Who was Vlad the Impaler? How was he connected to Dracula?
The story of Dracula was infamous during its time through the tale told by Bram Stoker. This same tale has made its way through modern day times informing the current generation on the legend of Dracula. This same legend has lead back to the historical past of Vlad the Impaler with contradictions of Vlad the Impaler a Romanian ruler of being the inspiration for Bram Stoker and his character Dracula. Vlad the Impaler was born in Romania to Vlad Dragul ruler of Wallachia who lived in exile in Transylvania. Dracula and Vlad are connect to each other by the novel, Dracula, created by Bram Stoker an Irish writer who based his story in Transylvania telling about a vampire who lived in solitude
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in his castle. To understand the past of Vlad the impaler , first, one needs to understand the political and the social forces of the Balkans region in the 15th century.
During this time the struggle to get control of Wallachia was an infinite struggle between two powerful forces of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The rulers of Wallachia were forced to appease these two empires to maintain their survival. They were often forging alliances with one or the other, depending upon what served their self-interest at the time. Vlad Tepes is best known by the Romanian people for his success in standing up to the encroaching Ottoman Turks and establishing relative independence and power. For example, the influencing political life was the means of succession to the Wallachian throne. The throne was hereditary, but not by the law of being the first born. The nobles had the right to elect the prince from among various worthy members of the royal family. This allowed for succession to the throne through violent means. Assassinations and other violent overthrows of reigning parties were thus rampant. For example both Vlad Tepes and his father assassinated competitors to get the throne of Wallachia. Before Vlad Dracul’s rule of Wallachia it was ruled by Prince Basarab the ancestor of Vlad Tepes in 1330. Then in 1431 King Sigismund made Vlad Dracul the military governor of Transylvania northwest of Wallachia. Unhappy about being positioned as military governor Vlad Dracul gather support for his plan to take Wallachia from the current rulers killing them in
1436.
The historical figure Vlad the Impaler was known by many of names: Vlad III, Vlad III Dracula, or Vlad Tepes. His name dracula originated from King Sigismund who founded the order of the Dragon in order to uphold Christianity defending them from the Ottoman Turks. In 1431 Vlad Dracul was admitted to this same order wearing the emblem of a dragon hanging on a cross naming his father Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Dragon.
Vlad Tepes was born in Romania 1431 to his father Vlad II Dracul who lived in exile for many years. He was the mid child of two brothers, his older brother Mircea and a younger brother Radu the Handsome. In order to please the sultan of the Ottoman Empire young Vlad Tepes and his younger brother Radu was sent to Adrianople as hostages in 1444 with Vlad being released in 1448 with only Radu staying behind.
Vlad Tepes got his name, Vlad the Impaler from the harsh punishment he practiced on invaders and citizens alike, impaling his victims through their body using horses tied to each leg slowly forcing the stake into their body (Poter 4). Vlad Tepes also practiced other cruel types of punishment consisting of: burning people alive, hammering nails into hands, skinning, the cutting of limbs, etc. The connection between Dracula and Vlad the Impaler was created by Bram Stoker.
Bram Stoker was an Irish writer his novel Dracula was created in 1897. This novel was a telling of a vampire who wished to spread his undead curse from Transylvania to England. The novel followed an English Lawyer Jonathan Harker who travels to Eastern Europe to Transylvania to the real estate transaction with nobleman Count Dracula who apparently lived in solitude. Then later finds out that he is trapped within the castle with the Count in the novel Dracula.
The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.
But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit.
The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner! (Bram Stoker)
Bram Stoker’s telling of Dracula was told through multiple journal entries of the characters from a first person point of view with them figuring out how to destroy the vampire Count Dracula ridding them of his evil ambitions.
Throughout researching and learning about the brief past of Vlad the Impaler and reading a few chapters of the novel Dracula I’ve come to the conclusion that there are some similarities with these two people. For example they were both described to have lived in solitude at one point within my research with Vlad the Impaler’s father already living in solitude and with Vlad Tepes going into solitude during his time, then with Dracula already seemingly said with in the novel of Dracula. So their only connection is that made with the story of Dracula written by Bram Stoker.
Work Cited
Bristow, Robert S and Mirela Newman.“Myth vs: Facts: An Exploration Of Fright Tourism.”
Processing of the 2004 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium.
28 March 2004. Web.13 April 2015.
Florescu, Radu, and McNally, R. T., Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476 (1973)
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