Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476 - national hero or brutal war lord?

The 1400s was the peak of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars, when Wal­lachia in Southern Romania was one of Hungary's strongest rivals. Sit­uated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Transylvania and Wallachia (see map) were often the scene of bloody battles. The Ottoman forces pushed west­ward into Europe, and Christian Crusaders marched eastward toward the Holy Land.

Vlad the Impaler Tepes (1431-1476) was born in Trans­yl­vania in 1431, son of the famous war lord Vlad II and the Princess of Moldavia. He had two older half-brothers and a young­er full broth­er. In his birth year Vlad's father trav­elled to Nuremberg where he was honour­ed with the Order of the Drag­on, and was grant­ed the sur­name Dracul after his induction into the Christian Military Order of the Dragon. In 1436, Vlad II Dracul ascended the Wallach­ian throne.

When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons along. But the meet­ing was a trap: all three were arrested and held hostage. Vlad II was released, but he had to give his sons to the Ottoman court.

Vlad II was ousted in 1442 by rival factions in league with Hungary, but secured Ottoman support for his return, agreeing to pay the tax on non-Muslims to the Sultan!! At 11, Vlad III was imprisoned and whipped because of his verb­al ab­use tow­ards his captors. These years pres­um­ably had a great influence on the young man's char­ac­t­er and led to Vlad's hatred for the Ottoman Turks, Janissary military corps, brother Radu for con­vert­ing to Islam and the young Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. He also distrusted his own father for trad­ing him to the dreaded Ottoman Empire.

Vlad III, cruel and ugly, c1450 

Castle Ambras in the Tyrol

Vlad III was later released and taken to be educ­ated by the Ottomans, in logic, Quran, lit­er­ature, warfare, horse rid­ing, science, philosophy, arts, Turkish and Persian lang­uages. 

Note again that the boys' father, Vlad II Dracul, got the support of the Otto­m­ans, returned to Wallachia and took back his throne from Basarab II and some unfaithful Boyars. But dad was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by the boyars and was kil­l­ed in the Wallachian swamps in 1447. Vlad's older brothers were tortured, blinded and buried alive.

Vladislav II took Wallachia over. But once Vlad III was freed by the Ot­t­omans, he killed Vladislav with his own hands.

In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, threatening all of Europe with an invasion. In his battles to protect the home­ land, Vlad III became famous as a brute who took sadis­tic pleasure in torturing and killing. His weap­ons of choice were: the kilij, a curved Turkic sword, good for chopping bodies and the halberd an axe blade, topped with a spike on a long shaft and a hacking hook.

Map of Wallachia and Transylvania

totally surrounded by the Ottoman Empire

Impaling was the most grotesque form of torture and death. A pole was inserted through the body vertically, through the rec­tum and out via the victim's neck. The pole was then rais­ed vert­ical­ly to display the dying vict­im's pain.

In 1462 invading Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II fled, af­ter seeing the carn­age: 20,000 decay­ing impaled corp­s­es being eaten by crows in Vlad's capital: Târgoviște.

Pro-Vlad propaganda started appearing, including Vlad’s port­raits, his weapons, captured enemies and religious im­ages. One splendid religious image app­eared on the altar piece of the Church of St Maria Vienna, painted in 1460.

Anti-Vlad German woodcut pamphlets from the late C15th became popular eg Ambrosius Huber’s sadistic paintings created in 1499. The pamphlets depicted Vlad as violent and barbaric. Note that these images were printed and reprinted, even after Vlad's death.

Vlad III was a cunning tactician, even when vastly outnumb­er­ed. He was widely credited with bringing security to Wallachia and strengthening its economy; he built new villages for the peasants and encouraged the production of new agriculture. Trade became an important source of development and revenue.

Most importantly his Orthodox Christian victories over the invading Ottomans were cel­ebrated through­out Wall­achia, Trans­yl­vania and the rest of Europe, especial­ly by Pope Pius II (ruled 1458-64). In a very real sense, Vlad was the Christian gatekeeper of Eur­ope. But at what cost? The total number of Vlad III’s vic­t­ims was c80,000. PLUS he al­so had whole villages and fort­res­ses burned to the ground.

Vlad the Impaler as Pontius Pilate judging Jesus Christ, 1463

National Gallery, Ljubljana. 

  

Vlad eating while presiding over the impalement of Ottoman prisonersTitle page in a German woodcut pamphlet, 1499
Created by Ambrosius Huber

The reputation of Vlad's cruelty was even more act­ively prom­­ot­ed by Matthias Corvinus (1430-90), King of Hungary & Croatia from 1458 on. Corvinus smeared Vlad’s political credib­il­ity on purpose, to build up his own standing.

Romania’s capital city was first mentioned as Buc­ur­esti in 1459, when it was recorded in a document of Vlad III. In that same year, during Vlad III’s rule, the Old Princely Court was built as a palat­ial residence. Archaeological excav­at­ions have been very successful recently, and now the site is oper­ated by the Mun­icipality in Bucharest’s historic centre.

Each ruler ext­ended the prin­c­e­­ly resid­ence, built large cell­ars and surrounded it with stone walls. Today Drac­ula's Castle, near the town of Bran, is a major tourist attract­ion, even though its connection with Vlad is uncertain. 

Dracula Palace in Bran

Old Princely Court in Bucharest
excavations

In 1476 Vlad III and a small vanguard of soldiers were march­ing to yet another bat­tle with the Ottomans when they were am­bushed and defeated. Was Vlad was killed, with his head taken to Constantinople as a trophy; his body was buried in a Roman­ian monastery? Or was he ransomed by his daughter, brought to Italy and was later buried in Santa Maria La Nova Church, Naples?