Introduction
Vlad III Dracula, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, was a 15th-century Romanian leader. He reigned as Prince of Wallachia on three separate occasions: 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476.
Vlad III is notorious for several reasons. Firstly, his brutal methods of punishment and execution, which included impaling thousands of people, often in public displays. This gruesome practice earned him his nickname “the Impaler.” Secondly, he fought fiercely against the Ottoman Empire, resisting Turkish expansion in Eastern Europe. His military campaigns against the Ottomans have become legendary.
In his homeland, he is seen as a national hero who resisted and ended Ottoman expansion into Romania. Outside Romania though, he is a fiend, a psychopath, a sadist, and a man whose deeds inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 book named “Dracula.”
They said he drank blood. Rumours had it that he dined among the impaled bodies of his enemies, and even dipped his bread in their blood, earning him the reputation of being a bloodthirsty and sadistic ruler.
Vlad Dracul, father of Vlad Dracula
Vlad Dracula was born Vlad III to his father Vlad II who was called Dracul, or The Dragon. This was a title he got from Sigismund, King of Hungary, and later the Pope, making him the member of The Order of The Dragons. This order served to resist Ottoman expansion into Europe. Vlad II grew up in Sigismund’s court, since his own father was a vassal of the Hungarian king. In essence, Vlad II was a hostage kept within killing distance to keep his father in check. Vlad II’s father ruled over Wallachia, and Sigismund wanted it to be a buffer zone to keep the Ottomans at bay. That meant he kept Vlad II really close, hoping to make an ally out of him.
Vlad II, or Vlad Dracul, was born in a difficult time for Wallachian nobility. The average time of ruling for a Wallachian king was about just three years, because of the backstabbings and assassinations that went on there. So when Vlad Dracul’s father died, one of his brothers ascended the throne and pledged allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II.
Sigismund didn’t want this, so he gave Vlad Dracul a bunch of money to recruit soldiers. Most of the soldiers he got were exiled Wallachian Boyars. A Boyar is a member of the Wallachian nobility. While he marched on Wallachia, his brother died of an illness, so he seized the throne anyway.
Vlad Dracul’s first action as ruler, was to annul the treaty his brother made with the Ottomans.
Murad II sent his armies to invade Wallachia, and a month later Sigismund died, and the promised Hungarian military aid died with him. Vlad Dracul, the ever scheming fox, forwent everything and ran to Murad II’s side. He, Vlad II, then guided an Ottoman invasion force into Hungary.
That force was defeated, and the Hungarians were furious with Vlad Dracul.
Now before you crucify Dracul, think about the Diplomatic Sandwich Dilemma, or DSD.
Now, a DSD is what I like to call a situation where a small country finds itself between two powerful enemy countries and aligning with one country makes it an enemy of the other. A perfect example is Nepal during the Sino-Indian war of 1962.
Doesn’t make Vlad Dracul any less sneaky but at least you get his POV. I am just the devil’s advocate here.
Vlad Dracul met with the Prince of Transylvania, John Hunyadi in 1442. John convinced him to withdraw his support from an Ottoman invasion of Transylvania in the works. Transylvania was a vassal state of Hungary.
Sneaky, right?
So Vlad Dracul agreed and didn’t join the invasion, but let Ottoman troops cross his territory. Murad II was furious with Vlad Dracul for what he saw as double dealing. He invited the Wallachian ruler to a meeting and jailed him and his two youngest sons, releasing him after he swore an oath to not act against the Ottoman empire. He was also forced to pledge to send 500 kids a year to join the famed Ottoman Janissary Corps.
When it was time to leave, Murad II took Vlad Dracul’s two sons as hostages.
The younger son was Radu, and he was seven years old.
The elder son was named Vlad III, or Dracula, which meant little dragon.
Radu was the model child. Intelligent, dashing and loved by everyone at Murad’s court, he got the nickname Radu the Handsome. He was close friends with the Sultan’s son, Mehmed II, and together they studied philosophy, logic, mathematics, Turkish, and The Qur’an.
Early Life of Vlad Dracula
Vlad III, or Vlad Dracula, was nothing like his younger brother. He was surly and not handsome, so this made sure that he didn’t get the adoration that Radu got. In Ottoman culture, whipping was a very common form of punishment, to the extent that even the Sultan’s sons got whipped if they did something wrong. Vlad was always defiant, so he got whipped very often.
Vlad and Radu were treated well, but they knew what they were. They were hostages, and they understood that pretty well when they saw two of their fellow Eastern European hostages blinded with hot red metal when they were caught trying to communicate with their father. Vlad never forgot that throughout his life.
Vlad was very watchful. He observed Ottoman court proceedings, was present during military drills, and gained firsthand knowledge of his future enemy’s thought processes. The Ottomans used terror tactics to subdue vassal states, so he observed and learned the impersonality of war and politics. Vlad concluded that betraying your own family was okay as long as it gave you more power.
Back home. Daddy Vlad Dracul was scheming like never before. He joined forces with John Hunyadi to throw out the Ottomans from Europe, knowing that it meant certain death for his sons. The coalition met with disaster in battle, and Vlad III and Radu had their privileges stripped. They were taken away from court and forced to live in squalid conditions. Daddy Vlad meanwhile, gave a confusing statement about which side he was actually on and resubmitted to Emperor Murad II. He was surprised to learn that his sons were still alive and were allowed to go home.
