It is widely believed that Bram Stoker based the character of Dracula in his popular novel upon the real life historical figure of Vlad Tepes (pronounced tse-pesh), who periodically ruled the land of Wallachia in Romania during the mid 15th century. He was also called Vlad III, Vlad Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. Among his many names Tepes was used primarily after his death, the word Tepes meaning “impaler”. Vlad was so christened because of a propensity to punish victims of his wrath by impaling them on stakes, then displaying them prominently in public to terrify his enemies and to warn any who might disobey his strict moral code that to do so would be foolhardy. He is credited with killing between 40,000 to 100,000 people in this gruesome fashion.

It was no fluke of whim of fancy that caused Bram Stoker to pick the Balkans for the home of Count Dracula.

Over the centuries there have been hordes of vampires or similar creatures in the mythologies and folklore of various cultures. But the image of the vampire which most of us in Europe and America carry with us today had its origins in the Slavic and Greek lands of Eastern Europe. In fact, the legend of the vampire is still an important part of the Balkan region today.

Origin of the Name “Dracula”

King Sigismund of Hungary, upon becoming the Holy Roman Emperor in 1410, founded a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon to be champions of Christianity and defenders of the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Its emblem was a dragon, wings extended, hanging on a cross. Vlad III’s father (Vlad II) was admitted to the order in 1431. From then on he wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol.

The word for dragon in Romanian is “drac” so Vlad II became known throughout Wallachia and its surrounding areas in the Balkans as “Vlad Dracul,” or “Vlad the dragon.” In Romanian the ending “ulea” means “the son of.” Vlad III thus became Vlad Dracula, or “the son of the dragon.” (The word “drac” also means “devil” in Romanian, a name which, along with many other “endearments” the enemies of Vlad III would undoubtedly have heartily bestowed upon him.

Historical Background

During Vlad III’s lifetime there was a constant struggle to obtain control of Wallachia. A region of the Balkans (in present-day southern Romania), back then it lay directly between the two powerful forces of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

When Constantinople fell to the Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror in 1453, all of Christendom was suddenly threatened by the armed might of the Ottoman Turks eager to bring Islam to Europe even if the only sure way to do that was through violence. The Hungarian kingdom to the north and west of Wallachia, which reached the height of its prominence during this same time, assumed the role of defender of Christendom.

This left the rulers of Wallachia between a rock and a hard place, as they were thus forced to appease these two empires to maintain their survival, often forging alliances with one or the other, depending upon what served their self-interest at the time. Vlad III is hailed by the Romanian people for his success in standing up to the encroaching Ottoman Turks and establishing relative independence and sovereignty, although only for a brief time.

The Life of Vlad III (1431-1476)

Vlad III was born in November or December of 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara. The house where he was born is still standing. Little is known about his early years. He had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger brother, Radu the Handsome. His mother was a Transylvanian noblewoman. In 1436 his father successfully claimed the throne of Wallachia. During this time Vlad III learned all the skills of war and peace that were deemed necessary for a Christian knight.

In 1444, at the age of 13, Vlad and his brother Radu were sent to Adrianople as hostages to assure the Sultan of their father’s loyalty. He was released in 1448, but his younger brother chose to remain in Turkey, where he had grown up.

Although the Turks supported Vlad III in his quest for the Wallachian throne, his initial reign was extremely short (two months), and it was not until 1456, with the aide of the Hungarian king that he returned to the throne. He established Tirgoviste as his capital city, and began to build his castle some distance away in the mountains near the Arges River. It is during this time that most of the atrocities associated with Vlad III took place.

Atrocities of Vlad Tepes

Above and beyond any of his other accomplishments, the historical Dracula is known for his inhuman cruelty and bloodthirstiness. Impalement was his preferred method of torture and execution. Impalement was one of the most hideous ways of dying imaginable, as it was slow and excruciatingly painful.

A horse was attached to each of the victim’s legs, which were slowly pulled apart, and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted through the buttocks and through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances were victims were impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Victims were even sometimes impaled upside down.

Vlad Tepes often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles on the outskirts of a city that was his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The decaying corpses were often left up for months. Once, in 1461, Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, and no stranger to the ravages which war inflicted on the human body, returned to Constantinople in shock and horror after the sight of 20,000 impaled Turkish prisoners greeted him and his men outside the city of Tirgoviste. The sight is called “the Forest of the Impaled.”

Thousands were often impaled at a single time. In 1459, on St. Barthlomew’s Day, Vlad III had 30,000 of the merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of Brasov impaled. One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows Vlad Dracula feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brasov while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims. It was also rumored that Vlad liked to drink the blood of his victims from a bowl while dining with them.

Although impalement was Vlad Dracula’s favorite method of torture, it was by no means his only method. The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince who sometimes seemed to be more animal than man includes: nails in heads, cutting off limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off noses and ears, scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals, and burning alive.

No one was immune to his punishment and there was no question that he derived a twisted pleasure from his actions. His victims included women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. However, the vast majority of his victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own Wallachia.

Vlad Dracula began his reign of terror almost as soon as he came to power. His first significant act of cruelty may have been motivated by a desire for revenge, although this hardly mitigates the horror of his actions. Early in his main reign he gave an Easter feast for his boyars and their families — boyars were the ruling upperclass. Vlad was well aware that many of these same nobles were part of the conspiracy that led to his father’s assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother, Mircea. During the feast Vlad had all the assembled nobles arrested. The older boyars and their families were impaled on the spot. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of his castle in the mountains above the Arges River. The enslaved boyars and their families were forced to labor for months rebuilding the old castle with materials from a nearby ruin. According to the reports, they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few survived this ordeal, and those who did live till the completion of the castle were then rewarded for their efforts by being impaled.

Despite this incident, Vlad Tepes’ atrocities against the people of Wallachia were usually attempts to force his own moral code upon his country. He appears to have been particularly concerned with female chastity. Vlad also insisted that his people be honest and hard working.

The End of Vlad

Although Vlad III experienced some success in fending off the Turks, it was relatively short-lived. The Turks finally succeeded in forcing him to flee to Transylvania in 1462. Reportedly his first wife committed suicided by leaping from the towers of Vlad’s castle into the waters of the Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks. Vlad escaped through a secret passage and fled across the mountains into Transylvania. Later, the King of Hungary, Matthias Covinus had him arrested him and imprisoned in a royal tower.

He was said to have been a prisoner from 1462 until 1474, however, during this period he was gradually able to rehabillitate himself in the king’s eyes. He even married the king’s sister and fathered 2 sons.

Reports have it that even in captivity Vlad could not give up his favorite past-time; he often captured birds and mice and proceeded to torture and mutilate them. Some were beheaded or tarred-and-feathered and released. Most were impaled on tiny spears.

In 1476 Vlad retook the throne of Wallachia, but shortly after this he was killed in battle against the Turks near the town of Bucharest on December of 1476. There are conflicting reports about how his death came about. Some indicate that he was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyers just as he was about to rout the Turks. Other accounts have him falling in defeat surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguards. Still other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was accidently struck down by one of his own men. The one undisputed fact is that ultimately his 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 horrible Impaler was finally dead. He was reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest and accessible only by boat.