—
—
Transcript Provided by YouTube:
00:00
To some he was the very embodiment of evil – the psychopathic incarnation of the Devil
00:05
himself.
00:06
To others, he was a god-fearing defender of the faith, courageously standing up to the
00:10
feared Ottoman Empire.
00:12
In his time, he was known as Vlad the Impaler, thanks to his favorite method of execution.
00:17
Today we remember him as the real-life inspiration for Bram Stoker’s infamous prince of darkness.
00:23
In this week’s Biographics, we discover the gruesome truth about the real Vlad Dracula.
00:32
Formative Years
00:40
Vlad III Dracula, future prince of Wallachia, was born in either November or December of
00:45
1431 in the northern Romanian state of Wallachia.
00:49
His father Vlad II, was to become ruler of Wallachia.
00:53
In the year of his second son’s birth, Vlad senior joined a knightly society known as
00:57
the Order of the Dragon.
00:59
Upon his induction he was given the surname Dracul, which is a derivative of Drac, meaning
01:04
dragon in ancient Romanian, but Devil in the modern language.
01:09
His son was given the name for ‘son of Dracul’, that being ‘Dracula’.
01:14
The world that Vlad was born into was a violent one, consumed with disputes over territory
01:18
and rulership.
01:20
Family name and honor were the most important thing, something which was drummed into the
01:24
boy from the start.
01:26
He also understood that the goal was to push the boundaries of empire, regardless of the
01:32
cost.
01:33
The Order of the Dragon, which Vlad senior became a part of, was committed to defending
01:36
Christianity against the hated Ottoman Turks.
01:39
At the time of his son’s birth, Vlad II served as a guard commander of the mountain
01:44
passes in Wallachia.
01:45
We don’t know who Vlad’s mother was.
01:48
When he was born, his father was married to Princess Cneajna of Moldovia, but he also
01:52
had a string of mistresses, anyone of who could have given birth to the future Dracula.
01:56
Young Vlad’s formative years were spent in Sihisoara.
01:59
When his father scended to the throne of Wallachia in 1436, he brought Vlad and his younger brother
02:04
Radu, to live in the royal court in the capital, Targoviste.
02:06
The boys would have been educated at home by Greek and Roman scholars who their father
02:10
had brought in from Constantinople.
02:12
They would have busied themselves with learning the rudiments of mathematics, geography, science
02:17
and languages, including Old Church Slavonic, German and Latin.
02:21
But their privileged upbringing was rudely interrupted when their father was ousted as
02:25
ruler by a rival group who were in league with the Hungarians.
02:31
Held Captive
02:35
Vlad senior built an alliance with the Ottomans, who agreed to help him regain his throne on
02:39
the proviso that he pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed II and that he leave his two sons at
02:45
the Ottoman court as a guarantee of his loyalty.
02:48
Vlad had no choice and the two boys were seized and made prisoners.
02:52
Although relatively well treated, the boys were able to observe the Turkish use of terror
02:56
as an instrument to achieve their ends – something which Vlad would use to great effect in his
03:03
later life.
03:04
While in the Ottoman court, the boys were able to further their education, being instructed
03:08
in logic, the Turkish language and the teachings of the Quran.
03:11
They were also given lessons in horsemanship and warfare.
03:15
The two brothers differed markedly in their attitude toward their captivity.
03:19
Radu, the younger brother, accepted the situation and embraced his new life and the teachings
03:24
that came with it.
03:25
He would eventually convert to Islam and enter service in the Ottoman court.
03:28
Vlad, however, resisted at every turn despite constant punishment for his surly attitude.
03:35
With the assistance of the Turks, Vlad senior was able to regain his throne.
03:39
But it didn’t last.
03:40
In 1447, Hungarian backed rebels attacked again, forcing Vlad and his oldest son, Mircea
03:48
II to flee.
03:49
Both were eventually captured and put to death.
