Vlad Tepes
Vlad Dracula
VLAD THE IMPALER
Introduction
Most authorities believe the character of Dracula in Bram Stokers
novel was based upon the historical figure Vlad Tepes (pronounced
tse-pesh), who intermittently ruled an area of the Balkans called
Wallachia in the mid 15th century. He was also called by the names
Vlad III, Vlad Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. The word Tepes stands
for "impaler" and was so coined because of Vlads propensity to
punish victims by impaling them on stakes, then displaying them
publicly to frighten his enemies and to warn would-be transgressors
of his strict moral code. He is credited with killing between
40,000 to 100,000 people in this fashion.
Origin of the name "Dracula"
King Sigismund of Hungary, who became the Holy Roman Emperor in
1410, founded a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order
of the Dragon to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against
the Ottoman Turks. Its emblem was a dragon, wings extended, hanging
on a cross. Vlad IIIs father (Vlad II) was admitted to the Order
around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks. From 1431
onward Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of
Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol.
The word for dragon in Romanian is "drac" and "ul" is the
definitive article. Vlad IIIs father thus came to be known as
"Vlad Dracul," or "Vlad the dragon." In Romanian the ending "ulea"
means "the son of". Under this interpretation, Vlad III thus became
Vlad Dracula, or "the son of the dragon." (The word "drac" also
means "devil" in Romanian. The sobriquet thus took on a double
meaning for enemies of Vlad Tepes and his father.)
The Life of Vlad III (1431-1476)
Vlad Dracula was born in November or December of 1431 in the
Transylvanian city of Sighisoara. At the time his father, Vlad II
(Vlad Dracul), was living in exile in Transylvania. The house where
he was born is still standing. It was located in a prosperous
neighborhood surrounded by the homes of Saxon and Magyar merchants
and the townhouses of the nobility.
Little is known about the early years of Vlad Draculas life. He
had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger brother, Radu the
Handsome. His early education was left in the hands of his mother,
a Transylvanian noblewoman, and her family. His real education
began in 1436 after his father succeeded in claiming the Wallachian
throne by killing his Danesti rival. His training was typical to
that of the sons of nobility throughout Europe. His first tutor in
his apprenticeship to knighthood was an elderly boyar who had
fought against the Turks at the battle of Nicolopolis. Vlad learned
all the skills of war and peace that were deemed necessary for a
Christian knight.
In 1444, at the age of thirteen, young Vlad and his brother Radu
were sent to Adrianople as hostages, to appease the Sultan. He
remained there until 1448, at which time he was released by the
Turks, who supported him as their candidate for the Wallachian
throne. Vlads younger brother apparently chose to remain in
Turkey, where he had grown up. (Radu is later supported by the
Turks as a candidate for the Wallachian throne, in opposition to
his own brother, Vlad.)
As previously noted, Vlad Draculas initial reign was quite short
(two months), and it was not until 1456, under the support of
Hunyadi and the Kingdom of Hungary that he returned to the throne.
He established Tirgoviste as his capitol city, and began to build
his castle some distance away in the mountains near the Arges
River. Most of the atrocities associated with Vlad Dracula took
place during this time.
Atrocities of Vlad Tepes
More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his
inhuman cruelty. Impalement was Vlad Draculas preferred method of
torture and execution. Impalement was and is one of the most
gruesome ways of dying imaginable, as it was typically slow and
painful.
Vlad usually had a horse attached to each of the victims legs and
a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of
the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not
be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock.
Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks
and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the
mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were
impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or
chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through
their mothers chests. The records indicate that victims were
sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.
Vlad Dracula often had the stakes arranged in various geometric
patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles
in the outskirts of a city that was his target. The height of the
spear indicated the rank of the victim. The decaying corpses were
often left up for months. It was once reported that an invading
Turkish army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of
rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the Danube. In 1461
Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man not noted for
his squeamishness, returned to Constantinople after being sickened
by the sight of twenty thousand impaled Turkish prisoners outside
of the city of Tirgoviste. This gruesome sight is remembered in
history as "the Forest of the Impaled."
