Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula, was a sadistic ruler of Wallachia in Romania in the 15th century. His fondness for impalement as a means of execution and his cruel tactics against the Turks inspired legends and gruesome stories. While some sources emphasize his adherence to restoring order and justice, others highlight his atrocities. He died in battle with the Turks and his body was buried in a monastery, but his legacy continues to fascinate people to this day.
Attention! The following content contains gruesome stories of torture and murder – this is not for the faint of heart!
Over 500 years ago Vlad the Impaler (1431-1477), also known as Dracula, was the princely ruler of Wallachia, a providence in today’s Romania. Born in Transylvania, he reigned barely seven years, but his horrific methods and sadistic cruelty would make him the stuff of legends that persist to this day.
In 1431 Vlad’s father, a military commander and ruler of Wallachia himself, received an honor from the Holy Roman Emperor, initiating him into the Order of the Dragon. The order was a method used by royalty to secure their own protection, but it also swore the initiate to defend Christianity and fight his Turkish enemies. Vlad’s father proudly adopted the nickname “Dragon” taken from the Latin “draco” or in his native language, Dracul. Years later his son, Vlad the Impaler, would be called Dracula, or “son of Dracul”.
While there is no connection to the vampiric mythos, the bloodiness of his reign was enough to inspire the tales that followed. Romanians refer to Vlad as meaning Tepes, impaled prince due to his fondness for impalement as a means of execution; although there is no record that Vlad referred to himself in this way. There are, however, various letters and documents in Romanian museums written by Vlad in which he calls himself Dracula.
The Turks had just taken Constantinople a few months before Vlad the Impaler took the throne, following his father who had been burned alive by rival nobles. Wallachia threatened to be engulfed by Ottoman rule. Vlad’s response to the Turkish threat was to refuse to pay the Sultan an agreed annual sum and to deny the Turkish army Wallachian men for their forces. In the famous battle that followed, Vlad found his army vastly outnumbered by the Turks. He displayed a cruel brilliance in the guerrilla tactics he deployed during a strategic retreat while drawing the Turkish army deeper into his own territory.
Poisoning wells and burning villages along the way he left nothing useful for the Turkish army. He has even engaged his own form of germ warfare, sending infectiously sick people to Turkish camps. When the Turks finally approached the outskirts of Vlad’s capital in 1462, they expected a sight that would psychologically baffle the entire Turkish army. A field nearly 2 miles (3km) long and half a mile (1km) wide bristling with 20,000 stakes – each of which pierced a man, woman or child – Vlad’s subjects.
The Turkish sultan withdrew. Vlad the Impaler had won the battle even though the war wasn’t over.
At the same time, the newly invented printing press was producing brochures in Germany about the horrible deeds of Vlad the Impaler. At least one of these pamphlets may have been a source for later linking Vlad to the legendary character of a vampire. The pamphlet was titled: The Scary and Truly Extraordinary Story of an Evil Blood-Drinking Tyrant named Prince Dracula. Woodcut depictions of his atrocities often decorated the pages of these pamphlets. One such brochure stated:
He had a large pot made and boards with holes fixed on it and had the heads of the people pushed into it and imprisoned them in this. And he had the pot filled with water and made a great fire under the pot and so let the people weep pitifully until they were boiled to death.
There were also stories of men being roasted and babies impaled at their mother’s breasts. While it’s impossible to know if these reports are true, other stories have multiple sources that provide some corroboration. In one widely accredited story, Vlad the Impaler is said to have been concerned that everyone in his providence was contributing to Wallachia. He invited all those who didn’t – the poor, the hungry, the sick and the crippled – to a large hall for a feast. After the party, he asked if people wanted to be without worries, without needing anything. They agreed wholeheartedly. So he had the hall sealed and set on fire, killing everyone. He later triumphantly declared that there were no poor in his kingdom.
Russian sources also speak of a cruel man, but include a slightly different angle emphasizing Vlad’s adherence to his responsibilities to restore order and justice, implying a moral code behind the cruelty. Turkish sources point out the atrocities while Romanian villages near where Vlad’s fortress once stood bear oral traditions singing his praises to this day. All sources are biased, but among them emerges a figure who sheds chilling light on the man who called himself Dracula.
Vlad the Impaler died in battle with the Turks in the winter of 1476. His head was displayed on a pike in Constantinople, but his body was buried in a monastery in Snagov which he had frequented. The mystery of him continues today as excavations in 1931 failed to find a coffin.
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