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The Historical Dracula


== THE HISTORICAL DRACULA:  VLAD III TEPES, 1431-1476 ==

== I.  Historical Background ==

     Most of the members of this list are probably aware of the fact
that when Bram Stoker penned his immortal classic, _Dracula_, he based
his vampire villain on an actual historical figure.  Stoker's model
was Vlad III Dracula (call Tepes, pronounced tse-pesh);  a fifteenth
century voivode or prince of Wallachia of the princely House of
Basarab.  Wallachia is a province of Romania bordered to the north by
Transylvania and Moldavia, to the east by the Black Sea and to the
south by Bulgaria.  Wallachia first emerged as a political entity
during the late thirteenth century from the weltering confusion left
behind in the Balkans as the East Roman Empire slowly crumbled.  The
first prince of Wallachia was Basarab the Great (1310-1352), an
ancestor of Dracula.  Despite the splintering of the family into two
rival, clans some member of the House of Basarab continued to govern
Wallachia from that time until well after the Ottomans reduced the
principality to the status of a client state.  Dracula was the last
prince of Wallachia to retain any real measure of independence.

     In order to understand the life of Vlad Dracula it is first
necessary to understand something about the nature of Wallachian
society and politics.  The throne of Wallachia was hereditary but not
by the law of primogeniture;  the boyars or great nobles had the right
to elect the voivode from among the various eligible members of the
royal family.  As with most elective monarchies during the Middle Ages
the power of the central government tended to be dissipated among the
nobility as various members of the ruling family vied for the throne.
Wallachian politics also tended to be very bloody.  Assassination was
a common means of eliminating rivals and many of the voivodes ended
their lives violently and prematurely.  By the late fifteenth century
the House of Basarab had split into two rival clans;  the descendants
of Prince Dan and those of Prince Mircea the Old (Dracula's
grandfather).  These two branches of the royal house were bitter
rivals.  Both Dracula and his father, Vlad II Dracul, murdered rivals
from the Danesti upon reaching the throne.

     The second ascendant fact of fifteenth century Wallachian
political life was the influence of powerful neighbors.  In 1453
Constantinople and the last vestiges of the Byzantine or East Roman
Empire, which had blocked the Islam's access to Europe for nearly one
thousand years, succumbed to the armed might of the Ottoman Turks
under Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror.  Long before the fall of the
Imperial City the Ottomans had penetrated deep into the Balkans.
Dracula's grandfather, Mircea the Old, was forced to pay tribute to
the sultan early in the fifteenth century.  The Hungarian Kingdom to
the north and west of Wallachia reached the zenith of its power during
the fifteenth century and assumed Constantinople's ancient mantle as
defender of Christendom.  Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries the princes of Wallachia attempted to maintain a precarious
independence by constantly shifting allegiances between these powerful
neighbors.

     Dracula ruled as Prince of Wallachia on three separate occasions.
He first claimed the throne with Turkish support in 1448.  On this
occasion he ruled for only two months (November-October) before being
driven out by a Danesti claimant supported by Hungary.  Dracula dwelt
in exile for several years before returning to Wallachia to kill the
Danesti prince, Vladislav II, and reclaim the Wallachian throne with
Hungarian support.  Dracula's second regnal period stretched from 1456
to 1462.  It was during this time that Dracula carried out his most
famous military exploits against the Turks and also committed his most
gruesome atrocities.

     In 1462 Dracula fled to Transylvania to seek the aid of the King
of Hungary when a Turkish army overwhelmed Wallachia.  Instead of
receiving the assistance he expected Dracula was imprisoned by the
Hungarian king.  He remained a prisoner of Matthias Corvinus of
Hungary for several years.  For most of the period of Dracula's
incarceration his brother, Radu the Handsome, ruled Wallachia as a
puppet of the Ottoman sultan.  When Radu died (ca. 1474-1475) the
sultan appointed Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan, as
prince.

     Eventually, Dracula regained the favor and support of the
Hungarian king.  In 1476 he once again invaded Wallachia.  His small
force consisted of a few loyal Wallachians, a contingent of Moldavians
sent by his cousin Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia, and a
contingent of Transylvanians under their prince, Stephen Bathory.  The
allies succeeded in driving Basarab out of the country and placing
Dracula on the throne (November 1476).  However, after Dracula was
once again in control, Stephen Bathory returned to Transylvania taking
most of Dracula's army with him.  The Turks soon counterattacked with
overwhelming force.  Dracula was killed fighting the Turks near
Bucharest in December of 1476.  His head was sent to Constantinople
where the Sultan had it displayed on a stake to prove that the
terrible Impaler was really dead.

