About the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, the most brilliant and powerful woman ancient world. Loving and voluptuous, she drove men crazy. In one night with the ruler, they were ready to go to their deaths. This time we will move to the Middle Ages. We will talk about one of the most bloodthirsty rulers - Vlad the Impaler Dracula. In the popular consciousness, this monarch has become a monster who has no equal. The identity of this man, considered a sadist and maniac, is still controversial. By the way, there are those who are sure that he was an ordinary figure of his era, in which demonstrative cruelty was quite common.

Royal Ghoul

“Transylvanian blood flows in my veins, according to the family tree I descend from Vlad III the Impaler,” said the British Prince Charles in London in 2012 at the opening of one of the tourist exhibitions.

The Romanian National Travel Agency issued a brochure stating that royal family of the United Kingdom is related to the prototype of Count Dracula, the ruler of Wallachia, who lived in the 15th century. British media wrote that the representative of the royal dynasty was specially named the heir of Dracula in order to lure as many British tourists as possible to Romania. However, the exhibition presented a dynastic tree of the Windsor dynasty, according to which there is still a connection with the Transylvanian princes who ruled in the 15th century.

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Two royal families became related in the 19th century: the British king George V married a woman who was a direct descendant of Tepes' brother, Vlad IV. Thus it turned out that he was a descendant of Dracula in the sixteenth generation.

“Romania is a country of mountains and legends, where the howling of wolves prevents you from falling asleep in the frosty night air,” the queen’s son said then, adding that he was not afraid of his “bloodthirsty relative,” and in 2006 he even bought a small house in one of the Romanian villages

Dracula's Castle

Where exactly his famous Transylvanian ancestor lived is unclear. Now every castle in the country tells stories about Vlad the Impaler, most of which, of course, are fictional, and the residences themselves appeared several centuries after the death of the ruler. It is known for certain that the head of state was content with little. The castle where he actually lived was surrounded by battlements and blown by all the winds; dozens of log rooms were connected by narrow staircases, and some even by underground passages. Beautiful furniture, a collection of weapons, gold and silver - all this surrounded the ruler, but was of little value to him.

According to historians, its main task he saw the creation of a unified state. It is not surprising that for Romanians Tepes is a national hero, a saint revered by the local church, a valiant warrior who fought against Ottoman expansion, and a ruler who sought to unite a fragmented state.

At that time, there was a grueling struggle with the large feudal lords - the boyars. They were so accustomed to unlimited power in their ancestral districts that they resisted any attempts central government gain control over the entire country. At the same time, they did not hesitate to turn to the Hungarians or the Ottomans for help. Tepes was eventually able to create single state, putting an end to separatism.

However, such services to the country do not negate the fact that Dracula, according to historical documents, was in fact cruel and vengeful.

Dracula will come and restore order

“Eat your porridge, or Dracula will come and take you away,” many generations of Romanian children heard this folk saying in childhood. All over the world, the chilling legend about the bloodsucking ruler evokes two feelings: genuine interest and horror. However, he is, of course, far from the image of Count Dracula created by the Irish writer. However, stories about the life of the Romanian ruler still excite the imagination.

Thus, an unknown German author, at the instigation of one of the Hungarian kings, at the end of the 15th century, after the death of Tepes, wrote that he allegedly often dined under impaled corpses. According to legend, one day the ruler’s servant could not bear the stench emanating from decomposing bodies, then the despot ordered him to be impaled on the highest stake with the words: “Now this smell of rot will not reach you.”

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There were rumors that the ferocious and ruthless tyrant burned vagabonds with whom he could sit down to feast, forced parents to eat their own children, and also hammered nails into the heads of those who did not take off their hats to him. The ruler did not stand on ceremony with unfaithful wives and widows who violated the rules of chastity. They said that, on orders from Tepes, their genitals were cut out, and then the skin of the women was torn off.

There are many stories described, and each one is chilling in its own way. Thus, a case is described when the ruler met with two wandering monks. Tepes wanted to know what sentiments reigned among the people regarding his rule. One of them said that he was considered a villain, the second assured that people praise him as a wise ruler, a liberator from the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire. In general, both monks were right. The legend, however, has two endings. According to one version, Dracula executed the first because he did not like his answer, according to the second, he was the one who was left alive, and the second was executed for lying.

In another story, a merchant traveling through Wallachia was robbed. He complained to Tepes. While the thief was caught and impaled, on the orders of the head of state, a wallet was thrown to the merchant, which contained one coin more than the lost one. Seeing the surplus, the merchant immediately informed the monarch about it. He laughed and said: “Well done for what you said, otherwise you’ll be sitting on a stake next to the thief.”

The local population was very afraid of their ruler. The name Tepes alone filled them with fear. If previous stories about the life of Tepes are not confirmed by any facts, then this event is considered reliable. To instill honesty in the townspeople, a large gold bowl was installed in the center of the square located in the capital of Wallachia, near one of the local landmarks. She was not guarded by anyone. Anyone could approach it and drink water from it, but no one dared to steal it. Everyone understood how this crime could turn out.

