| Mihai Viteazul |
1593-1600; possibly a son of Pătraşcu cel Bun |
|
|
Family
Early life
Vlad was born in Sighișoara, Transylvania, in the Kingdom of Hungary (today part of Romania), in the winter of 1431 to Vlad II Dracul, future voivode of Wallachia. Vlad's father was the son of the celebrated Voivode Mircea the Elder. His mother is believed to be the second wife of Vlad Dracul, Princess Cneajna of Moldavia, eldest daughter of Alexandru cel Bun and aunt to Stephen the Great of Moldavia.[8] He had two older half-brothers, Mircea II and Vlad Călugărul, and a younger brother, Radu III the Handsome.
In the year of his birth, Vlad's father, known under the nickname Dracul, had traveled to Nuremberg where he had been vested into the Order of the Dragon. At the age of five, young Vlad was also initiated into the Order.[2]
Vlad and Radu spent their early formative years in Sighișoara under
the care and tutelage of their mother and the wives of other exiled boyars. During the first reign of their father, Vlad II Dracul, the Voivode brought his young sons to Târgoviște, the capital of Wallachia at that time.
The Byzantine chancellor Mikhail Doukas
showed that, at Târgoviște, the sons of boyars and ruling princes were
well-educated by Romanian or Greek scholars commissioned from Constantinople. Vlad is believed to have learned combat skills, geography, mathematics, science, languages (Old Church Slavonic, German, Latin), and the classical arts and philosophy.[9]
Life in Edirne
In 1436, Vlad II Dracul ascended the throne of Wallachia. He was
ousted in 1442 by rival factions in league with Hungary, but secured
Ottoman support for his return by agreeing to pay the Jizya (tax on non-Muslims) to the Sultan.
Vlad II also sent his two legitimate sons, Vlad and Radu, to the
Ottoman court, to serve as hostages of his loyalty. Radu converted to Islam, entered the service of Sultan Murad II's son, Mehmed II (later known as the Conqueror), and was allowed into the Topkapı Palace. Radu was also honored by the title Bey and was given command of the Janissary contingents.
These years presumably had a great influence on Vlad's character and led to Vlad's well-known hatred for the Ottoman Turks, the Janissary,
his brother Radu for converting to Islam and the young Turkish prince
Mehmed II (even after he became sultan). He was envious of his father's
preference for his elder brother, Mircea II and half brother, Vlad Călugărul. He also distrusted the Hungarians and his own father for trading him to the Turks and betraying the Order of the Dragon's oath to fight the Ottoman Empire.
Vlad was later released under probation and taken to be educated in logic, the Quran and the Turkish language and works of literature. He would speak this language fluently in his later years.[10]
He and his brother were also trained in warfare and riding horses. The
boys' father, Vlad Dracul, was awarded the support of the Ottomans and
returned to Wallachia and took back his throne from Basarab II and some unfaithful Boyars.
First marriage
Vlad's first wife bore him two sons: Mihnea I "the Bad" (Mihnea I cel Rău, ?-1510) and Mihail (?-1485).
According to local legend, she died during the siege of Poenari Castle, which was surrounded by the Ottoman army led by his brother Radu Bey and the Wallachian Janissary.
A woodland archer, having seen the shadow of Vlad's wife behind a
window, shot an arrow through the window into Vlad's main quarters with a
message warning him that Radu's army was approaching. McNally and
Florescu explain that the archer was one of Vlad's relatives who sent
the warning out of loyalty despite having converted to Islam and served in the ranks of Radu. Upon reading the message, Vlad's wife threw herself from the tower into a tributary of the Argeș River
flowing below the castle, saying she would rather rot and be eaten by
the fish of the Argeș than be led into captivity by the Turks. Today,
the tributary is called Râul Doamnei (the "Lady's River", also called the Princess's River).
Second marriage
Gradually winning back King Matthias's favour, he married Ilona Szilágyi of Wallachia,
a sister or cousin of the king (sources vary and disagree on what her
relation was), and in the years before his final release in 1474, had
her as a companion in his captivity.
