The Lord Impaler
“He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a thin reddish face in which very long eyelashes framed large wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull’s neck connected [with] his head to his body from which black curly locks hung on his wide-shouldered person.” Niccoló Modrussa’s impression of Vlad Tepes at the age of thirty.Dracula is not Dracula
Dracula.
The name has become synonymous with vampires and evil and this is mainly due to the work of one single man. When Bram Stoker published his famous book Dracula, in 1897, it put the nail in the coffin for Vlad Tepes, known in his time as Dracula, simply because Stoker decided to use his name for the fictitious character in his story in addition to placing him in the same region of the world, i.e. Transylvania. But Stoker can’t be blamed if one considers his first option for the name of his villain, Count Orlok, and even the least poetic can agree that Dracula was a much better choice. (1)
But we shall not indulge further in imaginary horror stories and proceed into reality and the events that formed the real Dracula, which is a tale of far worse atrocities and more streams of blood than any vampire could ever produce.
To appreciate the following narrative it’s important to have some knowledge of the historical setting of the region in which a large part of it took place and to be familiar with events that occurred before our ‘dark hero’ was born.
Wallachia Caught in a Political Storm
In the 15th century the social and political forces of Europe tried to gain control of Wallachia. (2) Geographically it was the only thing standing in the way for the Ottoman Empire who were trying to get into Europe and destroy Christianity and politically the Hungarian Kingdom (which included Transylvania) had reached its zenith during this period so the rulers of Wallachia had to appease both the Turks and the Hungarians to maintain their survival, often forging alliance with one or the other depending on what served their self-interest at the time.
In 1290 Radu Negro (Rudolph the Black) founded Wallachia and it was dominated by Hungary until 1330 when it achieved independence. The first ruler of the new country was Prince Basarab the Great, an ancestor of Vlad Tepes. From 1386 to 1418 his grandfather Mircea the Old reigned. Eventually the House of Basarab split into two factions; Mircea’s descendants and the descendents of another prince named Dan (or Danesti). Much of the struggles we shall see for Vlad Tepes throne were between these two competing factions.
The Order of the Dragon
The Order of the Dragon was founded by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I in 1387. (3) It was similar to other orders like the Teutonic Order of Knights in their duties of defending, but it was also a secret brotherhood of knights. Its purpose was to uphold Christianity, defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks (4) and protect the catholic churches from heresy in addition to organise a crusade against the Turks, who had invaded the Balkan Peninsula. Not widely known was the undeclared aim of the Society of gaining political supremacy for the house of Luxemburg, and thus only a selected number were chosen for the honour of being admitted.
One of the Order of the Dragon’s oaths was that its insignia, a medallion, had to be worn at all times. It was a dragon, wings extended, hanging on a cross. There was also an inscription: O quam misericors est Deus and Justus et pius. In English: Oh how merciful is God and Just and faithful.
Vlad Basarab, who had fought bravely against the Turks, was invited to the Imperial fortress of Nuremberg on the 8th of February 1431 by King Sigismund I ruler of Hungary, Germany and Bohemia. Here Vlad Basarab laid his oath to the Order of the Dragon, and from this day onward he wore its insignia to the end of his life, even using it on his coinage when a ruler. Sigismund I made Vlad Basarab the military governor of Transylvania, a region directly northwest of Wallachia.
Drac in Romanian means devil or dragon, and ul is the definitive article. When Vlad, prince of Wallachia, returned to his homeland he was to be known as Vlad Dracul, or Vlad the Dragon. His family were proud of the nickname, despite the double meaning of devil.