Romanian Ivan the Terrible

Vlad the Impaler Dracula was born, according to some sources, in 1430. The real surname of his family was Basarab - from here, by the way, one of the regions of medieval Romania - Bessarabia - comes from. Nicknames “Dracul” - “son of the Dragon” and Tepes - “impaler” (a sharpened stake during his reign was the main instrument of execution - approx. "Tapes.ru") he received after he ascended the throne.

The story of his family is partly reminiscent of what happened to Ivan the Terrible: the boyars killed his relatives. Having come to power, he immediately dealt with all those responsible for the conspiracy. According to historical documents, “the number of those impaled at that time was about ten people.”

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The real Vlad the Impaler, unlike the hero of Stoker's novel, was not actually a count; the author added this title to create Gothic beauty, endowing the main character, a cruel and bloodthirsty aristocrat, with noble and romantic traits.

Throughout his reign, the real Dracula actively fought against Ottoman Empire, and quite successfully. They said that he struck terror into the Turks. Stories of his bloodthirstiness and ruthlessness only fueled their fears.

As for romantic feelings, Vlad Tepes was not deprived of them either: the ruler had two wives: one a noblewoman from Transylvania named Ilona Zhilagi, the second of a simpler origin named Elizabeth, it is believed that Dracula loved her with all his heart. Romanians passed on their romantic story from mouth to mouth. So, having learned about the death of her husband, Elizabeth took her own life.

Vlad III had three sons, but none of them could subsequently take the throne - the line of the ruler was interrupted. Tepes's brother began to reign.

It is believed that Dracula himself died during one of the battles, where he was betrayed by the Hungarians, who sided with the Ottomans, and embittered boyars. During the battle, not remembering themselves with anger, they cut Tepes's body into pieces and sent his head to the Ottoman Sultan. The remains of the ruler were buried by the monks. The local church was grateful to the ruler for being able to maintain the Christian faith, despite pressure from the Muslim Turks. Several centuries later, archaeologists, however, opened this grave, but found nothing there. In a nearby burial they found a skeleton without a skull. It is believed that this is what remains of Tepes.

This story inspired the Irish writer to create the Gothic novel Dracula, which later became a cult work. A completely different legend appears there: Count Dracula, supposedly cursed by one of his countless victims, turned into a vampire after his death.

After reading Stoker’s novel, a pilgrimage of tourists began to the grave of the famous “bloodsucker.” To ease the unhealthy attention to the tyrant, the Romanian authorities decided to move his grave. Currently, she is on the island, where she is guarded by the monks of one of the local monasteries.

Few names have struck more fear into the human heart than Count Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror films, television shows, and bloody vampire stories.

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Although Dracula is a purely fictional creation, Stoker cast him as an infamous character of a real man who had a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, or as he is better known, Vlad the Impaler. The painful nickname is evidence of the Wallachian prince's favorite method of escaping his enemies.

According to historians who have studied the connection between Stoker's vampire and Vlad III, there is nothing in common with Dracula.

Count Dracula: the real story

Vlad the Impaler (Vlad III) was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of modern Romania. The connection between Vlad the Impaler and Transylvania is enduring, according to Florin Kerta, a professor of medieval history and archeology at the University of Florida.

[Stoker's] Dracula is associated with Transylvania, but the real historical Dracula, Vlad III, did not own anything in Transylvania. Bran Castle, a modern tourist attraction in Transylvania that is often referred to as Dracula's castle, was never the residence of a Wallachian prince.

Since the castle is in the mountains in this foggy area and it looks scary, it's what you would expect from Dracula's castle, but Vlad III didn't live there, he didn't even set foot there.

Vlad III's father, Vlad II, lived in Sighisoara, Transylvania, and Vlad the Impaler was born in Targovishte, which at the time was the royal seat of the Principality of Wallachia, where his father was the "voivode" or ruler.

Tourists can visit the castle where Vlad III spent time. At around age 12, Vlad III and his brother were imprisoned in Turkey. In 2014, archaeologists discovered the probable location of the dungeon. Tokat Castle is located in northern Turkey. This is a creepy place with secret tunnels and dungeons that are currently under restoration and open to the public.

This painting, "Vlad the Impaler and the Turkish Envoys" by Theodor Haman (1831-1891), supposedly depicts a scene in which Vlad III

Order of the Dragon

In 1431, King Sigismund of Hungary, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, brought the elder Vlad into knightly order, Order of the Dragon. This designation brought Vlad new surname: Dracul. The name comes from the old Romanian word for dragon, "draco". His son, Vlad III, would later be known as "son of Dracula" or, in old Romanian, Draculea, hence Dracula. In modern Romanian, the word "drac" refers to another scary creature - the devil.

In 1890, Stoker read a book about Wallachia. Although he did not mention Vlad III, Stoker was struck by the word "Dracula". He wrote in his notes: “In Wallachian it means Devil.” Therefore, it is likely that Stoker decided to name his hero Dracula for the diabolical associations of the word.

The theory that Vlad III and Dracula were the same person was developed and popularized by historians Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally in their 1972 book In Search of Dracula. Although it has not been accepted by historians, the thesis has captured the public imagination.

The Order of the Dragon was dedicated to a single task: the defeat of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, the Wallachian principality of Vlad II (later Vlad III) was often the site of bloody battles, as Ottoman forces advanced west into Europe and Christian forces repelled the invaders.

