvania but still maintained military control and the title of count of bitstrizza severin and timoshara the young men attempted to make their way to prashav heartened by the support of vladislav's boyar enemies and previous good relations with the councilman of the city vlad felt that this would be their safest option of course john hunyadi had no intention of allowing this to be the case and immediately after being informed of the valachian's presence in february of 1452 commanded the mayor of brashav to bar dracula from settling in the city whether vlad and his moldavian cousin were forced out or instead kept in hiding around the area is not known for certain nonetheless in september of the same year vladislav ii also sent a letter to the mayor of brashov upon hearing that his rival was still in the region dracula fled again this time to the nearby town of cebu where word of his presence made its way to the transylvanian vice governor in response nikolai of ochna decided to hire an assassin to take the pretender down once and for all miraculously vlad was made aware of his plan's demise and was able to elude his potential killer forced now to stay in hiding dracula remained under the radar while the relationship between john hunyadi and vladislav ii began to fall apart hunyadi displeased with vladislav for his softening towards the turks and their new sultan vlad's childhood peer mehmed ii as well as possibly still angry at his former protege for not freeing him from serbian imprisonment began to shift his view of the unrelenting dracula former enemies both political and personally on the part of vlad john hunyadi and vlad dracula were now to meet in the hungarian's palace apparently putting aside any grudge he may have held over the murder of his father and brother vlad accepted a position in hunyadi's army and court and was offered safe residence in cibu hunyadi likely willing to let go of their rocky paths due to the valachian's knowledge of the turkish forces and mind of mehmed ii from serving five times in the ottoman army and growing up alongside the current sultan quickly became vlad's new military and political mentor things truly began looking up for dracula as he accompanies hunyadi to the opening of the hungarian diet and even to the coronation of the newly of age king of hungary ladislas posthumus after swearing allegiance to the king dracula was given full support from the hungarian authority and the transylvanian diet to accept the responsibility of defending transylvania from the turks at the recommendation of john hunyadi himself still living in the town of sibu vlad was now essentially mirroring the duties his father had previously been put in charge of between 1431 and 1436 this new position became readily important after the fall of constant opal as the turks decided to attack hungary in what was now 1456. under the order of john hunyadi himself vlad was to stay in cibu with his army as a defensive force but only until he saw it fit to strike in valahia once again making an effort to seize the throne from his dhaneshti rival likewise hunyadi also gave the go-ahead for vlad's moldavian cousin stephen to execute his incursion into the territory of petru iii aaron and dispose of the turkish vassal having kicked off his march on vladislav ii in june with a sundry army of the hungarians romanian mercenaries voyage and the support from the cities of transylvania by july dracula engaged in combat with flatislav ii and fulfilled his promise of revenge for his murdered family members meeting his end at the hands of vlad dracula himself vladislav ii denishti was no longer voivode of valaccia giving the title back to his victorious cousin vlad's second reign was undoubtedly his most successful controversial and by far his longest now styled prince vlad son of vlad the great sovereign and ruler of anger valachia and the duchies of amlash and faggorash dracula swiftly tackled the challenge to re-establish positive relations with his neighbors as well as looking into organizing the start of petro aaron's overthrow in moldavia for his cousin stephen instantly unsettled by their former vassal's new posture as voivode the turks became suspicious of vlad's goals and decided to send a group of envoys to speak with him about the presumed payment of a yearly tribute hence the free passage of the turks through valachia while vlad agreed to these terms he refused to travel to constantople to pay the tribute himself likely recalling the outcome when he'd last accompanied his father on the same journey though tensions with the ottomans were now reduced to a low simmer vlad would later spark new confrontations but not without handling business at home first demonstrated by his own words in a letter to the mayor of brashov vlad believed firmly when a man or a prince is powerful and strong at home then he will be able to do as he wills but when he is without power another one more powerful than he will overthrow him and do as he wishes before he could address foreign relations beyond keeping the peace vlad needed to consolidate his power at home the boyars of volakia were one of the first focuses of dracula during his second reign known for being corrupt and even traitorous at times the boyar class essentially shared authority with the prince holding almost more overall power than the voivode himself with a previous average of about two years of rule for every prince the boyars had shown their true colors and game of control they often worked to put the weakest possible candidate on the throne allowing themselves to maintain ultimate jurisdiction according to