Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or simply Dracula, was a legendary military prince of Wallachia. He ruled the principality three times - in 1448, from 1456 to 1462 and in 1476, during the beginning of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Dracula has become a popular folklore character in many countries of Eastern Europe thanks to their bloody battles and the defense of Orthodox Christianity from the Ottoman invasion. And at the same time he is one of the most popular and bloody figures in the history of pop culture. The blood-chilling legends about Dracula are known to almost everyone, but what was the real Vlad the Impaler like?
1. Small Motherland
The real historical prototype of Dracula was Vlad III (Vlad the Impaler). He was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania in 1431. Today on his former place birth, a restaurant was built, which annually attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.
2. Order of the Dragon
Dracula's father was called Dracul, which means "dragon". Also, according to other sources, he had the nickname “devil”. He received a similar name because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought against Ottoman Empire.
3. Father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa
Although nothing is known about Dracula's mother, it is assumed that his father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa at the time. However, since Vlad II had several mistresses, no one knows who Dracula's real mother was.
4. Between two fires
Dracula lived in a time of constant war. Transylvania was located on the border of two great empires: the Ottoman and Austrian Habsburgs. As a young man he was imprisoned, first by the Turks and later by the Hungarians. Dracula's father was killed, and his older brother Mircea was blinded with red-hot iron stakes and buried alive. These two facts greatly influenced how vile and vicious Vlad later became.
5.Constantine XI Palaiologos
It is believed that the young Dracula spent some time in Constantinople in 1443 at the court of Constantine XI Palaiologos, a legendary character in Greek folklore and the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Some historians suggest that it was there that he developed his hatred of the Ottomans.
6. Son and heir Mikhnya is evil
It is believed that Dracula was married twice. His first wife is unknown, although she may have been a Transylvanian noblewoman. She bore Vlad a son and heir, the evil Mikhny. Vlad married a second time after serving his prison sentence in Hungary. Dracula's second wife was Ilona Szilágyi, the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman. She bore him two sons, but neither of them became a ruler.
7. Nickname “Tepes”
The nickname “Tepes” translated from Romanian means “piercer”. It appeared 30 years after Vlad's death. Vlad III earned his nickname “Tepes” (from the Romanian word țeapă 0 - “stake”) because he killed thousands of Turks in a gruesome way - impalement. He learned about this execution as a teenager, when he was a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.
8. The worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire
It is believed that Dracula is responsible for the deaths of more than one hundred thousand people (most of them Turks). It made him worst enemy Ottoman Empire.
9. Twenty thousand rotting corpses frightened the Sultan
In 1462, during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Dracula's Wallachia, Sultan Mehmed II fled with his army, horrified by the sight of twenty thousand rotting Turkish corpses impaled on stakes on the outskirts of Vlad's capital, Targovishte. During one battle, Dracula retreated into the nearby mountains, leaving behind him imprisoned prisoners. This forced the Turks to stop their pursuit, since the Sultan could not stand the stench of decaying corpses.
10. Birth of a legend
Impaled corpses were usually displayed as a warning to others. At the same time, the corpses were white because the blood completely flowed out of the wound on the neck. This is where the legend came from that Vlad the Impaler was a vampire.
11. Scorched earth tactics
Dracula also became known for the fact that during his retreat, he burned villages along the way and killed all the local residents. Such atrocities were committed so that the soldiers of the Ottoman army had no place to rest and so that there were no women whom they could rape. In an attempt to cleanse the streets of the Wallachian capital Targovishte, Dracula invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses under the pretext of a feast. At the end of the feast, Dracula left the house, locked it from the outside and set it on fire.
12. Dracula's head went to the Sultan
In 1476, 45-year-old Vlad was eventually captured and beheaded during the Turkish invasion. His head was brought to the Sultan, who put it on public display on the fence of his palace.
13. Remains of Dracula
It is believed that archaeologists who were searching for Snagov (a commune near Bucharest) in 1931 found the remains of Dracula. The remains were transferred to the historical museum in Bucharest, but later they disappeared without a trace, leaving the secrets of the real Prince Dracula unanswered.
14. Dracula was very religious
Despite his cruelty, Dracula was very religious and surrounded himself with priests and monks throughout his life. He founded five monasteries, and his family founded more than fifty monasteries over 150 years. He was initially praised by the Vatican for defending Christianity. However, the church subsequently expressed its disapproval of Dracula's brutal methods and ended its relationship with him.
15. Monstrous Ruler
In Turkey, Dracula is considered a monstrous and vile ruler who executed his enemies in a painful way purely for his own pleasure.
16. Transylvanian subculture
Dracula enjoyed enormous popularity in the second half of the twentieth century. More than two hundred films have been made starring Count Dracula, more than any other historical figure. At the center of this subculture is the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with the land of vampires.
17. Dracula and Ceausescu
Former Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu (1965 – 1989) used Dracula in his campaign. To be more precise, he referred to Vlad's patriotism in a speech to the Hungarians and other ethnic minorities in Transylvania.
18. There are no vampires in Romania
Contrary to popular belief, vampires are not part of Romanian folklore and the word does not even exist in the Romanian language. The word comes from the Serbian “Vampyr”.
19. “Like frogs”
According to the book In Search of Dracula, Vlad had a very strange sense of humor. The book tells how his victims often twitched on the stakes “like frogs.” Vlad thought it was funny, and once said of his victims: “Oh, what great grace they show.”
20. Fear and the Golden Cup
In order to prove how much the inhabitants of the principality feared him, Dracula placed a golden cup in the middle of the city square in Targovishte. He allowed people to drink from it, but the golden cup had to remain in its place at all times. Surprisingly, during the entire reign of Vlad, the golden cup was never touched, although sixty thousand people lived in the city, most in conditions of extreme poverty.
Vampires, along with zombies and werewolves, are a favorite theme of film directors who try to scare the viewer with horror or immerse them in a romantic story, as was done in the film “Twilight” with and.
Indeed, there are not enough fingers to count the number of films or literary works that tell about the fanged blood lover. But the most important vampire remains Count Dracula - thanks to this character from the novel, canonical images of bloodsuckers living in complete darkness and preying on innocent people appeared.
History and prototype
The Irish novelist and author of short stories Bram Stoker was not the first writer to think of making the main antagonist a vampire, because before him this pale-faced monster was described by the English literary genius of Italian origin John William Polidori, introducing readers to the story “The Vampire” (1819).
Writer Bram Stoker, creator of Count Dracula Polidori's idea for the work arose back in the cloudy year of 1816, when he accompanied the lord on a trip to Europe. The friends stopped in Switzerland, where they met the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Since 1816 was characterized by inclement and rainy weather, Byron and John Polidori had to stay for a long time at the Villa Diodati, located near the lake. On one of these cozy July evenings near the fireplace, George invited the assembled writers to compose chilling history.
Mary Shelley drafted a story about a scientist from Geneva who recreated living things from dead matter. These manuscripts were later transformed into the famous novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1831).
