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The Historical Dracula
Chapter III: The Life of Vlad III
Dracula, called the Impaler (1431-1476)
 Dracula
was born in 1431 in the Transylvanian city of
Sighisoara. At that
time Dracula's father, Vlad II Dracul, was living in exile in
Transylvania. Vlad Dracul was in Transylvania attempting to gather
support for his planned effort to seize the Wallachian throne from
the Danesti prince, Alexandru I. The house where Dracula was born is
still standing. In 1431 it was located in a prosperous neighborhood
surrounded by the homes of Saxon and Magyar merchants and the
townhouses of the nobility.
Little is known about the early years of Dracula's life. It is known
that he had an elder brother, Mircea, and a younger brother named
Radu. His early education was left in the hands of his mother, a
Transylvanian noblewoman, and her family. His real education began
in 1436 after his father succeeded in claiming the Wallachian throne
and killing his Danesti rival. His training was typical of that
common to the sons of the nobility throughout Europe. His first
tutor in his apprenticeship to knighthood was an elderly boyar who
had fought under the banner of Enguerrand de Courcy at the Battle of
Nicolopolis against the Turks. Dracula learned all the skills of war
and peace that were deemed necessary for a Christian knight.
The political situation in
Wallachia remained unstable after Vlad
Dracul seized the throne in 1436. The power of the Turks was growing
rapidly as one by one the small states of the Balkans surrendered to
the Ottoman onslaught. At the same time the power of Hungary was
reaching its zenith and would peak during the time of
 John Hunyadi,
the White Knight of Hungary, and his son King Matthias Corvinus. Any
prince of
Wallachia had to balance his policies precariously between
these two powerful neighbors. The prince of
Wallachia was officially
a vassal of the King of Hungary. In addition, Vlad Dracul was a
member of the Order of the Dragon and sworn to fight the infidel. At
the same time the power of the Ottomans seemed unstoppable. Even in
the time of Vlad's father, Mircea the Old, Wallachia had been forced
to pay tribute to the Sultan. Vlad was forced to renew that tribute
and from 1436-1442 attempted to walk a middle course between his
powerful neighbors.
In 1442 Vlad attempted to remain neutral when the Turks invaded
Transylvania. The Turks were defeated and the vengeful Hungarians
under John Hunyadi forced Dracul and his family to flee
Wallachia. Hunyadi placed a Danesti , Basarab II, on the Wallachian throne. In
1443 Vlad II regained the Wallachian throne with Turkish support, on
the condition that he sign an new treaty with the sultan that
included not only the customary annual tribute but the promise to
yearly send contingents of Wallachian boys to join the sultan's
Janissaries. In 1444, to further assure the sultan of his good
faith, Vlad sent his two younger sons to Adrianople as hostages.
Dracula remained a hostage in Adrianople until 1448.
In 1444 the King of Hungary, Ladislas Posthumous, broke the peace
and launched the Varna campaign under the command of John Hunyadi in
an effort to drive the Turks out of Europe. Hunyadi demanded that
Vlad II fulfill his oath as a member of the Order of the Dragon and
a vassal of Hungary and join the crusade against the Turk. The Pope
absolved Dracul of his Turkish oath but the wily politician still
attempted to steer a middle course. Rather than join the Christian
forces himself he sent his oldest son, Mircea. Perhaps he hoped the
sultan would spare his younger sons if he himself did not join the
crusade.
The results of the Varna Crusade are well known. The Christian army
was utterly destroyed in the Battle of Varna. John Hunyadi managed
to escape the battle under conditions that add little glory to the
White Knight's reputation. Many, apparently including Mircea and his
father, blamed Hunyadi for the debacle. From this moment forth John Hunyadi was bitterly hostile toward Vlad Dracul and his eldest son.
In 1447 Vlad Dracul was assassinated along with his son Mircea.
Mircea was apparently buried alive by the boyars and merchants of
Tirgoviste. Hunyadi placed his own candidate, a member of the
Danesti clan, on the throne of
Wallachia.
On receiving the news of Vlad Dracul's death the Turks released
Dracula and supported him as their own candidate for the Wallachian
throne. In 1448 Dracula managed to briefly seize the Wallachian
throne with Turkish support. Within two months Hunyadi forced
Dracula to surrender the throne and flee to his cousin, the Prince
of Moldavia, while Hunyadi once again placed Vladislav II on the
Wallachian throne.
Dracula remained in exile in
Moldavia for three years, until Prince Bogdan of
Moldavia was assassinated in 1451. The resulting turmoil
in Moldavia forced Dracula to flee to Transylvania and seek the
protection of his family enemy, Hunyadi. The timing was propitious;
Hunaydi's puppet on the Wallachian throne, Vladislav II, had
instituted a pro-Turkish policy and Hunyadi needed a more reliable
man in
Wallachia. Consequently, Hunyadi accepted the allegiance of
his old enemy's son and put him forward as the Hungarian candidate
for the throne of
Wallachia. Dracula became Hunyadi's vassal and
received his father's old Transylvanian duchies of
Faragas and Almas.
Dracula remained in Transylvania, under Hunyadi's protection, until
1456 waiting for an opportunity to retake
Wallachia from his rival.
