VLAD THE IMPALER

Vlad the Impaler:

Vlad's father is Vlad Dracul (Vlad the devil) and was made a member of The Order Of the Dragon in Nuremburg in February 1431. Membership in the order meant an oath to fight the Turks (forever) and yet the whole Dracula family flirted with the Turks as well as killing them. Vlad father killed December 1447 by henchmen of John Hunyadi .. a lose relative NOT prone to flirting with the Turks

Prince Vlad Tepes the 5th of Wallachia (1431-1476 ... age 46 he was beheaded) born in the Translyvanian town of Sighisoara, otherwise known as Schassburg

Nickname Vlad; other name "Voevod" or warlord or warrior prince (as opposed to a prince who rules by inherited right)

Tepes (pronounced tzae-paesh) means "spike" in Romanian; (I am grateful to Ioana Timariu for this amendment).

Vlad signed his name "DRAKULYA" (seems he couldn't spell!!!)

The city of Bistrita is starting point for anyone interested in following this story by real travel

In 1453 Constantinople falls to the Turks (during Crusades) Vlad is Greek Orthodox (but also ties to Rome)

Dracula's actual castle is near Arefu but there is apparently a second one near Poenari

Of all the variant sources of Dracula the German ones (says Summers) are the most reliable in part because they are the oldest (15th century). The oldest MS was written in low German in 1462 (during Vlad's own life). They were written by a Saxon mon named Brother Jacob who fled the country for his life. There is also a Russian MS written in 2486 and the general truth of these MSS is confirmed by Papal documents sent to Rome in 1475

The Vatican (apparently) still has some secret reports on Vlad sent to Pope Pius II in Rome

Dracule was also chronicled by the following chronicles:
-Chalkokondyles
-Sphrantzes
-Doukos
-Critoboulos of Imbros

There is some etymological confusion over the meaning of Dracula.
-Little devil
-Son of the devil
-Dragon

What is now Romania used to be 3 states: Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia ... Transylvania has always been considered a somewhat separate cultural entity because it is tucked behind the Carpathian Alps. All were under the Roman empire at one time.

Unfaithful wives and promiscuous women were punished by Dracule by cutting off their sex organs, skinning them alive and exposing them in public with their skin hanging from a nearby pole

Dracule is famous also for cutting off limbs, strangling, blinding, boiling and burning his victims

Dracule learned impaling from the Turks (he was captured by them in 1442 and led in chains to Adrianople where he was eventually released). Dracula's imprisonment by the Turks happened when he was no more than 15 years old and included physical and moral abuse. He had to swear an oath never to attack the Turks

He was also put in jail for 12 years by the King of Wallachia and after he died the new king let Dracula out provided he swore an oath to abandon Greek Orthodoxy and become Roman Catholic

Then there is a story that when Vlad was a boy he mutilated and impaled small birds (viz Renfield in Dracula)

Impalement victim had legs pulled by horses onto a stake ... which was rounded at the end and oiled so as NOT to cause immediate death

Dracula may or may not have been a cannibal (ie werewolf) but he most certainly forced others into it ... often forcing mothers to eat their babies

Dracule always left cadavers to rot

The (in)famous Vlad banquet amidst impaled people in concentric circles with those of highest rank at the centre was April 6, 1459 in the city of Brasov

Impalement could be top down, bottom up or through the navel

Most impalings done only between 1459 and 1461

In a battle in 1456 he impaled 20,000 Turks at once witnessed by Mohammed II outside Targoviste (Vlad's capital). Impalements were spread out over 2 square miles

Dracule was a (sort of) hero in Romania because he made the streets so "safe" that you could leave a purse in the middle of the road and no one would pick it up.

In 1458 Vlad builds the citadel at Bucharest

Vlad had an effeminate brother named "Radu the Handsome" his son was "Mihnea the bad"

Vlad actually reigned 3 times :

Vlad died in 1476 near Bucharest; only the Russian MS says that in a battle against the Turks Dracula had disguised himself as a Turk and as victory was near he got excited, ran to the top of a hill to see it all, was (understandably) mistaken for a Turk and killed by his own men

Some of Vlad's (equally as) brutal contemporaries were

Dracula spent more years in prison than he did on the throne

Dracule surrounded himself with bishops, abbots and priests BOTH Greek Orthodox and Roman

Vlad's wife commited suicide rather than be led into captivity by the Turks (this was during the 3rd campaign) ... she may have jumped prematurely being afraid Vlad would lose the battle

Vlad's tomb discovered accidentally in 1922 by a young Romanian student named Constantin C. Giurescu in the village of Strejnicu

Vlad's "tomb" opened in 1931 but it was empty except for 4) a necklace with the serpent motif on it (the serpent was associated with the order of the dragon)
-- all of the contents of Dracula's grave "mysteriously disappeared" from the History Museum of Bucharest where they were deposited

Somewhere hidden (so they say) are the famous "Dracula Rabbit skins" in which he rewarded peasants for saving his life by offering them land or $$. They took the land and he drew up documents for them on 5 rabbit skins, giving them 20,000 acres. It's said by the locals that the descendants of those peasants still have the skins hidden somewhere

On his 2nd campaign Dracula's son fell in battle but he(Dracule) was too hardened to pick him up or help him. And it turns out the boy lived and was raised by shepherds near Arefu. 12 years later the peasant returned Vlad's son (Drac was now in power) and Dracula rewards the peasant with huge tracts of lands.

Click here for PRINCE DRAKUL STORIES and for tips on how to FOOL A VAMPIRE.