To some he was the very embodiment of evil
– the psychopathic incarnation of the Devil himself. To others, he was a god-fearing defender of
the faith, courageously standing up to the feared Ottoman Empire. In his time, he was known as Vlad the Impaler,
thanks to his favorite method of execution. Today we remember him as the real-life inspiration
for Bram Stoker’s infamous prince of darkness. In this week’s Biographics, we discover
the gruesome truth about the real Vlad Dracula. Formative Years Vlad III Dracula, future prince of Wallachia,
was born in either November or December of 1431 in the northern Romanian state of Wallachia. His father Vlad II, was to become ruler of
Wallachia. In the year of his second son’s birth, Vlad
senior joined a knightly society known as the Order of the Dragon. Upon his induction he was given the surname
Dracul, which is a derivative of Drac, meaning dragon in ancient Romanian, but Devil in the
modern language. His son was given the name for ‘son of Dracul’,
that being ‘Dracula’. The world that Vlad was born into was a violent
one, consumed with disputes over territory and rulership. Family name and honor were the most important
thing, something which was drummed into the boy from the start. He also understood that the goal was to push
the boundaries of empire, regardless of the cost. The Order of the Dragon, which Vlad senior
became a part of, was committed to defending Christianity against the hated Ottoman Turks. At the time of his son’s birth, Vlad II
served as a guard commander of the mountain passes in Wallachia. We don’t know who Vlad’s mother was. When he was born, his father was married to
Princess Cneajna of Moldovia, but he also had a string of mistresses, anyone of who
could have given birth to the future Dracula. Young Vlad’s formative years were spent
in Sihisoara. When his father scended to the throne of Wallachia
in 1436, he brought Vlad and his younger brother Radu, to live in the royal court in the capital,
Targoviste. The boys would have been educated at home
by Greek and Roman scholars who their father had brought in from Constantinople. They would have busied themselves with learning
the rudiments of mathematics, geography, science and languages, including Old Church Slavonic,
German and Latin. But their privileged upbringing was rudely
interrupted when their father was ousted as ruler by a rival group who were in league
with the Hungarians. Held Captive Vlad senior built an alliance with the Ottomans,
who agreed to help him regain his throne on the proviso that he pay tribute to Sultan
Mehmed II and that he leave his two sons at the Ottoman court as a guarantee of his loyalty. Vlad had no choice and the two boys were seized
and made prisoners. Although relatively well treated, the boys
were able to observe the Turkish use of terror as an instrument to achieve their ends – something
which Vlad would use to great effect in his later life. While in the Ottoman court, the boys were
able to further their education, being instructed in logic, the Turkish language and the teachings
of the Quran. They were also given lessons in horsemanship
and warfare. The two brothers differed markedly in their
attitude toward their captivity. Radu, the younger brother, accepted the situation
and embraced his new life and the teachings that came with it. He would eventually convert to Islam and enter
service in the Ottoman court. Vlad, however, resisted at every turn despite
constant punishment for his surly attitude. With the assistance of the Turks, Vlad senior
was able to regain his throne. But it didn’t last. In 1447, Hungarian backed rebels attacked
again, forcing Vlad and his oldest son, Mircea II to flee. Both were eventually captured and put to death. The next in line to the throne of Wallachia
was Vlad III’s older brother, but he had become a monk and lived in a monastery. This left Vlad, now 16, as the rightful heir. Despite his obstinacy, the Turks had grown
fond of the teenager. They vowed to help him regain his throne,
which they did with an overthrow of the rebel ruler in 1448. Ascending to Rulership As soon as the Ottomans left, however, the
Hungarians were back and, within two months, Vlad was forced to flee to Moldovia. For the next three years he lived there under
the protection and tutelage of his uncle, Prince Bogdan II. But when Bogdan was assassinated in 1451,
Vlad again fled, this time along with his cousin Prince Stephen. The two young men ended up in Transylvania,
where they came under the mentorship of a Hungarian warrior named John Hunyadi a powerbroker
who was fiercely opposed to the Ottoman Empire. Hunyadi had originally supported the new ruler