Watch the video: True story Count Dracula

Years of captivity

When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu. But the meeting was actually a trap: all three were taken hostage. The elder Vlad was released on the condition that he would leave his sons.

“The Sultan kept Vlad and his brother as hostages so that their father, Vlad II, would bring his forces into the war between Turkey and Hungary.

Vlad and his younger brother studied science, philosophy and art from the Ottomans. Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior, according to Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, former history professors at Boston College who wrote several books about Vlad III - as well as his alleged connection to Stoker's Dracula - in the 1970s and 1980s.

They were treated fairly well by today's standards at the time. However, the capture irritated Vlad, while his brother seemed to agree and went over to the Turkish side. But Vlad held enmity, and this was one of his motivating factors for fighting the Turks for keeping him captive.

Father of Vlad the Impaler

While Count Vlad Tepes and Radu Tepes were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father fought to retain his place as voivode of Wallachia. In 1447, Vlad II was supplanted as ruler of Wallachia by local nobles (boyars) and was killed in the marshes near Belteni, halfway between Targovishte and Bucharest in modern Romania. Vlad's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed along with his father.

Soon after these painful events, in 1448, Count Vlad undertook a campaign to regain his father's place from the new ruler Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman rulers of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria. Vlad also took advantage of Vladislav's absence at the time by going to the Balkans to fight the Ottomans for the governor of Hungary, John Hunyadi.

Vlad took his father's place, but his time as ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was overthrown just two months later when Vladislaus II returned and took the throne of Wallachia with the help of Hunyadi.

Little is known about the whereabouts of Vlad III between 1448 and 1456. But it is known that he switched sides in the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, abandoning his ties with the Ottoman rulers and receiving military support from King Vadislaus V of Hungary, who did not like Vlad's rival, Vladislaus II of Wallachia.

Vlad III's political and military policies came to the fore in 1453. Vlad, who had already strengthened his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed voivode of Wallachia in 1456. One of his first acts in his new role was to end the annual tribute to the Ottoman Sultan, a measure that had previously ensured peace between Wallachia and the Ottomans.

Strengthening Vlad's power

In order to consolidate his power as a ruler, Vlad the Impaler had to suppress the ongoing conflicts that historically occurred between the boyars of Wallachia. According to the legends that spread after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and, knowing that they would challenge his authority, forced the guests to stab them to death.

This is just one of the many horrific events that earned Vlad the Impaler his posthumous nickname, Dracula. This story—and others like it—has been recorded in printed materials since the reign of Vlad III.

In the 1460s and 1470s, just after the invention of the printing press, many of these stories about Vlad circulated orally and were later collected different people in pamphlets and printed.

These stories are not entirely true or significantly embellished. After all, many of those who printed the pamphlets were hostile to Vlad III. But some of the pamphlets of the time tell the most terrible news about Vlad, leading one to believe that the tales were historically accurate. Some of these legends were collected and published in the book The Tale of Dracula in 1490 by a monk who presented Vlad III as a cruel but fair ruler.

Vlad the Impaler's victory over the Ottoman occupiers was celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe - even Pope Pius II was impressed by the event.

The reason he is a positive character in Romania is because he was a fair, albeit very harsh, ruler.

Death of Vlad

Shortly after the release of Ottoman prisoners of war in August 1462, Vlad was forced to flee to Hungary, having failed to defeat his much more powerful opponent Mehmet II. Vlad was imprisoned.

Vlad's younger brother, Radu, who had sided with the Ottomans during the ongoing military campaigns, took over control of Wallachia after his brother's imprisonment. But after Radu's death in 1475, local boyars, as well as the rulers of several nearby principalities, spoke out in favor of Vlad's return to power.

In 1476, with the support of the voivode of Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (1457-1504), Vlad made a final effort to regain his place as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, after going through another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambushed and Vlad was killed.

There is much controversy regarding the location of Vlad III's tomb. It is said that he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, according to the traditions of his time. IN lately historians have established that Vlad was buried in the Comana monastery, between Bucharest and the Danube, which is close to the supposed location of the battle in which Vlad was killed.

One thing is for sure: unlike Stoker's Count Dracula, Vlad III is definitely dead. Only harrowing tales of his years as ruler of Wallachia continue to haunt the modern world.

There are quite a few theories and legends about the origins of vampires. One of them says that they are descendants of Cain, who became the first biblical murderer of his own brother. But all this is speculation about the main version. Until now, not everyone knows that the origin of the vampire is directly related to the name of Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian governor of the 15th century, later the ruler of Transylvania. He is the very famous Count Dracula!

The Count is a real national hero of Romania and a crime fighter. Its history goes back to medieval Transylvania...

The story of Count Dracula

Bloodthirsty ruler

Vlad the Impaler was the ruler of Transylvania (a region located in northwestern Romania) from 1448 to 1476. His favorite pastime was sadistic torture of enemies and civilians, including one of the most terrible ones - piercing the anus. Because Vlad the Impaler loved to impale living people, he was nicknamed Vlad the Impaler. However, his most cruel atrocity lay elsewhere: once the Romanian governor invited a large number of beggars to his castle (in which, in fact, he carried out all the torture - see photo below) to a dinner party. When the poor fellows were eating peacefully, Count Dracula locked them in a room and set them on fire. In addition, the chronicle describes a case when this sadist ordered his servants to nail their hats to the heads of Turkish ambassadors only because they refused to take them off in front of the ruler.