03:52
The next in line to the throne of Wallachia was Vlad III’s older brother, but he had
03:57
become a monk and lived in a monastery.
03:59
This left Vlad, now 16, as the rightful heir.
04:03
Despite his obstinacy, the Turks had grown fond of the teenager.
04:06
They vowed to help him regain his throne, which they did with an overthrow of the rebel
04:10
ruler in 1448.
04:13
Ascending to Rulership
04:18
As soon as the Ottomans left, however, the Hungarians were back and, within two months,
04:22
Vlad was forced to flee to Moldovia.
04:24
For the next three years he lived there under the protection and tutelage of his uncle,
04:29
Prince Bogdan II.
04:31
But when Bogdan was assassinated in 1451, Vlad again fled, this time along with his
04:36
cousin Prince Stephen.
04:37
The two young men ended up in Transylvania, where they came under the mentorship of a
04:41
Hungarian warrior named John Hunyadi a powerbroker who was fiercely opposed to the Ottoman Empire.
04:48
Hunyadi had originally supported the new ruler of Wallachia, a man by the name of Vladislav
04:53
II.
04:54
But the relationship quickly disintegrated, thanks largely to Vladislav’s appeasement
04:59
of the Turks.
05:00
When Vladislav invaded and burnt several villages in Transylvania, Hunyadi’s patience gave
05:06
out.
05:07
He looked to the young Vlad to take back the throne that rightfully belonged to him.
05:12
In the same year -1453 – the Holy Roman city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman
05:17
Turks.
05:18
It now appeared as if the whole of Europe was theirs for the taking.
05:22
The securing of Wallachia became more important than ever.
05:25
In 1456, Vlad led an army into Wallachia.
05:28
He met the army of Vladislav III on the field of battle and ended up killing the usurper
05:33
in hand to hand combat.
05:35
With the death of Vladislav, Vlad was restored to power as the ruler of Wallachia.
05:40
Over the next six years, he would rule with an unprecedented bloodlust that would cement
05:45
his name forever in the annals of merciless monarchs.
05:50
Unprecedented Torture
05:54
Having secured the throne of Wallachia for himself, Vlad sent a portion of his army over
05:58
the border to help his cousin Stephen to secure the throne of Moldovia.
06:03
When this was accomplished, the two cousins held sway over a large swathe of the Balkans,
06:07
proving a powerful stronghold against the Turks.
06:10
Vlad now set his mind on revenge.
06:13
He had his spies go out and find the names of any nobles who had been even remotely involved
06:18
in the plot to overthrow his father.
06:20
Having collected a list of names, Vlad invited the men to an Easter feast along with their
06:25
families.
06:26
But as soon as the traitors arrived, they were arrested.
06:28
The older among them were impaled then and there, in front of their families.
06:33
Those who were younger were forced into slavery, labouring to rebuild Vlad’s castle.
06:38
When this job was done, they were all killed.
06:40
Vlad’s treatment of the traitors to his father’s reign was just the beginning.
06:44
He next proceeded to enforce his own stringent moral code on the population.
06:50
Any deviation was met with unthinkable cruelty.
06:53
He appeared to be especially concerned with female chastity.
06:57
Any woman who lost her virginity prior to marriage, or who defiled the marriage bed,
07:02
would be impaled, with the insertion point being the vagina.
07:06
More often than not their breasts would also be cut off, with the man with whom they had
07:09
committed fornication being forced to eat them.
07:13
Vlad also had a hatred of beggars, considering them to be existing off the hard work of others.
07:17
It is said that he once invited all the beggars in Wallachia to a massive feast in a centrally
07:22
located wooden hall.
07:24
Once they had eaten to their full, he is said to have ordered the doors bolted and the building
07:28
set on fire.
07:29
In this way he is said to have ridden his realm of the scourge of poverty.
07:34
The Ottoman Threat
07:38
On the international scene the Ottoman threat was becoming more ominous.