Vlad Tepes Childhood and Education
Vlad Dracul and Princess Cneasna (5) had a child (6) in November 1431 that they named Vladislav Basarab in the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara. (7) For easier understanding, and due to the many various names this child would come to own I will henceforth call him by the name he is best remembered, which is Vlad Tepes. In the Romanian language tepes (pronounced tse-pesh) means the impaler and because of his future obsession with this method of torture he would come to bear the notorious title Vlad the Impaler. (8)
The young Vlad Tepes also had two brothers. A younger one, Radu the Handsome, and an older named Mircea. His father raised Vlad Tepes like a catholic for political reasons (not to offend Sigismund I). His early education was left in the hands of his mother and her family. It was a prosperous neighbourhood in which he grew up, surrounded by the homes of Saxons and Magyar merchants and the townhouses of the nobility. There were plenty of entertainment for him in the form of puppet theatres, acrobats, ball games, quadrilateral swings of red cloth and the hunting of eagles with slingshots. Vlad Tepes also watched with curiosity the condemned walk under his window to be hanged.
Because his father was nicknamed Dracul, he inherited the title Son of the Dragon; Dracula. Vlad Tepes was to be called Dracula during his lifetime, mostly due to its meaning of devil.
Vlad Dracul wasn’t content to serve as mere governor so he gathered supporters for his plan to seize Wallachia from its current occupant Alexandru I, a Danesti prince. In 1436 he succeeded in his plan, killing Alexandru I and becoming Vlad II (there was an earlier prince also named Vlad), and Vlad Tepes earned the title Vlad III. Vlad Dracul moved to the capital of Wallachia, Targoviste, in the winter of 1436-37.
Now Vlad Tepes was trained, typical to that of the son of nobility throughout Europe, in etiquette and command, exposed to the elements on stormy days to build his physical and moral character and taught to be a warrior. His first tutor in his apprenticeship to knighthood was an elderly boyar who had fought against the Turks at the battle of Nicolopolis. Vlad Tepes learned all the skills of war and peace that were deemed necessary for a Christian knight.
He attended the Austrian School of Solomon in Hermannstadt which gave him scientific understanding of the bodily effects of melatonin and seratonin, which enhance longevity and increase consciousness. People with an excessive amount of melatonin are, as we have already established, unfavourable towards sunlight (another clue to the formation of the Dracula of Stokers novel perhaps). Perhaps he even experimented with his pineal gland trying to open his Third Eye in a dark twist of creativity envisaging new forms of torture?
Vlad Tepes would also in time possess an in-depth knowledge of alchemy, kingship and the ancient Star fire customs and one day follow his father’s footsteps becoming initiated into the Order of the Dragon.
In 1437, King Sigismund I died. For six years Vlad Dracul attempted to follow middle ground between his powerful neighbours. He was still a member of the Order of the Dragon sworn to fight the infidel, but the Ottomans powers seemed unstoppable. He became required to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire of 10 000 ducats, just as his father Mircea the Old had been forced to do, but the Turks were becoming suspicious and invited him to Gallipoli for further negotiations. He accepted and, along with his two sons, Vlad Tepes and Radu, made the journey only to be seized and taken to the capital city of Adrianople. Vlad Dracul was released almost a year later, having to make further promises, in addition of the cash tribute, of five hundred young boys for the Janissaries. (9)
Vlad Tepes, about 11 years old, and Radu, 7 years old, were kept at the palace as guests of the Sultan as an insurance of Vlad Dracul’s support. In March 1442 Vlad Dracul allowed the Turks led by Mezid-Bey to pass through Wallachia to attack Transylvania, but they were defeated by the Hungarians under the leadership of János Hunyadi, (10) the White Knight of Hungary, and a possible bastard son of Sigismund I. Vengeful they forced Vlad Dracul and his family to flee Wallachia. But he returned, with Turkish support, and regained the throne in 1443.
The Varna Campaign
In 1444 Hunyadi broke the peace and launched the Varna Campaign in an effort to drive the Turks out of Europe. He demanded Vlad Dracul to fulfil his oath as a member of the Order of the Dragon and a vassal of Hungary to join the crusade. But instead Vlad Dracul sent his oldest son Mircea, perhaps hoping the Sultan would spare his younger sons if he did not take part in the crusades himself.
The Christian army was utterly destroyed in the Battle of Varna. Hunyadi managed to escape the battle under inglorious conditions. From this moment he was bitterly hostile toward Vlad Dracul and his eldest son. In turn they blamed Hunyadi for the loss.