By this time, John Hunyadi was sick and tired of Vlad Dracul. He raised an army and marched on Wallachia. He was going to depose Vlad III and place a pretender named Vladislav on the throne. Daddy Vlad had Little Vlad and Raju sent back to the Ottoman empire. He himself went with his eldest son to fight the Hungarians. Then things went a lot awry for them.
Vlad Dracul’s eldest son got caught by a group of rebel Boyars. They put out his eyes with red hot iron, and buried him alive. Vlad Dracul himself was caught in a marsh and killed days later by John Hunyadi. According to Romanian folklore, before Dracul died, he gave his sword and pendant with the dragon sigil to a loyal Boyar with orders to get them to his son Vlad III. Shortly after, he was killed, and the Wallachian throne was given to Vladislav.
It was 1448 when Vlad Dracula, the Third, The son of The Dragon, knew it was time to reclaim his throne. With Ottoman support, he marched on Wallachia. He swore to never rest till he had avenged his father and brother, and to personally kill Vladislav the Pretender. He was seventeen years old.
Murad II made Vlad Dracula an officer in the Ottoman army because even though Raju was the more popular brother, Dracula’s seriousness appealed to him more. He felt that a serious leader would be the prince they’d want ruling Wallachia as an ally.
John Hunyadi and Vladislav invaded Serbia, but Murad II had dealt them a severe defeat at Kosovo. It was such a chaotic battle that nobody knew if Hunyadi and Vladislav were still alive. Seizing his chance, Dracula stormed Wallachia at the head of an Ottoman calvary force and took the throne. But then Vladislav showed up with an army, defeated Dracula, and sent him back into exile. His first reign lasted only two months.
Vladislav had been given the throne on the condition that he’d always fight the Ottoman Turks. He soon got to understand the dilemma that late Dracul was in. Wallachia was a small kingdom, and they couldn’t fight the Turks without Hungarian aid that wasn’t coming. The Boyar nobility soon convinced him to make peace with the Turks.
Dracula heard this in exile in the Ottoman empire. He knew that his own death would be one of the conditions for Vladislav to make peace with Murad II, so he fled. To Moldavia. His uncle’s kingdom.
He, his uncle, and his cousin were together for three years, and those were happy times. He even helped them throw back a polish force from their backyard. His uncle got assassinated by his half-brother, unfortunately, so Dracula and his cousin Stephen ran to Hungary. There they hopped from town to town, avoiding hit squads sent by Hunyadi. He narrowly escaped death several times.
While Dracula was in Hungary, Murad II died and Mehmed ascended the throne. He was more ambitious than his father, so he decided to conquer Constantinople.
Hunyadi was essentially just a prince of Transylvania now, after ruling Hungary on behalf of a boy king. Vladislav wasn’t holding up to his end of the bargain, so Hunyadi found his interests aligning with Dracula’s. One would think Dracula would have some trouble allying himself with the man who killed his father, but remember…
…Politics and War were impersonal to Dracula.
His father already taught him that when he abandoned them to die in the Ottoman empire and sided with Hunyadi. If getting back his throne meant letting go of some vengeful thoughts, then it had to be so.
So Vlad Dracula linked up with Hunyadi and forged an alliance. He even went to the Hungarian court during the coronation of Ladislaus V. There Dracula swore an oath to act as an ally of Hungary in a catholic church.
Vlad Dracula’s First Reign
Emperor Mehmed besieged Constantinople and took it in 1453 AD. The Turks impaled prisoners in front of the besieged troops to intimidate them into surrendering.
Hunyadi knew that the Turkish emperor wouldn’t stop there, so he raised an army of mercenaries. Mehmed as expected, besieged the Hungarian frontier city of Belgrade, and Hunyadi came with his forces from behind. The city was about to give up when Hunyadi’s troops attacked the Turks from behind and routed them. Just after the victory though, a plague swept through, killing Hunyadi and many of his troops.
Dracula himself had no time to mourn his ally, for he raised an army and went to attack Vladislav. Reports vary, with some saying that the two armies clashed, while others say that they resolved the issue by single combat. Both versions admit that Dracula personally slew Vladislav the Pretender When Dracula took the throne, he ordered that new coins be stamped with the shooting star he saw before attacking Vladislav. That star was Halley’s comet, and he took it as a sign of victory.
Dracula agreed to pay 2,000 talents of gold as tribute and let the Ottoman army cross his lands, he was just buying time to repair his fortresses and fix internal squabbles. A few months into his reign, a young Boyar raised an army and marched on the capital, Târgovişte to dethrone Dracula, but he ambushed them and made a terrible example of the noble to be remembered for centuries.
Vlad The Impaler
Dracula had his men sharpen stakes, oil them up–YES HE DID THAT–and shove them through the rear ends of the noble and all his male kin. He then left them to die over the course of several days. He refined this brutal method of execution over the years, earning the nickname Vlad the Impaler.