Genealogy
In October 2011, Prince Charles
publicly claimed that he is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. The claim
accompanied his announcement of a pledge to help conserve the forested
areas of Transylvania.[11]
Radu Florescu documented on page 193 of his book, "Dracula: Prince of
Many Faces" that the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I granted Ladislas
Dracula and his brother John recognition as Dracula's direct
descendants: based on their documentation, the Emperor granted them
letters patent (a patent of nobility) on January 20, 1535, in which
their descent is described and also specific mention is made in the
patent of "the ancient insignia of Ladislas's family" as being the same
as that of the Bathory family--i.e., gules (red) a sword covering three
wolf teeth.
First reign and exile
In December 1447, boyars in league with the Hungarian regent John Hunyadi
rebelled against Vlad II Dracul and killed him in the marshes near
Bălteni. Mircea, Dracul's eldest son and heir, was blinded and buried
alive at Târgoviște.
To prevent Wallachia from falling into the Hungarian fold, the
Ottomans invaded Wallachia and put young Vlad III on the throne.
However, this rule was short-lived as Hunyadi himself now invaded
Wallachia and restored his ally Vladislav II, of the Dănești clan, to the throne.
Vlad fled to Moldavia, where he lived under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II.
In October 1451, Bogdan was assassinated and Vlad fled to Hungary.
Impressed by Vlad's vast knowledge of the mindset and inner workings of
the Ottoman Empire as well as his hatred of the new sultan Mehmed II, Hunyadi reconciled with his former rival and made him his advisor.
After the Fall of Constantinople to Mehmed II in 1453, Ottoman influence began to spread from this base through the Carpathians, threatening mainland Europe, and by 1481 conquering the entire Balkans peninsula. Vlad's rule thus falls entirely within the three decades of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.
In 1456, three years after the Ottomans had conquered Constantinople, they threatened Hungary by besieging Belgrade. Hunyadi began a concerted counter-attack in Serbia:
while he himself moved into Serbia and relieved the siege (before dying
of the plague), Vlad led his own contingent into Wallachia, reconquered
his native land and killed Vladislav II in hand-to-hand combat.[citation needed]
Second reign
Internal policy
Vlad found Wallachia in a wretched state: constant war had resulted
in rampant crime, falling agricultural production, and the virtual
disappearance of trade. Regarding a stable economy essential to
resisting external enemies, he used severe methods to restore order and
prosperity.
Vlad had three aims for Wallachia: to strengthen the country's
economy, its defense, and his own political power. He took measures to
help the peasants' well-being by building new villages and raising
agricultural output. He understood the importance of trade for the
development of Wallachia. He helped the Wallachian merchants by limiting
foreign merchant trade to three market towns: Târgșor, Câmpulung and
Târgoviște.
Vlad considered the boyars the chief cause of the constant strife as
well as of the death of his father and brother. To secure his rule, he
had many leading nobles killed and gave positions in his council,
traditionally belonging to the greatest boyars, to persons of obscure
origins, who would be loyal to him alone, and some to foreigners. For
lower offices, Vlad preferred knights and free peasants to boyars. In
his aim of fixing up Wallachia, Vlad issued new laws punishing thieves.
Vlad treated the boyars with the same harshness, believing them guilty
of weakening Wallachia through their personal struggles for power.
The army was also strengthened. He had a small personal guard, mostly
made of mercenaries, who were rewarded with loot and promotions. He
also established a militia or ‘lesser army’ made up of peasants called
to fight whenever war came.