Six Years in Turkey
Radu was a weaker personality and became completely taken by the Turks. Due to the politics of his time he had been forced to grow up in Turkey and became eventually a potential ally of the Turkish Sultan Murad II even ending up in his bed. Vlad Tepes remained defiant still considering himself a prisoner.
For six long years he lived in this strange land, under constant threat of the silken cord his captors reserved for assassination. A threat greatly increased at his father’s eventual allegiance with the Christian forces of Varna.
Vlad Tepes changed during his captive years. For instance he stopped to worry about human nature, knowing that if his father would fail in something he would be dead. He learned early on that in politics morals were foolish. He also learned the Turkish language, and he enjoyed the pleasures of the Sultans harem since his prison wasn’t so restricted.
It was said by his captors that Vlad Tepes developed a reputation of being brute and treacherous. Even frightening his own guards. He had a thirst for vengeance and learned that life is cheap and torture is only restricted by the imagination. No longer would he place trust in anybody ever again.
The End of Vlad Dracul
A factor of political life was the means of succession to the Wallachian throne. It was hereditary, but not by the law of primogeniture. The boyars (wealthy land-owning nobles) had the right to elect the voivode (prince) from various eligible members of the royal family. This allowed for succession to the throne through violent means. Assassination and other aggressive overthrows of reigning parties were thus rampant.
In 1447 Hunyadi led a war against Vlad Dracul. The decisive battle was fought near Targoviste in December. As a result Dracul was killed on the order of Hunyadi assisted by the Romanian Boyars (the ruling elite). Vlad Dracul was beheaded and Mircea blinded with a burning stake and buried alive. Hunyadi placed his own candidate on the Wallachian throne, Vladislav II, a member of the Danesti clan.
Vlad Tepes was after these events released and the Turks supported him as their candidate for the Wallachian throne. Some sources claim that he escaped enraged by the murders of his father and brother. Nonetheless in 1448, at the age of 17, Vlad Tepes managed to seize the Wallachian throne for two months. But Hunyadi forced him to surrender and flee to the Moldavian capital Suceava where his cousin Estevão lived. His father, Bogdan, was the Prince of Moldavia. Vlad Tepes was exiled until 1451 when Bogdan was brutally murdered. With no alternatives Vlad Tepes went to Transylvania and placed himself at the mercy of Hunyadi. As fate would have it Vladislav II unexpectedly instituted a pro-Turkish policy, which Hunyadi found unacceptable. So he forged an alliance with the son of his old enemy to retake the Wallachian throne by force. Hunyadi became Vlad Tepes last mentor, teaching him many anti-Turkish strategies and they got close through politics.
Vlad Tepes received the Transylvanian duties formerly governed by his father and remained there, under protection of Hunyadi, waiting for an opportunity to retake Wallachia from his rival. Perhaps the mutual hatred of the Turks caused Vlad Tepes to lay little blame on Hunyadi for the murder of his father and brother? Or that he put the blame on the boyars? Hunyadi would, regardless, never directly suffer the vengeful spirit that Vlad Tepes would soon come to unleash.
The Fall of Constantinople
Constantinople had stood for a thousand years protecting the outpost of the east Roman Empire. But it was like a head without a body. A poor and largely depopulated city of ruins, and the inhabitants continued to flee in the face of the Ottoman threat. Mehmed II Fatih (11) was a young Sultan who needed a great victory in order to reaffirm his new power and thus in April 1453 he began to lay siege of Constantinople that lasted for 54 days, until it fell on the 29th of May 1453 and all of Christendom was suddenly threatened by the armed might of the Ottoman Turks. The Christian world was shocked and had not experienced a worse disaster since tha fall of Jerusalem more than two centuries before.
Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus rejected Mehmed’s terms of surrender and the latter ordered a general assault and pillage of his new capital, which he named Istanbul, a corruption of the Greek word estin poli or in to the city.