Such atrocities left their mark on the personality of this ruler. Count Dracula became the prototype for the hero of the novel of the same name, written Why was Tepes unusually cruel? Why did he keep all of Transylvania in fear, confusing and confusing all European monarchs? More on this later.

The insidious and cruel Count Dracula

Transylvania is his birthplace. "Dracul" (Dragon) - nickname. At the age of 13, the son of the Wallachian governor Vladislav II was captured by the Turks and was held hostage for almost 4 years. It was this fact that influenced the psyche of the future ruler. They spoke of him as unbalanced person with many strange habits and strange ideas. For example, Count Dracula was very fond of eating at the site of the execution of people or a recent fatal battle. Isn't it strange?

Tepes received the nickname "Dragon" due to the fact that his father had membership in the elite Dragon, which was created by Emperor Sigismund in 1408. As for the title - Vlad III, he should be called a ruler, not a count, but such a naming is arbitrary. But why is this particular ruler considered the progenitor of vampires?

It's all about Tepes's extraordinary passion for bloodshed, for inhuman torture and murder. Then it becomes unclear why the Russian Tsar - Ivan Vasilyevich - was nicknamed "The Terrible"? He should also be dubbed a vampire, because it was he who drowned Ancient Rus' in the blood in the literal sense of the word. But that's another story...

Incredible facts

Dracula is one of the most powerful and colorful characters in the history of world literature. Without a doubt, this is a controversial character.

Dracula is an example of a classic vampire: on the one hand, he is elegant and thoughtful, on the other hand, he is bloodthirsty and constantly in anticipation of a new victim. Human blood for him is a source of food, and a goal to which he strives with his whole being.

However, even despite the huge number of seduced women who were killed by the movie Dracula, his crimes cannot be compared with the atrocities that the real Count Dracula committed in his time. Vlad III, or Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia (now Romania) became famous thanks to the following qualities and actions:

Vampire Dracula

1. Dracula soaked bread in a bowl of blood before eating it.

The real Count Dracula may not have directly sucked blood from the necks of his victims, however, he still consumed it as food: the blood of the people he killed flowed into a bowl into which he dipped pieces of bread and other food.

Fifteenth-century manuscripts mention one terrifying incident in the life of a bloodthirsty count. Vlad Tepes invited several guests to his castle and impaled them all right at the dinner table.

Then he slowly finished his meal and dipped the pieces of bread into the blood that flowed from the bodies of the murdered guests. This is the kind of “dessert” that Dracula enjoyed quite often.

2. He avenged his father by killing hundreds of innocent people

He didn't just kill people, he tortured them, slowly piercing their stomachs with a blunt instrument of torture. It is known that Vlad Tepes spent most of his life in a Turkish prison, and when he was released, he learned that as a result of betrayal by his own people, his father was buried alive by Hungarian soldiers.

Vlad learned that many of the nobles who served his father participated in the conspiracy against his father, however, he did not know who exactly was the traitor. He came up with the idea to invite everyone to his castle and deal with them. In total, about five hundred people gathered for the feast.

When the holiday was over, and the guests went to rest in their rooms, Dracula’s soldiers burst into everyone’s room and pierced the nobles, among whom were most of the people innocent of the death of the old count.

Dracula continued to use this tactic countless times. Posing as a hospitable host, he lured people to his home for various holidays, and then killed them. Ultimately, people knew what it meant to be invited to one of Dracula's celebrations, and what they could face there.

However, in any case, they accepted his offer, because if he refused, they risked being killed immediately. For many, this was a hopeless situation. In any case, people faced a terrible and painful death.

Dragon and Dracula

3. Dracula means "son of the dragon"

The name Dracula was not invented by Bram Stoker. The real Vlad Tepes, indeed, preferred to be called that way. The bloodthirsty count's father, Vlad II, was a member of a secret society known as the Order of the Dragon.

He was so proud of his membership in this society that he even changed his name to "Dracula", which means "Dragon" in Romanian.

While still a child, Vlad Tepes Jr. was also involved in the secret Order. This prompted him to change given name in the name Dracula, which means “son of the Dragon.” Nowadays, the count's name is increasingly translated as "Son of the Devil."

In any case, such a frightening name was quite compatible with the actions that young Dracula committed. Absolutely deservedly, Vlad Tepes received the reputation of a bloodthirsty and terrible monster.

4. Dracula had a great sense of humor

This is indeed true. During his life, the bloodthirsty count not only killed and tortured his victims. According to those who knew Vlad well enough, he very often joked quite sharply about one thing or another. His sense of humor was enviable. He made especially caustic jokes about the unfortunate victims.

For example, one of the eyewitnesses of those terrible meals in Dracula’s castle later wrote in his memoirs how the count, watching how the unfortunate victims gave up the ghost, as if by chance remarked: what grace my victims have, how interesting they move when you plant them on count He compared the convulsions of the dying to the movements of a frog.