Lord Byron also offered his own story, writing a short work about Augustus Darwell. But the novelist abandoned his idea, while his friend picked up this idea. However, after the publication of the story “The Vampire,” this manuscript was signed with Byron’s name, and only then did it become clear that the true creator of the book was Polidori, who turned the fanged monster into an aristocrat.
As for Bram Stoker, he began work on his work in the spring of 1890. It is difficult to say whether the writer read the story of his Italian colleague, but it is known that images of the future work once appeared before Stoker: an elderly man rising from a coffin, and his beloved reaching for the old man’s throat.
The writer’s son used to say that the image of Dracula came to the creator in a dream: supposedly at night he dreamed of the terrifying king of vampires. In addition, Bram visited the Gothic Scottish castle of Slane, which prompted the master of the pen to create a dark novel. The writer was also inspired by Sheridan le Fanu’s novel “Carmilla” (1872).
The idea for Stoker's book changed in the summer of 1890, when he was vacationing in the town of Whitby, in the English county of North Yorkshire. There, the writer came across a local library, where he came across tales and ballads of Eastern Europe about the terrible ruler of Wallachia - who is also known as Vlad Dracula. This wearer of the crown became the prototype of the main character from Stoker's novel.
Such a colorful character as Tepes could not help but attract the attention of the writer, because around his person there is an aura of all kinds of legends that can cause goosebumps on the skin of everyone.
It is not known for certain when Dracula was born. Therefore, scholars assume that this happened between 1429–1430 and 1436. The newborn baby did not make the most pleasant impression: he had bulging black eyes, as if he had Graves' disease, and his face was adorned with a protruding lip.
However, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, the ruler of Wallachia was never known as a handsome man: people made up legends that his large, cold eyes saw right through the souls of people. Others used to say that Dracula, on the contrary, had an attractive appearance and was a colorful man with a jet-black mustache.
He got the nickname Vlad III from his father. The fact is that Vlad II was a member of the knightly Order of the Dragon, which fought against infidels and atheists. In addition, Vlad’s parent minted coins with the image of a fire-breathing monster and wore a special medallion with a dragon, proving his belonging to the order. In addition, the word “Drac” is translated from Romanian as “devil”.
Dracula ruled the small principality of Wallachia with its capital Targovishte and paid tribute to the Turks. In 1446, the Hungarians carried out a coup d'etat, as a result of which the ruler's head was cut off and his brother Tepes was buried alive.
Scientists believe that it was these events that became the basis for the formation of the character of Vlad III, who was considered almost the most cruel ruler in history. He became famous for his religious reforms, as well as his campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, although the Turks helped Vlad III temporarily gain the throne after the Hungarian attack. There are indeed many legends about the atrocities of Tepes, so it becomes extremely difficult to distinguish fiction from truth.
The Turks nicknamed the ruler of Wallachia Tepes, which translated means “impaler,” because impalement of victims was Dracula’s favorite execution. According to rumors, Vlad preferred rounded stakes: the victim slid under the weight of his own body, and the non-sharp end of the stake did not touch the vital organs, and thus death came to the martyrs only after a couple of days. They say that Vlad III loved to watch the agony of the unfortunate at dinner.
Corpses pale from loss of blood adorned the borders of Wallachia, for which Dracula was nicknamed the vampire. But there is no reliable information that Dracula drank human blood. In addition, there are other cruel moments in the biography of Tepes: he ordered the Gentiles to drive nails into their heads, since they did not take off their hats before coming to the king, and he invited all the beggars to his dinner, and then locked them up and set them on fire, because he was tired of look at the begging residents.
But, despite his contradictory nature, Vlad III was known in his homeland as a hero and genius of military thought. He could easily defeat an army of enemies that was larger in number, for which they called Tepes “the son of the devil” and even believed that Dracula sold his soul to Lucifer and used magical rituals.
Bram Stoker, inspired by the ruthless ruler, finished his novel only seven years later, studying local folklore all this time. But it is worth saying that the novel “Dracula” is not a biography of Tepes, but an independent literary work. It is not for nothing that some researchers do not identify the Wallachian owner of the crown with Dracula from the Irishman’s book.
This book brought recognition and fame to Stoker, but his triumph did not last long, because at that time Maria Corelli’s mystical, decadent novel “The Sorrow of Satan” (1895) was published, which enjoyed unprecedented popularity among bookstore regulars.
However, Bram Stoker’s novel, which is a kind of “encyclopedia of vampires,” gave impetus to a new trend in the world of literature, cinema and animation, because it was he who popularized the archetypal aristocratic vampire living in a dark castle. The novel about the bloodthirsty count became fundamental, and the writer himself acquired a crowd of followers.
Dracula image
Stoker described Dracula as a dead man from Transylvania who came to life. The Count was a diligent man. To move to England, he read relevant literature, bought books and magazines, and also studied a non-native language. The vampire was planning to buy an estate in London, but before that he had to find a lawyer. But lawyer Jonathan Hacker had no idea that the Romanian real estate buyer was not just a rich man, but a real monster who loved to feed on human blood.
The hacker arrived at Dracula's castle, and the owner of the estate turned out to be very gallant, he even locked all the potentially dangerous doors so that no harm would happen to the guest, and also carried his belongings to the rooms himself. In reality, Dracula came up with a cunning plan, hiding it under a mask of hypocrisy: the vampire wanted to give Jonathan to be torn to pieces by three fanged companions. For dinner, the lawyer was offered fried chicken, salad, cheese and a bottle of old Tokaji wine. Dracula refused to join the table, telling Hacker:
“I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t keep you company: I’ve already had lunch and never have dinner.”
As for appearance, Count Dracula was pale as marble, had an energetic and original face, a thin nose with strange nostrils, a high and arrogant forehead and a black mustache. In addition, Dracula had fleshy hands with short fingers and long nails, as well as sharp, snow-white teeth.
By the way, Stoker endowed the antagonist with remarkable strength. Van Helsing used to say that Dracula was endowed with the strength of twenty men and could get even with his opponents alone.
The Count had supernatural abilities: he could move along a vertical surface with tremendous speed, he could control animals and turn into them, he commanded the elements and transformed into fog. There was not a single mirror in Dracula's house, because the vampire was not reflected in it.
Also, darkness reigned in his castle, since sunlight made the vampire weaker. In addition, Jonathan noticed that the owner of the castle does not cast a shadow and cannot move away from his own grave, so Dracula always keeps a handful of cemetery soil with him.
Actors
For the first time, the image of a hater of garlic, holy water and silver bullets was played by the Hungarian actor Paul Askonas in the silent film of the same name “Dracula”, which was released in 1921. But viewers will not be able to enjoy Paul’s acting, since this film has been lost: only a few frames can be found on the Internet.
A surviving still from the first film about Count Dracula Then, in 1922, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's silent film Nosferatu was released. Symphony of Terror (the names of the main characters had to be changed because the studio was unable to acquire the film rights). The main role of Count Orlok was played by Max Schreck. True, the filmmakers did not copy the image of the bloodsucker from Stoker’s work: the owner of the castle appears before television viewers bald, big-eared and without a mustache.
