Let's decide once and for all. Who is he - the great and terrible Count Dracula...

The Romanian ruler Vlad III, better known as Dracula (1431-1476), came from the family of Basarab the Great, ruler of Wallachia (1310-1352), who in a difficult struggle defended the independence of his state from Hungary.

Vlad III's father, Vlad II, seized the throne in 1436, overthrowing his cousin with the support of the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg. But later, yielding to Turkish pressure, Vlad II was forced to renew his vassal obligations to the Wallachian rulers and send his two sons, Vlad and Radu, as hostages to the Sultan’s court.

Hungary, of course, also increased pressure, and Vlad II constantly had to maneuver, seeking compromises.

However, in 1447 he was killed by order of the regent of the Hungarian kingdom, the legendary Janos Hunyadi, and the Wallachian throne was occupied by a new Hungarian protege.

In 1448, seventeen-year-old Vlad made his first attempt to seize the throne. Taking advantage of the fact that Hunyadi's troops were defeated by the Turks, Vlad, with Turkish help, reigned under the name of Vlad III.

Vlad III gained “world fame” during his lifetime. Mainly - thanks to frantic courage and equally frantic bloodthirstiness, which even in the gloomy era of the Late Renaissance seemed pathological. He was unimaginably cruel to his enemies, allies, and subjects: he chopped off their heads, burned them, tore off their skin, forced them to commit cannibalism, boiled them alive, ripped open their bellies, impaled them, etc. and so on. Dracula was especially good at impalement.
One day, without any reason, he attacked his own innocent city and killed 10 thousand subjects under torture. Many of them were impaled - so he earned another nickname - “tepes”, or “impaler”.

During the wildest of the massacres he organized in 1460, on St. Bartholomew's Day in one of the cities of Transylvania, 30 thousand people were impaled.

Count Dracula was more than just a sadist

His cruel punishments had some political meaning. For example, when the envoys of the Turkish court dared not to remove their headdresses in his presence, he ordered the turbans to be nailed to their heads, which was undoubtedly a defiantly bold demonstration of independence. Depending on the social status of the condemned, the stakes varied in length, diameter, color, and were used to create intricate geometric shapes - something like a “garden of torture,” where Vlad III loved to feast at his leisure, and the stench of corpses and the groans of those in agony did not spoil his appetite. That is why Vlad III entered the history of Romania under the nickname “Tepes” (lit. “Impaler”).

Even in a Hungarian prison, Vlad III, according to the ancient Russian “Tale of Dracula the Voivode,” remained true to his passions: he caught or bought mice and birds, which he tortured, impaled and beheaded. The fury of Vlad III (in German sources he is called "wutrich" - "furious", "monster", "fierce"), it seems, was fairly tired not only of his enemies, but also of his subjects, and in 1476 they killed Tepes at the age of 45. His severed head was preserved in honey and delivered as a trophy to the Sultan. According to the 15th century version, Vlad III was mistaken for a Turk in battle and, surrounded, pierced with spears, which, having noticed the mistake, was greatly regretted.

But if everything was so, then why did Vlad III, having managed to kill five attackers, not have time to explain to the others that he was their commander? And why did the “grieving” compatriots, trumpeting the head of the dead ruler, send it to the Sultan?

Some saw in him the national hero of Romania, a defender against Muslim expansion, a fighter against boyar abuses (C. Giurescu), others considered Vlad III an unprincipled tyrant, no different from other “Machiavellian” sovereigns of the Late Renaissance, and called him a “terrorist” ruler. , the forerunners of Stalin and Hitler (R. McNally and R. Florescu).

However, by all accounts, Dracula acquired the reputation of a vampire warlock only at the end of the 19th century - thanks to the imagination and talent of Bram Stoker (1847-1912), author of the famous novel "Dracula" (1897). Indeed, in written sources there is no mention of warlocks and vampirism of the Wallachian ruler. But if we take into account the specifics of these sources, it turns out that the fantasies of the English novelist were by no means groundless.

Therefore, information about Dracula should be interpreted not only in the historical-pragmatic aspect, but - and above all - in the mythological one. This concerns the name itself, or rather the nickname of Vlad III Dracula. Fyodor Kuritsyn, the alleged author of “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode,” characterizing Vlad III, directly says that “the name is Dracula in the Vlash language, and ours is the Devil. Here the Russian scribe of the 15th century makes a mistake, although not a fundamental one. In Romanian, “devil” is “dracul”, and “Dracula” is “son of the devil”.

