{"id":20829,"date":"2022-12-15T07:32:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T06:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=221693"},"modified":"2022-12-15T08:12:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T07:12:14","slug":"the-real-dracula-the-bloodthirsty-life-of-vlad-the-impaler","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-real-dracula-the-bloodthirsty-life-of-vlad-the-impaler\/","title":{"rendered":"The real Dracula? The bloodthirsty life of Vlad the Impaler"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 15 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Vlad the Impaler: few names in European history conjure such a weight of myth and brutality as this three-time ruler of Wallachia (in modern-day Romania). A surviving woodcut from Nuremberg in 1499 shows him seated at his meal enjoying the sight of men and women speared through their torsos on stakes just feet away, while the severed heads and limbs of other victims lie at his feet. The accompanying text tells of how he roasted, boiled and flayed people, or forced mothers to eat their own children.<\/p>\n

Along with the legend of his seemingly pathological cruelty, Vlad is now remembered as the inspiration for Bram Stoker\u2019s novel Dracula<\/em><\/a>, which was first published 125 years ago in 1897. Behind this thumbnail sketch, however, there is a host of gruesome facts about Vlad the Impaler that are often stranger than the wildest Gothic fiction.<\/p>\n

Who was Vlad the Impaler?<\/h2>\n

The man who would become Vlad the Impaler was born in 1431, the second son of nobleman Vlad II Dracul. He was raised in a world of violent instability, in a zone of Christian Europe under continual threat of Ottoman invasion in the aftermath of Constantinople falling to the Turks in 1453. At just 11, the young Vlad was held hostage in the Ottoman empire<\/a> along with his brother Radu to force the allegiance of their father.<\/p>\n

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Vlad III would go on to reign over Wallachia. This statue remains in Sighisoara, Romania. (Image by Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Vlad II was a member of the Order of the Dragon, and voivode (local governor) of Wallachia until his murder in 1447 on the orders of John Hunyadi, ruler of Transylvania and a major military and political figure in Hungary. That same year, the young Vlad\u2019s eldest brother Mircea II was buried alive by Hunyadi. Vlad III, as he was styled, would go on to reign over Wallachia briefly in the autumn of 1448; then again from April 1456 to July 1462; and finally in 1476 until his death \u2013 probably in December of that year. During this time, he earned the nickname \u2018Vlad \u021aepe\u0219\u2019 \u2013 Vlad the Impaler in Romanian.<\/p>\n

Why was he called that?<\/h2>\n

The name was literal: in his short life, Vlad impaled thousands of men and women. In June 1462, during his epic battle against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, the Turkish army approached the city of T\u00e2rgovi\u0219te and had the breath slammed out of it by a scene from hell. Across roughly one mile, 23,844 captives had been impaled in a semi-circle. In the intense summer heat, the stench of death alone was unbearable \u2013 except to the birds of prey feasting on the living and dead, or nesting in older skulls and carcasses.<\/p>\n

Across roughly one mile, 23,844 captives had been impaled in a semi-circle <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>

Vlad\u2019s use of impaling as a form of execution was not unique to him; Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu, authors of several books on Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, point out that it was also used during the Wars of the Roses<\/a> (1455\u20131487). Yet the sheer scale of slaughter achieved by Vlad seems to have been epic even by the standards of his day, and may have aided him in ultimate victory against Mehmed. He is thought to have killed between 40-100,000 people in just six years.<\/p>\n

So what about his other name, Dracula?<\/h2>\n

Vlad\u2019s father, Vlad II, bestowed upon him the famous Dracula name, which meant \u2018son of the dragon\u2019. Aptly enough, \u2018dracul\u2019 in Romanian could mean both \u2018dragon\u2019 and \u2018devil\u2019. McNally and Florescu have suggested that the Wallachian nobility took Vlad II as an honoured opponent of Turks and heretics, whilst the peasantry associated the name more strongly with its devilish side.<\/p>\n

Did Vlad the Impaler live in Transylvania?<\/h2>\n
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Bran Castle in modern day Romania, also known as Castel Dracula due to its association with Vlad III. (Image by RF Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Although Vlad was born in Sighisoara in Transylvania, his Castle Dracula (also Castle Poenari) was located in a commanding position north of the city of Curtea de Arges, around 200 miles to the south. After returning to power in 1456, for his second reign as ruler of Wallachia, he rebuilt the castle from its ruins, using the forced labour of captive Romanian nobility, both men and women. This was part of a deliberate strategic purge of the nobility, which began with the impaling of elderly aristocrats deemed unfit for heavy labour. The building is thought to have claimed many lives, given the gruelling work and dangerous location of Castle Dracula.<\/p>\n

Was he insane?<\/h2>\n

In modern terms, many of Vlad\u2019s acts of cruelty might well be defined as those of a high-functioning sociopath. His ruthlessness in war certainly helped him achieve a stunning victory over the Turks in 1462. He not only slaughtered animals to deprive the enemy of transport and food, but used germ warfare by encouraging those afflicted with leprosy, syphilis, tuberculosis and plague \u201cto dress in Turkish fashion and intermingle with the [enemy] soldiers\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A 1499 Nuremburg woodcut depicts Vlad dining beside a small copse of impaled bodies. (Image by Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Many of Vlad\u2019s acts of more private cruelty have elements of purely pathological malice. In one instance, infuriated by the disrespect of Italian ambassadors who kept their skullcaps on in his presence, he responded to this perceived insult by nailing the caps to their heads. On another occasion, he invited masses of the old, sick, poor, lame and blind to a great feast in a T\u00e2rgovi\u0219te dining hall, before locking them in and burning them alive. He later exulted in this elimination of the socially inferior, in a way that could now recall the Nazis. Both men and women fell victim to his viciousness and cruelty; in fact, the extremes of his misogyny have caused McNally and Florescu to wonder if he was impotent.<\/p>\n

Was Vlad a \u2018vampire\u2019?<\/h2>\n

Yes and no. He does not seem to have habitually drunk blood (and there were gallons flowing if he so wished). There is an account, though, of him burning a whole Transylvanian suburb in a winter raid and having captives impaled, then watching as his men cut off victims\u2019 limbs while he sat at table and dined. Here we are told that he \u201cdipped his bread in the blood of the victims\u201d since \u201cwatching human blood flow gave him courage\u201d (Dracula). This apparently factual blood-drinking would feed into best-selling pamphlets that spread his legend following his death.<\/p>\n