michael beheme dracula once said to an assembly of these boyars after asking them how many princes they've known how do you explain the fact that you had had so many princes in your land the guilt is entirely due to your shameful intrigues clearly vlad had no desire to let such corruption go unpunished keeping in mind that he had also sworn revenge on the nobleman responsible for the torture and murder of his older brother on easter day of 1457 just how these deals would be dealt became gruesomely clear multiple accounts of this day recall how vlad first searched for where mircha was said to be buried finding his brother's body face down and confirming that the stories of his way of death were true knowing this vlad the impaler is about to reveal his true cruelty and anger against the corrupt boyars who were responsible not only for the death of his family but for the poverty of the country something had to be done vlad allowed roughly 200 boyars and their wives to come and celebrate the holiday as they typically would at the palace in targovest day this time though as everyone finished their meals vlad had his men seize every boyar and wife attending the celebrations the olds were taken beyond the city walls and impaled while the young and abel were marched in chains around 50 miles up the argesh river taking about two days to the site of where they were now to build dracula's new ponery castle this fortress in addition to being part of a significant power play was also a breach of turkish and hungarian authority which stated that no vassal may protect themselves with such an addition regardless vlad had the castle completed and busied himself replacing the disgraced boyars with men of loyalty many of whom were of low class and former peasants the new title of our mash a new position meant for tasks such as handling the execution of criminals against the state was also an update made under the rule of dracula following this fresh approach throughout his reign all of vlad's appointments of new men to his court were based on who would be loyal to him and only him as he seemed determined to solidify his position of power and deal with any possible mistrust or betrayal before it could even occur there becomes apparent a running theme throughout vlad's time as voivode that showcases his sometimes irrational response to issues of trust in general possibly rooting itself in the betrayals of his childhood one example of an overzealous reaction to dishonesty where we see dracula's emphasis on the importance of honesty we're told of a merchant from florence who found himself in targawish day on his way to constant opal bringing with him a carriage of money and goods the merchant upon arrival went to the princely palace to ask for protection over himself and his goods during his stay in the capital vlad simply told the merchant to leave his things in the public square and come sleep in the palace the merchant obeyed the prince's command but when he returned to the carriage the following day he discovered 160 missing gold ducats after making this disheartening discovery the merchant returns to vlad and informed him of the matter the prince assured him that both the money and the thief would be found and there was no need to worry vlad's now ordered the citizens of targavishte to find the thief threatening to destroy the city if they did not and also instructed his servants to replace the merchant's missing money from his own treasury adding an extra ducat when the merchant later returned to his carriage he counted his money again a total of three times before going back to notify the prince he said to vlad lord i have found all my money only with an extra ducat at this time the thief was being brought to the palace as vlad told the merchant go in peace had you not admitted to the extra ducat i would have ordered you to be impaled together with this thief the story of the merchant much like the anecdote about the golden cup that sat near a fountain in a deserted area to test his subjects and their honesty which was never stolen nor moved during dracula's reign showed his strong stance on morality and justice he was not against tricking his people in order to test their ethics even being said to addressed in disguise to roam the villages and observe the peasants and how well they followed his rules and policies in general vlad was well loved and supported by the peasants of wallachia earned through his lack of favoritism towards the rich and noble no one could buy their way out of punishment or use any form of bribery under dracula's reign his disdain was never aimed at the lower class as a whole but he did have a special hatred for the lazy and the beggars of wallachia similar in style to the method of punishment used at the easter feast vlad is known for taking a macabre approach to the problems of vagabonds in his land written off by the germans russians and romanians the incident of this event is another extreme example of dracula's determination to enact a new moral code on his principality and to punish those who did not comply it is said that vlad invited all the ill lame poor and the like to a large dining hall in targavistay where they were given food and drink for all as the beggars and vagabonds ate and drank until they were most severely drunk vlad's men secured the doors to the building and set it on fire when the fire went out there were no survivors the goal of course was to eradicate what vlad saw as a social plague from the land dracula said himself these men live off the sweat of others so they are useless to humanity it is a form of thievery in fact