The nickname “Dracul” was given to the father of Vlad III, but historians traditionally explain that the connection with evil spirits has nothing to do with it.

It is no coincidence that local peasants, who had never heard of Stoker’s novel, considered Dracula’s Castle an unclean place even in the 20th century.

Of course, there is reason to believe that the soldiers of Vlad III turned their spears against the ruler out of fear and revenge or for the sake of a Turkish reward, and cut off their head in order to send it to the Sultan and thereby curry favor or visually confirm the fulfillment of the “order” - the head of Tepes was exhibited in Istanbul on public view. But despite all this, Dracula’s warriors acted exactly as custom prescribed to deal with vampires: the bloodsucker’s body had to be pierced with a sharp weapon, and the head had to be separated from the body.

From this point of view, the story of Dracula's tomb is also characteristic. Vlad III was buried not far from the place of his death - in the Orthodox Snagov monastery, which his family patronized.

P.S. So Dracula is not a vampire, but a mere mortal!

One of the most mysterious and cruel kings who ever lived on earth, whose name is surrounded by mysticism. Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476) received the nickname “the impaler” for his particular cruelty during reprisals against enemies. The ruler of Wallachia was born in 1431. His real name is Vlad III Dracul, translated from Romanian as “son of the dragon.” His father Vlad II was a member of the knightly Order of the Dragon, wore a medallion and minted the sign of the order on his coins depicting a dragon. There is another translation of the surname Dracul - “son of the devil,” perhaps that’s what his enemies and intimidated subjects called him.

When Vlad III was 12 years old, he was kidnapped by the Turks, and for the next 4 years he and his younger brother were held hostage, which had a very negative impact on his psyche. He became unbalanced and acquired strange habits. At the age of seventeen, he learned about the murder of his father and older brother by the boyars, which became the reason for his hatred of the boyars and the subsequent fight against them.

Vlad Tepes loved to hold feasts next to his enemies dying in agony, enjoying their groans and the smell emanating from their decaying bodies. He was not a vampire, but he was a cruel sadist, reveling in the suffering of those who disobeyed his will. They say that he executed more than 100 thousand boyars, but only 10 of those who were involved in the death of Dracula's father and brother are documented.

As a statesman, Vlad Tepes was the liberator of his native country from the Turks and a man of honor, fulfilling his national duty. He refused to pay tribute and created a peasant militia that defended their homeland from the Turkish troops who came to punish the disobedient king. All captured Turks were executed in the square during the holiday.

Dracula was a religious fanatic, he gave lands to churches, received the support of the clergy, which means his actions were sanctified by the church. The people had to silently obey. Once Vlad gathered the pilgrims on the holiday of Great Easter and forced them to build a fortress until their clothes fell apart from time to time.

The merciless ruler completely eradicated crime in his state through cruel trials and painful death. Not a single beggar dared to take someone else's property. Even the scattered coins on the streets were not touched. The population became exceptionally honest after many thousands of executions; a similar phenomenon did not occur throughout the world. Thanks to his amazing cruelty, Vlad the Impaler gained fame and memory from his descendants. He had a special dislike for gypsies, thieves and slackers, whom he exterminated in entire camps.

The elite of Europe were outraged when they learned about Dracula's atrocities; they decided to take him into custody and such an opportunity was presented. During his escape, Vlad abandoned his wife and all his subjects, dooming them to death, but was detained by the Hungarian king. I had to spend 12 years in prison. For the sake of freedom, he had to convert to Catholicism. This move was accepted by the king as a sign of submission, and he even helped Dracula regain the throne. But soon they want to kill him again. During his life, Vlad Tepes tried to escape many times, but this time he was unlucky. The boyars, having chopped his body into pieces, sent his head to the Turkish Sultan. The monks, to whom Dracula was kind, quietly buried his remains.

Modern archaeologists became interested in the history of Vlad the Impaler, but the grave they opened turned out to be empty. Nearby there was a burial without a skull, which is considered to be the remains of Dracula. Subsequently, his remains were transferred to the island, which is guarded by monks to avoid tourist invasions.