Vlad Dracula built a church at Târgșor (allegedly in the memory of
his father and older brother who were killed nearby), and he contributed
with money to the Snagov Monastery and to the Comana Monastery
fortifications.[12]
Raids into Transylvania
Since the Wallachian nobility was linked to the Transylvanian Saxons,
Vlad also acted against them by eliminating their trade privileges and
raiding their cities. In 1459, he had several Saxon settlers of Brașov (Kronstadt) impaled.[13][14]
War with the Ottomans
In 1459, Pope Pius II called for a new crusade against the Ottomans, at the Congress of Mantua. In this crusade, the main role was to be played by Matthias Corvinus, son of John Hunyadi
(János Hunyadi), the King of Hungary. To this effect, Matthias Corvinus
received from the Pope 40,000 golden coins, an amount that was thought
to be enough to gather an army of 12,000 men and purchase 10 Danube
warships. In this context, Vlad allied himself with Matthias Corvinus,
with the hope of keeping the Ottomans out of the country (Wallachia was
claimed as a part of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmed II).
Vlad the Impaler and the Turkish Envoys. Painting by Theodor Aman.
Later that year, in 1459, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay a delayed Jizya
(tax on non-Muslims) of 10,000 ducats and 500 recruits into the Ottoman
forces. Vlad refused, because if he had paid the 'tribute', as the tax
was called at the time, it would have meant a public acceptance of
Wallachia as part of the Ottoman Empire. Vlad, just like most of his
predecessors and successors, had as a primary goal to keep Wallachia as
independent as possible. Vlad had the Turkish envoys killed on the
pretext that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him, by nailing
their turbans to their heads.
Meanwhile, the Sultan received intelligence reports that revealed Vlad's domination of the Danube.[15] He sent the Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha, to make peace and, if necessary, eliminate Vlad III.[15]
Vlad Țepeș planned to set an ambush. Hamza Pasha, the Bey of
Nicopolis, brought with him 1000 cavalry and when passing through a
narrow pass north of Giurgiu, Vlad launched a surprise attack. The
Wallachians had the Turks surrounded and defeated. The Turks' plans were
thwarted and almost all of them caught and impaled, with Hamza Pasha
impaled on the highest stake to show his rank.[15]
In the winter of 1462, Vlad crossed the Danube and devastated the entire Bulgarian land in the area between Serbia and the Black Sea. Disguising himself as a Turkish Sipahi, he infiltrated and destroyed Ottoman camps. In a letter to Corvinus dated 2 February, he wrote:
Transylvanian Saxon engraving from 1462 depicting Vlad Țepeș
I have killed peasants men and women, old and
young, 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 up 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 that I have broken the
peace with him (Sultan Mehmed II). [13][16]
In response to this, Sultan Mehmed II raised an army of around 60,000 troops and 30,000 irregulars,[17] and in spring of 1462 headed towards Wallachia. Commanding at best only 30,000 to 40,000 men (depending of the source),[citation needed]
Vlad was unable to stop the Ottomans from crossing the Danube on June
4, 1462 and entering Wallachia. He constantly organized small attacks
and ambushes on the Turks, such as The Night Attack when 15,000 Turks were killed.[2]
This infuriated Mehmed II, who then crossed the Danube. With the
exception of some Turkish references all the other chronicles at the
time that mention the 1462 campaign state that the Sultan was defeated.[citation needed] Apparently, the Turks retreated in such a hurry that by July 11, 1462 the Sultan was already in Adrianopolis.[citation needed]. According to the Byzantine historian Chalcocondil[citation needed],
Radu, brother of Vlad III and ingratiate of the Sultan, was left behind
in Targoviste with the hope that he would be able to gather an
anti-Vlad clique that would ultimately get rid of Vlad as Voivode of Wallachia and crown Radu as the new puppet ruler.
Vlad the Impaler's attack was celebrated by the Saxon cities of
Transylvania, the Italian states and the Pope. A Venetian envoy, upon
hearing about the news at the court of Corvinus on 4 March, expressed
great joy and said that the whole of Christianity should celebrate Vlad
Țepeș's successful campaign. The Genoese from Caffa also thanked Vlad,
for his campaign had saved them from an attack of some 300 ships that
the sultan planned to send against them.[16]
Defeat
Vlad's younger brother Radu cel Frumos and his Janissary battalions were given the task of leading the Ottoman Empire to victory at all expense by Sultan Mehmet II. After the Sipahis' incursions failed to subdue Vlad, the few remaining Sipahi were killed in a night raid by Vlad III in 1462. However, as the war raged on, Radu and his formidable Janissary battalions were well supplied with a steady flow of gunpowder and dinars; this allowed them to push deeper into the realm of Vlad III. Radu and his well-equipped forces finally besieged Poenari Castle, the famed lair of Vlad III. After his difficult victory Radu was given the title Bey of Wallachia by Sultan Mehmed II.