the masked robber in the forest demands your purse but if you are quicker with your hand and more vigorous than he you can escape him these vagabonds take your belongings gradually by begging but they still take it they are worse than robbers while vlad's retributions may have been unnecessarily cruel passed down through the generations of romanian families are still stories of his kindness and generosity as well such as the claims of residents today who say that their ancestors were gifted land by vlad after helping him secretly get from one location to another a vexed voivode who seemed to do everything to the extreme dracula was not stingy with his rewards for those who would do good this mindset of his may account for his seemingly back and forth approach to relations with the city of bashav throughout the same time period [Music] vlad was not an enemy of brashav or transylvania as a whole by any means in fact relations between dracula and the people of the transylvanian cities were very positive and he sought refuge in brashav jigishara and other neighboring towns throughout his life at one point the valahian even describes his brechovian allies as honest men brothers friends and sincere neighbors in a letter to the mayor nonetheless no one was exempt from vlad's strong morals and policies one of the first signs of growing strain between dracula and the german sacks and cities of transylvania came after he chose the side of michael cilaji and juniatas over habsburg making them fast political enemies when the citizens of bistresa rebelled against the sealages in response to what they considered to be fiscal abuses by the family vlad was quick to back his allies and help michael silagi assail the town finding the leaders of the revolt and burning their homes to the ground in reaction to this the german cities across transylvania became angry with dracula spreading a claim that he had renewed his vassal ship with sultan mehmed shortly after becoming voivode this outraged vlad as he considered the german saxons especially those of brashav to be his friends furthering the newfound hostilities the mayor of bershov decided to shift his support to vlad's new dinesh t rival the brother of vladislav ii dan iii conveniently for the german saxons who were staunch supporters of the habsburgs dan the third was a friend of the family as well as an enemy of vlad dracula as if this betrayal wasn't enough the city of cebu also decided to remove their support from the current voivode and instead backed a new pretender vlad the monk half brother of dracula himself vlad initially attempted to resolve these new issues by sending diplomats to both bershov and sibiu but neither city chose to respond to the request for diplomacy now furious following these scandalous actions by the transylvanian city leaders he decided to retaliate by bringing heavy sanctions down on the german saxon merchants of the region vlad ended the initial agreement he'd signed back in 1456 and instead began to give favor to the valachian merchants causing considerable financial ramifications for the german saxons over time this alone led to more conflict as the transylvanian merchants tried to avoid the new policy demands prompting repeated raids by dracula and his troops over the next couple of years in 1458 vlad himself led a small troop of cavalrymen without warning into transylvania for the supporters of both dan iii and vlad the monk resided burning their villages and killing the inhabitants who endorsed his rivals vlad then had arrested and impaled all the german saxon merchants who refused to obey his new rules of trade he also executed 41 young saxons who had supposedly been sent to wallachia to learn the romanian language citing that he believed them to actually be spies which is abundantly likely finally due to a softening of political tension in hungary diplomatic negotiations between vlad the new king of hungary and representatives of brashav occurred an agreement was finally reached on november 23rd 1458 with the breshovians agreeing to hand over dan the third and his supporting boyars and vlad was to restore the terms of his original commercial policy with the german saxon merchants the city of brashav was also required to pay ten thousand florins in war damages to michael silaji while everyone especially dracula seemed satisfied with the stipulations it seems that no one actually followed through as vlad was forced to perform a raid near the city of bershov once again this time in an attempt to capture his exiled rival he set fire to crops and homes and impaled men women and children but regardless of all of his efforts vlad was unable to seize down the third who had already gone into hiding shortly afterward though in 1460 dan and his breshovian supporters waged an attack on valachia but were briskly defeated dan was captured during the strike vlad had a priest read the mass for the dead before forcing dan to dig his own grave finally ending the ordeal by cutting off his rival's head the rest of dan's supporters who had also been captured were then impaled the city of parshav attempted to defuse the situation by this time but dracula declined to come to any agreements until vlad the monk was no longer a political threat still trying to handle the situation himself dracula then attacks the town of amlash aiming to eradicate supporters of his half-brother despite the fact that according to michael beheme roughly 30 000 german saxons were killed during the assault a peace treaty was signed on october 1st 1460 between the breshovian city council and dracula representatives finally vlad could