== II.  What's in a name? ==

     There has been considerable debate among scholars concerning the
meaning of the name 'Dracula'.  The name is clearly related to
Dracula's father's sobriquet 'Dracul'.  Drac in Romanian means devil
and 'ul' is the definitive article.  Therefore, 'Dracul' literally
means 'the devil'.  The '-ulea' ending in Romanian indicates 'the son
of'.  Under this interpretation Dracula becomes Vlad III, the son of
the devil.  The experts who support this interpretation usually claim
that Vlad II earned his devilish nickname by his clever and wily
political maneuvering.

     The second interpretation of the name is more widely accepted.
In 1431 Vlad II was invested with the Order of the Dragon by the Holy
Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg.  The Order of the Dragon was a
knightly order dedicated to fighting the Turk.  Its emblem was a
dragon, wings extended, hanging on a cross.  From 1431 onward Vlad II
wore the emblem of the order.  His coinage bore the dragon symbol.
The dragon was the symbol of the devil and consequently and alternate
meaning of 'drac' was dragon.  Under this interpretation Vlad II
Dracul becomes Vlad II, the Dragon and his son, Vlad III Dracula,
becomes Vlad III, the Son of the Dragon.

     There is some confusion in the secondary sources concerning
Dracula's exact title.  In most of the sources he is referred to as
Vlad III.  However, many sources refer to him as Vlad IV or Vlad V.  I
am somewhat at a loss to explain this confusion.  The lists of
Wallachian princes that I have seen would seem to make the correct
title Vlad III.  The only conclusion I have been able to reach is that
there is some confusion in the sources between the various Wallachian
voivodes named Vlad and those named Vladislav.  This argument gains
credence when one realizes that Dracula occasionally signed his name
as 'Vladislaus'.  I would welcome an explanation from anyone capable
of resolving this problem.

== III.  The Life of Vlad III Dracula, called the Impaler (1431-1476 )==

     Dracula was born in 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara.
At that time Dracula's father, Vlad II Dracul, was living in exile in
Transylvania.  Vlad Dracul was in Transylvania attempting to gather
support for his planned effort to seize the Wallachian throne from the
Danesti prince, Alexandru I.  The house where Dracula was born is
still standing.  In 1431 it was located in a prosperous neighborhood
surrounded by the homes of Saxon and Magyar merchants and the
townhouses of the nobility.

     Little is known about the early years of Dracula's life.  It is
known that he had an elder brother, Mircea, and a younger brother
named Radu.  His early education was left in the hands of his mother,
a Transylvanian noblewoman, and her family.  His real education began
in 1436 after his father succeeded in claiming the Wallachian throne
and killing his Danesti rival.  His training was typical of that
common to the sons of the nobility throughout Europe.  His first tutor
in his apprenticeship to knighthood was an elderly boyar who had
fought under the banner of Enguerrand de Courcy at the Battle of
Nicolopolis against the Turks.  Dracula learned all the skills of war
and peace that were deemed necessary for a Christian knight.

     The political situation in Wallachia remained unstable after Vlad
Dracul seized the throne in 1436.  The power of the Turks was growing
rapidly as one by one the small states of the Balkans surrendered to
the Ottoman onslaught.  At the same time the power of Hungary was
reaching its zenith and would peak during the time of John Hunyadi,
the White Knight of Hungary, and his son King Matthias Corvinus.  Any
prince of Wallachia had to balance his policies precariously between
these two powerful neighbors.  The prince of Walla chia was officially
a vassal of the King of Hungary.  In addition, Vlad Dracul was a
member of the Order of the Dragon and sworn to fight the infidel.  At
the same time the power of the Ottomans seemed unstoppable.  Even in
the time of Vlad's father, Mircea the Old, Wallachia had been forced
to pay tribute to the Sultan.  Vlad was forced to renew that tribute
and from 1436-1442 attempted to walk a middle course between his
powerful neighbors.

     In 1442 Vlad attempted to remain neutral when the Turks invaded
Transylvania.  The Turks were defeated and the vengeful Hungarians
under John Hunyadi forced Dracul and his family to flee Wallachia.
Hunyadi placed a Danesti , Basarab II, on the Wallachian throne.  In
1443 Vlad II regained the Wallachian throne with Turkish support, on
the condition that he sign an new treaty with the sultan that included
not only the customary annual tribute but the promise to yearly send
contingents of Wallachian boys to join the sultan's Janissaries.  In
1444, to further assure the sultan of his good faith, Vlad sent his
two younger sons to Adrianople as hostages.  Dracula remained a
hostage in Adrianople until 1448.