Vlad III's defeat at Poenari was due in part to the fact that the
Boyars, who had been alienated by Vlad's policy of undermining their
authority, had joined Radu under the assurance that they would regain
their privileges. They may have also believed that Ottoman protection
was better than Hungarian.
It was said as well that Radu (through his spies or traitors) found the
place where some Boyars' families were hidden during the war (probably
some forests around Snagov) and blackmailed them to come to his side.
By 8 September, Vlad had won another three victories, but continuous
war had left him without any money and he could no longer pay his
mercenaries. Vlad traveled to Hungary to ask for help from his former
ally, Matthias Corvinus.
Instead of receiving help, he found himself arrested and thrown into
the dungeon for high treason. Corvinus, not planning to get involved in a
war after having spent the Papal money meant for it on personal
expenses, forged a letter from Vlad III to the Ottomans where he
supposedly proposed a peace with them, to give an explanation for the
Pope and a reason to abandon the war and return to his capital.
Captivity in Hungary
Vlad was imprisoned at Oratia, a fortress located at Podu Dâmboviței Bridge. A period of imprisonment in Visegrád near Buda followed, where the Wallachian prince was held for 10 years. Then he was imprisoned in Buda.
The exact length of Vlad's period of captivity is open to some
debate, though indications are that it was from 1462 until 1474.
Diplomatic correspondence from Buda
seems to indicate that the period of Vlad's effective confinement was
relatively short. Radu's openly pro-Ottoman policy as voivode probably
contributed to Vlad's rehabilitation. Moreover, Ștefan cel Mare, Voievod of Moldavia
and relative of Vlad intervened on his behalf to be released from
prison as the Ottoman pressure on the territories north of the Danube
was increasing.
Third reign and death
After Radu's sudden death in 1475, Vlad III declared his third reign
in 26 November 1476. Vlad began preparations for the reconquest of
Wallachia in 1476 with Hungarian support. Vlad's third reign had lasted
little more than two months when he was assassinated.[18][19]
The exact date of his death is unknown, presumably the end of December
1476, but it is known that he was dead by 10 January 1477. The exact
location of his death is also unknown, but it would have been somewhere
along the road between Bucharest and Giurgiu. Vlad's head was taken to Constantinople as a trophy, and his body was buried unceremoniously by his rival, Basarab Laiota, possibly at Comana, a monastery founded by Vlad in 1461.[20] The Comana monastery was demolished and rebuilt from scratch in 1589.[21]
In the 19th century, Romanian historians cited a "tradition",
apparently without any kind of support in documentary evidence, that
Vlad was buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest. To support this theory, the so-called Cantacuzino Chronicle was cited, which cites Vlad as the founder of this monastery. But as early as 1855, Alexandru Odobescu
had established that this is impossible as the monastery had been in
existence before 1438. Since excavations carried out by Dinu V Rosetti
in June– October 1933, it has become clear that Snagov monastery was
founded during the later 14th century, well before the time of Vlad III.
The 1933 excavation also established that there was no tomb below the
supposed "unmarked tombstone" of Vlad in the monastery church. Rosetti
(1935) reported that “Under the tombstone attributed to Vlad there was
no tomb. Only many bones and jaws of horses. " In the 1970s, speculative
attribution of an anonymous tomb found elsewhere in the church to Vlad
Tepes was published by Simion Saveanu, a journalist who wrote a series
of articles on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Vlad's death.[21] Most Romanian historians today favor the Comana monastery as the final resting place for Vlad Tepes.[20]
Legacy
Reputation for cruelty
Even during his lifetime, Vlad III Țepeș became famous as a tyrant taking sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing.[22] He is shown in cryptoportraits
made during his lifetime in the role of cruel rulers or executioners.