One day, another guest of the count came to the castle filled with corpses. And since the smell of decomposing bodies was in the air, the owner politely inquired whether the stench was bothering his guest.

To which the unfortunate man replied that yes, he was interfering. Then the count pierced him and hung him from the ceiling, arguing that the smell under the ceiling was not so bad, and the stench would no longer bother the unwary guest.

Dracula School

5. The only punishment was impalement

The easiest way to think is that Dracula was a lonely and miserable madman who killed people for no reason. However, this is far from the case. The Count administered justice, no matter how terrible it may sound.

In those days, there was only one punishment, regardless of what crime the person committed. They impaled both murderers and petty thieves who, in order not to die of hunger, stole bread from pastry shops.

However, there is at least one known exception to the rule, where Dracula used a different type of punishment. One day, while crossing the territory that belonged to the bloody count, a gypsy stole something. Dracula was merciless this time too. He cooked the unfortunate thief, and then forced the other gypsies from the camp to eat him.

6. He got rid of all the sick and poor by burning them at the stake

Thus, the count tried to restore order on the streets of the city of Targovishte, at that time the capital of Wallachia.

One day Tepes invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses, under the pretext of a holiday. After the poor fellows had eaten their fill, Dracula politely apologized and left his “guests.”

By his order, the house was boarded up from the outside so that no one could escape. The house was then set on fire with everyone inside.

It is reliably known that not a single person survived the terrible fire that the bloodthirsty count started. Subsequently, Dracula repeatedly did this, burning entire villages inhabited by poor and sick people. In such an inhumane way, he “cleared” cities and villages of all those whom he considered unnecessary in this world.

7. The golden cup is a symbol of limitless power

Vlad the Impaler controlled his people very strictly, suppressing any type of crime. To prove how powerful his power was and how much people feared him, he ordered a huge bowl cast from pure gold to be placed in the center of Targovishte.

For a long time, the bowl was located in the very center of the capital of Wallachia. However, not one of the 60,000 people who then lived in the city even dared to touch it. Any resident knew what he would face if the cup was stolen.

During the entire reign of the count, no one even touched this symbol of Dracula's power, although the cup was in full view of thousands of people living in complete poverty. This is the kind of fear that the mere name of Vlad the Impaler instilled in people.

8. To poison the Turkish invaders, the count filled his own wells and wells with poison

In the 1400s, Wallachia was at war with its neighbors, the Turks. Vlad III, who did not like to lose, sent his army to drive the enemies out of his land.

But in the end, as a result stubborn struggle, the Turks forced Vlad to retreat. However, even retreating, Dracula did not give up. He burned all the villages located on the path of the Turkish army. He did this with the expectation that his opponents would have nowhere to rest.

Dracula went so far as to poison his own water wells. Along with the Turks, thousands of villagers were also poisoned. Tepes was unfamiliar with feelings of compassion and pity. In war, all means are good, even if innocent people die.

Dracula Tepes

9. In total, Dracula killed more than 100,000 people

Historians claim that up to 100,000 people could have become victims of the bloodthirsty count.

For Tepes there were no gender, age or status restrictions. He could kill an old man, or he could impale an innocent baby. At the same time, without disdaining anything, he calmly finished his meal.

Eyewitnesses said that while they looked with shudder at everything that was happening, the count was only joking and calmly finishing lunch or dinner.

During the war with the Turks, about 20,000 soldiers of the enemy army were impaled.

Vlad Dracula

10. Dracula's body disappeared

The count, who was feared and hated by his own people, died on the battlefield during the war with the Turks. His bloodthirstiness played a cruel joke on him. Dracula's army was several times larger than the enemy army.

However, despite such an obvious advantage, most of the soldiers decided to go over to the enemy’s side. After all, in the enemy’s camp there were no such harsh punishments as Dracula’s. People, fed up with the cruelty of their ruler, did not hesitate to betray.

Death of Dracula

Dracula's head was cut off by his own soldiers and then sent to the Turkish Sultan. He, in turn, pierced her with a spear and put her on a stake outside his palace so that every passerby could see the head of the defeated tyrant.

Some historians claim that Dracula's body was then interred in the cemetery of the Snagov Monastery, which is located outside of Bucharest.

But there are also conflicting reports that his body was never found, while others say that possible remains were indeed discovered but then disappeared. There is a version that Dracula's body was buried with all his wealth.

Thus, the tyrant’s grave became a good target for robbers, who, along with the treasures, tore apart the remains of Tepes. Well, the most mystical version is that Dracula’s body disappeared on its own, because he was a real dragon.

Vlad Tepes, Count of Wallachia, was an unconventional villain: thinking, suffering, unhappy and lonely in his own way. Thousands of people became its victims. His whole life was shrouded in mystery. This mysticism did not leave the image of Dracula even after death.

“Once upon a time there lived a bloodthirsty prince Dracula. He impaled people, roasted them over coals, boiled their heads in a cauldron, skinned them alive, cut them into pieces and drank their blood…” said Abraham Van Helsing, leafing through a book about the lifetime crimes of a formidable vampire. Many remember this episode from F. Coppola’s film, based on Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula,” and, perhaps, it was from this film that they learned that Dracula was not a fictional character.