     In 1444 the King of Hungary, Ladislas Posthumous, broke the peace
and launched the Varna campaign under the command of John Hunyadi in
an effort to drive the Turks out of Europe.  Hunyadi demanded that
Vlad II fulfill his oath as a member of the Order of the Dragon and a
vassal of Hungary and join the crusade against the Turk.  The Pope
absolved Dracul of his Turkish oath but the wily politician still
attempted to steer a middle course.  Rather than join the Christian
forces himself he sent his oldest son, Mircea.  Perhaps he hoped the
sultan would spare his younger sons if he himself did not join the
crusade.

     The results of the Varna Crusade are well known.  The Christian
army was utterly destroyed in the Battle of Varna.  John Hunyadi
managed to escape the battle under conditions that add little glory to
the White Knight's reputation.  Many, apparently including Mircea and
his father, blamed Hunyadi for the debacle.  From this moment forth
John Hunyadi was bitterly hostile toward Vlad Dracul and his eldest
son.  In 1447 Vlad Dracul was assassinated along with his son Mircea.
Mircea was apparently buried alive by the boyars and merchants of
Tirgoviste.  Hunyadi placed his own candidate, a member of the Danesti
clan, on the throne of Wallachia.

     On receiving the news of Vlad Dracul's death the Turks released
Dracula and supported him as their own candidate for the Wallachian
throne.  In 1448 Dracula managed to briefly seize the Wallachian
throne with Turkish support.  Within two months Hunyadi forced Dracula
to surrender the throne and flee to his cousin, the Prince of
Moldavia, while Hunyadi once again placed Vladislav II on the
Wallachian throne.

     Dracula remained in exile in Moldavia for three years, until
Prince Bogdan of Moldavia was assassinated in 1451.  The resulting
turmoil in Moldavia forced Dracula to flee to Transylvania and seek
the protection of his family enemy, Hunyadi.  The timing was
propitious;  Hunaydi's puppet on the Wallachian throne, Vladislav II,
had instituted a pro-Turkish policy and Hunyadi needed a more reliable
man in Wallachia.  Consequently, Hunyadi accepted the allegiance of
his old enemy's son and put him forward as the Hungarian candidate for
the throne of Wallachia.  Dracula became Hunyadi's vassal and received
his father's old Transylvanian duchies of Faragas and Almas.  Dracula
remained in Transylvania, under Hunyadi's protection, until 1456
waiting for an opportunity to retake Wallachia from his rival.

     In 1453 the Christian world was shocked by the final fall of
Constantinople to the Ottomans.  The East Roman Empire which had
existed since the time of Constantine the Great and which for a
thousand years had shielded the rest of Christendom from Islam was no
more.  Hunyadi immediately began planning another campaign against the
Turks.  In 1456 Hunyadi invaded Turkish Serbia while Dracula
simultaneously invaded Wallachia.  In the Battle of Belgrade Hunyadi
was killed and his army defeated.  Meanwhile, Dracula succeeded in
killing Vladislav II and taking the Wallachian throne but Hunaydi's
defeat made his long term tenure questionable.  For a time at least,
Dracula was forced to attempt to placate the Turks while he solidified
his own position.

     Dracula's main reign stretched from 1456 to 1462.  His capital
was the city of Tirgoviste while his castle was raised some distance
away in the mountains near the Arges River.  Most of the atrocities
associated with Dracula's name took place in these years.  It was also
during this time that he launched his own campaign against the Turks.
This campaign was relatively successful at first.  His skill as a
warrior and his well-known cruelty made him a much feared enemy.
However, he received little support from his titular overlord,
Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (the son of John Hunyadi) and
Wallachia's resources were too limited to achieve any lasting success
against the conqueror of Constantinople.

     The Turks finally succeeded in forcing Dracula to flee to
Transylvania in 1462.  Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide by
leaping from the towers of Dracula's castle into the waters of the
Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks.  Dracula escaped
across the mountains into Transylvania and appealed to Matthias
Corvinus for aid.   Instead the King had Dracula arrested and
imprisoned in a royal tower near Buda.  Dracula remained a prisoner
for twelve years.

     Apparently his imprisonment was none too onerous.  He was able to
gradually win his way back into the graces of Hungary's monarch; so
much so that he was able to meet and marry a member of the royal
family (some of the sources claim Dracula's second wife was actually
the sister of Matthias Corvinus).  The openly pro-Turkish policy of
Dracula's brother, Radu the Handsome, who was prince of Wallachia
during most of Dracula's captivity probably was a factor in Dracula's
rehabilitation.  During his captivity Dracula also renounced the
Orthodox faith and adopted Catholicism.  It is interesting to note
that the Russian narrative, normally very favorable to Dracula,
indicates that even in captivity he could not give up his favorite
past-time;  he often captured birds and mice which he proceeded to
torture and mutilate -- some were beheaded or tarred-and-feathered and
released, most were impaled on tiny spears.

