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November 16 - November 19, 2020
Stoker drew his inspiration, and the name Dracula, from Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia.
patronymic
The word “drac” originally meant dragon, but in modern Romanian, it means devil.
Vlad III Dracula, who was also known as Vlad Țepeș which in Romanian means “impaler,”
The moniker Vlad the Impaler was bestowed upon him posthumously around 1550, although he was previously known as Kaziklu Beg or Kazili Voyvoda, both of which mean Impaler Lord. The name was so given by the Ottoman Empire after their soldiers came across what they described as “forests” of impaled victims. Impaling was his preferred method of execution. He is estimated to have killed somewhere between 40,000 and 100,000 people. He burned villages and fortresses to the ground and is said to have taken pleasure in torturing and killing his victims, even feasting amidst their remains. One German
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Romanian and Bulgarian documents from 1481 onwards depict Vlad as a hero whose harsh but fair methods were justifiable, given that his motive was to reclaim his country. Additionally, his military efforts were all directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the time was attempting to conquer Wallachia.
To impale his victims, he would tie each leg to a horse and slowly force a stake through the body, often beginning in the orifices, such as the anus or vagina. He took care to ensure the stake was not too sharp so that it wouldn’t cause a wound that was too rapidly fatal. Once the victim was sufficiently impaled, the stake would be lifted upright, and the victim would be further impaled by the weight of their own body as it slid down the stake. The victim would often take hours or even days to die,
He is said to have arranged the bodies of his victims, particularly those he impaled, in geometric patterns,
He would also sometimes cut off their breasts, and it was said he forced their men to eat them.
According to legend, he invited them to a fabulous feast, and once they had eaten, he closed and locked the door to the dining hall, and proceeded to set it on fire. No one escaped the flames. In this way, he claimed to have eradicated poverty.
internecine
The general himself, who had been Vlad III’s only ally when he razed several Saxon villages in 1458 in response to a merchant revolt, was sawed in half.
despotic
Vlad declined the envoys’ request for payment, and on the pretext that they had failed to raise their hats to him - something they refused to do for religious reasons - he had their turbans nailed to their heads.
Hamza Pasha himself was impaled on the highest stake, in deference to his rank.
He went on to slaughter every enemy soldier he could find and any population that even sympathized with the Turks. His forces covered some 800 kilometers in approximately two weeks and killed over 23,000 Turks.
We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers… Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace.”
The precise numbers of the dead were reported as the following: At Durostor, 6,840, at Giugiu, 6,414, at Rahova, 1,460, at Eni Sala, 1,350, at Nicopolis and Ghighen, 1,138, at Hârsova, 840, at Turtucaia, 630, at Sistov, 410, at Turnu, Batin, and Novograd, 384, at Orsova, 343, and at Marotin, 210.
At this point, Vlad was celebrated for his success in the Saxon cities of Transylvania as well as in the Italian states, and even by the Pope himself.
He poisoned the waters and evacuated the population, including the animals, as the Turks advanced. He made so-called hit and run attacks against Mehmed’s forces, and he waged a form of germ warfare by sending in people infected with deadly diseases, most notably bubonic plague, to mix with the Turks and infect them. The plague did, in fact, spread to the Sultan’s army.
They slaughtered, according to some sources, approximately 15,000 Ottomans while only losing approximately 5,000 of their own men.
“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth with the grasses waving above one’s head and listen to silence. To have no yesterday and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.” —Oscar Wilde
voivode
“Sometimes the world no longer needs a hero. Sometimes what it needs is a monster.” —Dracula Untold, Universal Pictures
capricious
Vlad’s reputation in Eastern Europe: a mixture of good and bad, honorable and cruel, justified and senseless.
Thus, Vlad Dracula’s legacy includes a long line of rulers, many of whom exhibited the same degree of cruelty as their infamous progenitor.
scythes
sickles
His enemies described coming upon “forests” of impaled victims, and many were so frightened as a result that they left the Turkish region of Europe and returned to Anatolia.
He was particularly concerned with female chastity and would severely punish any woman found to be unchaste or adulterous.
staked bodies would be left in place for months at a time to deter others from making the same mistakes.
He is said to have feasted among the bodies of his impaled victims and to have roasted children and fed them to their mothers. He is also said to have cut off the breasts of women and fed them to their men. Many of these actions, however, may have been normal for the times.
Vlad’s brother was blinded by a hot poker and buried alive by his enemies. Another of Vlad’s allies, General Mihály Szilágyi, was sawed in half by Turkish forces. Eastern Europe at this time was a violent place.
Conflict was constant, with leaders often going from one war to another.
Vlad the Impaler, however, was notable for his cruelty even among his contemporaries, if not for the kind of atrocities he committed, then for the number of victims he tortured and killed.
Romanians. Some referred to him as a just leader whose harsh methods were used rightfully to protect his people from hostile invaders. Others described him as worse than any other tyrants who had come before or after him.
Dracula represent the character as the undead version of Vlad the Impaler, a man who chose to walk among the undead as a result of his wife’s suicide in the face of the invading Ottoman Empire.