Thousands were often impaled at a single time. Ten thousand were
impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in 1460. In 1459, on St.
Bartholomews Day, Vlad Dracula had thirty thousand of the
merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of Brasov impaled.
One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows Vlad Dracula
feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens
outside Brasov while a nearby executioner cuts apart other
victims.
Although impalement was Vlad Draculas favorite method of torture,
it was by no means his only method. The list of tortures employed
by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hells tools: nails
in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning,
cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs
(especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to
the elements or to wild animals, and burning alive.
No one was immune to Vlads attentions. His victims included women
and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign
powers and merchants. However, the vast majority of his victims
came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own
Wallachia.
Many have attempted to justify Vlad Draculas actions on the basis
of nascent nationalism and political necessity. Many of the
merchants in Transylvania and Wallachia were German Saxons who were
seen as parasites, preying upon Romanian natives of Wallachia. The
wealthy land owning boyars exerted their own often capricious and
unfaithful influence over the reigning princes. Vlads own father
and older brother were murdered by unfaithful boyars. However, many
of Vlad Draculas victims were also Wallachians, and few deny that
he derived a perverted pleasure from his actions.
Vlad Dracula began his reign of terror almost as soon as he came to
power. His first significant act of cruelty may have been motivated
by a desire for revenge as well as a need to solidify his power.
Early in his main reign he gave a feast for his boyars and their
families to celebrate Easter. Vlad was well aware that many of
these same nobles were part of the conspiracy that led to his
fathers assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother,
Mircea. Many had also played a role in the overthrow of numerous
Wallachian princes. During the feast Vlad asked his noble guests
how many princes had ruled during their lifetimes. All of the
nobles present had outlived several princes. None had seen less
then seven reigns. Vlad immediately had all the assembled nobles
arrested. The older boyars and their families were impaled on the
spot. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were
marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of his castle in the
mountains above the Arges River. The enslaved boyars and their
families were forced to labor for months rebuilding the old castle
with materials from a nearby ruin. According to the reports they
labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were
forced to continue working naked. Very few survived this
ordeal.
Throughout his reign Vlad continued to systematically eradicate the
old boyar class of Wallachia. Apparently Vlad was determined that
his own power be on a modern and thoroughly secure footing. In the
place of the executed boyars Vlad promoted new men from among the
free peasantry and middle class; men who would be loyal only to
their prince.
Vlad Draculas atrocities against the people of Wallachia were
usually attempts to enforce his own moral code upon his country. He
appears to have been particularly concerned with female chastity.
Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste
widows were all targets of Vlads 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 had the womans
breasts cut off, then she was skinned and impaled in a square in
Tirgoviste with her skin lying on a nearby table. Vlad also
insisted that his people be honest and hard working. Merchants who
cheated their customers were likely to find themselves mounted on a
stake beside common thieves.
The End of Vlad III
Although Vlad Dracula experienced some success in fending off the
Turks, his accomplishments were relatively short-lived. He received
little support from his titular overlord, Matthius Corvinus, King
of Hungary (son of John Hunyadi) and Wallachian resources were too
limited to achieve any lasting success against the powerful
Turks.
The Turks finally succeeded in forcing Vlad to flee to Transylvania
in 1462. Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide by leaping
from the towers of Vlads castle into the waters of the Arges River
rather than surrender to the Turks. Vlad escaped through a secret
passage and fled across the mountains into Transylvania and
appealed to Matthias Corvinus for aid. The king immediately had
Vlad arrested and imprisoned in a royal tower. During this period
he was able to gradually win his way back into the graces of
Matthias Corvinus and ultimately met and married a member of the
royal family (possibly the sister of Corvinus) and fathered two
sons.
Vlad Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the town
of Bucharest in December of 1476. Some reports indicate that he was
assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to
sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have him falling in
defeat, surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard.
Still other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was
accidentally struck down by one of his own men. The one undisputed
fact is that ultimately his body was decapitated by the Turks and
his head sent to Constantinople where the sultan had it displayed
on a stake as proof that the horrible Impaler was finally dead. He
was reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near
Bucharest.