The conquest of Constantinople turned Mehmed into the most celebrated Sultan in the Muslim world overnight. He began to see himself as heir to a worldwide empire, and the 30 years of his reign established the distinctive character of the Ottoman Empire.
Three years later, in 1456, Hunyadi broadened the scope of his campaign against the Turks and invaded Turkish Serbia, while simultaneously invaded Wallachia. On August 11th in the Battle of Belgrade Hunyadi was killed by the plague, and his army defeated. Nine days later Vlad Tepes defeated Vladislav II and he caught up with the fleeing prince and killed him.
But Vlad Tepes was dangerously exposed, even in his own country, so in September he took a formal oath to the Hungarian King Ladislaus V signing a defence pact and free trade agreement with the Saxons of Brasov (Kronstadt to the Germans). A few days later he took an oath of vassalage to the Turkish Sultan, and then he agreed to pay 10 000 ducats to the Turks annually like his father had done and his before that. Wallachia assumed the ancient mantle as defender of Christendom with Vlad Tepes as its ruler. (12) It was during this first main reign that he instituted strict policies and stood up against the Turks beginning his Reign of Terror.
Easter Day 1456
Vlad Tepes built a banquet hall outside his new capital Targoviste (13) where hundreds of the boyars were gathered, five bishops and the most important abbots from the most important foreign and national monasteries, including the archbishop himself. These were the long-established noble families of his country. He had invited
them all in the need to solidify his power and out of vengeance, but none knew of these plans yet.
The legend tells that Vlad Tepes watched closely and scanned their faces. He thought to himself that the murderers of his father and brother could be among them. A sumptuous meal was served and then Vlad Tepes asked:
“How many reigns do you know personally, my loyal vassals, in your whole life?”
“Seven, My Lord,” a young man answered.
“I survived for 30 reigns!” answered another.
“Since your grandfather, my Lord, there were no less than 20 princes and I survived during all of them!” a third man said.
Suddenly Vlad Tepes gave the order to his loyal guards to surround the hall and the approximately 500 boyars. The old and infirm got impaled outside the city walls with their wives, children and employees. The remainder were made to march for 50 miles up the Arges valley, still in their Easter finery, to the village of Arefu. Here they found pre-prepared brick ovens, limekilns and building material. The boyars and their families were put to work rebuilding an extensively damaged fortress some 1200 feet above the village.
It was built so attack was impossible. The large windows were placed above the level that arrows and other object couldn’t reach. The enslaved boyars worked for months until their clothes fell off their bodies and then they were forced to continue naked. Many of the workers died during construction, often from falling. The ones who survived got impaled in front of their creation. (14)
Impalement and Torture
Vlad Tepes learned all about impalement from the Turks during his time in Turkey and it is for this inhuman cruelty that he is best remembered. Impalement was his preferred method of torture and execution since it’s gruesomely slow and painful.
The length of each stake depended upon the ranks of the victim. Then the victim was to be bound spread-eagle (sometime he had a horse attached to each victims legs) and the stake to be inserted through the rectum, through the body and out through the mouth. These stakes were carefully rounded at the end and bathed in oil, to minimise tearing and prolonging the process (if there was time). And they couldn’t be to sharp because then the victim might die out of shock. Sometimes, though, victims were impaled through other body orifices, or through abdomen or chest. Infants were impaled on the stake forced through their mother’s chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down. Often Vlad Tepes had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns, the most common one was the ring of concentric circles in the outskirts of a city that was his target. Often left out for months while decaying, rotting in the sun.
But Vlad Tepes had other ways of torture victims, many of which he had learned in Turkey. He boiled people, skinned them alive, cut off noses, ears, genitals (especially women’s) and heads. Poured honey and salt into wounds and forcing animals to lick them. He strangled, hanged, burned, blinded, amputated, scalped, and used exposure to the elements or to wild animals. He killed women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. He stuck stakes in both breasts of mothers and thrust their babies unto them. The vast majority of his victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own Wallachia.