The famous vampire has a prototype - Prince of Wallachia Vlad Dracula Tepes (Tepes - from the Romanian tepea - stake, literally - Piercer, Impaler), who ruled this Romanian principality in the middle of the 15th century. And indeed, this man is still called the “great monster” to this day, eclipsing Herod and Nero with his atrocities.

You probably already know all the details of this historical fiction figure inside and out? Let's just summarize what is known.

Let’s leave it to Stoker’s conscience that he “turned” a real historical figure into a mythical monster, and let’s try to figure out how justified the accusations of cruelty are and whether Dracula committed all those atrocities, in comparison with which the vampire’s addiction to the blood of young girls seems like innocent fun. The actions of the prince, widely replicated literary works XV century, and really chill the blood. A terrible impression is made by the stories about how Dracula loved to feast, watching the torment of his impaled victims, how he burned vagabonds whom he himself invited to the feast, how he ordered nails to be driven into the heads of foreign ambassadors who did not take off their hats, and so on, so on... In In the imagination of the reader, who first learned about the atrocities of this medieval ruler, the image of a fierce, ruthless man with a caustic look of unkind eyes, reflecting the black essence of the villain, appears. This image is quite consistent with German book engravings, which depicted the features of a tyrant, but the engravings appeared after Vlad’s death.

But those who happen to see the lifetime portrait of Dracula, practically unknown in Russia, will be disappointed - the man depicted on the canvas clearly does not look like a bloodthirsty sadist and maniac. A small experiment showed: people who did not know who exactly was depicted on the canvas often called the “unknown” beautiful, unfortunate... Let’s try for a moment to forget about the reputation of the “great monster” and look at the portrait of Dracula with an unbiased eye. First of all, Vlad’s large, suffering eyes attract attention. What’s also striking is the unnatural thinness of his emaciated, yellowish face. Looking at the portrait, one can assume that this man has suffered severe trials and hardships, that he is more of a martyr than an executioner...

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Vlad led Wallachia at the age of twenty-five, in 1456, during very difficult times for the principality, when the Ottoman Empire was expanding its possessions in the Balkans, capturing one country after another. Serbia and Bulgaria had already fallen under Turkish oppression, Constantinople had fallen, and a direct threat loomed over the Romanian principalities. The prince of little Wallachia successfully resisted the aggressor and even attacked the Turks himself, making a campaign into the territory of occupied Bulgaria in 1458. One of the goals of the campaign was to free and resettle the Bulgarian peasants who professed Orthodoxy on the lands of Wallachia. Europe enthusiastically welcomed Dracula's victory. Nevertheless big war with Turkey was inevitable. Wallachia prevented the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and Sultan Mehmed II decided to overthrow the unwanted prince by military means.

Dracula's younger brother Radu the Handsome, who converted to Islam and became the Sultan's favorite, claimed the throne of Wallachia. Realizing that he could not alone withstand the largest Turkish army since the conquest of Constantinople, Dracula turned to his allies for help. Among them were Pope Pius II, who promised to give money for the crusade, and the young Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, who called Vlad “a beloved and faithful friend,” and the leaders of other Christian countries. All of them verbally supported the Wallachian prince, however, when trouble struck in the summer of 1462, Dracula was left alone with a formidable enemy.

The situation was desperate, and Vlad did everything possible to survive this unequal battle. He drafted into the army the entire male population of the principality starting from the age of twelve, used scorched earth tactics, leaving the enemy burned villages where it was impossible to replenish food supplies, and waged a guerrilla war. Another weapon of the prince was the panic that he instilled in the invaders. Defending his land, Dracula mercilessly exterminated his enemies, in particular, impaled prisoners, using execution against the Turks, which was very “popular” in the Ottoman Empire itself.

The Turkish-Wallachian War of the summer of 1462 went down in history with the famous night attack, during which it was possible to destroy up to fifteen thousand Ottomans. The Sultan was already standing near the capital of the principality of Targovishte when Dracula, along with seven thousand of his warriors, penetrated into the enemy camp, intending to kill the Turkish leader and thereby stop the aggression. Vlad failed to fully implement his daring plan, but an unexpected night attack caused panic in the enemy camp and, as a result, very heavy losses. After the bloody night, Mehmed II left Wallachia, leaving part of the troops to Radu the Handsome, who himself had to wrest power from the hands of his elder brother. Dracula's brilliant victory over the Sultan's troops turned out to be useless: Vlad defeated the enemy, but could not resist his “friends.” The betrayal of the Moldavian prince Stefan, Dracula's cousin and friend, who unexpectedly went over to Radu's side, turned out to be a turning point in the war. Dracula could not fight on two fronts and retreated to Transylvania, where the troops of another “friend”, the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, were waiting for him to come to his aid.

And then something strange happened. In the midst of negotiations, Corwin ordered the arrest of his “faithful and beloved friend,” accusing him of secret correspondence with Turkey. In letters allegedly intercepted by the Hungarians, Dracula begged Mehmed II for forgiveness and offered his assistance in capturing Hungary and the Hungarian king himself. Most modern historians consider the letters to be crudely fabricated forgeries: they are written in a manner unusual for Dracula, the proposals put forward in them are absurd, but most importantly - the originals of the letters, these most important pieces of evidence that decided the fate of the prince, were “lost”, and only their copies have survived on Latin given in the Notes of Pius II. Naturally, they did not bear Dracula's signature. Nevertheless, Vlad was arrested at the end of November 1462, put in chains and sent to the Hungarian capital Buda, where he was imprisoned without trial for about twelve years.