There are historical figures whose cruel deeds chill the blood and inspire horror. According to biographers, he personally observed the torture of convicts, who were alternately doused with boiling water and ice water, and then drowned in the river. The Hungarian countess, who, according to legend, loved to bathe in the blood of young girls in order to preserve her youth, is not far behind.

This list can be continued endlessly, but it is worth noting the famous ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler, who became the prototype of Dracula in the novel of the same name. The life of this bearer of the crown is shrouded in myths and true stories; they say that frightened enemies called Vlad the son of the devil. Tepes went down in history as an “impaler” and instigator of biological warfare, but in his native country he gained fame as a genius of military thought.

Childhood and youth

The biography of Tepes, a descendant of Vlad II Dracula and the Moldavian princess Vasiliki, partly remains a mystery, because scientists cannot give an exact answer when the ruler of Wallachia was born. Historians have only speculative facts and date his birth between 1429-1430 and 1436.

Young Tepes did not make a pleasant impression and had a repulsive appearance: his face was adorned with large, cold eyes and protruding lips. According to an ancient legend, a little boy saw right through people. Vlad’s parent raised his offspring in accordance with the strict rules of the time, so initially the young man learned to wield a weapon, and only then began to learn to read and write.

Vlad spent his childhood in the historical region, the city of Sighisoara. At that time, Transylvania (now located in Romania) belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary, and the house in which Tepes lived with his father and older brother still stands and is located at Zhestyanshchikov 5.

In 1436, Vlad II became the ruler of Wallachia and moved to the capital of this small state - Targovishte. The ruler's possessions were located between Transylvania and the Ottoman Empire, so the prince of Wallachia was ready for an attack by the Turks. To maintain sovereignty, Dracul was forced to pay tribute to the Turkish Sultan in wood and silver, as well as give expensive gifts to Turkish nobles.

Following the ancient custom, Vlad II sent his sons to the Turks, so Tepes and his brother Radu were held in voluntary captivity for four years. According to rumors, the brothers observed torture in Turkey, and Radu became the object of sexual violence. However, there is no reliable evidence that Vlad II sent his offspring to the Ottoman Empire as hostages.

Scientists, on the contrary, believe that the ruler of Wallachia was confident in the safety of his sons, since he himself often visited the Turkish Sultan. The only thing that Vlad and Radu had to fear during their stay in Turkey was the changeable mood of the Sultan, who loved to touch alcohol.

Governing body

In December 1446, the Hungarians carried out a coup d'état, as a result of which Vlad II's head was cut off and his older brother Tepes was buried alive. These events became the background to the formation of Dracula's character.

The Turkish Sultan learned about this Hungarian outrage and began to gather troops. Having won the victory over the Hungarians, the leader Ottoman Empire placed Tepes on the throne, displacing the Hungarian protege Vladislav II, who took the throne with the support of the Transylvanian governor Janos Hunyadi.

The Sultan lent Dracula Turkish troops, and in 1448 a new ruler appeared in Wallachia. The newly-minted ruler Tepes begins an investigation into the murder of his father and stumbles upon facts related to the boyars.

Janos Hunyadi declared Dracula's accession to the throne illegal, the Hungarian commander began to gather an army, but by that time Tepes had managed to hide in Moldova, then in Transylvania, from where he was expelled by Janos' supporters.

In 1456, Tepes again visited Transylvania, where he gathered an army of associates in order to conquer the throne of Wallachia. It is known that Vlad III ruled the state for 6 years and made his mark not only inside Wallachia, but also outside these lands. According to some sources, during his reign Tepes destroyed about one hundred thousand people, but this data has not been confirmed.

He also pursued church policies aimed at strengthening the church, provided material assistance to clergy, and also became famous for his military campaigns in Transylvania and the Ottoman Empire (Tepes refused to pay tribute). Among other things, Vlad III sent money transfers to the monasteries of Greece.

Personal life

Contemporaries describe Vlad the Impaler in different ways. Some say that he was a pale-faced and thin handsome man with a pitch-black mustache, while others claim that the ruler of Wallachia had a repulsive appearance, and his bulging, cold eyes instilled fear in everyone. But scientists agree on one thing: Vlad Dracul was an infinitely cruel person.