After Vlad's death, his cruel deeds were reported with macabre gusto in
popular pamphlets in Germany, reprinted from the 1480s until the 1560s, and to a lesser extent in Tsarist Russia.
Estimates of the number of his victims range from 40,000 to 100,000,
comparable to the cumulative number of executions over four centuries of
European witchhunts.[23]
According to the German stories the number of victims he had killed was
at least 80,000. In addition to the 80,000 victims mentioned he also
had whole villages and fortresses destroyed and burned to the ground.[24]
Impalement
was Vlad's preferred method of torture and execution. Several woodcuts
from German pamphlets of the late 15th and early 16th centuries show
Vlad feasting in a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside
Brașov, while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims. It was
reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of rotting corpses on the banks of the Danube.[13] It has also been said that in 1462 Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople,
a man noted for his own psychological warfare tactics, returned to
Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled
corpses outside Vlad's capital of Târgoviște.[25]
Allegedly, Vlad's reputation for cruelty was actively promoted by Matthias Corvinus,
who tarnished Vlad’s reputation and credibility for a political reason:
as an explanation for why he had not helped Vlad fight the Ottomans in
1462, for which purpose he had received money from most Catholic states
in Europe.[citation needed]
Matthias employed the charges of Southeastern Transylvania, and
produced fake letters of high treason, written on 7 November 1462.[citation needed]
German sources
The German stories circulated first in manuscript form in the late 15th century and the first manuscript was probably written in 1462 before Vlad's arrest.[26]
The text was later printed in Germany and had a major impact on the
general public, becoming a best-seller of its time with numerous later
editions adding to and altering the original text.
1499 German woodcut showing Dracule waide dining among the impaled corpses of his victims.
In addition to the manuscripts and pamphlets the German version of the stories can be found in the poem of Michael Beheim. The poem called "Von ainem wutrich der hies Trakle waida von der Walachei" ("Story of a Madman Named Dracula of Wallachia") was written and performed at the court of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor during the winter of 1463.[27]
To this day four manuscripts and 13 pamphlets have been found, as
well as the poem by Michel Beheim. The surviving manuscripts date from
the last quarter of the 15th century to the year 1500 and the found
pamphlets date from 1488 to 1559–1568.
Eight of the pamphlets are incunabula:
they were printed before 1501. The German stories about Vlad the
Impaler consist of 46 short episodes, although none of the manuscripts,
pamphlets or the poem of Beheim contain all 46 stories.
All of them begin with the story of the old governor, John Hunyadi,
having Vlad's father killed, and how Vlad and his brother renounced
their old religion and swore to protect and uphold the Christian faith.
After this, the order and titles of the stories differ by manuscript and
pamphlet editions.[24]
Russian sources
The Russian or the Slavic version of the stories about Vlad the
Impaler called "Skazanie o Drakule voevode" ("The Tale of Warlord
Dracula") is thought to have been written sometime between 1481 and
1486. Copies were made from the 15th century to the 18th century, of
which some twenty-two extant manuscripts survive in Russian archives.[28] The oldest one, from 1490, ends as follows: "First written in the year 6994 of the Byzantine calendar
(1486), on 13 February; then transcribed by me, the sinner Efrosin, in
the year 6998 (1490), on 28 January". The Tales of Prince Dracula is
neither chronological nor consistent, but mostly a collection of
anecdotes of literary and historical value concerning Vlad Țepeș.