of Wallachia, a man by the name of Vladislav II. But the relationship quickly disintegrated,
thanks largely to Vladislav’s appeasement of the Turks. When Vladislav invaded and burnt several villages
in Transylvania, Hunyadi’s patience gave out. He looked to the young Vlad to take back the
throne that rightfully belonged to him. In the same year -1453 – the Holy Roman
city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. It now appeared as if the whole of Europe
was theirs for the taking. The securing of Wallachia became more important
than ever. In 1456, Vlad led an army into Wallachia. He met the army of Vladislav III on the field
of battle and ended up killing the usurper in hand to hand combat. With the death of Vladislav, Vlad was restored
to power as the ruler of Wallachia. Over the next six years, he would rule with
an unprecedented bloodlust that would cement his name forever in the annals of merciless
monarchs. Unprecedented Torture Having secured the throne of Wallachia for
himself, Vlad sent a portion of his army over the border to help his cousin Stephen to secure
the throne of Moldovia. When this was accomplished, the two cousins
held sway over a large swathe of the Balkans, proving a powerful stronghold against the
Turks. Vlad now set his mind on revenge. He had his spies go out and find the names
of any nobles who had been even remotely involved in the plot to overthrow his father. Having collected a list of names, Vlad invited
the men to an Easter feast along with their families. But as soon as the traitors arrived, they
were arrested. The older among them were impaled then and
there, in front of their families. Those who were younger were forced into slavery,
labouring to rebuild Vlad’s castle. When this job was done, they were all killed. Vlad’s treatment of the traitors to his
father’s reign was just the beginning. He next proceeded to enforce his own stringent
moral code on the population. Any deviation was met with unthinkable cruelty. He appeared to be especially concerned with
female chastity. Any woman who lost her virginity prior to
marriage, or who defiled the marriage bed, would be impaled, with the insertion point
being the vagina. More often than not their breasts would also
be cut off, with the man with whom they had committed fornication being forced to eat
them. Vlad also had a hatred of beggars, considering
them to be existing off the hard work of others. It is said that he once invited all the beggars
in Wallachia to a massive feast in a centrally located wooden hall. Once they had eaten to their full, he is said
to have ordered the doors bolted and the building set on fire. In this way he is said to have ridden his
realm of the scourge of poverty. The Ottoman Threat On the international scene the Ottoman threat
was becoming more ominous. In 1460, Pope Pius II held a congress at Mantua
in Italy, calling for a new crusade to reclaim Constantinople and push the Ottomans back
to the desert. The Crusade was to last for three years and
would be led by Matthias Corvinus, the son of John Hyundai, who had been killed during
an invasion of Serbia. Matthius made a tour of European kingdoms
seeking support for the enterprise. The only ruler who gave a positive response
was Vlad Dracula of Wallachia. Determined to hold his kingdom safe from the
Turks, he formed an alliance with Matthias Corvinus. The Ottomans, meanwhile, were aware of the
lack of support for this new crusade. Sultan Mehmed III seized the advantage by
capturing the last independent Serbian city, Smederovo. During this campaign, Hungarian general Mihaly
Szilagyi was taken captive. This general was known to Vlad, having helped
to put down a revolt in 1548. When Vlad heard that he had been sawed in
half, his blood boiled and he became more committed than ever to teaching the Ottomans
a lesson they would never forget. The Ottoman empire was extended to Greece
in 1461 when the weak ruler surrendered without putting up any defense. Now both Corinth and the capital of Mistra
were ruled by the Turks. The Sultan also had his sights on Wallachia. He declared it to be part of the Ottoman Empire. As such he sent his envoys to Vlad’s castle
in order to collect a tribute of 10,000 ducats, along with 500 men to be taken into the Turkish
army. But the Sultan had underestimated the young
ruler. Upsetting the Sultan When the Sultan’s envoys refused to lift
their turbans as a sign of respect to him, Vlad became enraged and had his guards drive
nails through their turbans into their skulls. The incredulous Sultan responded by sending
his army across the Danube in order to seize men and bring them back to become part of