focus his foreign attention on the growing issue of the turks especially considering his choice in 1459 to cease payment of the yearly tribute to sultan mehmed though dracula ruled a notably small principality with an equally small army his patriotism and dedication to his faith led him to the conclusion that the turks must be dealt with after all by virtue of his father vlad was a proud member of the order of the dragon a christian group of nobles who swore to defend the cross from its enemies the name dracul meaning the dragon was given to vlad ii after he swore his own oath to the order dracula thus translating simply to son of the dragon was a name happily adopted by the highly religious vlad iii due to this deeply ingrained christian honor [Music] it comes as no surprise that when pope pierce ii called for yet another crusade beginning his appeal in september of 1459 dracula was one of the only european supporters to promptly show interest in the cause though no crusade happened at the time the vallachium prince stayed true to his stance against the ottomans by the fall of 1460 vlad sent a letter to the elders of bershov stating that he detained turkish envoys that had come to vallachia to request peaceful passage through the principality allowing them to again raid and wreak havoc on the transylvanian cities dracula referring to himself as the breshovian brother and faithful friend informs them that he had no wish to portray the city or his catholic allies based on multiple narratives it is likely that these turkish envoys were the victims of the famous nailing of the turbans in which vlad responded to the men's refusal to remove their turbans by having nails hammered into their skulls saying that he wished to assist the turks in strengthening their customs the combination of these acts on the part of dracula united with his continued refusal from 1459 onwards to pay the now overdue yearly tribute even impaling ottoman military commanders is likely what caused a swift escalation intentions in november of 1461 vlad sent a letter to sultan mehmed claiming that the war with the german saxons had drained his treasury but that he intended to pay his depths and even add gifts of his own along with many children and horses for the sultan he also advised his former peer that he could not leave his capital to come to constantinople claiming that if he did so his political opponents would take advantage and seize his territory mehmed initially believed dracula to be sincere and sent an embassy to targovesh day to meet with the valachian prince the sultan's opinion quickly changed after letters written by vlad to king matthias corvinus were intercepted their contents proving that vlad had formed a military alliance with the hungarian king and was likely being dishonest with the turks consequently mehmed devised a plan to kidnap dracula and bring him to constantinople vlad once again given warning of such a plot decided to still attend the newly scheduled meeting but brought along cavalrymen who would trail him and his courtiers in a later letter to the hungarian king vlad tells of how he eventually arrested the men who intended to capture him near the giorgio fortress which dracula and his men then destroyed upon reaching the gates vlad disguised himself and gave orders in perfect turkish to the station commander convincing him to allow them in permitting an easy ambush briskly following the giorgio attack while sultan mehmed was still occupied in asia minor dracula continued his bombardment of the turks during the winter of 1461 he bragged of his achievements to king matthias in a letter telling the hungarian ruler that i have killed men and women old and young who lived at oblitera which is located near kilia we killed 23 884 turks and vulgars without counting those whom we burned in homes or whose heads were not caught by our soldiers thus your highness must know that i have broken the peace with him him obviously referring to sultan mehmed angered by vlad's sudden aggression the sultan sent an army to destroy the vallachian port of braaila although his grand vizier leading the mission decided to also organize a full-scale assault on volakian territories and villages dracula having being notified of this intercepted the ottoman troops as they attempted to leave praila only some 8 000 turks are thought to have survived this ambush as the vallakians took down an impressive amount of the ottoman soldiers finally mehmed decided it was time to refocus his attention on the threats of the volakian prince taking the route of a full out invasion back in velahya in a decent position to handle the oncoming strike from the turks vlad was being praised left and right by his fellow christian leaders even pope pierce ii was in awe of dracula's ingenious military talents and commitment to fight against the ottomans vlad took this opportunity to warn his european neighbors of the new turkish threat reminding them that any attack on velahia would surely make its way to the surrounding territories he hopes to reinspire the idea of a crusade knowing that he alone could not stop the ottoman invasion altogether despite a previous military alliance with the king of hungary vlad received little support from matthias who was more concerned about his political affairs with the holy roman emperor regardless of the struggle to rally allied military aid dracula was extremely successful at energizing up the enthusiasm within his own 30 000 strong army his mindset on the concept of the upcoming war can easily be understood by his own words in which he told to his troops it would be