As a way of proving his loyalty to the Ottoman Empire, Dracul accompanied Sultan Murad II on a raid into neighboring Transylvania, during which the Turks destroyed a number of villages and captured 70,000 prisoners. However, other... Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. A steady stream of vampire junkies and Gothic horror fans flock to Romania every year to see the place where the legend began. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vlad-the-Impaler, The Museum of Unnatural Mystery - Real Dracula: Vlad the Impaler, LiveScience - The Real Dracula: Vlad the Impaler. Perhaps in an attempt to honor his father’s oath, Dracula stopped paying tribute and refused to send any more boys into the Janissaries. Vlad the Impaler used this torturous method to punish and kill anyone who displeased or threatened him, though it wasn’t the only way he dispensed his cruelty. Dracula’s atrocities in Transylvania caused a tremendous backlash in the German community, which began to disseminate vicious propaganda against him. Realizing that he was powerless to stop the impending invasion, Dracul made a hard choice. In the annals of military history magazines, this is one of those moments. When Mehmed besieged the Serbian city of Belgrade with 90,000 men, Hunyadi rallied to the city’s defense. The open rebellion was more than the sultan could bear. Stoker’s Dracula resides in Transylvania while Vlad the Impaler never lived there. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Richard Pallardy received a B.A. In 1442, the Ottomans called for a diplomatic meeting and invited Vlad Dracul. But old loyalties counted for little. Sultan Mehmed II, notorious for his own atrocities, was aghast after seeing the decaying corpses of about 23,000 of his own men lined up on stakes for miles (some say as many as 60) around the capital of Târgoviște when he invaded Wallachia in 1462. Dracula’s small army suffered terrible losses, and thousands of Wallachian citizens were killed or taken prisoner. But Dracul and his two sons were captured and held hostage by the Ottoman diplomats instead. As the oldest surviving son of a member of the Order of the Dragon, Vlad inherited his father’s crusading oath. This invasion, in turn, sparked a revolt among the Wallachian boyars, or noblemen. Upon their arrival, the sultan took all three captive. Times when the very landscape appears to shift. Want to advertise with us? Both Murad and Hunyadi were enraged by his refusal to participate on either side. Whoever was responsible for killing Dracula, they couldn’t kill the legends and myths that surrounded him. Though the real Dracula brought some stability and protection to a vulnerable region, Vlad III was still seemed to relish his own brutality. Vlad was infamous during his lifetime for acts of extreme cruelty, most notably impaling his enemies... Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. Statues of Dracula were erected throughout Romania, and his image even appeared on Romanian postage stamps. He emerged briefly victorious in 1448 but was deposed after only two months. But his final reign was short-lived. Personally, I SO wish this was in fact the case!). Wikimedia CommonsThough Vlad the Impaler is a national hero in Romania to this day, this “real Dracula” perpetrated untold atrocities throughout the mid-1400s. The combination of Hunyadi’s forces, Vladislav’s men and the rebellious boyars was too much for Dracul. No Comments on When did Vlad start drinking blood? The sight of thousands of impaled corpses caused the sultan to immediately order his army to turn around and return home. Omissions? Dracula next embarked on a series of raids along the Danube. Mehmed, enraged at Dracula’s continued defiance, embarked for Wallachia at the head of a massive invasion force. Even the Pope took notice. When Pope Eugenius IV called for a new crusade against the Turks, Hunyadi demanded that Dracul join the crusade, but again he refused. An Account Of The Principalities Of Wallachia And Moldavia: With Various Political Observations Relating To Them, find out the odds of human survival in a vampire apocalypse using this vampire calculator. However, just when it seemed that Dracula’s luck had run out, the political pendulum swung back in his favor. He saw an opportunity to educate his younger sons in the art of diplomacy so he brought Vlad III and Radu with him. When Mircea died, Basarab was sent to the court of the Hungarian Emperor Sigismund. He sent a force of 18,000 men to recapture the ports and teach Dracula a lesson. He is best known as the real Count Dracula, drinking the blood of his dead or … The fictional Dracula was loosely based on a real person with an equally disturbing taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes). In 1476 Vlad was ambushed by an Ottoman patrol and killed. He succeeded, but after just a few months, the deposed Vladislav returned and took back the throne. He attempted to flee, but was captured and killed by Vladislav. The atrocities committed by Vlad the Impaler remain as terrifying today as they were more than 500 years ago. However, his victory was short-lived. This was the genesis of Dracula’s famous nickname Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler. He even accuses Vlad of dipping his bread in their blood—the genesis of the enduring association of Dracula with vampires. In 1442 Vlad and his younger brother were sent to the court of Ottoman Sultan Murad II as collateral to assure the sultan that their father, in a reversal of his previous position, would support Ottoman policies. His remains have never been found. Although a sworn member of the crusading order, Dracul was not blind to the political and military reality of his time. While Hunyadi and the sultan battled for Belgrade, Dracula mounted an invasion of Wallachia.