07:42
In 1460, Pope Pius II held a congress at Mantua in Italy, calling for a new crusade to reclaim
07:48
Constantinople and push the Ottomans back to the desert.
07:52
The Crusade was to last for three years and would be led by Matthias Corvinus, the son
07:56
of John Hyundai, who had been killed during an invasion of Serbia.
08:01
Matthius made a tour of European kingdoms seeking support for the enterprise.
08:05
The only ruler who gave a positive response was Vlad Dracula of Wallachia.
08:10
Determined to hold his kingdom safe from the Turks, he formed an alliance with Matthias
08:14
Corvinus.
08:15
The Ottomans, meanwhile, were aware of the lack of support for this new crusade.
08:20
Sultan Mehmed III seized the advantage by capturing the last independent Serbian city,
08:26
Smederovo.
08:27
During this campaign, Hungarian general Mihaly Szilagyi was taken captive.
08:31
This general was known to Vlad, having helped to put down a revolt in 1548.
08:36
When Vlad heard that he had been sawed in half, his blood boiled and he became more
08:41
committed than ever to teaching the Ottomans a lesson they would never forget.
08:46
The Ottoman empire was extended to Greece in 1461 when the weak ruler surrendered without
08:51
putting up any defense.
08:52
Now both Corinth and the capital of Mistra were ruled by the Turks.
08:57
The Sultan also had his sights on Wallachia.
08:59
He declared it to be part of the Ottoman Empire.
09:01
As such he sent his envoys to Vlad’s castle in order to collect a tribute of 10,000 ducats,
09:07
along with 500 men to be taken into the Turkish army.
09:10
But the Sultan had underestimated the young ruler.
09:16
Upsetting the Sultan
09:19
When the Sultan’s envoys refused to lift their turbans as a sign of respect to him,
09:23
Vlad became enraged and had his guards drive nails through their turbans into their skulls.
09:29
The incredulous Sultan responded by sending his army across the Danube in order to seize
09:33
men and bring them back to become part of his army.
09:36
Vlad sent his forces to the area to grab any Turks that could be found.
09:40
They soon found themselves impaled on a red-hot stake.
09:43
Towards the end of 1461, Vlad wrote to the Sultan informing him that he could not afford
09:48
to pay a tribute, but that he was willing to come to Constantinople and negotiate.
09:52
Mehmed was aware that Vlad had already aligned himself with the crusade and so he decided
09:57
to take the Wallachian ruler who had dared to murder his envoys by force.
10:01
He sent one of his generals, along with a thousand strong cavalry to meet with Vlad,
10:05
with the intention of ambushing him.
10:07
But Vlad got wind of the plan and put into operation his own ambush.
10:11
As the approaching Turks were negotiating their way through a narrow traverse, Vlad
10:15
and his army attacked.
10:17
It has been reported that Vlad’s attack was one of the first instances where gunpowder
10:21
was used, apparently to deadly effect.
10:24
The Turks were killed to a man, with the majority of them suffering Vlad’s favorite torture
10:27
– impalement.
10:29
With his blood now up, Vlad took his army across the Danube River, where they attacked
10:34
Ottoman controlled areas in Bulgaria between Serbia and the Black Sea.
10:38
Vlad would go in advance to fortified towns and use his skills in the Turkish language
10:42
to encourage the guards to open the gates.
10:45
Then his army would pour in from over the horizon.
10:47
Vlad would then go into a killing frenzy, slaughtering every Turkish man, woman or child
10:52
that he could find.
10:54
Over a period of two weeks, he led his army over an area of 500 miles, killing around
11:00
23,000 people.
11:01
In February of 1462, Vlad wrote in glowing terms to Matthias Corvinus of what he had
11:08
accomplished . . .
11:09
I have killed peasant men and women, young and old, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo,
11:15
where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from
11:20
the lower Danube to such places as Samovit and Ghighen.