better that those who think of death should not follow me a leader of true pride and resolve vlad inspired his people to take the same mentality as the war continued to accelerate the lack of equal numbers and weaponry on the vallahian side led to dracula and his army enacting a variety of methods to weaken their [Music] opponent some of these methods included germ warfare scorched earth [Music] strategic retreat and guerrilla tactics eventually vlad came up with a plan to kill the sultan himself executing the strike which is now referred to as the night attack atargavishte an account from one of dracula's veterans that was recorded by nikola madrusa hey papal legate recalls at nightfall dracula penetrated into the turkish camp with parts of his troops all the way up to the fortifications and during the entire night he sped up like lightning in every direction and caused great slaughter so much so that had the other commander to whom he had entrusted his remaining forces been equally brave or had the turks not fully obeyed the repeated orders from the sultan not to abandon their garrisons the valachian undoubtedly would have gained the greatest and most brilliant victory dracula carried out an incredible massacre without losing many men in such a major encounter though many were wounded he abandoned the enemy camp before daybreak and returned to the same mountain from which he had come no one dared pursue him since he had caused such a terror on turmoil i learned by questioning those who had participated in this battle that the sultan lost all confidence in the situation during that night the sultan abandoned the camp and fled in a shameful manner and he would have continued this way had he not been reprimanded by his friends and brought back almost against his will undeterred completely by the current decrees of morale the turks were ready only a few days later to finally attack the capital of targavishte ready as they may have been neither the sultan nor his men expected what they came to find covering roughly a mile of land in a semi-circle formation where the remains of around 20 000 impaled turks mounted on their stakes this scene is now referred to as the forest of the impaled at this point the entirety of the ottoman forces seemed to acknowledge that it was time to retreat sultan mehmed is said to have commented that he could not take land away from a man who does such marvelous things and surely a man who would accomplish this is worthy of greater things around this time vlad's cousin and trusted ally up to this event stephen the great committed a remarkable betrayal and attacks the fortress of kylia with turkish assistance the fortress was now occupied by both the volakians and the hungarians of which stephen was at odds with their king matthias thankfully for the valachian voivode the moldavians were defeated and stephen was permanently injured in the altercation though both stephen and mcmedd had to return to their homes after humiliating failures at the hands of dracula the turks had not fully given up instead the mission of taking control over valaccia was now left under the responsibility of radu the handsome the younger brother of vlad who had chosen to stay with the ottomans in his youth using kind and fair diplomacy radu was able to win over the support and loyalty of a large portion of the valachian boyars and even some of his brother's army inevitably vlad was then forced to retreat from his capital no longer being recognized as prince of the land in the last known military confrontation between the brothers's forces it is said that vlad's mistress and mother of his eldest son later to be known as menia the evil threw herself out of the pulmonary fortress and into the river choosing to be eaten by the fish of the argesh rather than be taken captive by the turks dracula's new plan was to now meet with king matthias of hungary and once again asked for support in defending his territory and sovereignty a long period of waiting followed by weeks of negotiation with the hungarian king led to a disappointing outcome for vlad that was to only get worse originally matthias decided to simply make peace with the turks and support the princely position of radu this clearly would have angered vlad who had thought matthias to be an ally but he likely never anticipated that this would lead to his arrest at the hands of the king of hungary in a truly heinous plot tricking dracula into believing he was supported in retaking the throne matthias sent vlad off along with a reasonable contingent upon arriving at kungenstein castle under the orders of the king the slovak mercenary who led the contingent force arrested vlad and brought him back up to matthias to be held as prisoner in order to defend such sudden and inexplicable actions towards someone who'd been deemed a christian hero the hungarians attempted to use forged letters of false submission to the turks with vlad's signature on them vlad was betrayed as these letters were wildly out of character and included terminology attitude and poor language that would never be attributed to vlad historians have discovered that the likely author was a man by the name of johann radul of brashov while some believed these letters to be true many european powers were suspicious and accused the hungarian king of acting in opposition to general opinion while dracula was not released for some 12 years from hungarian custody it is believed that he spent most of his time essentially on house arrest within matthias's palaces instead of serving as a true prisoner although there are two separate accounts recalling interesting