     The exact length of Dracula's period of captivity is open to some
debate.  The Russian pamphlets indicate that he was a prisoner from
1462 until 1474.  However, during that period Dracula managed to marry
a member of the Hungarian royal family and have two sons who were
about ten years old when he reconquered Wallachia in 1476.  McNally
and Florescu place Dracula's actual period of confinement at about
four years from 1462 until 1466.  It is unlikely that a prisoner would
be allowed to marry into the royal family.  Diplomatic correspondence
from Buda during the period in question also seems to support the
claim that Dracula's actual period of confinement was relatively
short.

     Apparently in years between his release and 1474 when he began
preparations for the reconquest of Wallachia Dracula resided with his
new wife in a house in the Hungarian capital.  One anecdote from that
period tells how a Hungarian captain followed a thief into Dracula's
house.  When Dracula discovered the intruders he killed the Hungarian
officer rather than the thief.  When questioned about his actions by
the king Dracula answered that a gentlemen does not enter the presence
of a great ruler without an introduction -- had the captain followed
proper protocol he would not have incurred the wrath of the prince.

     In 1476 Dracula was again ready to make another bid for power.
Dracula and Prince Stephen Bathory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia
with a mixed force of Transylvanians, a few dissatisfied Wallachian
boyars and a contingent of Moldavians sent by Dracula's cousin, Prince
Stephen the Great of Moldavia.  Dracula's brother, Radu the Handsome,
had died a couple of years earlier and been replaced on the Wallachian
throne by another Turkish candidate, Basarab the Old, a member of the
Danesti clan.  At the approach of Dracula's army Basarab and his
coherents fled, some to the protection of the Turks, others to the
shelter of the mountains.  After placing Dracula on the throne Stephen
Bathory and the bulk of Dracula's forces returned to Transylvania,
leaving Dracula's tactical position very weak.  Dracula had little
time to gather support before a large Turkish army entered Wallachia
determined to  return Basarab to the throne.  Dracula's cruelties over
the years had alienated the boyars who felt they had a better chance
of surviving under Prince Basarab.  Apparently, even the peasants,
tired of the depredations of the Impaler, abandoned him to his fate.
Dracula was forced to march to meet the Turks with the small forces at
his disposal, somewhat less than four thousand men.

     Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the small
town of Bucharest in December of 1476.  Some reports indicated that he
was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to
sweep the Turks from the field.  Other accounts have Dracula falling
in defeat, surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard
(the troops loaned by Prince Stephen of Moldavia remained with Dracula
after Stephen Bathory returned to Transylvania).  Still other reports
claim that Dracula, at the moment of victory, was accidentally struck
down by one of his own men.  Dracula's body was decapitated by the
Turks and his head sent to Constantinople where the sultan had it
displayed on a stake as proof that the Impaler was dead.  He was
reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near
Bucharest.

== IV.  Atrocities ==

     More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his
inhuman cruelty.  Impalement was Dracula's preferred method of torture
and execution.  Impalement was and is one of the most gruesome ways of
dying imaginable.  Dracula usually had a horse attached to each of the
victim's legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the
body.  The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that
the stake not be too sharp; else the victim might die too rapidly from
shock.  Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the
buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from
the mouth.  However, there were many instances where victims were
impaled through other bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest.
Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their
mothers' chests.  The records indicate that victims were sometimes
impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

     Death by impalement was slow and painful.  Victims sometimes
endured for hours or days.  Dracula often had the stakes arranged in
various geometric patterns.  The most common pattern was a ring of
concentric circles in the outskirts of the city that was his target.
The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim.  The
decaying corpses were often left up for months.  It was once reported
that an invading Turkish army turned back in fright when it
encountered thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the
Danube.  In 1461 Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man
not noted for his squeamishness, returned to Constantinople after
being sickened by the sight of twenty thousand impaled corpses rotting
outside of Dracula's capital of Tirgoviste.  The warrior sultan turned
command of the campaign against Dracula over to subordinates and
returned to Constantinople.

     Thousands were often impaled at a single time.  Ten thousand were
impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu (where Dracula had once
lived) in 1460.  In 1459, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Dracula had thirty
thousand of the merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of
Brasov impaled.  One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows
Dracula feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens
outside Brasov while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims.