It was not for nothing that the ruler was nicknamed “the impaler,” since impaling people was Vlad III’s favorite method of execution. Enemies who died such deaths bled to death, so pale bodies hung on sharpened sticks (Vlad preferred colas with a rounded top, lubricated with oil, which were inserted into the rectum).

By the way, this is why Vlad Dracula was nicknamed a vampire in folklore and literary works, although there is no evidence that Tepes tasted human blood.

It is noteworthy that Sultan Mehmed II, seeing thousands of rotting corpses of the Turks, fled with his army without looking back. Vlad III liked this grave environment and his appetite even increased from the sight of the agony of his defeated enemies.

As for Tepes’s personal life, it was shrouded in mystical and mysterious halos: so many literary works have been written about his wives and mistresses that it is difficult to understand whether it is reality or fiction of the writers. Rumor has it that Dracula was married twice to certain Elizabeth and Ilona Sziladyi. The ruler of Wallachia had three sons: Mikhail, Vlad and Mikhnia the Evil.

Death

They say that Vlad III Tepes died in 1476 on the initiative of Lajota Basarab. But there is no exact information about how the enemy of the Ottoman Empire died. There are several opinions: either Vlad was killed by bribed subjects, or Tepes died from the sword during a battle with the Turks (allegedly Dracula was accidentally mistaken for an enemy).

Others testified that Tepes's heart stopped beating out of the blue while he was sitting in the saddle. According to unreliable information, Dracula's head was kept in the palace of the Turkish Sultan as a trophy.

Dracula

Vlad III Tepes received the nickname Dracula from his father, who was a member of the highly respected Order of the Dragon, fighting pagans and atheists. Members of this community wore medallions made of precious metals, which were engraved with a mythological monster. Tepes’s parent also minted coins depicting fire-breathing creatures. The surname Tepes went to Vlad after his death: the Turks awarded this nickname to the prince; the word “Tepesh” itself means “stake”.

More than one work has been written about such a colorful character as Vlad III, but the book that helped popularize Dracula as a fanged lover of blood was written by Bram Stoker.

It is worth saying that the Irish writer worked on his brainchild for seven years, studying historical works about the Wallachian ruler. But, nevertheless, Stoker’s manuscript cannot be classified as a biographical work. This is a full-fledged novel, embellished with fantasy and artistic metaphor.

Bram's work gave a new wave in the world of literature and cinema: numerous manuscripts about Dracula, who fears the Sun and garlic, began to appear, and were also filmed documentaries. The canonical image of Count Dracula, who lives in a gloomy castle and drinks blood, was created by the American actor Bela Lugosi (film “Dracula” (1931), who masterfully portrayed the pale-faced vampire.

Memory

• 1897 – novel “Dracula” (Bram Stoker)
• 1922 – film “Nosferatu. Symphony of Horror" (Friedrich Wilhelm)
• 1975 – opera “Vlad the Impaler” (Gheorghe Dumitrescu)
• 1992 – film “Dracula” ()
• 1998 – music album “Nightwing” about the life of Vlad Tepes (group Marduk)
• 2006 – musical “Dracula: Between Love and Death” (Bruno Pelletier)
• 2014 – film “Dracula” (Harry Shore)

In 1386, in Sighisoara, a small town located in Transylvania, a man was born who left an indelible mark on history. Vlad the Impaler, better known as Count Dracula, a descendant of the ruler of Wallachia, Basarab the Great, became famous not so much for his talent as a commander, but for his gloomy cruelty, unprecedented even for.

Vlad III, about whom numerous bloody legends were formed, became the prototype of one of the main characters in Bram Stoker's novel - he is known as Count Dracula, whose biography is to some extent similar to the fate of Tepes.

It cannot be said that his youth was easy and cloudless, which would be quite predictable for a real prince of the blood - the future ruler of Wallachia. At the age of twelve, Vlad III, together with his younger brother, was sent as hostages to the Turkish Sultan, where he was kept until he was 17 years old, which in all likelihood negatively affected his psyche.

At the age of 17, after his release, Vlad the Impaler, whose biography has since become very changeable, with the help of the Turks, for the first time seizes power and reigns in Wallachia under the name of Vlad III. The Middle Ages were distinguished by numerous wars, and the young ruler failed to hold the throne for a long time - the protege of Janos Hunyadi, the ruler of Hungary, overthrew him. But he shows excessive independence, loses the patronage of his Hungarian overlord, and Vlad Tepes regains the throne with the support of Hunyadi himself.