But the most memorable cinematic Dracula was the one played by American actor Bela Lugosi. The artist knew that participating in a film based on the Irishman’s novel would make him famous, so he approached his work carefully and recreated the classic monstrous aristocrat, refusing to use makeup. Everything in Lugosi's performance was perfect: facial expressions, plasticity, and manner of speech. He signed a contract with Universal and played in several vampire films (his debut was Dracula (1931).
The first color film about Dracula was directed in 1967, with Ferdie Mayne playing the role of the vampire. This film was flavored with comedy and was a kind of fairy tale about vampires.
In 1970 and 1973, the actor reincarnated as the count, starring in the horror films “Count Dracula” and “The Devilish Rites of Dracula” along with Peter Cushing.
In 1992, the directors tried to bring the film as close as possible to Stoker’s work by filming Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Vlad the Impaler also appeared in the gothic drama: the story of the film begins in the distant 1462, when Vlad Basarab goes to battle with the Turks. But the enemies sent false news to the castle that the ruler of Wallachia had been killed.
Thus, the wife (of) the winner commits suicide. Dracula rejects God and becomes a vampire, vowing to return from the world of the dead and avenge the death of his beloved. The main roles went to Richard E. Grant and other film stars.
Three years later, the comedy parody film “Dracula: Dead and Loving” (1995) was released, in which he tried on the image of an eccentric bloodsucker and made TV viewers laugh. Leslie's colleagues on the set were: Peter MacNicol, Steven Weber, Amy Yasbeck and Harvey Korman.
In 2004, the neo-nature action movie Van Helsing was released, telling the story of a vampire slayer. He played the main character, and the role of Dracula went to Richard Roxburgh. In the same year, he played the Count, appearing in the thriller Blade: Trinity.
By the way, without much difficulty I could play the main character from Bram Stoker’s novel, since the actor already had experience transforming into a vampire in the film “Dark Shadows” (2012). and was also lucky enough to try on the image of a frightening creature in the film based on the novel “Interview with the Vampire” (1994).
Movies
Viewers have seen more than sixty films about the king of the vampires, and the number of these films is constantly growing. In addition, Dracula often appears in animated films, both as a cameo and in the main role, and fans of Japanese anime associate the count with Alucard from the Hellsing manga. List of most popular films:
- 1922 – “Nosferatu. Symphony of Horror"
- 1931 – “Dracula” (Bela Lugosi)
- 1936 – “Dracula’s Daughter” (Gloria Holden)
- 1943 – “Son of Dracula” (Lon Chaney Jr.)
- 1948 – Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Bela Lugosi)
- 1965 – “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” (Christopher Lee)
- 1967 – “Vampire Ball” (Ferdie Maine)
- 1968 – “Dracula Rises from the Grave” (Christopher Lee)
- 1974 – “Blood for Dracula” (Udo Kier)
- 1992 – “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (Gary Oldman)
- 1995 – “Dracula: Dead and Loving” (Leslie Nielsen)
- 2004 – “Van Helsing” (Richard Roxburgh)
- 2004 – “Blade 3: Trinity” (Dominic Purcell)
- 2014 – “Dracula” ()
Literature
- 1819 – “The Vampire” (John William Polidori)
- 1897 – “Dracula” (Bram Stoker)
- 1912 – “Vampires. From the family chronicle of Counts Dracula-Cardi" (Baron Olchevri)
- 1912 – “Dracula Is Immortal” (Dacre Stoker, Ian Holt)
- 2004 – “Dracula” (Matej Kazaku)
- 2007 – “The Prince of Vampires” (Genie Kalogridis)
- 2010 – “The Dracula File” (James Rees)
- 2011 – “Confession of Dracula” (Elena Artamonova)
- 2013 – “The Age of Dracula” (Kim Newman)
- 2013 – “Dracula in Love” (Karin Essex)
- Christopher Lee, who played the impressive Dracula, noted, not without sadness, that no one, even in a hundred years, will be able to outshine the inimitable Bela Lugosi, who during his lifetime dreamed of seeing a color film adaptation. Lugosi was so popular that fans gave the actor a ring, which he practically never parted with. Bela gave Christopher a copy of the jewelry, and the follower, in order to pay tribute to his predecessor, appeared in the ring in every Dracula film.
- You can kill a vampire with garlic and a blessed silver bullet. But an aspen stake driven into the heart will also help in the fight against the bloodthirsty monster. However, Van Helsing argued that this method was not enough, and advised, in addition to everything, to cut off the monster’s head. And to prevent the bloodsucker from leaving the coffin, you should put a rosehip branch there.
- Vampires appeared not only in Romanian mythology: for example, Slavic peoples invented ghouls who loved to count grains and sawdust. Any dead person buried in the wrong way could become a ghoul: to avoid turning the corpse into a vampire, a crucifix should be placed in the coffin and sawdust should be sprinkled. The latter is necessary so that, upon waking up, the vampire begins to count sawdust: an engrossed monster will spend the whole night doing this activity and die at dawn.
Anti-vampire remedies: aspen stake, cross, garlic - The cruel prince Vlad the Impaler had control over his people. The Wallachian ruler managed to eradicate theft. According to legend, there was a golden bowl near the well, and anyone could drink the water. But no one dared to think about taking the precious dishes home, because being impaled is not the best death. They say that even after the death of Tepes, the cup stood in its proper place.
- Bram filled the novel with innovations: for example, no one bit Dracula himself; he received his power by being an adept of a certain school of Solomon, where the Devil himself was the director.
“Once upon a time there lived a bloodthirsty prince Dracula. He impaled people, roasted them over coals, boiled their heads in a cauldron, skinned them alive, cut them into pieces and drank their blood...” said Abraham Van Helsing, leafing through a book about the lifetime crimes of a formidable vampire. Many remember this episode from F. Coppola’s film, based on Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula,” and, perhaps, it was from this film that they learned that Dracula was not a fictional character. The famous vampire has a prototype - Prince of Wallachia Vlad Dracula (Tepes), who ruled this Romanian principality in the middle of the 15th century. And indeed, this man is still called the “great monster” to this day, eclipsing Herod and Nero with his atrocities.
Vlad Dracula. The only lifetime portrait of the prince, painted from him by an unknown artist during his imprisonment in a Hungarian prison.
Let's leave it to Stoker's conscience that he "turned" a real historical figure into a mythical monster, and let's try to figure out how justified the accusations of cruelty are and whether Dracula committed all those atrocities, in comparison with which the vampire's addiction to the blood of young girls seems like innocent fun.
The actions of the prince, widely replicated literary works XV century, and really chill the blood. A terrible impression is made by the stories about how Dracula loved to feast, watching the torment of his impaled victims, how he burned vagabonds whom he himself invited to the feast, how he ordered nails to be driven into the heads of foreign ambassadors who had not taken off their hats, and so on, so on... In In the imagination of the reader, who first learned about the atrocities of this medieval ruler, the image of a fierce, ruthless man with a caustic look of unkind eyes, reflecting the black essence of the villain, appears. This image is quite consistent with German book engravings, which depicted the features of a tyrant, but the engravings appeared after Vlad’s death.