     Impalement was Dracula's favorite but by no means his only method
of torture.  The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads
like an inventory of hell's tools:  nails in heads, cutting off of
limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and
ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women),
scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals and
boiling alive.

     No one was immune to Dracula's attentions.  His victims included
women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign
powers and merchants.  However, the vast majority of his victims came
from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own Wallachia.
Many have attempted to justify Dracula's actions on the basis nascent
nationalism and political necessity.  Many of the merchants in
Transylvania and Wallachia were Saxons who were seen as parasites,
preying upon the Romanian natives of Wallachia, while the boyars had
proven their disloyalty time and time again.  Dracula's own father and
older brother were murdered by unfaithful boyars.  However, many of
Dracula's victims were Wallachians and few deny that he derived a
perverted pleasure from his actions.

     Dracula began his reign of terror almost as soon as he came to
power.  His first significant act of cruelty may have been motivated
by a desire of revenge as well as a need to solidify his power.  Early
in his main reign he gave a feast for his boyars and their families to
celebrate Easter.  Dracula was well aware that many of these same
nobles were part of the conspiracy that led to his father's
assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother, Mircea.
Many had also played a role in the overthrow of numerous Wallachian
princes.  During the feast Dracula asked his noble guests how many
princes had ruled during their life times.  All of the nobles present
had out lived several princes.  One answered that at least thirty
princes had held the throne during his life.  None had seen less than
seven reigns.  Dracula immediately had all the assembled nobles
arrested.  The older boyars and their families were impaled on the
spot.  The younger and healthier nobles and their families were
marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of a castle in the
mountains above the Arges River.  Dracula was determined to rebuild
this ancient fortress as his own stronghold and refuge.  The enslaved
boyars and their families were forced to labor for months rebuilding
the old castle with materials from another nearby ruin.  According to
the reports they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and
then were forced to continue working naked.  Very few of the old
gentry survived the ordeal of building Castle Dracula.

     Throughout his reign Dracula systematically eradicated the old
boyar class of Wallachia.  The old boyars had repeatedly undermined
the power of the prince during previous reigns and had been
responsible for the violent overthrow of several princes.  Apparently
Dracula was determined that his own power be on a modern and
thoroughly secure footing.  In the place of the executed boyars
Dracula promoted new men from among the free peasantry and the middle
class;  men who would be loyal only to their prince.  Many of
Dracula's acts of cruelty can be interpreted as efforts to strengthen
and modernize the central government at the expense of feudal powers
of the nobility and great towns.

     Dracula was also constantly on guard against the adherents of the
Danesti clan.  Some of his raids into Transylvania may have been
efforts to capture would-be princes of the Danesti.  Several members
of the Danesti clan died at Dracula's hands.  Vladislav II was
murdered soon after Dracula came to power in 1456.  Another Danesti
prince was captured during one of Dracula's forays into Transylvania.
Thousands of the citizens of the town that had sheltered his rival
were impaled by Dracula.  The captured Danesti prince was forced to
read his own funeral oration while kneeling before an open grave
before his execution.

     Dracula's atrocities against the people of Wallachia were usually
attempts to enforce his own moral code upon his country.  He appears
to have been particularly concerned with female chastity.  Maidens who
lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all
targets of Dracula's cruelty.  Such women often had their sexual
organs cut out or their breasts cut off.  They were also often impaled
through the vagina on red-hot stakes that were forced through the body
until they emerged from the mouth.  One report tells of the execution
of an unfaithful wife.  Dracula had the woman's breasts cut off, then
she was skinned and impaled in a square in Tirgoviste with her skin
lying on a nearby table.  Dracula also insisted that his people be
honest and hard working.  Merchants who cheated their customers were
likely to find themselves mounted on a stake beside common thieves.

== V.  Anecdotal Evidence ==

     Much of the information we have about Vlad III comes from
pamphlets published in Germany and Russia after his death.  The German
pamphlets appeared shortly after Dracula's death and, at least
initially, may have been politically inspired.  At that time Matthias
Corvinus of Hungary was seeking to bolster his own reputation in the
Holy Roman Empire and may have intended the early pamphlets as
justification of his less than vigorous support of his vassal.  The
pamphlets were also a form of mass entertainment in a society where
the printing press was just coming into widespread use.  Much like the
subject matter of the supermarket tabloids of today, the cruel life of
the Wallachian tyrant was easily sensationalized.  The pamphlets were
reprinted numerous times over the thirty or so years following
Dracula's death -- strong proof of their popularity.