behaviors exhibited by vlad while actually jailed it is said that he would catch mice or have birds brought to him so that he could impale them on small pieces of wood he found nonetheless while not being kept in a cell dracula was often times invited into the presence of king matthias and his important guests the hungarian began to realize that vlad's reputation left visitors both in awe and in fear of the man and knowing this when a delegation from sultan mehmed came to meet him matthias made sure that dracula was with him at the time of the engagement in essence vlad was being used as a pawn or unspoken threat to anyone who dared test the king this strange situation of captivity carried on until after the death of purdue the handsome in 1475 at which king matthias made a proposal to vlad offering to free him so he could regain the volation throne if he would convert to catholicism of course dracula agreed to the terms and was now able to marry a relative of matthias his new wife being elona silaji daughter of his late ally michael silagi vlad was now free to move to a residence in pest and the rest of europe seemed incredibly pleased at the news of his release vlad lost no time getting back to his usual morally driven self which he clearly demonstrated in an incident that occurred in his new home and the birthplace of a second and possibly third son the stories claimed that when a criminal ran into dracula's courtyard to hide from the police vlad intercepted the pursuing officers and cut the head off one who was holding the criminal and consequently let him go free when words got back to matthias and hungary he sent one of his men to go and ask vlad why he would commit such a crime the valachian's response which earned a laugh from mathias when it was brought back to him said i did not commit any crime it is the police official who committed suicide anyone will perish in this way should be like a thief invade the house of a great ruler such as myself if this man had come to me first and had explained the situation to me and if the criminal had been found in my home i myself would have delivered the criminal over to him though vlad was personally ready to regain his throne before he could do so there was work to be done to ensure that he would be successful first he and his cousin stephen of maldavia managed to settle their feud stephen even went as far as to ask king matthias his former enemy to help replace basarab lyota who had taken the throne following radu's death with vlad dracula as the prince of wallachia after participating in the crusade under the hungarian king in bosnia matthias finally granted vlad his support for the seizure of the vallakian throne in 1476 leading a campaign spearheaded by himself stephen the great stephen bathory and vuk brankovic dracula was finally able to regain his place as voivode of volagia following his own reporting of the victory and capture of the capital on november 8 1476 vlad met with stephen of maldavia at which point both men swore eternal allegiance to each other and the crusader cause this marks the start of his third and final reign as prince of wallachia now around the age of 45 vlad was in a precarious position once the local support of his newfound allies had been withdrawn there were too many schisms within valachian political society and of course the turkish enemy was not happy about his return to power dracula was fully aware of the dangers he may have been in leading to his ultimate resolution that he would not bring his wife or sons with them to targavish day out of fear for their safety stephen of maldavia concerned for his cousin as well left 200 bodyguards with vlad likely not having much trust in the fickle velachian boyar class just as the cousins had seen such a doom coming after a matter of weeks on the volakian throne vlad met his end during a skirmish against basarab lyota and a turkish contingent that was twice the number of dracula's forces there are varying versions of the exact method in which vlad was killed but the most accurate rendition is that he was killed by a hired turkish assassin who had disguised himself as a servant of dracula until the moment of his death of stephen's bodyguards who fought valiantly with vlad in his final moments only a mere ten survived to tell the tale after a lifetime of perseverance valor and controversy vlad's the impaler of valaccia at last was no more a politician and warlord builder of fortresses and churches and a man of severely contrasting generosity and brutality vlad's the third dracula is remembered to some as a cruel tyrant and to others as a national hero dictator or champion the three-time prince of volakia left a legacy worth remembering [Music] you

Channel: Knowledgia

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Keywords: Vlad the Impaler, vlad țepeș, Vlad The Impaler - How did he rise to power?, What was Vlad the Impaler known for?, vlad the impaler in constantinople, Vlad the impaler, vlad the impaler vs dracula, vlad the impaler story, story of vlad the impaler, vlad the impaler, How did Vlad the Impaler change the world?, wallachia, wallachia vlad the impaler, vlad the impaler against ottomans, ottomans and vlad the impaler, vlad dracula

Id: MY82EpsvbQ8

Length: 50min 26sec (3026 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Zekieb]

Ah, yes the guy that took shish-kebab way too literally and he was also "befriended" with Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, as far as I can remember.

[u/SpaghettiDish]

The Romanian that turned "mai arunca un mic pe gratar" into "mai arunca un turc pe teapa"