Reference
Foss, Clive. The Tyrants. London: Quercus Publishing. 2006
The inspiration for Hollywood horror films and innumerable books, the latest being Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, Vlad III could have passed quietly through history as a European noble of little note had he not been a sadist of the most gruesome kind. The atrocities he committed against his own people and neighbours earned him the unflattering title ‘The Impaler’ but more dramatically he would forever come to be associated with the vampire legend of Dracula.
Dracula: A Family Name
Born in 1431, Vlad’s family was in contest for the control of Walachia (now southern Romania). His father Vlad II the appointed governor of Transylvania had joined the Order of the Dragon to fight the Turks. As a member of the Order Vlad II became known as Dracal, the Romanian term for dragon, his son obligingly took the surname Draculea, ‘Son of the Dragon’.
The notoriety of Vlad III was not the result of war despite being in frequent rival with the Danesti, rather his cruelty was made known by the new medium of print and embellished by word of mouth. In Romanian oral history, Vlad became so notorious that his legitimate name Draculea became associated with supernatural horrors and so developed the vampire mythology of Dracula.
The Impaler: An Earned Title
In his efforts to assert authority over the unstable state of Walachia, Vlad was in continual contest with the landed aristocrats against whom he held a personal grudge for the murder of his father, older brother and for supporting the Danesti. Looking back it is therefore no surprise that he committed his first atrocity against them.
In 1459 Vlad invited the aristocrats to an Easter banquet. At its conclusion they were arrested, the older men and their wives were impaled on large pike like stakes around the town. The younger men and their families meanwhile were sentenced to labour, building a castle in the mountains which would later be known as Castle Dracula.
Vlad’s favored means of punishment soon earned him the macabre title of ‘The Impaler’. The condemned were skewered on a stake entering their body at the buttocks and exiting through the mouth. At times people would be impaled through the stomach and women through the breasts. To exacerbate the torture, stakes were smoothed and lubricated so that death would come slowly – at times days later. The dead were left as a gruesome statement, hanging until they rotted away.
Vlad’s retribution against the ruling class was thorough, the few who survived fled allowing Vlad to freely appoint new courtiers and administrators from the common people. Further, his army swelled in number as it absorbed the freed peasantry.
Punishment was not limited to the old ruling class, Vlad detested the burdenous and the sexually deviant. The promiscuous and adulterous were flayed, their bodies and skins displayed on separate poles. Beggars and those too sick to work meanwhile were burnt alive.
Battle for Walachia
With the support of the Hungarian King, Vlad invaded Turkish held lands across the Danube enraging the Sultan. Swift in retribution, Turkish armies took Walachia’s capital forcing Vlad to take refuge with the Hungarian King. In 1476 in alliance with Transylvania and Moldavia Vlad re-took Walachia, but the success was short lived. Later that same year Vlad was killed in battle with the Turks. His body was taken to the Sultan who ceremoniously had it displayed on a stake.
Reference: Foss, Clive. The Tyrants. London: Quercus Publishing. 2006
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