     The German pamphlets painted Dracula as an inhuman monster who
terrorized the land and butchered innocents with sadistic glee.  The
Russian pamphlets took a somewhat different view.  The princes of
Moscow were at that time just beginning to build the basis of what
would become the autocracy of the czars.  They were also having
considerable trouble with disloyal, often treasonous boyars.  In
Russia, Dracula was presented as a cruel but just prince whose actions
were directed toward the greater good of his people.  Despite the
differences in interpretation the pamphlets, regardless of their land
of origin, agree remarkably well as to specifics.  The level of
agreement between the various pamphlets has led most historians to
conclude that at least the broad outlines of the events covered
actually occurred.

     Romanian verbal tradition provides another important source for
the life of Vlad Dracula.  Legends and tales concerning the Impaler
have remained a part of folklore among the Romanian peasantry.  These
tales have been passed down from generation to generation for five
hundred years.  Through constant retelling they have become somewhat
garbled and confused and they are gradually being forgotten by the
younger generations.  However, they still provide valuable information
about Dracula and his relationship with his own people.  Many of the
tales contained in the pamphlets are also found in the verbal
tradition, though with a somewhat different emphasis.  Among the
Romanian peasantry Dracula is remembered as a just prince who defended
his people from foreigners, whether those foreigners be Turkish
invaders or German merchants.  He is also remembered as somewhat of a
champion of the common man against the oppression of the boyars.
Dracula's fierce insistence on honesty is a central part of the verbal
tradition.  Many of the anecdotes contained in the pamphlets and in
the verbal tradition demonstrate the prince's efforts to eliminate
crime and dishonesty from his domain.  However, despite the more
positive interpretation, the Romanian verbal tradition also remembers
Dracula as an exceptionally cruel and often capricious ruler.

     There are several events that are common to all the pamphlets,
regardless of their nation of origin.  Many of these events are also
found in the Romanian verbal tradition.  Specific details may vary
among the different versions of these anecdotes but the general course
of events usually agrees to a remarkable extent.  For example, in some
versions the foreign ambassadors received by Dracula at Tirgoviste are
Florentine, in others they are Turkish.  The nature of their offense
against the Prince also varies from version to version.  However, all
versions agree that Dracula, in response to some real or imagined
insult, had their hats nailed to their heads.  Some of the sources
view Dracula's actions as justified, others view his acts as crimes of
wanton and senseless cruelty.  There are about nine anecdotes that are
almost universal in the Dracula literature.

(1)  The Golden Cup

     Dracula was known throughout his land for his fierce insistence
on honesty and order.  Thieves seldom dared practice their trade
within Dracula's domain -- they knew that the stake awaited any who
were caught.  Dracula was so confident in the effectiveness of his law
that he placed a golden cup on display in the central square of
Tirgoviste.   The cup was never stolen and remained entirely
unmolested throughout Dracula's reign.

(2)  The Foreign Merchant

     A merchant from a foreign land once visited Dracula's capital of
Tirgoviste.  Aware of the reputation of Dracula's land for honesty, he
left a treasure-laden cart unguarded in the street over night.
Returning to his wagon in the morning, the merchant was shocked to
find 160 golden ducats missing.  When the merchant complained of his
loss to the prince, Dracula assured the him that his money would be
returned and invited him to remain in the palace that night.  Dracula
then issued a proclamation to the city -- find the thief and return
the money or the city will be destroyed.  During the night he ordered
that 160 ducats plus one extra be taken from his own treasury and
placed in the merchant's cart.  On returning to his cart in the
morning and counting his money the merchant discovered the extra
ducat.  The merchant returned to Dracula and reported that his money
had indeed been returned plus an extra ducat.  Meanwhile the thief had
been captured and turned over to the prince's guards along with the
stolen money.  Dracula ordered the thief impaled and informed the
merchant that if he had not reported the extra ducat he would have
been impaled alongside the thief.

(3)  The Two Monks

     There are several versions of this anecdote.  In some the two
monks were from a Catholic monastery in Wallachia or wandering
Catholic monks from a foreign land.  In either case Catholic monks
would be viewed as representatives of a foreign power by Dracula.  In
other versions of the story the monks were from a Romanian Orthodox
establishment (the native church of Wallachia).  Dracula's motivation
also varies considerably among the different versions of the story.