But those who happen to see the lifetime portrait of Dracula, practically unknown in Russia, will be disappointed - the man depicted on the canvas clearly does not look like a bloodthirsty sadist and maniac. A small experiment showed: people who did not know who exactly was depicted on the canvas often called the “unknown” beautiful, unfortunate... Let’s try for a moment to forget about the reputation of the “great monster” and look at the portrait of Dracula with an unbiased eye. First of all, Vlad’s large, suffering, beautiful eyes attract attention. You can notice confusion and fear in them, but there is not even a shadow of cruelty and anger. What’s also striking is the unnatural thinness of his emaciated, yellowish face. Looking at the portrait, one can assume that this man has endured cruel trials and hardships, that he is a martyr rather than a monster, a victim rather than an executioner...
What is it: a deliberate deception of the artist or such a striking discrepancy between the true portrait of Dracula and the characteristics given to him has another explanation? Let's conduct a little investigation, turning to the “evidence” - written documents of the 15th century. Do all of them, as it seems at first glance, testify against Dracula or is this just the tip of the iceberg, the most spectacular and memorable works, pushing into the background dry documents that may seem boring? Indeed, we judge Vlad’s actions based on literary, mostly German, stories of that period, leaving aside the letters of the prince himself and other official documents dating back to the time of his reign that have been preserved in the archives to this day. How does Vlad Dracula appear in the light of objective historical analysis?
The house in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara, where Dracula was born in 1431 and spent the first years of his life. On the facade of the building there is a sign stating that Vlad’s father, Vlad Dracul, lived here, and in one of the rooms in which little Vlad was allegedly born, fragments of wall paintings were discovered during restoration. These days, the house houses not a museum, but the Dracula restaurant.
Vlad led Wallachia at the age of twenty-five, in 1456, during very difficult times for the principality, when the Ottoman Empire was expanding its possessions in the Balkans, capturing one country after another. Serbia and Bulgaria had already fallen under Turkish oppression, Constantinople had fallen, and a direct threat loomed over the Romanian principalities. The prince of little Wallachia successfully resisted the aggressor and even attacked the Turks himself, making a campaign into the territory of occupied Bulgaria in 1458. One of the goals of the campaign was to liberate and resettle the Bulgarian peasants who professed Orthodoxy on the lands of Wallachia. Europe enthusiastically welcomed Dracula's victory, and the impulsive Italians even began to call the inhabitants of Wallachia "raguli", in honor of their fearless prince. Nevertheless, a big war with Turkey was inevitable. Wallachia prevented the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and Sultan Mehmed II decided to overthrow the unwanted prince by military means. Dracula's younger brother Radu the Handsome, who converted to Islam and became the Sultan's favorite, claimed the throne of Wallachia. Realizing that he could not alone withstand the largest Turkish army since the conquest of Constantinople, Dracula turned to his allies for help. Among them were Pope Pius II, who promised to give money for the crusade, and the young Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, who called Vlad “a beloved and faithful friend,” and the leaders of other Christian countries. All of them verbally supported the Wallachian prince, however, when trouble struck in the summer of 1462, Dracula was left alone with a formidable enemy.
The situation was desperate, and Vlad did everything possible to survive this unequal battle. He drafted into the army the entire male population of the principality starting from the age of twelve, used scorched earth tactics, leaving the enemy burned villages where it was impossible to replenish food supplies, led guerrilla warfare. Another weapon of the prince was the panic that he instilled in the invaders. Defending his land, Dracula mercilessly exterminated his enemies, in particular, impaled prisoners, using execution against the Turks, which was very “popular” in the Ottoman Empire itself.
Dracula's seal. The inscription in Old Church Slavonic reads: “Vlad the Voivode, by the grace of God, is the lord of the land of Ungrovlahia.”
The Turkish-Wallachian War of the summer of 1462 went down in history with the famous night attack, during which it was possible to destroy up to fifteen thousand Ottomans. The Sultan was already standing near the capital of the principality of Targovishte when Dracula, along with seven thousand of his warriors, penetrated into the enemy camp, intending to kill the Turkish leader and thereby stop the aggression. Vlad failed to fully implement his daring plan, but an unexpected night attack caused panic in the enemy camp and, as a result, very heavy losses. After the bloody night, Mehmed II left Wallachia, leaving part of the troops to Radu the Handsome, who himself had to wrest power from the hands of his elder brother.
Dracula's brilliant victory over the Sultan's troops turned out to be useless: Vlad defeated the enemy, but could not resist his “friends.” The betrayal of the Moldavian prince Stefan, Dracula's cousin and friend, who unexpectedly went over to Radu's side, turned out to be a turning point in the war. Dracula could not fight on two fronts and retreated to Transylvania, where the troops of another “friend” - the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus - were waiting for him to come to his aid.
The photograph shows what remains of Curtea Veche, a palace in Bucharest built by Dracula, the official residence of the Wallachian princes since the 16th century. A few years ago, a bust of the founder of the capital was erected in front of the ruins of the palace. Dracula began building Bucharest around 1459, intending to build a powerful fortress to block the path of Turkish invaders.
And then something strange happened. In the midst of negotiations, Corwin ordered the arrest of his “faithful and beloved friend,” accusing him of secret correspondence with Turkey. In letters allegedly intercepted by the Hungarians, Dracula begged Mehmed II for forgiveness and offered his assistance in capturing Hungary and the Hungarian king himself. Most modern historians consider the letters to be crudely fabricated forgeries: they are written in a manner unusual for Dracula, the proposals put forward in them are absurd, but most importantly - the originals of the letters, these most important pieces of evidence that decided the fate of the prince, were “lost”, and only their copies in Latin have survived given in the Notes of Pius II. Naturally, they did not bear Dracula's signature. Nevertheless, Vlad was arrested at the end of November 1462, put in chains and sent to the Hungarian capital Buda, where he was imprisoned without trial for about twelve years.
What made Matthias agree with the absurd accusations and brutally deal with his ally, who at one time helped him ascend the Hungarian throne? The reason turned out to be banal. According to the author of the Hungarian Chronicle, Antonio Bonfini, Matthias Corvinus received forty thousand guilders from Pope Pius II to carry out the crusade, but did not use this money for its intended purpose. In other words, the king, who was constantly in need of money, simply pocketed a significant amount and shifted the blame for the disrupted campaign onto his vassal, who allegedly played a double game and intrigued with the Turks. However, accusations of treason against a man known in Europe for his irreconcilable struggle with the Ottoman Empire, the one who almost killed and actually put to flight the conqueror of Constantinople Mehmed II, sounded quite absurd. Wanting to understand what really happened, Pius II instructed his envoy in Buda, Nicholas Modrussa, to understand what was happening on the spot. This is how Modrussa described the appearance of a prisoner in the Hungarian dungeons:
King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus. The youngest son of Janos Hunyadi liked to be depicted in the manner of a Roman emperor, with a laurel wreath on his head. He was considered the patron of science and art. During the reign of Matthias, the expenses of his court increased sharply, and the king sought ways to replenish the treasury - from increasing taxes to using money transferred by the Vatican for the crusades.
