Vlad The Impaler (1431-1476), also named Dracula or Draculea reigned in Valahia between 1448 and 1456 and 1462-1476.
He was born at Sighisoara in Transilvania. During his reign, Valahia got temporary independence from the Turks. Vlad the Impaler was famous for his cruelty and due to the fact that he was impaling his enemies.Hundreds of people were executed like this at his orders. Because of the disputes with the merchants from Brasov, they characterized him as a cruel ruler, although this kind of cruelty was common for those times.
Bram Stoker''s book, Dracula, is not directly based on the cruel reign of Vlad The devil (Vlad Dracul), but is a work of fiction, set in Transilvania and England during the 19th century. However, because of the cruel reign, Stocker presented Vlad The Impaler as a blood thirsty vampire. As a consequence of of the novel''s success, the romanian province is associated with the fiction character, Dracula. The historical importance of Vlad was recently demonstrated by professor Radu Florescu, in his book Search of Dracula: The history of Dracula and Vampires.
In 1453, The Bizantin Empire was replaced by the Ottoman Empire, which gets to control Constantinople and they continue to attack Europe. They manage to control great part of the Balcans eventually (territories that now belong to Serbia and partially to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) but arrived at Viena''s gates they had to go back. The legends says that Dracula was a
prince who fought to protect the borders of his contry ad who terrified the attackers- muslims or christians, killing without mercy.
The origin of the name Dracula, Vlad the Impaler the third, was born in november or december 1431, at Sighisoara, Transilvania. His father, Vlad the
second, the Devil,had been attracted in the Order of the Dragon almost one year before. The Order- which can be compared with the MAlta Order or the Teutonic Knights - was a military-religious society, whose basis had been estabblished in 1387 by Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary (later Roman Saint Emperor)and by his second wife, Barbara Cilli.
The Symbol Of the Dragon Order
The Symbol of the order was the DRagon. The main purposes of such orders was the protection of the interests of catholicism and the crusade against the Turks. There are various reasons for which this society is relevant to Vlad Dracul (The devil). First of all it explains the provenience of the name Dracul (dragon): the boyards who knew about Vlad''s connection with the Order of the Dragon, decided to call him Dracul. Draculea could mean the son of Dracul and was frequently used by Vlad the Impaler in official correspondence. A second important element of this order, source of inspiration for Stoker to create the demonic character were the official clothes of the Order- a black cape over a red coat which was worn only on Friday to commemorate Christ''s Torments.
Another name used especially among common people was that of "The Impaler" which means the one who impales; impalement was his favourite execution method. Even the Turks called him Kazikli Bey, meaning Prince Impaler. This name was used for the first time in a chronicle from Valahia in 1550 and it was preserved in the Romanian History.
Prince of Valahia
The beginning of his reign
In the winter of 1436, Vlad the 2nd Dracul, became prince of Valahia( one of the three romanian provinces, the other twoo being Moldavia and Transilvania) and he settled at the Targoviste Court, where Vlad the Impaler followed his father and stayed six years. In 1442, for political reasons, Vlad and his younger brother were taken hostages by the sultan Murad the 2nd, Vlad the third remained hostage till 1448, while his brother stayed there till 1462. This period of captivity played an important part in Vlad''s ascending to the throne; in this period he probably adopted that pessimistic way of see Turks let him free after they informed him about his father''s death, in 1447- assasined at the order ofVladislav the second, rival at the throne of Valahia. He also found out about his elder brother''s death (mihai) and about how the youngest one was toetured and burried alive by the boyards from Targoviste. When he was seven, Vlad the Impaler , supported by the Turks, made the first step towards the conquering of the throne of Valahia. But two months later he was defeated by Vladislav the second, who regained the throne. To ensure his second and longest reign, Vlad the Third had to wait till the 20th of august 1456, when he had the satisfaction of killing his enemy and the killer of his father. THe first act of revenge was against the boyards from Targoviste, guilty of having killed his brother and his father. In the Easter Sunday, 1459, he arrested all the boyard families that participated at the party given by the prince. THe oldest were impaled, the others were forced to walk all the way to Poenari, from the capital-100 kilometres, where they had to build a fortress on the ruins of an old avanpost with a view to the river Arges. Those who died were replaced and thus the Prince managed to create a new nobility and to build a fortress for future emergencies.
Vlad the Impaler was known for his brutal punishments. According to the Saxon detractors ( from TRansilvania), he often ordered men to be peeled off their skin, to be decapitated, blinded, strangled, burn, hanged, cut or fixed in nails, burried alive or stabbed. He also liked to cut his victimes the nose, ears, genital organs or tongue. But his favourite method was impaling, where he got the name from, the one who impales. This method was used in 1457, 1459, 1460 against the Transilvania merchants who ignored his laws of commerce.
The incursions he made among the Saxons from Transilvania werealso actions meant to protect the commercial activities in Valahia. During that age, it was usual that the suitors at the throne of Valahia look for help in Transilvania, where they waited for the right moment to act.
As for Dracula, we don''t know the exact reason why Bram Stoker took as a model for his fiction character, the Prince of VAlahia of the 15th century. Some say that Stoker may have had a friend, a Hungarian teacher from the University of Budapest, Arminius Vambery and that this one may have informed him about Vlad the IMpaler. More, the fact that Dr Abraham VAn Helsing mentions his friend Arminius in his 1897 novel as a source of his knowledge about Vlad the third Dracula, seems to support this idea. It must also be mentioned the fact that this seems to be the only real connection between Vlad Draculea - the historical figure (1431-1476) and the modern myth of the vamire- BAram Stoker''s book. The latter used folklore historical sources, and personal experiences to create a complex character.