The Real Dracula

Vlad Dracul
1390-1447

Vlad Dracul was the father of Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) who is identified as the historical Dracula.

Vlad Dracul was the illegitimate son of Prince Mircea, the ruler of Wallachia. It is believed his mother was Princess Mara of the Tomaj family of Hungary.
Not much is known about his childhood except speculation that he spent a period of his youth at the court of Sigismund 1 of Luxembourg, the king of Hungary. Vlad could have grown up in Buda and in locations in Germany as well. He married and had a son, also named Mircea.

In 1430, Vlad arrived in Transylvania as an official in charge of securing the Transylvania border with Wallachia. He lived in Sighisoara, where his second son, Vlad (The Impaler) was born. Shortly after Vlad (Impaler) was born, Sigismund selected Vlad as a candidate to the rule Wallachia. Vlad was invited to Nuremberg to be invested by the Order of the Dragon, which was a Christian brotherhood dedicated to fighting the Turks and candidates always wore the insignia of the Order at all times.

After bearing the title of prince of Wallachia, he was still unable to take the throne.
He eventually had a powerful alliance by marrying Eupraxia, the sister of the ruler of Moldavia. Once married in 1436 he was able to secure the throne of Wallachia and in 1436-1437 he moved to Tirgoviste, the capital of Wallachia. He had three other children, Radu, a second son named Vlad (referred to as Vlad the Monk) and a second son named Mircea.

In 1437 after the death of Sigismund, Dracul signed an alliance with the Turks. In March of 1442 he allowed Mezid-Bey to pass through Wallachia and attack Transylvania. The Turkish army was defeated and the Hungarian army pursued Mezid-Bey back through Wallachia, which drove Dracul from the throne in the process.

Dracul took refuge among the Turks and with their help, regained the throne the following year. This alliance with the Turks called for sending two sons, Vlad Tepes and Radu to remain with the sultan.

In December 1447, Dracul was murdered and his eldest son, Mircea was burned alive under the orders of the Hungarian governor, John Hunyadi.

In 1448, Vlad Dracula attempted to assume his fathers throne. He was unable to do so until 1456.

Vlad Dracula
1430-1476

About the name Dracula:
The name Dracula was derived from "Dracul" or "dragon" as in, Order of the Dragon. The name Dracula means son of Dracul or son of the dragon or devil.

Vlad Dracula was born in 1430 in Sighisoara, a town in Transylvania. In 1437 Dracula's father entered into an alliance with the Turks, Doubting Dracul's loyalty the sultan imprisoned Dracula in Egrigoz and his brother Radu. The period of imprisonment affected Dracula deeply. During this time, he learned the Turkish language and customs. It's believed during this time, Dracula's cynicism grew and infused in him a Machiavellian attitude toward political matters. This also infused his desire to seek revenge on anyone who wronged him or his family.

Vlad escaped from his captors in 1448. All we know about this time period is that the Turks were impressed with Dracula's ferocity and bravery and him opposing
the Danesti princes who ruled the Wallachian throne with the Hungarian court's backing. The Turks tried to place Dracula on the throne as early as 1448, while Vladislav II and Hunyadi were crusading the South of the Danube. This coup was only successful for two months.

Dracula who was fearful of his father's assassins and reluctant to return to his Turkish captors, fled to Moldavia which was ruled by Prince Bogdan, whose, son was Dracula's couin, Stephen.

During these years in Moldavia, Vlad and Stephen became close. They swore that who ever (between the two of them) succeeded the throne, the other would help them to power, by force if necessary.

Dracula stayed in Moldavia until October 1451. When Bogdan was assassinated by his rival, Petru Aron. Dracula then returned to Translyvania and threw himself at the mercy of Hunyadi.

The Alliance between Hunyadi and Vlad may have been possible by Vladislav II's adoption of Pro-Turkish policy. Vlad fought along side Hunyadi who then acknowleged Vlad's claim to the Wallachian throne. Shortly afterwards, Hunyadi died of the plague. Immediately after Hunyadi's death, Dracula, left for Wallachia. He defeated Vladislav II and took the throne and began his 6 year reign of terror.

Early in his reign, Vlad commited his first major act of revenge. After a day of feasting he arrested the boyer (wealthy, land owners) families, whom he held responsible for the death of his father and his brother. The older one's he simply just impaled outside the city walls. He forced the rest to march from the capital city of Tirgoviste to the town of Poenari where over the summer, in the most humiliating of circumstances, they were forced to build his new outpost, which became known as Castle Dracula.

This policy of destroying the power of the boyars, was part of creating a modern, centralized state in what is today Romania. He turned over the estates of the boyars to people who were loyal to him.

Vlad became a meanace to anyone who stood in his way or did not agree with his "Romania for Romanians" policy. He was known to attack entire villages just because he saw one person as a threat to his policies.Vlad was denounced by his contemporaries and those in the next several generations who wrote of him published numerous tales of his cruelty. He was noted as killing over 40,000 people, women and children as well as Romanians were included in these statistics. Vlad, ruled over fewer than half a million people. Vlad refined his torture and killings to shock his contemporaries, he not only impaled people in various ways but also often executed his victims in a manner that related to their crime.

The Beginning of the end of Dracula's reign can be traced back to 1461. For reasons unknown, Vlad launched a campaign to drive the Turks from the Danube River valley south and and east of Bucharest. Vlad found himself without allies and was forced to retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers. This didn't stop Dracula however, the second attempt to drive out the turks came on June 17 after sunset and tried to capture the Sultan. He was lead to the wrong tent and the Sultan slipped away, he then retreated again. When the Sultan had reached the capital city of Tirgoviste, he found that Dracula had impaled several people outside of town, a fact that impressed the Sultan and gave him pause to consider his course of action. He decided to return to Adrianople (now Edirne) and left the next phase of battle to Radu, Vlad's younger brother Radu, who was now Turkish favorite for the Wallachian throne. Radu as the head of the Turkish army, pursued Vlad to Castle Dracula.

At Castle Dracula, Vlad was faced with overwhelming odds and survived by escaping through a secret tunnel and fled to Transylvania and presented himself to the new king, Matthias Corvinus, who arrested him.

Vlad was imprisoned in the Hungarian capital of Visegrad until 1475, when King Mattias Corvinus decided he was the best candidate for the throne of Wallachia.

Soon thereafter, he moved with an army to fight in Serbia and upon his return he took up the battle against the Turks with the kind of Moldavia. He was never secure on his throne and many Wallachians allied themselves with the Turks. His end came at the hand of an assassin at some point towards the end of December 1476 or early January 1477.

Dracula's death still remains a mystery. The actual location of Vlad's burial site is unknown, but believed by many to be located at Snagov Monastery. Excavations there have proved inconclusive. A tomb near the alter, thought to be Dracula's burial site was empty when opened in the early 1930's. A second tomb near the door however, contained a body richly garbed and buried with a crown.

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