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| 1431 - 1476? |
| Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad III) was born in the town of Sighisoara, in Transylvania (now a province in northern Romania) in 1431 and later came to rule the area of southern Romania known as Walachia. The word Ţepeş [tse - PEZH] in Romanian means "impaler", and Vlad was so nicknamed because of his penchant for impalement as a means of punishing his enemies. Impalement was a particularly gruesome form of execution, where the victim was impaled between the legs (to put it politely) upon a large, sharpened stake three to four inches thick. Vlad enjoyed mass executions, where several victims were impaled at once and their stakes hoisted upright. As they hung suspended above the ground, the weight of their bodies would slowly drag them downwards, causing the sharpened end of the stake to pierce their internal organs. In order to better enjoy these mass spectacles, Vlad routinely ordered a banquet table set up in front of his victims, and would enjoy a leisurely supper amid the pitiful sights and sounds of the dying. |
| At the same time as Vlad became notorious for his sadism, his subjects also respected him because of the fierce campaigns he waged against the Turks. He was respected as a warrior and stern ruler who tolerated no crime against his people, and during his reign erected several monasteries. However, despite Vlad's political ambition, the turbulent political atmosphere of the times took its toll on his reign. He was overthrown twice (he ruled for a brief period in 1448, again from 1456-1462, and again for a matter of weeks in the year of his death in 1476.) Ultimately, he died violently (according to rumour, at the hands of one of his men, who was actually a Turkish spy). He was buried on the island at Snagov. |
| Contrary to popular belief, Dracula's castle isn't in Transylvania. He actually had two castles and a palace, all in Walachia. His primary castle lies in ruins in Tirgoviste, in the Alges Valley of the northern province of Walachia in modern Romania; the restored Castle Bran (most often thought of as Dracula's Castle), very close to the provicial border with Transylvania, was used more as a trading post during Vlad's life; The remains of his palace in Bucharest (the city he founded and named) are all that's left of the third castle he owned. |
| (right) Dracul Family Tree (fictional?) as given by novelist Jeanne Kalogridis. Click on the image for full-page viewing. |
| (below) Remains of Vlad's Palace in Bucharest |
| In addition to his title of "Impaler", Vlad was also called Draculea or Dracula, which means "son of the Dragon". Originally, this title came about because his father (also named Vlad) belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a group of knights formed by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund for the purpose of defeating the invading Turks. Running the Order and fighting the Turks eventually fell entirely to Vlad the Younger to perform. The elder Vlad used the dragon symbol on his coins and crest, and went by the name Dracul ("Dragon" or "devil"). Hence the diminuative "-a" on his son's nom de guerre, Dracula. As the younger Vlad's talent for torture became known, however, the name Dracula came to be interpreted increasingly as the sinister "son of the devil". |
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| N.B. - The above information is culled from several sources and doesn't represent original research on my part. |