“He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong aquiline nose, swollen nostrils and a thin reddish face, on which very long eyelashes framed large, wide-open green eyes; Thick black eyebrows made him look menacing. His face and chin were shaved, but there was a mustache, swollen temples increased the volume of his head, a bull’s neck connected his head to his body, wavy black locks hung over his broad shoulders.”
Modrussa did not leave evidence of what the captive of King Matthias said in his defense, but the description of his appearance turned out to be more eloquent than any words. Dracula's appearance was actually terrible: his swollen, noticeably enlarged head and bloodshot face indicated that the prince was tortured, forcing him to admit false accusations, for example, to sign fabricated letters and thereby legitimize Corwin's actions. But Vlad, who experienced the horrors of Turkish captivity in his youth, even before coming to power, bravely faced new challenges. He did not incriminate himself, did not put his signature on the falsified documents, and the king had to come up with other charges that did not require the prisoner’s written confession.
The prince was accused of the cruelty he allegedly showed towards the Saxon population of Transylvania, which was part of the Hungarian kingdom. According to Modrussa, Matthias Corvinus personally spoke about the atrocities of his vassal, and then presented an anonymous document in which he reported in detail, with German punctuality, the bloody adventures of the “great monster.” The denunciation spoke of tens of thousands of tortured civilians and for the first time mentioned anecdotes about beggars being burned alive, monks impaled, how Dracula ordered the caps of foreign ambassadors to be nailed to the heads, and other similar stories. An unknown author compared the Wallachian prince with the tyrants of antiquity, claiming that during his reign Wallachia resembled “a forest of impaled people,” accused Vlad of unprecedented cruelty, but at the same time did not care at all about the verisimilitude of his story. There are a lot of contradictions in the text of the denunciation, for example, the names given in the document settlements, where 20-30 thousand (!) people were allegedly killed, still cannot be identified by historians.
What served as the documentary basis for this denunciation? We know that Dracula actually made several raids into Transylvania, destroying the conspirators hiding there, among whom were contenders for the Wallachian throne. But, despite these local military operations, the prince did not interrupt commercial relations with the Transylvanian Saxon cities of Sibiu and Brasov, as confirmed by Dracula's business correspondence from that period. It is very important to note that, apart from the denunciation that appeared in 1462, there is not a single earlier evidence of the massacres of civilians in Transylvania in the 50s of the 15th century.
It is impossible to imagine how the extermination of tens of thousands of people, which regularly occurred over several years, could have gone unnoticed in Europe and would not have been reflected in the chronicles and diplomatic correspondence of those years. Consequently, Dracula’s raids on the enclaves that belonged to Wallachia, but located on the territory of Transylvania, at the time of their implementation were considered in European countries as an internal affair of Wallachia and did not cause any public outcry. Based on these facts, it can be argued that the anonymous document that first reported the atrocities of the “great monster” was not true and turned out to be another fake, fabricated on the orders of King Matthias following the “letter to the Sultan” in order to justify the illegal arrest of Vlad Dracula.
For Pope Pius II - and he was a close friend of the German Emperor Frederick III and therefore sympathized with the Saxon population of Transylvania - such explanations were enough. He did not interfere with the fate of the high-ranking captive, leaving the decision of the Hungarian king in force. But Matthias Corvinus himself, feeling the instability of the accusations he brought forward, continued to discredit Dracula, who was languishing in prison, resorting to, saying modern language, at the service of the “mass media”. A poem by Michael Behaim, created on the basis of a denunciation, engravings depicting a cruel tyrant, “sent out throughout the world for everyone to see,” and, finally, many editions of early printed brochures (of which thirteen have reached us) under the general title “About one great monster” - all this was supposed to form a negative attitude towards Dracula, turning him from a hero into a villain.
Illustration for the first printed brochures “About one great monster called Dracula Vaida” (Lübeck, 1488; Bamberg, 1491). It is known that German book engravings of the 15th century were conventional and did not have a portrait resemblance to the real people depicted on them. However, it is precisely these engravings, which appeared after the death of the prince, that are still perceived today as “portraits” of Dracula.
The portrait of Vlad, already mentioned, was also painted during his imprisonment. Perhaps Matthias wanted to get an image of the “monster”, but he miscalculated - the artist’s brush captured on the canvas the noble, dignified appearance of the Wallachian prince. And the rich clothes only emphasized the yellow, sickly complexion and extreme degree of exhaustion of the prisoner, indicating the terrible conditions in which he was actually kept.
Apparently, Matthias Corvinus had no intention of freeing his prisoner, dooming him to a slow death in prison. But fate gave Dracula the opportunity to survive another takeoff. During the reign of Radu the Beautiful, Wallachia completely submitted to Turkey, which could not but worry the new Pope Sixtus IV. It was probably the intervention of the pontiff that changed Dracula's fate. The Prince of Wallachia showed in practice that he could withstand the Turkish threat, and therefore it was Vlad who had to lead the Christian army into battle in the new crusade. The conditions for the prince's release from prison were his transfer from Orthodox faith to the Catholic Church and marriage to cousin Matthias Corvina. Paradoxically, the “great monster” could gain freedom only by becoming related to the Hungarian king, who until recently represented Dracula as a bloodthirsty monster...
Two years after the liberation, in the summer of 1476, Vlad, as one of the commanders Hungarian army went on a campaign; his goal was to liberate Turkish-occupied Wallachia. The troops passed through the territory of Transylvania, and documents have been preserved indicating that the townspeople of Saxon Brasov joyfully welcomed the return of the “great monster”, who, according to the denunciation, committed unheard-of atrocities here just a few years ago.
Having entered Wallachia with battles, Dracula ousted the Turkish troops and on November 26, 1476, again ascended the throne of the principality. His reign turned out to be very short - the prince was surrounded by obvious and hidden enemies, and therefore a fatal outcome was inevitable. Vlad's death at the end of December of the same year is shrouded in mystery. There are several versions of what happened, but they all boil down to the fact that the prince fell victim to treason, having trusted the traitors who were around him. It is known that Dracula's head was donated to the Turkish Sultan, and he ordered to exhibit it in one of the squares of Constantinople. And Romanian folklore sources report that the headless body of the prince was found by the monks of the Snagov monastery located near Bucharest and buried in the chapel built by Dracula himself near the altar.
Thus ended the short but bright life of Vlad Dracula. Why, despite the facts indicating that the Wallachian prince was “framed” and slandered, does rumor continue to attribute to him atrocities that he never committed? Opponents of Dracula argue: firstly, numerous works by different authors report on the cruelty of Vlad, and, therefore, such a point of view cannot but be objective, and secondly, there are no chronicles in which he appears as a ruler doing pious deeds. It is not difficult to refute such arguments. An analysis of the works that speak of the atrocities of Dracula proves that they all either go back to the handwritten denunciation of 1462, “justifying” the arrest of the Wallachian prince, or were written by people who were at the Hungarian court during the reign of Matthias Corvinus. From here the Russian ambassador to Hungary, clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn, also drew information for his story about Dracula, written around 1484.
