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Apr 30, 2024 · Vlad the Impaler, prince of Walachia (now in Romania) whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe. Some in the scholarly community have suggested that Bram Stoker’s Dracula character was based on Vlad.
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Walachia, principality on the lower Danube River, which in...
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Jul 17, 2020 · Vlad the Impaler is most recognized for his gory murder method and his influence in the creation of literature’s most infamous vampire – Count Dracula. In 1897, Bram Stoker, an Irish writer, wrote a novel called Dracula, which has since become one of the classics of the Gothic horror genre.
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Who was Vlad III Dracula?
Why is Vlad called Dracula?
Who is Dracula based on?
Why did Stoker choose Vlad Dracula?
- His Family Name Means “Dragon”
- He Was Born in Wallachia, Present-Day Romania
- He Was Held Hostage For 5 Years
- His Father and Brother Were Both Killed
- He Invited His Rivals to Dinner – and Killed Them
- He Was Named For His Preferred Form of Torture
- He Ordered The Mass Killing of 20,000 Ottomans
- The Location of His Death Is Unknown
- He Remains A National Hero of Romania
- He Was The Inspiration Behind Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’
The name Dracul was given to Vlad’s father Vlad II by his fellow knights who belonged to a Christian crusading order known as the Order of the Dragon. Dracultranslates to “dragon” in Romanian. In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary – who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor – inducted the elder Vlad into the knightly order. The Order of the Dragon...
Vlad III was born in 1431 in the state of Wallachia, now the southern portion of present-day Romania. It was one of the three principalities that made up Romania at the time, along with Transylvania and Moldova. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia was the scene of a great number of bloody battles....
In 1442, Vlad accompanied his father and his 7-year-old brother Radu on a diplomatic mission in the heart of the Ottoman Empire. However the three were captured and held hostage by the Ottoman diplomats. Their captors told Vlad II that he could be released – on condition that the two sons remain. Believing that it was the safest option for his fami...
Upon his return, Vlad II was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by local war lords known as the boyar. He was killed in the marshes behind his house while his oldest son, Mircea II, was tortured, blinded and buried alive.
Vlad III was freed shortly after his family’s death, however by then he had already developed a taste for violence. To consolidate power and assert his dominance, he decided to hold a banquet and invited hundreds of members of his rival families. Knowing his authority would be challenged, he had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies i...
By 1462, he had succeeded to the Wallachian throne and was at war with the Ottomans. With enemy forces three times the size of his own, Vlad ordered his men to poison wells and burn crops. He also paid diseased men to infiltrate and infect the enemy. His victims were often disembowelled, beheaded and skinned or boiled alive. However impalement came...
In June 1462 as he retreated from a battle, Vlad ordered 20,000 defeated Ottomans to be impaled on wooden stakes outside the city of Târgoviște. When the Sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481) came across the field of the dead being picked apart by crows, he was so horrified that he retreated to Constantinople. On another occasion, Vlad met with a group of O...
Now long after the infamous impalement of Ottoman prisoners of war, Vlad was forced into exile and imprisoned in Hungary. He returned in 1476 to reclaim his rule of Wallachia, however his triumph was short-lived. While marching to battle with the Ottomans, he and his soldiers were ambushed and killed. According to Leonardo Botta, the Milanese ambas...
Vlad the Impaler was an undeniably brutal ruler. However he is still considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. His victorious campaigns against the Ottoman forces which protected both Wallachia and Europe have won him praise as a military leader. He was even praised by Pope Pius II (1405-1464)...
It is believed that Stoker based the title character of his 1897 ‘Dracula’ on Vlad the Impaler. However the two characters have little in common. Although there is no concrete evidence to support this theory, historians have speculated that Stoker’s conversations with the historian Hermann Bamburger may have helped provide him with information on V...
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia called "Vlad the Impaler" and also known as Vlad Dracula or simply Dracula, in Romanian Drăculea (1431 – December 1476), was a Wallachian (southern Romania) voivode (military commander). His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–1462, and 1476.
- The real Dracula. By most accounts, Vlad III was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern-day Romania. However, the link between Vlad the Impaler and Transylvania is tenuous, according to Florin Curta, a professor of medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida.
- Order of the Dragon. In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor, inducted the elder Vlad into a knightly order, the Order of the Dragon.
- Years of captivity. When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Ottoman Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along.
- Vlad the Prince. While Vlad and Radu were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father was fighting to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia, a fight he would eventually lose.
When teaching students about Vlad the Impaler, it’s essential to explore the reasons behind his nickname “Dracula” and its cultural significance. This article will guide you through presenting this fascinating and dark chapter of history to your students.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is popularly associated with Vlad the Impaler, and some scholars do believe that the literary bloodsucker is derived in part from the historical Walachian prince. If Stoker did indeed base the archetypal vampire on Vlad, what led him to do so?