There are 19 anecdotes in The Tales of Prince Dracula which are
longer and more constructed than the German stories. The Tales can be
divided into two sections: The first 13 episodes are non-chronological
events most likely closer to the original folkloric oral tradition about
Vlad. The last six episodes are thought to have been written by a
scholar who collected them, because they are chronological and seem to
be more structured. The stories begin with a short introduction and the
anecdote about the nailing of hats to ambassadors' heads. They end with
Vlad's death and information about his family.[29]
Of the 19 anecdotes there are ten that have similarities to the German stories.[30]
Although there are similarities between the Russian and the German
stories about Vlad, there is a clear distinction in the attitude towards
him. The Russian stories tend to portray him in a more positive light:
he is depicted as a great ruler, a brave soldier and a just sovereign.
Stories of atrocities tend to seem to be justified as the actions of a
strong ruler. Of the 19 anecdotes, only four seem to have exaggerated
violence.[29] Some elements of the anecdotes were later added to Russian stories about Ivan the Terrible of Russia.[31]
The nationality and identity of the original writer of the anecdotes
Dracula is disputed. The two most plausible explanations are that the
writer was either a Romanian priest or a monk from Transylvania, or a
Romanian or Moldavian from the court of Stephen the Great in Moldavia. One theory claims the writer was a Russian diplomat named Fyodor Kuritsyn.[32]
Ambras Castle portrait
A contemporary portrait of Vlad III, rediscovered by Romanian
historians in the late 19th century, had been featured in the gallery of
horrors at Innsbruck's Ambras Castle.
This original has been lost to history, but a larger copy, painted
anonymously in the first half of the 16th century, now hangs in the same
gallery.[1][2] This copy, unlike the cryptoportraits contemporary with Vlad III, seems to have given him a Habsburg lip.[citation needed]
Popular culture
Romanian patriotism
Romanian and Bulgarian documents from 1481 onwards portray Vlad as a
hero, a true leader, who used harsh yet fair methods to reclaim the
country from the corrupt and rich boyars. Moreover, all his military
efforts were directed against the Ottoman Empire which explicitly wanted
to conquer Wallachia. Excerpt from "The Slavonic Tales":
- And he hated evil in his country so much that, if anyone
committed some harm, theft or robbery or a lye or an injustice, none of
those remained alive. Even if he was a great boyar or a priest or a monk
or an ordinary man, or even if he had a great fortune, he couldn't pay
himself from death. [33]
An Italian writer, Michael Bocignoli from Ragusa, in his writings from 1524, refers to Vlad Tepes as:
- It was once (in Valahia), a prince Dragul by his name, a very wise and skillful man in war. [34]
(In Latin in the original text: Inter eos aliquando princeps fuit, quem voievodam appellant, Dragulus nomine, vir acer et militarium negotiorum apprime peritus.)[35]
In "Letopisetul cantacuzinesc", a historic chronicle written by
Stoica Ludescu from the Cantacuzino family around 1688, Vlad orders the
boyars to build the fortress Poenari with their own hands. Later in the document, Ludescu refers to the (re)crowning of Vlad as a happy event:
- Voievod Vlad sat on the throne and all the country came to pay
respect, and brought many gifts and they went back to their houses with
great joy. And Voievod Vlad with the help of God grew into much good and
honor as long as he kept the reign of those just people. [36]
(In Romanian in the original text: De aciia șăzu în scaun
Vladul-vodă și veni țara de i să închină, și aduse daruri multe și să
întoarseră iarăși cine pre la case-și cu mare bucurie. Iar Vladul-vodă
cu ajutorul lui Dumnezeu creștea întru mai mari bunătăți și în cinste
pân' cât au ținut sfatul acelui neam drept.)
Around 1785, Ioan Budai-Deleanu, a Romanian writer,and renowned historian, wrote a Romanian epic heroic poem, "Țiganiada", in which prince Vlad Țepeș stars as a fierce warrior fighting the Ottomans. Later, in 1881, Mihai Eminescu, one of the greatest Romanian poets, in "Letter 3",
popularizes Vlad's image in modern Romanian patriotism, having him
stand as a figure to contrast with presumed social decay under the Phanariotes
and the political scene of the 19th century. The poem even suggests
that Vlad's violent methods be applied as a cure. In the final lyrics,
the poet makes a call to Vlad Tepes (i. e. Dracula) to come, to sort the
contemporaries into two teams: fool and rotten and then set fire to the
prison and to the fools' home.[37]
- (In Romanian in the original text:
- Dar lăsaţi măcar strămoşii ca să doarmă-n colb de cronici;
- Din trecutul de mărire v-ar privi cel mult ironici.