his army. Vlad sent his forces to the area to grab any
Turks that could be found. They soon found themselves impaled on a red-hot
stake. Towards the end of 1461, Vlad wrote to the
Sultan informing him that he could not afford to pay a tribute, but that he was willing
to come to Constantinople and negotiate. Mehmed was aware that Vlad had already aligned
himself with the crusade and so he decided to take the Wallachian ruler who had dared
to murder his envoys by force. He sent one of his generals, along with a
thousand strong cavalry to meet with Vlad, with the intention of ambushing him. But Vlad got wind of the plan and put into
operation his own ambush. As the approaching Turks were negotiating
their way through a narrow traverse, Vlad and his army attacked. It has been reported that Vlad’s attack
was one of the first instances where gunpowder was used, apparently to deadly effect. The Turks were killed to a man, with the majority
of them suffering Vlad’s favorite torture – impalement. With his blood now up, Vlad took his army
across the Danube River, where they attacked Ottoman controlled areas in Bulgaria between
Serbia and the Black Sea. Vlad would go in advance to fortified towns
and use his skills in the Turkish language to encourage the guards to open the gates. Then his army would pour in from over the
horizon. Vlad would then go into a killing frenzy,
slaughtering every Turkish man, woman or child that he could find. Over a period of two weeks, he led his army
over an area of 500 miles, killing around 23,000 people. In February of 1462, Vlad wrote in glowing
terms to Matthias Corvinus of what he had accomplished . . . I have killed peasant men and women, young
and old, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to
Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube to such places as Samovit
and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those
whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers . . . Thus,
your highness, you must know, I have broken the peace. An outraged Sultan ordered his grand vizier,
Mahmud, with 18,000 troops to destroy a port in Wallachia called Braila. This force was intercepted by Vlad and his
30,000 strong army. The Turks were utterly defeated, with only
8,000 of them surviving. These quickfire victories garnered Vlad a
heroic reputation throughout Europe. Even the pope praised him. At the same time his reputation as the Impaler
King served to intimidate the Turkish people, many of whom fled the European part of the
Ottoman Empire for Anatolia. In response to the slaughter, and the fear
that Vlad had caused amongst his people, Sultan Mehmed abandoned his campaign in Greece and
turned his full attention to the Vlad problem. He gathered together an army of 150,000 with
the sole mission of finding and killing Vlad. The Sultan had already promised the rulership
of Wallachia to Vlad’s younger brother, Radu. With himself at the head, the Sultan set out
to find and destroy Vlad the Impaler. War with the Ottomans Vlad’s force of around 30,000 were not only
hugely outnumbered, they were also hopelessly outclassed as far as weaponry was concerned. They carried only lances and daggers, whereas
the Turks had in their midst squadrons of deadly archers, along with powerful siege
and missile weaponry. Despite this, Vlad was able to inflict major
casualties upon the Sultan’s forces. He followed a scorched earth policy as he
moved away from the approaching Turks. Wells were poisoned with entire populations,
including animals, being evacuated. Vlad also engaged in guerrilla fighting tactics. Hit and run raids were made on the Sultan’s
army and a primitive type of germ warfare was utilized, where men who were afflicted
with the bubonic plague were sent into Turkish towns to inflect as many people as possible. This tactic worked, with the plague spreading
to the Sultan’s men. In the end, though, the efforts of Vlad’s
men were no more than an irritant to the vastly superior Turkish army. Steadily they moved on, getting ever closer
to Vlad’s castle at Targoviste. When the arrived there, Vlad and his 24,000-man
strong army were holed up at a mountain refuge just outside of the city. Vlad, who was now faced with an encirclement
by the Turks which would eventual force his army into starvation, did something quite
amazing, even for him. Leaving his men behind in the mountains, he
disguised himself and walked directly into the Turkish army encampment. He quickly determined the position of the
Sultan’s tent. He also found out that the sultan had given
the order for his men to remain in their tents at night in order to prevent panic in the
event of an attack. He then quietly slipped out of the camp and