Having penetrated into Wallachia, widely circulated stories about the deeds of the “great monster” were transformed into pseudo-folklore narratives that in fact have nothing in common with the folk legends recorded by folklorists in the areas of Romania directly related to the life of Dracula. As for the Turkish chronicles, the original episodes that do not coincide with the German works deserve closer attention. In them, Turkish chroniclers, sparing no color, describe the cruelty and bravery of “Kazıkly”, who terrified his enemies (which means Impaler), and even partially acknowledge the fact that he put the Sultan himself to flight. We understand perfectly well that descriptions of the course of hostilities by the warring parties cannot be impartial, but we do not dispute the fact that Vlad Dracula really dealt very cruelly with the invaders who came to his land. Having analyzed the sources of the 15th century, we can confidently say that Dracula did not commit the monstrous crimes attributed to him. He acted in accordance with the cruel laws of war, but the destruction of the aggressor on the battlefield under no circumstances can be equated with the genocide of civilians, of which Dracula was accused by the orderer of the anonymous denunciation. The stories about the atrocities in Transylvania, for which Dracula received the reputation of the “great monster,” turned out to be slander that pursued specific selfish goals. History has developed in such a way that descendants judge Dracula by how Vlad’s actions were described by his enemies, who sought to discredit the prince - where can we talk about objectivity in such a situation?!
As for the lack of chronicles praising Dracula, this is explained by the too short period of his reign. He simply did not have time, and perhaps did not consider it necessary, to acquire court chroniclers, whose duties included praising the ruler. It’s a different matter for King Matthias, famous for his enlightenment and humanism, “with whose death justice died,” or the Moldavian prince Stefan, who ruled for almost half a century, betrayed Dracula and impaled two thousand Romanians, but at the same time was nicknamed the Great and Saint...
In a muddy stream of lies, it is difficult to discern the truth, but, fortunately, documentary evidence has reached us of how Vlad Dracula ruled the country. The documents signed by him have been preserved, in which he gave lands to peasants, granted privileges to monasteries, and an agreement with Turkey, which scrupulously and consistently defended the rights of citizens of Wallachia. We know that Dracula insisted on the observance of church burial rites for executed criminals, and this very important fact completely refutes the claim that he impaled the inhabitants of the Romanian principalities who professed Christianity. It is known that he built churches and monasteries, founded Bucharest, and fought with desperate courage against the Turkish invaders, defending his people and his land. There is also a legend about how Dracula met with God, trying to find out where his father’s grave was so that he could build a temple on this place...
There are two images of Dracula. We know Dracula - the national hero of Romania, a wise and brave ruler, a martyr, betrayed by friends and spent about a third of his life in prison, slandered, slandered, but not broken. However, we also know another Dracula - the hero of anecdotal stories of the 15th century, a maniac, a “great monster”, and later a vampire cursed by God. By the way, about vampirism: no matter what atrocities his contemporaries accused the prince of, there is not a single written source that would say that he drank the blood of his victims. The idea of “turning” Dracula into a vampire arose only in the 19th century. A member of the occult order “Golden Dawn” (he practiced black magic), Bram Stoker became interested in this historical figure at the suggestion of Professor Arminius Vambery, who was known not only as a scientist, but also as a Hungarian nationalist. This is how Count Dracula appeared - a literary character who gradually turned into the main vampire of all times in the mass consciousness.
The two diametrically opposed images of the Wallachian prince have nothing in common, but to answer the question of what kind of person Vlad Dracula really was, it is enough to see his portrait, look into those wise and sad eyes.
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From the Internet
Without exaggeration, the most famous vampire of all time can be considered the legendary Count Vlad the Impaler (Tepes) Dracula.
Vlad Tepes was born in 1431 in Transylvania, in the tiny town of Sighisoara. His father was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which is why he received the nickname Dracula. The history of Count Dracula's family is quite tragic. His older brother was captured by the Turks and burned alive by them, and the younger Tepes went over to the side of the enemy and fought against his relatives.
Whether Vlad the Impaler was actually a vampire cannot be established, but according to the story of Dracula, he turned into one of the most terrible and bloody rulers.
Castle of Vlad the Impaler - Dracula
Count Dracula punished his enemies and all those who were guilty in one favorite way - he impaled them. The stories about the atrocities of Vlad the Impaler were so terrible that people began to associate the count’s name with the Romanian word “dracul”, which means “devil”.
Vlad Tepes took the Wallachian throne in 1443 after the death of his father and older brother. Count Dracula was distinguished by cunning and cunning. One of the legends tells how Dracula deceptively lured a Turkish detachment into an ambush. At the same time, a preliminary agreement was reached between him and the Turks on a meeting and peace negotiations. Despite the agreement, Vlad Tepes captured the Turks, ordered them to be stripped naked and impaled. He then gave the order to burn them alive.
Vlad Tepes destroyed not only his enemies. His own subjects also became his victims; no one was immune from possible reprisals. The count suspected absolutely everyone of treason. One day, his soldiers detained a group of merchants traveling with a trade caravan through the land of Wallachia. By order of Vlad the Impaler, they were all arrested and burned.
Portrait of Count Dracula
In 1462, driven by atrocities and constant fear for their lives, the boyars overthrew the tyrant. The Wallachian Count Dracula spent 20 years in captivity. However, the need for Vlad the Impaler to participate in the war against the Ottoman invaders forced the boyars to release him.
The exact causes and time of death of the bloody tyrant Dracula have not been established. Some sources talk about the betrayal of a group of his associates, who killed their master. According to other sources, Vlad the Impaler, after defeat in the Battle of Bucharest, disguised himself as a Turk and tried to escape. However, he failed, and by order of Sultan Mehmed II, he was executed in Istanbul by cutting off his head, after which the ruler ordered his head to be impaled and put on public display.
It is known for certain that Dracula was buried in the Snagov monastery, not far from the city of Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
The barbaric fantasy of Vlad the Impaler was not limited to impalement and burning people alive. Count Dracula tried to come up with more and more new ways of torture and killing. By order of Tepes, nails were torn out, ears and heads were torn off. If there were not enough stakes to carry out executions, Dracula ordered the condemned to be blinded and then strangled or boiled alive in hot oil. The tyrant himself experienced great pleasure from contemplating the torment of his victims.
Count Dracula as a vampire.
In the truest sense of the word, Dracula was not a vampire. In any case, no evidence of his consumption of human blood was found. He gained fame as a great bloodsucker thanks to the literary fantasy of the famous English writer Bram Stoker. It was he who forced Count Dracula to rise from the grave and turn into an immortal bloodsucker.
In 1994, not far from the small town of Chelyakovitsy, located in the Czech Republic, a strange burial dating back to the beginning of the 11th century was discovered. In 11 pits there were 13 bodies, whose hands were tied with leather belts, and aspen stakes were stuck into the heart area. Researchers have determined that the remains belong to men of approximately the same age. No scientific explanation for this fact could be found.