- Cum nu vii tu, Ţepeş doamne, ca punând mâna pe ei,
- Să-i împarţi în două cete: în smintiţi şi în mişei,
- Şi în două temniţi large cu de-a sila să-i aduni,
- Să dai foc la puşcărie şi la casa de nebuni!)
In contrast, documents of Germanic, Saxon, and Hungarian origin
portray Vlad as a tyrant, a monster so cruel that he needs to be
stopped. For example, Johan Christian Engel characterizes Vlad as "a
cruel tyrant and a monster of humankind".[38] Several authors and historians believe that this may be the result of a bad image campaign initiated by the Transylvanian Saxons who were actively persecuted during Vlad's reign and later maintained and spread by Matthias Corvinus.[26][38][39][40]
It is conceivable that these actions were not beyond the Hungarian King
since he had already framed Vlad Tepes by producing a forged letter to
incriminate Vlad of coalition with the Turks; however, there is
incontestable evidence, both in Romanian and foreign documents,
including Vlad's own letters, that he killed tens of thousands of people
in horrible ways.
Bram Stoker
The connection of the name "Dracula" with vampirism was made by Bram Stoker, who probably found the name of his Count Dracula character in William Wilkinson's book, An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia: with various Political Observations Relating to Them.[41] It is known that Stoker made notes about this book.[42]
It is also suggested that Stoker may have been made aware of the
reputation of Vlad through an acquaintance of his, Hungarian professor Ármin Vámbéry from Budapest. The fact that character Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
states in the 1897 novel that the source of his knowledge about Count
Dracula is his friend Arminius appears to support this hypothesis,
although there is no specific evidence that Stoker and Vambéry ever
discussed Wallachian history.
Referring to a letter from his friend Arminius, van Helsing comments:
He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who
won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very
frontier of Turkey-land. (Chapter 18, pp 145)
This encourages the reader to identify the Vampire Count with the
Voivode Dracula first mentioned by him, the one betrayed by his own
brother: Vlad III Dracula betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome. But
as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van
Helsing and Mina drop this rudimentary connection and instead describe
the Count's personal past as that of "that other of his race" who lived
"in a later age". This way, Stoker avoided the possibility that his main
character could be definitely linked to any specific historical person.[43]
Documentaries and films
Unlike the many films based on the fictitious Dracula character,
there have been few movies about the real man who inspired Bram Stoker's
creation.
The 1975 documentary In Search of Dracula explores the history
and legends of Vlad the Impaler and the connection between the
historical character and the vampire of Stoker's novel. Both the
historical and literary Dracula are portrayed in the film by Christopher Lee, best known for his numerous portrayals of the fictional Dracula in films ranging from the 1950s to the 1970s.[44]
In 1979, a more historically accurate Romanian film called Vlad Țepeș (sometimes known, in other countries, as The True Story of Vlad the Impaler)
was released, based on his six-year reign and brief return to power in
late 1476. The character is portrayed in a mostly positive perspective,
though the film also mentions the excesses of his regime and his
practice of impalement. The lead character is played by Ștefan Sileanu.[45]
Vlad was depicted in his youth in the 1989 Romanian film Mircea, which focused on the reign of his grandfather, Mircea I of Wallachia (AD 1386-1418).
Vlad was also depicted in the 2000 film, "Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula".
Music
Vlad is portrayed in the 2010 release, Vlad the Impaler (song), by Kasabian. The track was complemented by a music video featuring Noel Fielding as Vlad.
Non-fiction Biographies
A range of biographies are available, but most mix the vampire-myth
with historic facts. An exception is 'In the Shadow of Empires' (2012),
an easy to read biography that stays with the historic facts and ignores
the vampire. |