Cruel as it may seem the Catholic Church and the Inquision were at the same time no better in their treatment of deemed heretics. They might not have possessed Vlad Tepes creative genius in torture but nonetheless one of their techniques was to spread their live victims with fat and roast them slowly from feet upwards. Interesting to note is that Vlad Tepes favourite method of torture would be reversed on his fictional counterpart in Bram Stokers book Dracula where being impaled by a stake through the heart was one of the means to kill the vampire.
Throughout his reign Vlad Tepescontinued to systematically eradicate the old boyar class of Wallachia. He was determined that his own power be on a modern and thoroughly secure footing. In the place of the executed boyars Vlad Tepes prompted new men from among the free peasantry and middle class; men who would be loyal only to the king.
One of Vlad Tepes political rivals at the time was a priest, his half-brother, Vlad the Monk. The German-occupied town of Sibiu was requested by Vlad Tepes to give up its support for Vlad the Monk, because he was getting to be more and more dissatisfied with the German presence in Transylvania. No reply came so Vlad Tepes struck, in an undeclared war, across the mountains. He savagely destroyed the population of a number of villages and towns, and the property of the wealthy merchants and boyars who were patrons to his half-brother. It was the first raid on the country of his birth. When Vlad Tepes armies invaded the Germans of Transylvania he had the people hacked to pieces like cabbage and when his Captain reported that a particular village could not be taken due to the courage of the inhabitants he had him impaled.
Benedict de Boithor, a Polish nobleman in the service of the King of Hungary, visited Targoviste in September of 1458 to meet with Vlad Tepes. At dinner one evening Vlad Tepes ordered a golden spear brought and set up directly in front of the royal representative. He then asked Benedict de Boithor if he knew why this spear had been set up.
The nobleman replied:
“I imagine that some boyar had offended the prince and that you, My Lord, intend to honour him!”
“The spear has actually been set up in your honour,” explained Vlad Tepes.
“If I have done anything to deserve death, then you should do what you think is best.”
Vlad Tepes was greatly pleased by this answer, showered him with gifts, and declared:
“Had you answered in any other manner you would have been immediately impaled!”
On Saint Bartholomew’s Day, 1459, Vlad Tepes ordered 30 000 of the merchants and nobles of the Transylvanian city of Brasov to be impaled. To better enjoy the results of his orders he commanded that his table be set up and that his boyars join him for a feast amongst the forest of impaled corpses. (15)
While dining Vlad Tepes noticed that one of his boyars was holding his nose in an effort to alleviate the terrible smell of clotting blood and emptied bowels. Vlad Tepes ordered the sensitive nobleman impaled on a stake higher than all the rest.
“Stay there far, so the stink will not disturb you!” (16)
The Myths and Legends of Vlad Tepes
Vlad Tepes ruled with a cruel hand. Just about every crime was punishable with death, from idleness upwards. He insisted that his people be honest and hard working. Merchants, for instance, who cheated their customers were likely too find themselves mounted on a stake beside common thieves. The atrocities against the people of Wallachia thus came from Vlad Tepes attempts to enforce his own moral code upon the country.
He was very concerned that all his subjects work and contribute to the common welfare. He once noticed that the poor vagrants, beggars and cripples had become very numerous in his land. Consequently he issued an invitation to all the poor and sick in Wallachia to come to Targoviste for a great feast claiming that no one should go hungry in his land.
As the poor and crippled arrived in the city they were ushered into a great hall where a fabulous feast was prepared for them. The guests ate and drank late into the night. Vlad Tepes then made an appearance and asked them:
“What else do you desire? Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in the world?”
When they responded positively Vlad Tepes ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire. None escaped the flames. He explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did this in order that they represent no further burden to other men, and that no one will be poor in his realm. These people were deemed undesirables, thieves and robbers, threatening commercial trade. During his reign Vlad Tepes murdered both the upper and lower classes of society.
He was known for his fierce insistence on honesty and order throughout his land. Thieves seldom dared practice their trade in his domain, for they knew the stake awaited any who were caught. Vlad Tepes was so confident in the effectiveness of his law that he placed a golden cup on display in the central square of Targoviste, by a fountain for people to drink from. The cup was never stolen and remained entirely unmolested during his reign.