Over the course of several centuries, the figure of the most famous vampire in the world has become overgrown with a layer of various myths, true and not so true, and our task today is to understand the mysterious appearance of the ominous prince. He is associated with a national hero who fought for justice, a cruel and bloody ruler who knew no mercy, and the well-known image from books and films depicts in the imagination a legendary bloodsucker consumed by passions. For many who followed the popular film adaptations, the blood ran cold from the atmosphere conveying horror, and the vampire theme, shrouded in a flair of mystery and romance, became one of the main ones in cinema and literature.
The birth of a tyrant and murderer
So, the story of Vlad Dracula began at the end of 1431 in Transylvania, when a son was born to the heroic commander Basarab the Great, who famously fought against the Turks. It must be said that this was far from the most beautiful baby, and it is with his repulsive appearance that some historians associate a pathological manifestation of cruelty. Having an incredible physical strength a boy with a protruding lower lip and cold, bulging eyes were revealed unique properties: It was believed that he saw right through people.
The young man, whose biography was full of such terrible stories, after which he even lost his mind, was considered an unbalanced person with many strange ideas. From childhood, his father taught little Vlad to wield weapons, and his fame as a cavalryman literally thundered throughout the country. He swam perfectly, because in those days there were no bridges, and therefore he constantly had to swim across the water.
Order of the Dragon
Vlad II Dracul, who belonged to the elite Draco with strict military-monastic orders, wore a medallion on his chest, like all his other members, as a sign of his membership in society. But he decided not to stop there. At his instigation, images of a mythical fire-breathing animal appeared on the walls of all churches and on coins circulating in the country. The prince received the nickname Dracul, who converts infidels to Christianity, in the order. It translated from Romanian meant “dragon”.
Compromise solutions
The ruler of Wallachia - a small state located between the Ottoman Empire and Transylvania - was always ready for attacks from the Turks, but tried to compromise with the Sultan. So, in order to maintain the state status of his country, Vlad’s father paid a huge tribute in timber and silver. At that time, all princes had duties - to send their sons as hostages to the Turks, and if uprisings broke out against the dominance of the conquerors, then inevitable death awaited the children. It is known that Vlad II Dracul sent two sons to the Sultan, where for more than 4 years they were held in voluntary captivity, which meant the guarantee of a fragile peace, so necessary for a small state.
They say that the fact of being away from his family for a long time and the terrible executions that the future tyrant witnessed left a special emotional imprint on him, which was reflected in his already shattered psyche. Living at the Sultan's court, the boy saw a manifestation of cruelty towards everyone who was obstinate and opposed to power.
It was in captivity that Vlad III Tepes learned about the murder of his father and older brother, after which he received freedom and the throne, but after several months he fled to Moldova, fearing for his life.
Cruelty coming from childhood
Historical chronicles know of an incident when a rebellion was raised in one principality, and in retaliation for this, the ruler’s offspring, who were held hostage, were blinded. For stealing food, the Turks had their bellies ripped open, and for the slightest offense they were impaled. Young Vlad, who was repeatedly forced to renounce Christianity under threat of death, watched such terrible sights for 4 years. It is possible that daily rivers of blood influenced the young man’s unstable psyche. It is believed that life in captivity was the very impetus that contributed to the emergence of bestial cruelty towards all disobedient people.
Vlad's nicknames
Born into the dynasty from which Bessarabia (ancient Romania) was later named, Vlad the Impaler is referred to in documents as Basarab.
But where did he get the nickname Dracula - opinions differ. There are two known versions explaining where the sovereign’s son got this name. The first says that the young heir had the same name as his father, but he began to add the letter “a” at the end to the inherited nickname.
The second version says that the word “Dracul” is translated not only as “dragon”, but also as “devil”. And this is what Vlad, known for his incredible cruelty, was called by his enemies and intimidated local residents. Over time, the letter “a” was added to the nickname Dracul for ease of pronunciation at the end of the word. A few decades after his death, the ruthless killer Vlad III received another nickname - Tepes, which was translated from Romanian as “impaler” (Vlad Tepes).
Reign of the merciless Tepes
The year 1456 marks the beginning of not only the short reign of Dracula in Wallachia, but also very difficult times for the country as a whole. Vlad, who was particularly ruthless, was cruel to his enemies and punished his subjects for any disobedience. All the guilty died a terrible death - they were impaled, which differed in length and size: low murder weapons were chosen for commoners, and executed boyars were visible from afar.
As ancient legends say, the prince of Wallachia had a special love for the groans of those in agony and even held feasts in places where the unfortunate suffered incredible torment. And the ruler’s appetite only intensified from the smell of decaying bodies and the cries of the dying.
He was never a vampire and did not drink the blood of his victims, but it is known for certain that he was an obvious sadist who enjoyed watching the suffering of those who did not obey his rules. Often executions were of a political nature; the slightest disrespect was followed by retaliatory measures leading to death. For example, the Gentiles who did not remove their turbans and arrived at the prince’s court were killed very in an unusual way- driving nails into the head.
The Lord, who did a lot to unify the country
Although, as some historians say, the deaths of only 10 boyars are documented, as a result of whose conspiracy Dracula’s father and his older brother were killed. But legends call a huge number of his victims - about 100 thousand.
If the legendary ruler is considered from the point of view of a statesman, whose good intentions to liberate his native country from the Turkish invaders were fully supported, then we can confidently say that he acted based on the principles of honor and national duty. Refusing to pay the traditional tribute, Vlad III Basarab creates from among the peasants who forces the Turkish warriors to retreat, who have arrived to deal with the disobedient ruler and his country. And all the prisoners were executed during the city holiday.
Fierce religious fanatic
Being an extremely religious person, Tepes fanatically helped the monasteries, donating land to them. Having found reliable support in the person of the clergy, the bloody ruler acted very far-sightedly: the people were silent and obeyed, because virtually all his actions were sanctified by the church. It is difficult to even imagine how many prayers for lost souls were offered to the Lord every day, but the grief did not result in a fierce struggle against the bloody tyrant.
And what is surprising is that his enormous piety was combined with incredible ferocity. Wanting to build a fortress for himself, the cruel executioner gathered all the pilgrims who came to celebrate the great holiday of Easter, and forced them to work for several years until their clothes decayed.
The policy of cleansing the country of antisocial elements
In a short time it eradicates crime, and historical chronicles tell that gold coins left on the street continued to remain in the very place where they were thrown. Not a single beggar or tramp, of whom troubled times there was so much, I didn’t even dare to touch the wealth.
Consistent in all his endeavors, the ruler of Wallachia begins to implement his plan to cleanse the country of all thieves. This policy, as a result of which everyone who dared to steal was given a quick trial and painful death, bore fruit. After thousands of deaths at the stake or the chopping block, there were no people willing to take what belonged to others, and the unprecedented honesty of the population in the middle of the 15th century became a phenomenon that had no analogues in the entire history of the world.
Order in the country through brutal methods
Mass executions, which have already become commonplace, are the surest way to gain fame and remain in the memory of posterity. It is known that Vlad III Tepes did not like gypsies, famous horse thieves and slackers, and to this day it is in the camps that he is called a mass murderer who exterminated a huge number of nomadic people.