In 1453 the Christian world was shocked by the final fall of
Constantinople to the Ottomans. The East Roman Empire which had
existed since the time of Constantine the Great and which for a
thousand years had shielded the rest of Christendom from Islam was
no more. Hunyadi immediately began planning another campaign against
the Turks. In 1456 Hunyadi invaded Turkish Serbia while Dracula
simultaneously invaded Wallachia. In the Battle of Belgrade Hunyadi
was killed and his army defeated. Meanwhile, Dracula succeeded in
killing Vladislav II and taking the Wallachian throne but Hunaydi's
defeat made his long term tenure questionable. For a time at least,
Dracula was forced to attempt to placate the Turks while he
solidified his own position.
 Dracula's main reign stretched from 1456 to 1462. His capital was
the city of
Tirgoviste while his castle was raised some distance
away in the mountains near the Arges River. Most of the atrocities
associated with Dracula's name took place in these years. It was
also during this time that he launched his own campaign against the
Turks. This campaign was relatively successful at first. His skill
as a warrior and his well-known cruelty made him a much feared
enemy. However, he received little support from his titular
overlord, Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (the son of John
Hunyadi) and Wallachia's resources were too limited to achieve any
lasting success against the conqueror of Constantinople.
The Turks finally succeeded in forcing Dracula to flee to
Transylvania in 1462. Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide
by leaping from the towers of Dracula's castle into the waters of
the Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks. Dracula escaped
across the mountains into
Transylvania and appealed to Matthias Corvinus for aid Instead the King had Dracula arrested and
imprisoned in a royal tower near Buda. Dracula remained a prisoner
for twelve years. Apparently his imprisonment was none too onerous.
He was able to gradually win his way back into the graces of
Hungary's monarch; so much so that he was able to meet and marry a
member of the royal family (some of the sources claim Dracula's
second wife was actually the sister of Matthias Corvinus). The
openly pro-Turkish policy of Dracula's brother, Radu the Handsome,
who was prince of
Wallachia during most of Dracula's captivity
probably was a factor in Dracula's rehabilitation. During his
captivity Dracula also renounced the Orthodox faith and adopted
Catholicism. It is interesting to note that the Russian narrative,
normally very favorable to Dracula, indicates that even in captivity
he could not give up his favorite past-time; he often captured birds
and mice which he proceeded to torture and mutilate -- some were
beheaded or tarred-and-feathered and released, most were impaled on
tiny spears.
The exact length of Dracula's period of captivity is open to some
debate. The Russian pamphlets indicate that he was a prisoner from
1462 until 1474. However, during that period Dracula managed to
marry a member of the Hungarian royal family and have two sons who
were about ten years old when he reconquered
Wallachia in 1476.
McNally and Florescu place Dracula's actual period of confinement at
about four years from 1462 until 1466. It is unlikely that a
prisoner would be allowed to marry into the royal family. Diplomatic
correspondence from Buda during the period in question also seems to
support the claim that Dracula's actual period of confinement was
relatively short.
Apparently in years between his release and 1474 when he began
preparations for the reconquest of
Wallachia Dracula resided with
his new wife in a house in the Hungarian capital. One anecdote from
that period tells how a Hungarian captain followed a thief into
Dracula's house. When Dracula discovered the intruders he killed the
Hungarian officer rather than the thief. When questioned about his
actions by the king Dracula answered that a gentlemen does not enter
the presence of a great ruler without an introduction -- had the
captain followed proper protocol he would not have incurred the
wrath of the prince.
In 1476 Dracula was again ready to make another bid for power.
Dracula and Prince Stephen Bathory of
Transylvania invaded
Wallachia
with a mixed force of Transylvanians, a few dissatisfied Wallachian
boyars and a contingent of Moldavians sent by Dracula's cousin,
Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia. Dracula's brother, Radu the
Handsome, had died a couple of years earlier and been replaced on
the Wallachian throne by another Turkish candidate, Basarab the Old,
a member of the Danesti clan. At the approach of Dracula's army
Basarab and his coherents fled, some to the protection of the Turks,
others to the shelter of the mountains. After placing Dracula on the
throne Stephen Bathory and the bulk of Dracula's forces returned to
Transylvania, leaving Dracula's tactical position very weak. Dracula
had little time to gather support before a large Turkish army
entered Wallachia determined to return Basarab to the throne.
Dracula's cruelties over the years had alienated the boyars who felt
they had a better chance of surviving under Prince Basarab.
Apparently, even the peasants, tired of the depredations of the
Impaler, abandoned him to his fate. Dracula was forced to march to
meet the Turks with the small forces at his disposal, somewhat less
than four thousand men.
 Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the small town
of Bucharest in December of 1476. Some reports indicated that he was
assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to
sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have Dracula falling
in defeat, surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard
(the troops loaned by Prince Stephen of
Moldavia remained with
Dracula after Stephen Bathory returned to
Transylvania). Still other
reports claim that Dracula, at the moment of victory, was
accidentally struck down by one of his own men. Dracula's body was
decapitated by the Turks and his head sent to Constantinople where
the sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that the Impaler was
dead. He was reportedly buried at
Snagov, an island monastery
located near
Bucharest.
>>
Chapter IV: Atrocities
All Text Rights Reserved.
"The Historical Dracula" is Copyright © Ray Porter, 1992
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