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The Historical Dracula
Chapter I: Historical Background
Most
of the members of this list are probably aware of the fact that when
Bram Stoker penned his immortal classic, _Dracula_, he based his
vampire villain on an actual historical figure. Stoker's model was Vlad III Dracula
(called Tepes, pronounced tse-pesh); a fifteenth century voivode or
prince of
Wallachia of the princely House of Basarab.
Wallachia is a
province of Romania bordered to the
 north by
Transylvania and
Moldavia, to the east by the Black Sea and to the south by Bulgaria.
Wallachia first emerged as a political entity during the late
thirteenth century from the weltering confusion left behind in the
Balkans as the East Roman Empire slowly crumbled. The first prince
of Wallachia was Basarab the Great (1310-1352), an ancestor of
Dracula. Despite the splintering of the family into two rival clans,
some member of the House of Basarab continued to govern
Wallachia
from that time until well after the Ottomans reduced the
principality to the status of a client state. Dracula was the last
prince of
Wallachia to retain any real measure of independence.
In order to understand the life of Vlad Dracula it is first
necessary to understand something about the nature of Wallachian
society and politics. The throne of
Wallachia was hereditary but not
by the law of primogeniture; the boyars or great nobles had the
right to elect the voivode from among the various eligible members
of the royal family. As with most elective monarchies during the
Middle Ages the power of the central government tended to be
dissipated among the nobility as various members of the ruling
family vied for the throne. Wallachian politics also tended to be
very bloody. Assassination was a common means of eliminating rivals
and many of the voivodes ended their lives violently and
prematurely. By the late fifteenth century the House of Basarab had
split into two rival clans; the descendants of Prince Dan and those
of Prince Mircea the Old (Dracula's grandfather). These two branches
of the royal house were bitter rivals. Both Dracula and his father,
Vlad II Dracul, murdered rivals from the Danesti upon reaching the
throne.
 The second ascendant fact of fifteenth century Wallachian political
life was the influence of powerful neighbors. In 1453 Constantinople
and the last vestiges of the Byzantine or East Roman Empire, which
had blocked the Islam's access to Europe for nearly one thousand
years, succumbed to the armed might of the Ottoman Turks under
Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror. Long before the fall of the Imperial
City the Ottomans had penetrated deep into the Balkans. Dracula's
grandfather, Mircea the Old, was forced to pay tribute to the sultan
early in the fifteenth century. The Hungarian Kingdom to the north
and west of
Wallachia reached the zenith of its power during the
fifteenth century and assumed Constantinople's ancient mantle as
defender of Christendom. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries the princes of
Wallachia attempted to maintain a
precarious independence by constantly shifting allegiances between
these powerful neighbors.
Dracula ruled as Prince of
Wallachia on three separate occasions. He
first claimed the throne with Turkish support in 1448. On this
occasion he ruled for only two months (November-October) before
being driven out by a Danesti claimant supported by Hungary. Dracula
dwelt in exile for several years before returning to
Wallachia to
kill the Danesti prince, Vladislav II, and reclaim the Wallachian
throne with Hungarian support. Dracula's second regnal period
stretched from 1456 to 1462. It was during this time that Dracula
carried out his most famous military exploits against the Turks and
also committed his most gruesome atrocities.
In 1462 Dracula fled to Transylvania to seek the aid of the King of
Hungary when a Turkish army overwhelmed
Wallachia. Instead of
receiving the assistance he expected Dracula was imprisoned by the
Hungarian king. He remained a prisoner of Matthias Corvinus of
Hungary for several years. For most of the period of Dracula's
incarceration his brother, Radu the Handsome, ruled
Wallachia as a
puppet of the Ottoman sultan. When Radu died (ca. 1474-1475) the
sultan appointed Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan, as
prince.
Eventually, Dracula regained the favor and support of the Hungarian
king. In 1476 he once again invaded
Wallachia. His small force
consisted of a few loyal Wallachians, a contingent of Moldavians
sent by his cousin Prince Stephen the Great of
Moldavia, and a
contingent of Transylvanians under their prince, Stephen Bathory.
The allies succeeded in driving Basarab out of the country and
placing Dracula on the throne (November 1476). However, after
Dracula was once again in control, Stephen Bathory returned to
Transylvania taking most of Dracula's army with him. The Turks soon
counterattacked with overwhelming force. Dracula was killed fighting
the Turks near
Bucharest in December of 1476. His head was sent to
Constantinople where the Sultan had it displayed on a stake to prove
that the terrible Impaler was really dead.
>>
Chapter II: What's in a
name?
All Text Rights Reserved.
"The Historical Dracula" is Copyright © Ray Porter, 1992
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