It should be noted that everyone who incurred the wrath of the ruler died a terrible death, regardless of their position in society or nationality. When Tepes learned that some merchants, despite the strictest ban, had established trade relations with the Turks, as a warning to everyone else, he impaled them in a huge market square. After this, there were no people willing to improve their financial situation at the expense of the enemies of the Christian faith.
War with Transylvania
But not only the Turkish Sultan was dissatisfied with the ambitious ruler; the power of Dracula, who did not tolerate defeat, began to be threatened by the merchants of Transylvania. The rich did not want to see such an unbridled and unpredictable prince on the throne. They wanted to place their favorite on the throne - the Hungarian king, who would not provoke the Turks, exposing all neighboring lands to danger. Nobody needed the long battle between Wallachia and the Sultan’s troops, and Transylvania did not want to engage in an unnecessary duel, which would have been inevitable in the event of hostilities.
Vlad Dracula, having learned about the plans of a neighboring country, and even conducting trade with the Turks, which was prohibited on its territory, became extremely angry and struck an unexpected blow. The army of the bloody ruler burned the Transylvanian lands, and local residents with social weight were impaled.
Tepes' 12-year imprisonment
This story ended pitifully for the tyrant himself. Outraged by the cruelty, the surviving merchants turned to a last resort - a proclamation for the overthrow of Tepes by means of the printed word. Anonymous authors wrote a pamphlet describing the ruler’s mercilessness, and added a little of their own about the plans of the bloody conqueror.
Count Vlad Dracula, not expecting a new attack, is caught by surprise by Turkish troops in the very castle that the unfortunate pilgrims built for him. By chance, he flees from the fortress, leaving his young wife and all his subjects to certain death. Outraged by the atrocities of the ruler, the European elite was just waiting for this moment, and the fugitive was taken into custody by the Hungarian king, who laid claim to his throne.
Death of the Bloody Prince
Tepes spends 12 long years in prison and even becomes a Catholic for his political reasons. Mistaking the tyrant's forced obedience for submission, the king frees him and even tries to help him ascend to his former throne. 20 years after the start of his reign, Vlad returns to Wallachia, where angry residents are already waiting for him. accompanying the prince was defeated, and the king, not intending to fight with his neighbors, decides to hand over the tyrant to the state that suffered from his atrocities. Having learned about this decision, Dracula runs again, hoping for a lucky break.
However, fortune turned away from him completely, and the tyrant accepted death in battle, but the circumstances of his death are not known. The boyars, in a fit of anger, chopped the body of the hated ruler into pieces, and sent his head to the Turkish Sultan. The monks who remember the good, who supported the bloody tyrant in everything, quietly bury his remains.
When, several centuries later, archaeologists became interested in the figure of Dracula, they decided to open his grave. To everyone's horror, it turned out to be empty, with traces of garbage. But nearby they find a strange burial of bones with a missing skull, which is considered to be the last resting place of Tepes. To prevent the pilgrimage of modern tourists, the authorities moved the bones to one of the islands guarded by monks.
The birth of a legend about a vampire looking for new victims
After the death of the Wallachian sovereign, a legend was born about a vampire who found no shelter either in heaven or in hell. Local residents believe that the spirit of the prince has taken on a new, no less terrible guise and now prowls at night in search of human blood.
In 1897, Bram Stoker’s mystical novel was published, describing Dracula rising from the dead, after which the bloodthirsty ruler began to be associated with a vampire. The writer used real letters from Vlad, preserved in the chronicles, but a large amount of the material was still made up. Dracula appears no less merciless than his prototype, but aristocratic manners and a certain nobility make the Gothic character a real hero, whose popularity is only growing.
The book is considered a symbiosis of science fiction and a horror novel, in which ancient mystical forces and modern realities are closely intertwined. As the researchers say, the conductor's memorable appearance served as inspiration for creating the image of the main character, and many details were borrowed from Mephistopheles. Stoker clearly indicates that Count Dracula receives his magical powers from the devil himself. Vlad Tepes, who has turned into a monster, does not die and does not rise from the grave, as was described in early novels about vampires. The author makes his character a unique hero, crawling along vertical walls and turning into bat, always symbolizing evil spirits. Later, this little animal will be called a vampire, although it does not drink any blood.
Credibility effect
The writer, who has carefully studied Romanian folklore and historical evidence, creates unique material, in which there is no author's narration. The book is only a documentary chronicle, consisting of diaries, transcripts of the main characters, which only enhances the depth of the narrative. Creating the effect of genuine reality, Bram Stoker's Dracula soon becomes the unofficial bible of vampires, which details the rules of a world alien to us. And the carefully drawn images of the characters appear alive and emotional. The book is considered to be innovative art, executed in an original format.
Film adaptations
Soon the book will be filmed, and the first actor to play Dracula will be a friend of the writer. His Vlad the Impaler is a vampire with noble manners and good looks, although Stoker described him as an unpleasant old man. Since then, the romantic image of a handsome young man has been exploited, against whom the heroes unite in a single impulse to save the world from universal evil.
In 1992, director Coppola filmed the book, inviting famous actors to play the main roles, and Dracula himself played superbly. Before filming began, the director forced everyone to read Stoker’s book for 2 days for maximum immersion in the characters. Coppola used various techniques so that the film, like the book, becomes as realistic as possible. He even filmed footage of Dracula's appearance on a black and white camera, which looked very authentic and frightening. Critics felt that the vampire played by Oldman was as close as possible to Vlad the Impaler, even his makeup resembled a real prototype.
Dracula's castle is for sale
A year ago, the public was shocked by the news that a popular tourist attraction in Romania was being put up for sale. Bran, in which Tepes supposedly spent the night during his military campaigns, is being sold by its new owner for fabulous money. The local government once wanted to buy Dracula's Castle, but now the world-famous place, bringing fabulous profits, is awaiting a new owner.
According to researchers, Dracula never stopped in this place, considered a cult place for all fans of vampire works, although local residents will vie with each other to tell chilling legends about the life of the legendary ruler in this fortress.
The castle, described in great detail by Stoker, only became the setting for a horror novel that has nothing to do with ancient Romanian history. The current owner of the castle refers to his advanced age, which does not allow him to conduct business. He believes that all costs will be repaid in full, because the castle is visited by about 500 thousand tourists.
A real bonanza
Modern Romania makes full use of the image of Dracula, attracting numerous tourist flows. Here they will tell about the ancient castles in which Vlad III the Impaler committed bloody atrocities, even despite the fact that they were built much later than his death. A highly profitable business, based on the unrelenting interest in the mysterious figure of the ruler of Wallachia, provides an influx of members of sects for which Dracula is the spiritual leader. Thousands of his fans make pilgrimages to the places where he was born to breathe the same air.
Few people know true story Tepes, taking on faith the image of the vampire created by Stoker and numerous directors. But the history of the bloody ruler, who did not disdain anything to achieve his goal, begins to be forgotten over time. And with the name Dracula, only a bloodthirsty ghoul comes to mind, which is very sad, because the fantastic image has nothing to do with the real tragic personality and the terrible crimes that Tepes committed.