In 1457, Dracula had all his nobles come feast at his table. He wasn’t happy with the amount of people against him in the nobility, so he had a plan.
You see, the Boyar nobility was split into two factions; those who supported him and those who were on Vladislav’s side. The Vladislav camp was the majority, and many of them conspired to kill Dracula’s father. So during the feast, he had soldiers drag out all members of the nobility who conspired against him or his father. He had all the oldest of them impaled. The younger ones were sent to work in brutal conditions building his castle for the rest of their really short lives.
It was 15th century Europe, and while Vlad Dracula was brutal, it wasn’t hundred percent unheard of. There were few rules governing warfare and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights wasn’t going to be drafted until roughly five hundred years later. Mass executions were common after mutinies and revolts so that the people would fall in line. They even had a euphemism for something of the sort. It was called Pacification.
Vlad Dracula was extreme even by 15th century standards though. Between 1457 and 1461, he had the entire Boyar council (minus two) impaled. The replacements came from the lower strata and some mercenaries who left Transylvania to come join him. This meant that he surrounded himself only with people he thought were loyal to him. These men found themselves the new owners of lands and wealth previously owned by the impaled nobles. His campaign of terror kept the public in line.
Thieves had their heads chopped off. Cheating wives were flayed. Lazy peasants were impaled. If you didn’t join the army, you’d be boiled alive. Some of these stories were exaggerated, but one thing was clear. Vlad Dracula was as tough as a nut, stamping his authority on Wallachia.
In 1459, the Saxon citizens of Brasov, had supported one of Dracula’s relatives, and made a grab for the throne of Wallachia. In retaliation, Dracula had 41 Saxon artisans in Wallachia impaled. He also attacked Brasov, killing thousands and killing the pretender.
Vlad’s Enmity with the Turks
While Dracula had promised to pay Mehmed tribute, the first year was the only year he paid. By 1961 he was three years due. Mehmed sent three diplomats with a small force to capture Vlad Dracula, who ambushed them and marched them back to Târgovişte. There he had three of them impaled and imprisoned the rest of the army. Dracula then started attacking Turkish lands, burning towns and impaling thousands of people. He sent a letter to the king of Hungary, telling him how many enemies he impaled, about 23,900 people.
In 1462, Mehmed crossed the Danube river into Wallachia, with his army and Dracula’s brother, Radu. Meanwhile, Stephen, now king of Moldavia had allied himself with the Ottoman Turks, and was amassing troops at the Wallachian border.
Dracula was outnumbered and outgunned seven to one, so he withdrew. Mehmed wanted Wallachia to be a buffer zone with Radu in charge. Dracula wanted to keep his lands, but he knew he couldn’t beat Mehmed, so he resorted to guerilla tactics. He told the civilians to withdraw to the Carpathian mountains, then he burned the land and poisoned the water. He also sent harrying waves of calvary attacks to harass the Turkish columns until they camped outside Târgovişte.
Outside Târgovişte, Dracula put on a disguise and snuck into the Turkish camp. His excellent Turkish made him able to pose as a soldier and find out relevant intel. He managed to find out where Mehmed’s tent was, and alerted his calvary who made a daring charge into the enemy camp, killing hundreds of Turks. Dracula joined in and rushed to Mehmed’s tent only to discover that he wasn’t there. He retreated with his calvary, and went into the mountains. The next day, Mehmed and Radu found a surprise waiting for them.
It was a forest of the dead. Dracula had impaled thousands of Turkish prisoners before retreating into the mountains. It was a horrific display of men, women and children twisted in different positions. Crows pecked at eyeballls and feasted on the bleeding corpses. Reports say that up to 20,000 people were found dead, close to the number Dracula himself reported.
With Dracula away, the Boyars defected to Radu, since they weren’t too fond of his brother with his terror campaigns. Mehmed placed Radu on the throne and left, since support for Dracula had dwindled away. Radu wasn’t a very adept warrior, but he was a skilled diplomat, quickly portraying himself as the opposite of his brother.
Now, the king of Hungary had received a lot of money from the pope to fight the Turks, and he was marching with his army. Dracula sent a lot of messages to him, asking for aid to reclaim his throne. He didn’t want to fight the Ottoman Turks, so he captured Dracula, producing forged letters allegedly coming from Dracula himself in negotiations with Mehmed. He had Dracula imprisoned for 14 years before being released and placed under house arrest in a castle.
While he was under arrest, Radu lost the throne, and Dracula asked the Hungarian king to give him an army. He refused, initially, but after sending him on a bunch of military expeditions, finally let him gain back his throne when he saw he could trust him.
Vlad Dracula’s Mysterious End
Little is known about Vlad Dracula’s death. Some said he was assassinated, his head brought to Mehmed the Conqueror in Constantinople. Others say he died in a lost battle against the Ottomans. What is known, is that he died in the second month of his third reign over Wallachia.
Vlad Dracula, however, wasn’t a vampire. That was Bram Stoker’s doing. Stoker knew little about Romania, so he just used their folklore to create a book about a vampire. He named the vampire Dracula, as per Romanian lore. It just happened to be that the bloodiest man at the time was Vlad Dracula, so it stuck.