Who Is Vlad The Impaler

Vlad III the Impaler

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia is seen by his own people as a hero and by his enemies as a merciless villain. Vlad played a significant role during the Ottoman invasion, and the call of the third crusade to fight them off. During the 1456, he built a notorious reputation for himself from which legends and folk stories were born. Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler, was born in Sighisoara during the winter of 1431 to Vlad II Dracul, the future ruler of Wallachia or as they used to call them, voivode. His grandfather was a celebrated voivode, known as Mircea I of Wallachia or Mircea the Elder. His mother was unknown, although his father was married to Cneajna of Moldavia, Princess and aunt to Stephen the
great of Moldavia at the time, but he had many different mistresses. He also had two older half-brothers, Mircea II and Vlad Calugarul, and a younger brother, Radu III the Handsome, and another half-brother also named Vlad, who later followed his mothers, Caltuna, in her footsteps to become Vlad the Monk. During the year of His birth, his father was integrated into the Order of Dragons in Nuremberg.
The Order of Dragons was a fellowship of knights, who swore to protect Christianity against the invading Ottomans and European heresies, such as the Hussites. When he joined, he was given the pseudo name Dracul, or dragon, by the holy Roman emperor Sigismund. Because of Vlad father position, Vlad and Radu spent their early stages of life in Sighisoara, and later in Tragoviste, the capital of Wallachia, when Vlad II Dracul became the voivode. The two boys were well educated by Romanian and Greek scholars, brought in from Constantinople, by the byzantine chancellor Mikhail Doukas. Vlad was taught combat, geography, mathematics, sciences, and many languages: Old Church Slavonic, German, and Latin, and the classical arts and
philosophy. Vlad II lost the throne to rivaling hungry in 1442, but later secured it by gaining support from the Ottomans through paying tribute to the Sultan, and keeping his two sons at the ottoman court as an extra guarantee that he will stay loyal to the Sultan. In 1442, during a dispute between Vlad II Dracul and Sultan Mehmed II, Vlad II Dracul recklessly took his two sons just to be caught and imprisoned by the Ottomans. During his years as captives, Vlad and Radu were educated in logic, the Quran, the Turkish language, works of literature, and also warfare and horsemanship. While Vlad was always punished for his misbehavior, his brother became close friends to the Sultan (Layher 6). Both were released after six years in captivity. Vlad did not enjoy being with the Turks and grew jealous of his brother who later gained the name Radu the Handsome. This, combined with the death of his father, contributed to the creation of his sadistic nature. Furthermore, growing tired of the Ottomans, Vlad escaped to Moldavia under the protection of his uncle. Fearing assassination, he grew closer to his uncle, Prince Bogdan, and his cousin, Prince Stephen, forming a close friendship and swearing to help each other in times of need.
In 1451, Vlad Dracula had to flee in the turmoil following Princes Bodan’s assassination. He escaped to Transylvania, and sought asylum under the fearsome Hungarian military leader, Janos Hunyadi, and the Hungarian king, Ladisaus. He learned much during his stay there. Later in 1456, Vlad was sent to kill the Turkish puppet Vladislav II, who was voivod of Wallachia. After a victory, Vlad became the Prince of Wallachia entering his main and most important reign, which has earned him the title “Vlad the Impaler”.
In 1459, Pope Pius called for another crusade against the Ottomans. Vlad allied himself with the crusaders to keep the Ottomans out of his country, which was claimed as part of ottoman by Sultan Mehmed II. Sultan Mehmed II sent an envoy to ask Vlad to pay a delayed tribute of money and men into the ottoman forces; however, Vlad refused so that he would not publicly accept ottoman rule over Wallachia. He, like most of his ancestors, wanted to keep Wallachia independent. He had the Turkish envoys killed by nailing their turbans to their heads and proceeded to invade and dominate the Danube. When the Sultan learned of this, he sent the Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Bey, to negotiate peace and kill him if he refused. Vlad and his advisors decided to set an ambush as the Turkish forces were marching through a narrow path north of Giurgiu. Vlad caught them off guard and had them surrounded and exterminated; he also impaled the Turkish, men and impaled Hamza Bey on the highest stake to show Hamza’s rank. In winter of 1462, Vlad crossed the Danube and obliterated the entire Bulgarian lands in between Serbia and the black sea. Vlad posed as a Turkish Sipahi and employed the fluent Turkish he had learned when captured by the Ottomans, he entered the ottoman camp and exterminated everyone inside. In a letter to the Sultan he wrote

“I have killed peasant’s men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea... We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers...Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace.”(www.nbcnews.com). To counter Vlads actions, Sultan Mehmed II raised an army to invade Wallachia and put his brother, Radu, in charge.
Vlad was not capable of stopping this massive Turkish advance, but he kept small guerrilla attacks such as “The Night Attacks”, where Vlad Tepes attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to assassinate Mehmed. The Ottomans over ran Wallachia, forcing Vlad to run away, and marched on conquering the entire Balkans, keeping Radu behind in hopes of gaining anti-Vlad support. Around 1475, Vlad allied himself with Stephen V Bathony to reconquer Wallachia from the rule of Prince Basarab the Elder, who took over after his brother’s death. After a swift victory, Vlad retook the throne, yet victory was short lived. Stephen took back his troops to his country, which left Vlad with less than 4000 troops. The Ottomans counter attacked and took back Wallachia, killing Vlad within two
months. Vlad was a hero to Christians in time of need. Although his methods were cruel and unforgiving, he was seen by most as savior. His attacks were celebrated by the Saxon cities of Transylvania, the Italian states, and the Pope. A Venetian envoy, upon hearing about the news at the court of Corvinus on 4 March, expressed great joy and said that whole of Christianity should celebrate Vlad Tepes's successful campaign (www.ebooklibrary.org). The Genoese from Caffa also thanked Vlad for his campaign that had saved them from an attack of some 300 ships that the Sultan planned to send against them (www.ebooklibrary.org). If not for the Muslim threat, Vlad would have maybe been the threat that Europe would seek to exterminate; not to forget that one of the most horrific creatures was based on him: Dracula the Vampire.

Reference:

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=54c9b521-ee80-456e-a797-6287c4ab0bc6%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=44125684&db=a9h http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/stable/40143599?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/docview/387293520?pq-origsite=summon http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/docview/433022013/fulltext/A9B892707F9F4EC1PQ/1?accountid=8555 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/53424998/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/real-dracula-vlad-impaler/

http://www.ebooklibrary.org/articles/vlad_iii_dracula#cite_note-nightattack-6