What made Matthias agree with the absurd accusations and brutally deal with his ally, who at one time helped him ascend the Hungarian throne? The reason turned out to be banal. According to the author of the Hungarian Chronicle, Antonio Bonfini, Matthias Corvinus received forty thousand guilders from Pope Pius II to carry out the crusade, but did not use this money for its intended purpose. In other words, the king, who was constantly in need of money, simply pocketed a significant amount and shifted the blame for the disrupted campaign onto his vassal, who allegedly played a double game and intrigued with the Turks.

However, accusations of treason against a man known in Europe for his irreconcilable struggle with the Ottoman Empire, the one who almost killed and actually put to flight the conqueror of Constantinople Mehmed II, sounded quite absurd. Wanting to understand what really happened, Pius II instructed his envoy in Buda, Nicholas Modrussa, to understand what was happening on the spot.

King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus. Youngest son Janos Hunyadi liked to be depicted in the manner of a Roman emperor, with a laurel wreath on his head. He was considered the patron of science and art. During the reign of Matthias, the expenses of his court increased sharply, and the king sought ways to replenish the treasury - from increasing taxes to using money transferred by the Vatican for the crusades. The prince was accused of the cruelty he allegedly showed towards the Saxon population of Transylvania, which was part of the Hungarian kingdom. Matthias Corvinus personally spoke about the atrocities of his vassal, and then presented an anonymous document in which he reported in detail, with German punctuality, the bloody adventures of the “great monster.”

The denunciation spoke of tens of thousands of tortured civilians and for the first time mentioned anecdotes about beggars being burned alive, monks impaled, how Dracula ordered the caps of foreign ambassadors to be nailed to the heads, and other similar stories. An unknown author compared the Wallachian prince with the tyrants of antiquity, claiming that during his reign Wallachia resembled “a forest of impaled people,” accused Vlad of unprecedented cruelty, but at the same time did not care at all about the verisimilitude of his story. There are a lot of contradictions in the text of the denunciation, for example, the names of settlements given in the document, where 20-30 thousand (!) people were allegedly killed, still cannot be identified by historians.

What served as the documentary basis for this denunciation? We know that Dracula actually made several raids into Transylvania, destroying the conspirators hiding there, among whom were pretenders to the Wallachian throne. But, despite these local military operations, the prince did not interrupt commercial relations with the Transylvanian Saxon cities of Sibiu and Brasov, which confirms business correspondence Draculas of that period. It is very important to note that, apart from the denunciation that appeared in 1462, there is not a single earlier evidence of massacres of civilians in Transylvania in the 50s of the 15th century. It is impossible to imagine how the extermination of tens of thousands of people, which regularly occurred over several years, could have gone unnoticed in Europe and would not have been reflected in the chronicles and diplomatic correspondence of those years.

Consequently, Dracula’s raids on the enclaves that belonged to Wallachia, but located on the territory of Transylvania, at the time of their implementation were considered in European countries as an internal affair of Wallachia and did not cause any public outcry. Based on these facts, it can be argued that the anonymous document that first reported the atrocities of the “great monster” was not true and turned out to be another fake, fabricated on the orders of King Matthias following the “letter to the Sultan” in order to justify the illegal arrest of Vlad Dracula. For Pope Pius II - and he was a close friend of the German Emperor Frederick III and therefore sympathized with the Saxon population of Transylvania - such explanations were enough. He did not interfere with the fate of the high-ranking captive, leaving the decision of the Hungarian king in force. But Matthias Corvinus himself, feeling the instability of the charges brought forward by him, continued to discredit Dracula, who was languishing in prison, resorting to, saying modern language, at the service of the “mass media”. A poem by Michael Behaim, created on the basis of a denunciation, engravings depicting a cruel tyrant, “sent out throughout the world for everyone to see,” and, finally, many editions of early printed brochures (of which thirteen have reached us) under the general title “About one great monster” - all this was supposed to form a negative attitude towards Dracula, turning him from a hero into a villain. Apparently, Matthias Corvinus had no intention of freeing his prisoner, dooming him to a slow death in prison. But fate gave Dracula the opportunity to survive another takeoff.

During the reign of Radu the Beautiful, Wallachia completely submitted to Turkey, which could not but worry the new Pope Sixtus IV. It was probably the intervention of the pontiff that changed Dracula's fate. The Prince of Wallachia showed in practice that he could withstand the Turkish threat, and therefore it was Vlad who had to lead the Christian army into battle in the new crusade. The conditions for the prince's release from prison were his transition from the Orthodox faith to the Catholic faith and his marriage to Matthias Corvina's cousin. Paradoxically, the “great monster” could gain freedom only by becoming related to the Hungarian king, who until recently represented Dracula as a bloodthirsty monster...