11:24
We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose
11:30
heads were cut by our soldiers . . . Thus, your highness, you must know, I have broken
11:35
the peace.
11:36
An outraged Sultan ordered his grand vizier, Mahmud, with 18,000 troops to destroy a port
11:42
in Wallachia called Braila.
11:44
This force was intercepted by Vlad and his 30,000 strong army.
11:47
The Turks were utterly defeated, with only 8,000 of them surviving.
11:52
These quickfire victories garnered Vlad a heroic reputation throughout Europe.
11:56
Even the pope praised him.
11:57
At the same time his reputation as the Impaler King served to intimidate the Turkish people,
12:03
many of whom fled the European part of the Ottoman Empire for Anatolia.
12:07
In response to the slaughter, and the fear that Vlad had caused amongst his people, Sultan
12:12
Mehmed abandoned his campaign in Greece and turned his full attention to the Vlad problem.
12:16
He gathered together an army of 150,000 with the sole mission of finding and killing Vlad.
12:23
The Sultan had already promised the rulership of Wallachia to Vlad’s younger brother,
12:27
Radu.
12:28
With himself at the head, the Sultan set out to find and destroy Vlad the Impaler.
12:35
War with the Ottomans
12:38
Vlad’s force of around 30,000 were not only hugely outnumbered, they were also hopelessly
12:44
outclassed as far as weaponry was concerned.
12:47
They carried only lances and daggers, whereas the Turks had in their midst squadrons of
12:52
deadly archers, along with powerful siege and missile weaponry.
12:56
Despite this, Vlad was able to inflict major casualties upon the Sultan’s forces.
13:00
He followed a scorched earth policy as he moved away from the approaching Turks.
13:05
Wells were poisoned with entire populations, including animals, being evacuated.
13:10
Vlad also engaged in guerrilla fighting tactics.
13:12
Hit and run raids were made on the Sultan’s army and a primitive type of germ warfare
13:17
was utilized, where men who were afflicted with the bubonic plague were sent into Turkish
13:22
towns to inflect as many people as possible.
13:25
This tactic worked, with the plague spreading to the Sultan’s men.
13:29
In the end, though, the efforts of Vlad’s men were no more than an irritant to the vastly
13:33
superior Turkish army.
13:35
Steadily they moved on, getting ever closer to Vlad’s castle at Targoviste.
13:38
When the arrived there, Vlad and his 24,000-man strong army were holed up at a mountain refuge
13:44
just outside of the city.
13:45
Vlad, who was now faced with an encirclement by the Turks which would eventual force his
13:50
army into starvation, did something quite amazing, even for him.
13:54
Leaving his men behind in the mountains, he disguised himself and walked directly into
13:58
the Turkish army encampment.
14:00
He quickly determined the position of the Sultan’s tent.
14:03
He also found out that the sultan had given the order for his men to remain in their tents
14:06
at night in order to prevent panic in the event of an attack.
14:10
He then quietly slipped out of the camp and returned back to his own men.
14:14
Vlad now set about planning a surprise attack on the Sultan’s army.
14:18
It was his personal intention to enter the Sultan’s tent and drive his knife though
14:22
Mehmed’s heart.
14:24
On the night of June 17th, 1462 he divided his forces in two and then attacked from both
14:30
north and south.
14:31
The Turks were caught off-guard, allowing the attackers to inflict heavy losses.
14:36
Within an hour of savage fighting more than 15,000 Turks were slaughtered, at a cost of
14:41
some 5,000 of Vlad’s men, He himself succeeded in entering the tent he had previously picked
14:47
out.
14:48
The only problem was that he had selected the wrong tent and he did no find the sultan.
14:53
At daybreak, Vlad called off the attack and his men melted back into the mountains.
14:57
The Sultan was so despondent that he pulled back and was prepared to retreat all the way
15:01
back across the Danube.
15:02
However, he was convinced by his generals that success was still within their grasp
15:07
and so he led his men into the capital city.