A merchant from a foreign land visited Targoviste. Having heard the reputation of Vlad Tepes land for honesty, he left a treasure-laden cart unguarded in the street over night. Upon returning to his wagon in the morning he was shocked to find 160 ducats missing. The merchant complained of his loss to Vlad Tepes who assured him that his money would be returned. Vlad Tepes then issued a proclamation to the city; find the thief or the city will be destroyed.
During the night he ordered that 160 ducats plus one extra be taken from his own treasury and placed in the merchants cart. On returning to the cart the next morning and counting his money the merchant discovered the extra ducat. He returned to Vlad Tepes and reported that his money had indeed been returned plus an extra ducat. Meanwhile the thief had been captured and turned over to the Vlad Tepes guards along with the stolen money. He then ordered the thief impaled and informed the merchant that if he had not reported the extra ducat he would have been impaled alongside the thief.
Female chastity appears to be s particular concern for Vlad Tepes. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all targets of his cruelty. Such women often had their sexual organs cut out or their breasts cut off, and were often impaled through the vagina on red-hot stakes. One report tells of the execution of an unfaithful wife. Vlad Tepes had the woman’s breasts cut off, and then she was skinned and impaled in a square in Targoviste. Her skin was left lying on a table nearby.
Once he had a mistress that lived in a house in the back streets of Targoviste. This woman apparently loved him and was always anxious to please. Vlad Tepes was often moody and depressed and the woman made every effort to lighten her lover’s burden. Once, when he was particularly down, the woman dared tell him the lie that she was with child. Vlad Tepes had the woman examined by the bath matrons. When informed that the woman was lying Vlad Tepes drew a knife and cut her open from the groin to her breast saying:
“Let the world see where I have been!”
He left her to die in agony.
Another story tell that one day Vlad Tepes noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a caftan ( a sort of shirt) that he judged to be too short in length. Vlad Tepes stopped and asked to see the man’s wife. When the woman was brought before him he asked her how she spent her days. The poor frightened woman stated that she spent her days washing, baking and sewing. The prince pointed out her husband’s short caftan as evidence of her laziness and dishonesty and ordered her impaled despite her husband’s protestations that he was well satisfied with his wife. Vlad Tepes then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but cautioned her to work hard or she would suffer the same fate.
Vlad Tepes was raised a catholic, but he had more in common with the Roman Orthodox Church and favoured monasteries in Tismana and Snagov. Even though no one knows his exact belief. In the wider area of Christian versus the infidel he saw himself as a crusader against the Turks. He would insist proper ceremony and Christian burial for those he condemned to death, and probably believed that good works such as building a monastery could atone for evil deeds.
But the Roman Catholic Church was expanding with the guidance of the Hungarian King Ladislaus V, and Vlad Tepes wasn’t all that happy about it. He replaced the high-ranking members of new monasteries with his own men and there are numerous stories relating to his encounters with individual catholic abbots and monks, who could either gain favour with wit or flattery or, standing up for their faith, could become a martyr to it.
Two monks, Michael and Hans the Porter, came to visit Vlad Tepes at his palace at Targoviste. Curious to see their reaction he showed them rows of impaled corpses in the courtyard. When asked their opinion Michael responded meekly:
“You are appointed by God to punish evil-doers.”
Hans had the moral courage to condemn the cruel prince. In the German version of this tale Vlad Tepes kills the honest one, but in the Russian version and in Romanian tradition Vlad Tepes impales the sycophant for his dishonesty and rewards the honest monk for his integrity and courage.
Many of these stories about Vlad Tepes are derived from Romania’s oral tradition that have been retelling the events for 500 years. Vlad Tepes is remembered as just a prince who defended his people from foreigners, whether they were Turkish invaders or German merchants. He is also remembered as a champion of the common man against oppression of the boyars, and for his success in standing up to the Ottoman Empire.