Of course, this turn of events did not suit Turkey, and in 1461 a war began, in which Vlad III fully demonstrated his talent as a commander. But, despite all his courage and cruelty (and by that time there were numerous bloody legends about him), Tepes was defeated - mainly because the Turkish army significantly outnumbered his troops. Vlad III abandons the defeated army and wants to find refuge in the possessions of the Hungarian king, but he accuses his former ally of conspiring with the Turks and imprisons him.

Vlad III is released more than 10 years later, and he even manages to recapture the capital of Wallachia, but after some time, Vlad the Impaler, whose biography is associated with many deaths, dies under mysterious circumstances... Surely, someone had something in store for him aspen stake :) Tepes's life was cut short in 1476.

Bloody legends or terrible reality?

It should be noted that Bram Stoker's character, Count Dracula, whose biography is very mysterious, is only a weak resemblance of his prototype. Vlad Tepes embodies all the atrocities of the Middle Ages - from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition to the sophisticated Turkish torture.

His contemporaries feared him no less than Even if a small part of the bloody legends composed about him are reality, then Vlad III earned the right to be called a vampire, because in order to be one it is not necessary to drink blood - it is enough to shed it copiously...

Vlad the Impaler carried out the most grandiose massacre in 1460 - then in one of the cities of Transylvania about 30,000 people were simultaneously impaled. This massacre took place on the feast of St. Bartholomew. Over this holiday, apparently - just remember the confrontation between Catholics and Huguenots in France and the famous St. Bartholomew's Night.

There is also a legend about one of Tepes’ mistresses, who tried to deceive him by declaring her pregnancy. One can only be surprised at the courage of the woman who continued to insist on her own, after Vlad warns her that he does not tolerate lies. The ending of the story is tragic - Tepes rips open her stomach and shouts “I warned you that I don’t like lies!”

Count Dracula, whose biography gave rise to numerous bloody legends, did not complain about the lack of imagination; his methods of dealing with enemies were varied - cutting off heads, boiling, burning, skinning or ripping open bellies was commonplace for Vlad the Impaler. But to all of the above, the ruler preferred to impale those he disliked, which is why he received his nickname - Tepes - “impaler”. But the perverted methods of execution were determined not only by the sadistic inclinations of the ruler; such executions also pursued other goals. For example, there is a legend that near the fountain in the very center of the capital of Wallachia stood a bowl made of gold. Anyone could drink from it, but no one dared to steal the cup - the subjects knew that Tepes dealt with thieves especially cruelly.

Sometimes the count liked to joke...

Vlad Tepes also had a certain semblance of a sense of humor. Just as he loved hoaxes - he drank steaming mulled wine in the cold, which scared his courtiers to death, who believed that the ruler was drinking warm human blood...

Count Dracula, whose biography inspired Bram Stoker, gave rise to more than just bloody legends. The Lord was no stranger to some justice. One day, a passing merchant complained to Tepes that his van had been robbed at night, and a significant amount of gold was missing. Naturally, Vlad Tepes could not tolerate such insolence - theft was punished very cruelly, and all efforts were thrown into searching for the criminal, who was discovered overnight.

The stolen gold was thrown to the merchant, and along with it one extra coin was planted. I think it’s clear what happened to the thief, considering Dracula’s habits. In the morning, the merchant came to thank the ruler - he said that the thieves not only returned all the gold, but even tossed one extra coin. Tepes smiled gloomily and said that if the merchant had kept silent about this coin, he would have been sitting on a stake next to the thief. Presumably, after such a statement, the merchant hastened to leave hospitable Wallachia.

Many bloody legends about Dracula tell that Vlad the Impaler had a habit of having breakfast among dead and dying people impaled on stakes. These stakes differed in both colors and geometric shapes - by these signs it was always possible to distinguish a commoner from a noble nobleman (noblemen were seated somewhat higher). It was not enough for Dracula to simply deal with the undesirables; he carefully ensured that the stakes were not sharpened, which would lead to heavy blood loss and quick death. A blunt stake provided his victim with painful agony, which could last for 4 to 5 days.