returned back to his own men. Vlad now set about planning a surprise attack
on the Sultan’s army. It was his personal intention to enter the
Sultan’s tent and drive his knife though Mehmed’s heart. On the night of June 17th, 1462 he divided
his forces in two and then attacked from both north and south. The Turks were caught off-guard, allowing
the attackers to inflict heavy losses. Within an hour of savage fighting more than
15,000 Turks were slaughtered, at a cost of some 5,000 of Vlad’s men, He himself succeeded
in entering the tent he had previously picked out. The only problem was that he had selected
the wrong tent and he did no find the sultan. At daybreak, Vlad called off the attack and
his men melted back into the mountains. The Sultan was so despondent that he pulled
back and was prepared to retreat all the way back across the Danube. However, he was convinced by his generals
that success was still within their grasp and so he led his men into the capital city. When they arrived at Targoviste, the Turks
found an abandoned city. They also found the remains of in excess of
20,000 Turkish soldiers, killed in previous conflicts, impaled on stakes. At this sight, the Sultan is said to have
remarked . . . A man who had done such things is worth much! With nothing to do in the empty city, the
Sultan installed Radu as the new ruler of Wallachia and then turned and began to retrace
his steps back to the Danube. Radu, younger brother of Vlad, now took his
forces and circled Vlad’s castle, located on a cliff just outside of the city. Vlad’s first wife was in the castle and
legend has it that she vowed to feed herself to the fishes rather than fall to the Turks. Apparently, she then threw herself from the
temples walls into the river below. Betrayal Radu now set about solidifying his position. Meanwhile the sultan had taken his army to
Braila, where the town was destroyed and hundreds killed. Vlad knew that he had to regroup and gather
a larger force if he was to have any chance of regaining control of Wallachia. He made his way to Hungary, where he sought
the military support of his ally, Matthias Cornivas. Matthias appeared to give his support, even
making battle plans with Vlad. However, Cornivas had secretly turned against
his old ally. He organized a plan to ambush Vlad and the
Impaler was taken as his prisoner. The reason for Matthias’ change of loyalty
has been debated for centuries, with the consensus being that he wanted to become Holy Roman
Emperor and knew that an end to hostilities with the Turks was needed for that to become
reality. Vlad spent the next four years as a prisoner
in Hungary. During this time, he converted to Catholicism. He also met Ilona Szilagyi, King Matthias’
cousin. Having softened his attitude toward his prisoner,
Matthias allowed the two to marry. Apparently, he was released just prior to
the ceremony. Vlad and his new wife were given a house at
Pest. He was under strict instructions not to return
to Wallachia. Yet he had no intention of giving up on the
crown that rightly still belonged to him. He secretly collaborated with a former military
commander. They managed to gather together an army consisting
of a mixture of Hungarian, Transylvanian, Wallachian and Moldavian forces. Vlad set out with his makeshift army in the
middle of 1476. By now his younger brother, Radu, had died
and been replaced by Prince Basarb the Elder. Before Vlad even got to Targoviste, Basarb
and his army fled. Vlad was placed on his throne and the army
largely dissolved. Vlad was back in power but he lacked a strong
army. In fact, he only had around 4,000 men to draw
upon. So, when the Turks returned two months after
his retaking of the throne, he was soundly defeated. The End The exact details surrounding Vlad’s death
are a matter of debate. Most scholars agree that he was killed while
fighting the Turks in early 1477. A contemporary Turkish chronicler recorded
that the Turks killed and decapitated him, sending his head back to Constantinople. There it was said to have been preserved in
honey and put on display so that everyone could see that the dreaded Impaler was really
dead. It is estimated that Vlad’s legacy of execution
methods included more than 20,000 impalements, 5,000 beheadings, 10,000 burnings at the stake,
ten Turks who had nails drive through their turbans and at least one who was boiled alive
and then cannibalized. Yet, in his home country of Romania, Vlad
is seen as a hero. He is an important national figure, a God-fearing
stalwart who stood up to the Ottoman Empire. I guess it all depends on your perspective!
Acum vreau un film dar cinematografia in Romania e la pamant.