A central part of the verbal tradition is Vlad Tepes insistence on honesty in his efforts to eliminate crime and immoral behaviour from the region. What is interesting is that the German and Russian pamphlets written about Vlad Tepes agree on many of his deeds even though they were written from different political standpoints. This is therefore strong proof that most of what has been said happened actually did. (17)
Kaziglu Bey
With the Popes blessing Vlad Tepes did daring raids into Turkey, capturing thousands, and knowing the Sultan would try to avenge his deeds he poisoned wells and burned villages. It was little the Sultan could do. His army could barley scrape a living in the Transylvanian and Wallachian countryside.
Sultan Mehmed II was not a man noted for being squeamish but when he and his army approached Targoviste in 1462 they encountered a 3 by 1 km of impaled Turkish and Bulgarian prisoners (around 20 000) outsider the city. Mehmed II felt sickened at this Forest of the Impaled. The Turks returned home to Constantinople and would from this day onward refer to Vlad Tepes, with mixed awe and hate, Kaziglu Bey (or the Lord Impaler).
Although Vlad Tepes experienced some success in fending off the Turks, his accomplishments were relatively short-lived. Receiving little support from his titular overlord Mátyás Corvinus, the great Renaissance King of Hungary, and son of Hunyadi. Also the Wallachian resources were limited to achieve any lasting success against the powerful Turks.
In 1462 the Turks forced Vlad Tepes to flee Transylvania, reportedly his first wife then committed suicide by leaping from one of the towers of his castle straight into the Arges River rather die than surrender to the Turks.
Vlad Tepes had escaped through a secret passage and fled across the mountains (some say he rode backwards to confuse his enemies) into Transylvania and appeal to Corvinus for aid. The King immediately had Vlad Tepes arrested and imprisoned in the royal tower.
Vlad Tepes was put in house arrest and treated more like a guest than a prisoner. He probably moved seasonally between Budapest and Visegrad. (18) His name is not included on any register of prison names kept at Solomon’s Tower. (19)
During this period he gradually won his way back into the graces of Corvinus, and immediately met and married a member of the royal family (possibly Corvinus sister). He fathered two sons. It’s unlikely that a prisoner would be allowed to marry a member of the royal family.
It is said, according to the Russian Pamphlets, that even in captivity Vlad Tepes could not give up his favourite past time so he often captured birds and mice and proceeded to torture and mutilate them. Some were even beheaded, or tarred-and-feathered, but mostly impaled on tiny spears.
Radu the Handsome was the new successor to the Wallachian throne. He, however, had instituted a very pro-Turkish policy. Corvinus may have view Vlad Tepes as a possible candidate to retake the throne. The fact that Vlad Tepes renounced the Orthodox faith and adopted Catholicism was also surely meant to appease Corvinus. He was released probably in 1466.
In 1475 Vlad Tepes fights the Turks in Servia known as the Summer Wars. One year later, in 1476, he is ready to make a bid for power. He invades Wallachia, with Stephen Bathory of Transylvania, with a mixed contingent of forces. Radu the Handsome had already died by this time and had been replaced by Basarab the Old (a member of the Danesti clan).
At the approach of Vlad Tepes army Basarab and his cohorts fled. Shortly after taking the throne Bathory and most of Vlad Tepes forces returned to Transylvania leaving him vulnerable. Before he was able to gather support a large Turkish army entered Wallachia. Vlad Tepes was forced to march and meet the Turks with less than 4000 men.
Head on a Stake
In December 1476, in the Vlasia forest outside Bucharest, Vlad Tepes is killed battling the Turks. There are many different versions of who killed him. Some say it was a servant paid by the Turks, or that he was assassinated by a disloyal boyar just as he was to sweep the Turks from the field, or that Radu was behind it (he could be alive because the point of his death is uncertain or he gave the order before he died). Other accounts have him falling in defeat surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard. Other reports claim he was accidentally struck down by one of his own men at the moment of victory. One fact remains; his head was severed from his neck. It’s said it was brought to the Sultan, who in turn had it displayed on a stake, as proof that the horrible Impaler was finally dead. (20)
Vlad Tepes was buried at Snagov, an island monastery, located near Bucharest. His family had long been associated with it. There was no marker at his tomb and there seems to have been concerted effort to simply forget the dreaded prince and his Reign of Terror. A richly dressed and crowned body, without a head, was unearthed outside the main doors of the monastery in 1930. If it was indeed Vlad Tepes then he had, perhaps, been moved outside by a priest who believed he was too evil a man to be buried beside an altar of God.
