Who was Vlad the Impaler?

Who was Vlad the Impaler?
Over 500 years ago Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476) also known as Dracula, was the princely ruler of Wallachia, a providence in modern day Romania. Born in Transylvania his horrific methods and sadistic cruelty would make him the stuff of legends that persist even today. Vlad III  began his main reign of Wallachia, which stretched from 1456-1462. It was during this period that he instituted his strict policies, stood up against the Turks and began his reign of terror by impalement.

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 one method the royals used to ensure their own protection, but it also swore the initiate to defend Christianity and fight its 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 call himself Dracula, or "son of Dracul."

Though no connection to vampiric myth exists, the bloodiness of his reign was enough to inspire the tales that followed him. The Romanians refer to Vlad as Tepes meaning, impaling prince due to his fondness for impaling as a means of execution; though 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 refers to himself as Dracula.

More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his inhuman cruelty. Impalement was Vlad III’s preferred method of torture and execution. Impalement was and is one of the most gruesome ways of dying imaginable, as it was typically slow and painful.

Vlad usually had a horse attached to each of the victim’s legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually 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 into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mother’s chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

Vlad Tepes often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles in 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. It was once reported that an invading Turkish army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the Danube. In 1461 Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man not noted for his squeamishness, returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of twenty thousand impaled Turkish prisoners outside of the city of Tirgoviste. This gruesome sight is remembered in history as "the Forest of the Impaled."

Thousands were often impaled at a single time. Ten thousand were impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in 1460. In 1459, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Vlad III had thirty thousand of the merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of Brasov impaled.

Vlad Tepes’ atrocities against the people of Wallachia were usually attempts to enforce his own moral code upon his country. He appears to have been particularly concerned with female chastity. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all targets of Vlad’s cruelty. Such women often had their sexual organs cut out or their breasts cut off, and were often impaled through the vagina on red-hot stakes. One report tells of the execution of an unfaithful wife. Vlad had the woman’s breasts cut off, then she was skinned and impaled in a square in Tirgoviste with her skin lying on a nearby table. Vlad also insisted that his people be honest and hard working. Merchants who cheated their customers were likely to find themselves mounted on a stake beside common thieves.

The Turks finally succeeded in forcing Vlad to flee to Transylvania in 1462. Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide 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 and appealed to Matthias Corvinus for aid. The king immediately had Vlad arrested and imprisoned in a royal tower. As the eldest son was about 10 years old at the point Vlad regained the Wallachian throne in 1476, his release probably occurred around 1466.
Vlad was married 3 times and had 5 children (4 boys and 1 girl).

Vlad Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the town of Bucharest in December of 1476. Some reports indicate that he was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have him falling in defeat, surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard. Still other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was accidentally 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.

Did Bram Stoker base his Dracula upon the historical Dracula?

There is fairly strong evidence the two Draculas are connected.
Some of the text of Stoker’s novel provides direct correlations between the fictional Dracula and Vlad Tepes (e.g., the fighting off of the Turks--also, the physical description of Dracula in the novel is very similar to the traditional image of Vlad Tepes.).

Other references in the novel may also be related to the historical Dracula. For example, the driving of a stake through the vampire’s heart may be related to Vlad’s use of impalement; Renfield’s fixation with insects and small animals may have found inspiration in Vlad’s penchant for torturing small animals during his period of imprisonment; and Dracula’s loathing of holy objects may relate to Vlad’s renunciation of the Orthodox Church.

Even so, since I'm half Romanian and my grandma lived a big portion of her life in Brasov, I can say for sure that Dracula novel is just that, a novel.. even if Bram Stoker got inspired by Vlad or not.
Vlad Dracula is still remembered as an exceptionally cruel and often capricious ruler.

References:
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_%C8%9Aepe%C8%99
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler
http://www.vladtheimpaler.info/

Documentary:
Vlad the Impaler ; The Real Dracula [FULL VIDEO]

Cristian Georgescu feel free to add more to this, and danke in advance!