     All versions of the story agree that two monks visited Dracula in
his palace at Tirgoviste.  Curious to see the reaction of the
churchmen, Dracula showed them the rows of impaled corpses in the
courtyard.  When asked their opinions of his actions by the prince,
one of the monks responded, 'You are appointed by God to punish evil-
doers.'  The other monk had the moral courage to condemn the cruel
prince.  In the version of the story most common in the German
pamphlets, Dracula rewarded the sycophantic monk and impaled the
honest monk.  In the version found in the Russian pamphlets and in the
Romanian verbal tradition Dracula rewarded the honest monk for his
integrity and courage and impaled the sycophant for his dishonesty.

(4)  The Polish Nobleman

     Benedict de Boithor, a Polish nobleman in the service of the King
of Hungary, visited Dracula at Tirgoviste in September of 1458.  At
dinner one evening Dracula ordered a golden spear brought and set up
directly in from of the royal envoy.  Dracula then asked the envoy why
he thought this spear had been set up.  Benedict replied that he
imagined that some boyar had offended the prince and that Dracula
intended to honor him.  Dracula then responded that he had, in fact,
had the spear set up in honor of his noble, Polish guest.  The Pole
then responded that had he done anything to deserve death that Dracula
should do as he thought best.  He further asserted that in that case
Dracula would not be responsible for his death, rather he would be
responsible for his own death for incurring the displeasure of the
prince.  Dracula was greatly pleased by this answer and showered the
man with gifts while declaring that had he answered in any other
manner he would have been immediately impaled.

(5)  The Foreign Ambassadors

     There are at least two versions of this story in the literature.
As with the story of the two monks, one version is common in the
German pamphlets and views Dracula's actions unfavorably while the
other version is common in eastern Europe and sees Dracula's actions
in a much more favorable light.  In both versions ambassadors of a
foreign power visit Dracula's court at Tirgoviste.  When granted an
audience with the prince the envoys refused to remove their hats as
was the custom when in the presence of the prince in Wallachia.
Angered at this sign of disrespect Dracula had the ambassadors' hats
nailed to their heads so that they might never remove them.

     In the German version of the story the envoys are Florentine and
refused to remove their hats to demonstrate their superiority.  When
Dracula asked the ambassadors why they wouldn't remove their hats they
responded that such was not their custom and that they wouldn't remove
their hats, even for the Holy Roman emperor.  Dracula immediately had
their hats nailed to their heads so that they might never come off and
had the ambassadors ejected from his court.  In Germany and the West,
where the concept of diplomatic immunity was at least given lip
service, this was held to be an act of barbarity against the
representatives of a friendly power.

     In the version of the story common in the east, the envoys are
Turkish.  When ushered into the presence of the prince, the Turks
refused to remove their Phrygian caps.  When questioned they answered
that it was not the custom of their fathers to remove their hats.
Dracula then ordered their hats nailed to their heads with three nails
so that they might never have to break such an excellent tradition.
The envoys were then sent back to the sultan.  In the east this was
held to bee a courageous act of defiance in the face of the power of
the Ottoman sultan.  It should also be noted that the nailing of hats
to the heads of those who displeased a monarch was not an unknown act
in eastern Europe.  Apparently this method was occasionally used by
the princes of Moscow when faced by unpleasant envoys.

(6)  Dracula's Mistress

     Dracula once had a mistress who lived in a house in the back
streets of Tirgoviste.  This woman apparently loved the prince to
distraction and was always anxious to please him.  Dracula was often
moody and depressed and the woman made every effort to lighten her
lover's burdens.  Once, when Dracula was particularly depressed, the
woman dared tell him a lie in an effort to cheer him up;  she told him
that she was with child.  Dracula warned the woman not to joke about
such matters but she insisted on the truth of her claim despite her
knowledge of the prince's feelings about dishonesty.  Dracula had the
woman examined by the bath matrons to determine the veracity of her
claim.  When informed that the woman was lying Dracula drew his knife
and cut her open from the groin to her breasts while proclaiming his
desire for the world to see where he had been.  Dracula then left the
woman to die in agony.

(7)  The Lazy Woman

     Dracula once noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a
too short caftan.  The prince stopped and asked the man whether or not
he had a wife.  When the man answered in the affirmative Dracula had
the woman brought before him and asked her how she spent her days.
The poor, frightened woman stated that she spent her days washing,
baking and sewing.  The prince pointed out her husband's short caftan
as evidence of her laziness and dishonesty and ordered her impaled
despite her husband's protestations that he was well satisfied with
his wife.  Dracula then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but
admonished her to work hard or she would suffer her predecessor's
fate.