Footnotes:
(1) Bram Stoker was not the only person interested in the vampire myths but the one who firmly established it into the collective.
(2) Now part of modern Romania and location of the despicable Dracula Land.
(3) Sigismund I was the grandson of the blind hero Crécy.
(4) Named after the Seljuq Emir Oman whose fief was to the south of Nicacea in Anatolia. The Ottoman rapidly grew conquering the whole of Asia Minor during the 14th century.
(5) Or Princess Mara of the Tomaj family of Hungary.
(6) Vlad Dracul had another son, also named Vlad, with his lover Caltuna. This Vlad is known as Vlad the Monk. Caltuna later on went into a monastery and adopted the name Euprâxia. She was the sister of Bogdan, the ruler of Moldavia. Vlad Dracul took her as his second wife.
(7) The house he was born in is now a restaurant and like the rest of the town has changed little in apperance.
(8) Vlad Tepes other names were: Vladislav Basarab, Vlad III, Son of the Dragon or Dracula and by the Turks Kazighlu Bey The Impaler Prince or The Lord Impaler.
(9) The word comes from the Turkish yeni çeri, which means new levies. These soldiers were fed and paid regularly by the Sultan and subject to his will. All soldiers in Europe at this time were farmes in the spring and autumn, homebodies in winter and warriors in summer so the idea of full-time soldiers were an innovation. Turkish army corps recruited from non-Muslim families at an early age and given superior education, convertion to Islam, and they could rise to the most important administrative posts, some even becoming grand viziers, in the imperial service meritocracy. By the 19th century the Janissary corps became unbearingly corrupt and Sultan Mahmut II risked everything with a new European-style army that wiped them out ending their 350-year history in 1826.
(10) Iancu de Hunedoara.
(11) Also called Mohammed the Conqueror (1451 - 1481).
(12) From 1456 to 1462.
(13) In 1459 Bucharest is established as the second governmental centre and Vlad Tepes also built the citadel there.
(14) Both Arefu and the ruins of the castle remain to this day and anyone travelling in Romania should pay a visit. The view from the castle is spectacular.
(15) In 1460 Vlad Tepes impaled another 10 000 in Sibiu.
(16) One of the most famous woodcuts of the period depicts this event, showing Vlad Tepes feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brasov, while nearby executioner cuts apart other victims.
(17) Brother Michael and Jacob spread the word of Vlad Tepes doings throughout Europe. Michael Beheim, a German poet, wrote a 1070 line poem after extensive interview with brother Jacob called: Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman called Dracula of Wallachia. It was read several times, accompanied by music, to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.
It must be remembered than many of Vlad Tepes victims were Germans so they paint the devils face on him. Because of the printing press that was just becoming widespread these pamphlets gained strong popularity reprinted many times over the next thirty years. In Russia Vlad Tepes was portrayed as a cruel but just prince whose actions were intended to benefit the greater good of the people. This just before the autocracy of the czars.
(18) It was here in Hungary that the famous portrait was painted. It now hangs in an Austrian museum.
(19) There is debate on exactly how long Vlad Tepes was confined. The Russian Pamphlets indicate that he was held from 1462 - 1474.
(20) At the time of Vlad Tepes death Mátyás Corvinus of Hungary was seeking to bolster his own reputation in the Holy Roman Empire. He may have intended the early pamphlets as justification for arresting Vlad Tepes in 1462, an event that caused concern for those worried about the Turkish threat, and for his less than vigorous support of his vassal.
© deviadah