15:10
When they arrived at Targoviste, the Turks found an abandoned city.
15:14
They also found the remains of in excess of 20,000 Turkish soldiers, killed in previous
15:18
conflicts, impaled on stakes.
15:21
At this sight, the Sultan is said to have remarked . . .
15:23
A man who had done such things is worth much!
15:27
With nothing to do in the empty city, the Sultan installed Radu as the new ruler of
15:31
Wallachia and then turned and began to retrace his steps back to the Danube.
15:36
Radu, younger brother of Vlad, now took his forces and circled Vlad’s castle, located
15:42
on a cliff just outside of the city.
15:44
Vlad’s first wife was in the castle and legend has it that she vowed to feed herself
15:48
to the fishes rather than fall to the Turks.
15:51
Apparently, she then threw herself from the temples walls into the river below.
15:56
Betrayal
15:58
Radu now set about solidifying his position.
16:03
Meanwhile the sultan had taken his army to Braila, where the town was destroyed and hundreds
16:08
killed.
16:09
Vlad knew that he had to regroup and gather a larger force if he was to have any chance
16:13
of regaining control of Wallachia.
16:15
He made his way to Hungary, where he sought the military support of his ally, Matthias
16:19
Cornivas.
16:20
Matthias appeared to give his support, even making battle plans with Vlad.
16:24
However, Cornivas had secretly turned against his old ally.
16:27
He organized a plan to ambush Vlad and the Impaler was taken as his prisoner.
16:32
The reason for Matthias’ change of loyalty has been debated for centuries, with the consensus
16:37
being that he wanted to become Holy Roman Emperor and knew that an end to hostilities
16:42
with the Turks was needed for that to become reality.
16:46
Vlad spent the next four years as a prisoner in Hungary.
16:50
During this time, he converted to Catholicism.
16:52
He also met Ilona Szilagyi, King Matthias’ cousin.
16:54
Having softened his attitude toward his prisoner, Matthias allowed the two to marry.
16:58
Apparently, he was released just prior to the ceremony.
17:01
Vlad and his new wife were given a house at Pest.
17:04
He was under strict instructions not to return to Wallachia.
17:06
Yet he had no intention of giving up on the crown that rightly still belonged to him.
17:12
He secretly collaborated with a former military commander.
17:15
They managed to gather together an army consisting of a mixture of Hungarian, Transylvanian,
17:20
Wallachian and Moldavian forces.
17:23
Vlad set out with his makeshift army in the middle of 1476.
17:27
By now his younger brother, Radu, had died and been replaced by Prince Basarb the Elder.
17:31
Before Vlad even got to Targoviste, Basarb and his army fled.
17:36
Vlad was placed on his throne and the army largely dissolved.
17:39
Vlad was back in power but he lacked a strong army.
17:42
In fact, he only had around 4,000 men to draw upon.
17:45
So, when the Turks returned two months after his retaking of the throne, he was soundly
17:50
defeated.
17:52
The End
17:56
The exact details surrounding Vlad’s death are a matter of debate.
18:00
Most scholars agree that he was killed while fighting the Turks in early 1477.
18:06
A contemporary Turkish chronicler recorded that the Turks killed and decapitated him,
18:11
sending his head back to Constantinople.
18:12
There it was said to have been preserved in honey and put on display so that everyone
18:17
could see that the dreaded Impaler was really dead.
18:21
It is estimated that Vlad’s legacy of execution methods included more than 20,000 impalements,
18:27
5,000 beheadings, 10,000 burnings at the stake, ten Turks who had nails drive through their
18:32
turbans and at least one who was boiled alive and then cannibalized.
18:36
Yet, in his home country of Romania, Vlad is seen as a hero.
18:41
He is an important national figure, a God-fearing stalwart who stood up to the Ottoman Empire.
18:47
I guess it all depends on your perspective!
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video.
.