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Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( Romanian: Vlad Țepeș [ ˈ v l a d ˈ ts e p e ʃ]) or Vlad Dracula ( / ˈdrækjʊlə, - jə -/; Romanian: Vlad Drăculea [ ˈ d r ə k u l e̯a]; 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77.
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Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires.
Though Dracula is a purely fictional creation, Stoker named his infamous character after a real person who happened to have a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or as he is better known Vlad the Impaler. The morbid nickname is a testament to the Wallachian prince's favorite way of dispensing with his enemies.
Vlad III's father, Vlad II, did own a residence in Sighişoara, Transylvania, but it is not certain that Vlad III was born there, according to Curta. It's also possible, he said, that Vlad the Impaler was born in Târgovişte, which was at that time the royal seat of the principality of Wallachia, where his father was a \"voivode,\" or ruler. In 1431,...
It is possible for tourists to visit one castle where Vlad III certainly spent time. At about age 12, Vlad III and his brother were imprisoned in Turkey. In 2014, archaeologists found the likely location of the dungeon, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Tokat Castle is located in northern Turkey. It is an eerie place with secret tunnels and dungeo...
According to \"Dracula: Sense and Nonsense\" by Elizabeth Miller, in 1890 Stoker read a book about Wallachia. Although it did not mention Vlad III, Stoker was struck by the word \"Dracula.\" He wrote in his notes, \"in Wallachian language means DEVIL.\" It is therefore likely that Stoker chose to name his character Dracula for the word's devilish a...
The Order of the Dragon was devoted to a singular task: the defeat of the Turkish, or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II's (and later Vlad III's) home principality of Wallachia was frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian fo...
Not long after these harrowing events, in 1448, Vlad embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman governors of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria, according to Curta. Vlad also took advantage of the fact that Vla...
Vlad won back his father's seat, but his time as ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was deposed after only two months, when Vladislav II returned and took back the throne of Wallachia with the assistance of Hunyadi, according to Curta.
Little is known about Vlad III's whereabouts between 1448 and 1456. But it is known that he switched sides in the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, giving up his ties with the Ottoman governors of the Danube cities and obtaining military support from King Ladislaus V of Hungary, who happened to dislike Vlad's rival Vladislav II of Wallachia according t...
Vlad III's political and military tack truly came to the forefront amid the fall of Constantinople in 1453. After the fall, the Ottomans were in a position to invade all of Europe. Vlad, who had already solidified his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed voivode of Wallachia in 1456. One of his first orders of business in his new role was to stop ...
To consolidate his power as voivode, Vlad needed to quell the incessant conflicts that had historically taken place between Wallachia's boyars. According to legends that circulated after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and knowing they would challenge his authority had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bod...
This is just one of many gruesome events that earned Vlad his posthumous nickname, Vlad the Impaler. This story and others like it is documented in printed material from around the time of Vlad III's rule, according to Miller.
Vlad is credited with impaling dozens of Saxon merchants in Kronstadt (present-day Braşov, Romania), who were once allied with the boyars, in 1456. Around the same time, a group of Ottoman envoys allegedly had an audience with Vlad but declined to remove their turbans, citing a religious custom. Commending them on their religious devotion, Vlad ens...
\"After Mehmet II the one who conquered Constantinople invaded Wallachia in 1462, he actually was able to go all the way to Wallachia's capital city of Târgoviște but found it deserted. And in front of the capital he found the bodies of the Ottoman prisoners of war that Vlad had taken all impaled,\" Curta said.
Vlad's victories over the invading Ottomans were celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe even Pope Pius II was impressed.
\"The reason he's a positive character in Romania is because he is reputed to have been a just, though a very harsh, ruler,\" Curta said.
Vlad's younger brother, Radu, who had sided with the Ottomans during the ongoing military campaigns, took over governance of Wallachia after his brother's imprisonment. But after Radu's death in 1475, local boyars, as well as the rulers of several nearby principalities, favored Vlad's return to power.
In 1476, with the support of the voivode of Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (1457-1504), Vlad made one last effort to reclaim his seat as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole back the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, while marching to yet another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambu...
There is much controversy over the location of Vlad III's tomb. It is said he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. But recently, historians have questioned whether Vlad might actually be buried at the Monastery of Comana, between Bucharest ...
Apr 9, 2023 · Vlad III, also called Vlad the Impaler, was a prince of Wallachia infamous for his brutality in battle and the gruesome punishments he inflicted on his enemies. In 1897, writer Bram Stoker published the novel Dracula , the classic story of a vampire named Count Dracula who feeds on human blood, hunting his victims and killing them in the dead ...
- Natasha Ishak
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Oct 31, 2013 · Though Dracula may seem like a singular creation, Stoker in fact drew inspiration from a real-life man with an even more grotesque taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is ...
The vampire legend The fictional vampire in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker was inspired by the legends of this Wallachian prince. The cruel person of the Impaler was a suitable character for Stoker's purposes possibly combined with Oscar Wilde , a poet whom dated Stoker's wife and was outed as homosexual near the making of Stoker's famous novel.
Oct 28, 2021 · The ruthless brutality of Vlad III of Walachia, forged by the 15th-century clash between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, would partly inspire Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel...
Dec 15, 2022 · From burning the old and sick alive to impaling tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, earning his fearsome nickname, Vlad the Impaler’s bloodlust and cruelty was said to have inspired the most famous vampire of literature. But how much of him is in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and why has Vlad been remembered by some as a national hero?