(8)  The Nobleman with the Keen Sense of Smell

     On St. Bartholomew's Day in 1459 Dracula caused thirty thousand
of the merchants and nobles of the Transylvanian city of Brasov to be
impaled.  In order that he might better enjoy the results of his
orders, the prince commanded that his table be set up and that his
boyars join him for a feast amongst the forest of impaled corpses.
While dining, Dracula noticed that one of his boyars was holding his
nose in an effort to alleviate the terrible smell of clotting blood
and emptied bowels.   Dracula then ordered the sensitive nobleman
impaled on a stake higher than all the rest so that he might be above
the stench.

     In another version of this story the sensitive nobleman is an
envoy of the Transylvanian cities of Brasov and Sibiu sent to appeal
to the cruel Wallachian to spare those cities.  While hearing the
nobleman's appeal Dracula walked amongst the stakes and their grisly
burdens.  Some of the victims still lived.  Nearly overcome by the
smell of drying blood and human wastes the nobleman asked the prince
why he walked  amidst the awful stench.  Dracula then asked the envoy
if he found the stench oppressive.  The envoy, seeing an opportunity
to ingratiate himself with Dracula, responded that his only concern
was for the health and welfare of the prince.  Dracula, angered at the
nobleman's dishonesty ordered him impaled on the spot on a very high
stake so that he might be above the offending odors.

(9)  The Burning of the Sick and Poor

     Dracula was very concerned that all his subjects work and
contribute to the common welfare.  He once noticed that the poor,
vagrants, beggars and cripples had become very numerous in his land.
Consequently, he issued an invitation to all the poor and sick in
Wallachia to come to Tirgoviste for a great feast, claiming that no
one should go hungry in his land.  As the poor and crippled arrived in
the city they were ushered into a great hall where a fabulous feast
was prepared for them.  The prince's guests ate and drank late into
the night, when Dracula himself made an appearance.  'What else do you
desire?  Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this
world,' asked the prince.  When they responded positively Dracula
ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire.  None escaped the flames.
Dracula explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did
this, 'in order that they represent no further burden to other men so
that no one will be poor in my realm.'

== VI.  Dracula and the Vampire Myth ==

        It is unclear why Bram Stoker chose this fifteenth century
Romanian prince as the model for his fictional vampire.  Stoker was
friends with a Hungarian professor from Buda-Pest and many have
suggested that Dracula's name might have been mentioned by this
friend.  Regardless of how the name came to Stoker's attention the
cruel history of the Impaler would have readily loaned itself to
Stoker's purposes.  The events of Dracula's life were played out in a
region of the world that was still basically medieval even in Stoker's
time.  The Balkans had only recently shaken off the Turkish yoke when
Stoker started working on his novel and the superstitions of the Dark
Ages were still prevalent.  Transylvania had long been a part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire but it too had endured a long period of
Turkish domination and its culture was still largely medieval.

     The legend of the vampire was and still is deeply rooted in that
region.  There have always been vampire-like creatures in the
mythologies of many cultures.  However, the vampire, as he became
known in Europe and hence America, largely originated in the Slavic
and Greek lands of eastern Europe. A veritable epidemic of vampirism
swept through eastern Europe beginning in the late seventeenth century
and continuing through the eighteenth century.  The number of reported
cases of rose dramatically in the Hungary and the Balkans.  From the
Balkans the plague spread westward into Germany, Italy, France,
England and Spain.  Travellers returning from the Balkans brought with
them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire that has
continued to this day.  Philosophers in the West began to study the
phenomenon.  It was during this period that Dom Augustin Calmet wrote
his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary.  It was also during this
period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire
myth.  Stoker's novel was merely the culminating work of a long series
of works that were inspired by the reports coming from the Balkans and
Hungary.

     Given the history of the vampire myth in Europe it is perhaps
natural that Stoker should place his great vampire in the heart of the
region that gave birth to the myth.  Once Stoker had determined on a
locality Vlad Dracula would stand out as one of the most notorious
rulers of the selected region.  He was obscure enough that few would
recognize the name and those who did would know him for his acts of
brutal cruelty;  Dracula was a natural candidate for vampirism.  Why
Stoker chose to relocate his vampire from Wallachia to the north of
Transylvania remains a mystery.

     The vampire myth is still wide-spread in eastern Europe.
Similarly the name of Dracula is still remembered in the Romanian oral
tradition but that is the end of any connection between Dracula and
the vampire myth in folklore.  Outside of Stoker's novel the name of
Dracula was never linked with the myth of the vampire.  Despite his
inhuman cruelty, in Romania Dracula is remembered as a national hero
who resisted the Turkish conquerors and asserted Romanian national
sovereignty against the powerful Hungarian kingdom.

April 30, 1992
Ray Porter
(a.k.a. The Dragon)