Two years after the liberation, in the summer of 1476, Vlad, as one of the commanders Hungarian army went on a campaign; his goal was to liberate Turkish-occupied Wallachia. The troops passed through the territory of Transylvania, and documents have been preserved indicating that the townspeople of Saxon Brasov joyfully welcomed the return of the “great monster”, who, according to the denunciation, committed unheard-of atrocities here just a few years ago. Having entered Wallachia with battles, Dracula ousted the Turkish troops and on November 26, 1476, again ascended the throne of the principality. His reign turned out to be very short - the prince was surrounded by obvious and hidden enemies, and therefore a fatal outcome was inevitable.

Vlad's death at the end of December of the same year is shrouded in mystery. There are several versions of what happened, but they all boil down to the fact that the prince fell victim to treason, having trusted the traitors in his circle. It is known that the head of Dracula was donated to the Turkish Sultan, and he ordered it to be exhibited in one of the squares of Constantinople. And Romanian folklore sources report that the headless body of the prince was found by the monks of the Snagov monastery located near Bucharest and buried in the chapel built by Dracula himself near the altar.

Thus ended the short but bright life of Vlad Dracula. Why, despite the facts indicating that the Wallachian prince was “framed” and slandered, does rumor continue to attribute to him atrocities that he never committed? Opponents of Dracula claim: firstly, numerous works different authors they report Vlad’s cruelty, and, therefore, such a point of view cannot but be objective, and secondly, there are no chronicles in which he appears as a ruler doing pious deeds. It is not difficult to refute such arguments. An analysis of the works that speak of the atrocities of Dracula proves that they all either go back to the handwritten denunciation of 1462, “justifying” the arrest of the Wallachian prince, or were written by people who were at the Hungarian court during the reign of Matthias Corvinus. From here the Russian ambassador to Hungary, clerk Fyodor Kuritsyn, also drew information for his story about Dracula, written around 1484.

Having penetrated into Wallachia, widely circulated stories about the deeds of the “great monster” were transformed into pseudo-folklore narratives that in fact have nothing in common with the folk legends recorded by folklorists in the areas of Romania directly related to the life of Dracula. As for the Turkish chronicles, the original episodes that do not coincide with the German works deserve closer attention. In them, Turkish chroniclers, sparing no color, describe the cruelty and bravery of “Kazıkly”, who terrified his enemies (which means “Impaler”), and even partially acknowledge the fact that he put the Sultan himself to flight. We understand perfectly well that descriptions of the course of hostilities by the warring parties cannot be impartial, but we do not dispute the fact that Vlad Dracula really dealt very cruelly with the invaders who came to his land. Having analyzed the sources of the 15th century, we can confidently say that Dracula did not commit the monstrous crimes attributed to him.

He acted in accordance with the cruel laws of war, but the destruction of the aggressor on the battlefield under no circumstances can be equated with the genocide of civilians, of which Dracula was accused by the orderer of the anonymous denunciation. The stories about the atrocities in Transylvania, for which Dracula received the reputation of the “great monster,” turned out to be slander that pursued specific selfish goals. History has developed in such a way that descendants judge Dracula by how Vlad’s actions were described by his enemies, who sought to discredit the prince - where can we talk about objectivity in such a situation?!

As for the lack of chronicles praising Dracula, this is explained by the too short period of his reign. He simply did not have time, and perhaps did not consider it necessary, to acquire court chroniclers, whose duties included praising the ruler. It’s a different matter for King Matthias, famous for his enlightenment and humanism, “with whose death justice also died,” or the Moldavian prince Stefan, who ruled for almost half a century, betrayed Dracula and impaled two thousand Romanians, but at the same time was nicknamed the Great and Saint...

In a muddy stream of lies, it is difficult to discern the truth, but, fortunately, documentary evidence has reached us of how Vlad Dracula ruled the country. The documents signed by him have been preserved, in which he gave lands to peasants, granted privileges to monasteries, and an agreement with Turkey, which scrupulously and consistently defended the rights of citizens of Wallachia. We know that Dracula insisted on the observance of church burial rites for executed criminals, and this very important fact completely refutes the claim that he impaled the inhabitants of the Romanian principalities who professed Christianity. It is known that he built churches and monasteries, founded Bucharest, and fought with desperate courage against the Turkish invaders, defending his people and his land. There is also a legend about how Dracula met with God, trying to find out where his father’s grave was in order to build a temple on this place...

There are two images of Dracula. We know Dracula - the national hero of Romania, a wise and brave ruler, a martyr, betrayed by friends and spent about a third of his life in prison, slandered, slandered, but not broken. However, we also know another Dracula - the hero of anecdotal stories of the 15th century, a maniac, a “great monster”, and later a vampire cursed by God. By the way, about vampirism: no matter what atrocities his contemporaries accused the prince of, there is not a single written source, which would say that he drank the blood of his victims. The idea of ​​“turning” Dracula into a vampire arose only in the 19th century.

A member of the occult order “Golden Dawn” (he practiced black magic), Bram Stoker became interested in this historical figure at the suggestion of Professor Arminius Vambery, who was known not only as a scientist, but also as a Hungarian nationalist. This is how Count Dracula appeared - a literary character who gradually turned into the main vampire of all times in the mass consciousness.