Vlad Tepes, whose biography is varied, sought to show everyone his independence. One day, envoys of the Turkish Sultan arrived at the court. The unlucky Turks completely refused to take off their hats (faith does not allow it or something else). The angry ruler ordered his subjects to nail turbans to the heads of the Turks, which was immediately carried out. However, small nails were used for this procedure.

How did bloody legends about vampires appear?

An aspen stake, a bunch of garlic and, of course, crucifix - what movie about vampires would be complete without this paraphernalia? Sunlight is also considered a good means of fighting evil spirits, but few people have thought about why.

The origins for the creation, as well as their fear of sunlight, were one mysterious disease of the Middle Ages. It manifested itself in the fact that a person could not tolerate direct sunlight, from the effects of which the skin became covered with pigment spots, which caused quite severe pain.

The disease is called “porphyria” - the human body affected by this disease is not able to independently produce red blood cells. The disease is rare, and in those days representatives of the aristocracy were susceptible to it - that’s where the thread reaches to Count Dracula (who, by the way, did not suffer from porphyria). In order not to experience pain, a person was forced to appear on the street only at night or eat raw meat in order to restore the blood balance of the body.

Another source attributes the origin of vampire legends to a medieval aristocrat who believed that her youth would last forever if she took regular baths filled with the blood of young girls. These girls were taken to her castle and killed. This continued until one victim managed to escape and tell the ruler of those lands about what was happening in the gloomy castle. The Countess was imprisoned in her apartments and doomed to starvation.

By the way, in the Middle Ages there was a belief that those who drink young blood restore their strength and prolong their life. Who knows how many representatives of the aristocracy of those times resorted to this method of rejuvenation? They had plenty of opportunities...

admin this clip will probably be on topic... especially if you like the group ARIA

There was a governor in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, and in ours - the Devil. He was so cruel and wise that, as was his name, such was his life...

Fyodor Kuritsyn, “The Tale of Dracula the Voivode”

He drank the blood of his enemies and loved to dine among the thousands of his impaled victims. He cut out women's breasts, skinned people alive, pierced their stomachs, and nailed hats to their heads. The most important and bloody monster is the Prince of Darkness. The one whose name means “son of the Devil” in Romanian. The one whom cinema loves so much and who today has thousands of fans. The mysterious tyrant of the Middle Ages - Vlad Tepes Dracula. This is how our contemporaries consider him.

He died five centuries ago and then he was buried with honors, called the most just ruler, honest and noble. People could not hold back their tears because they knew that he gave his life to protect them. Vlad Dracula built churches and monasteries, founded the capital of Romania Bucharest and saved Europe from the Turkish invasion. He was a defender of the Orthodox faith, but died a Catholic. He was a brilliant commander, but he went down in history under a terrible nickname - Tepes, i.e. "impaled" Tens of thousands of executions are attributed to him. Who was he really? Why did he gain such fame? And when did the creation of the reputation of a man who is still considered a national hero in Romania begin?

In the 15th century, the prince Vlad III Dracula was the ruler or ruler of the small country of Wallachia, located in the center of Europe on the territory of modern Romania. Even during his reign, rumors spread across Europe about the extreme cruelty of Dracula. and after his sudden death he was generally declared a servant of the Devil. Below is one of the medieval engravings, where Vlad calmly dines among thousands of impaled people.

Perhaps this excitement would have passed over time, but soon after the death of Dracula an ambassador from the Russian Tsar Ivan III arrived in Romania Fedor Kuritsyn . He heard about the prince’s deeds and brought back from this trip his heartbreaking story - “The Tale of Dracula.” In Russia, the book was immediately banned - Kuritsyn admired the prince’s actions too much. But one day the legend fell into the hands of a minor Ivan IV the Terrible . For the young king, this book became a guide to governing the state. He carefully studied Dracula's methods of execution and eventually surpassed it. He began to combine skinning with burning; impaled and at the same time cut out pieces of meat from the unfortunate; He boiled the victims in oil, set them on fire and tore them by the legs.

All tyrants are alike. Something forces everyone to be cruel: the situation in the country, conspiracies, opposition, difficult childhood or congenital insensitivity and cruelty. But how did Dracula distinguish himself so much that he was proclaimed Prince of Darkness No. 1? Did he really drink blood? It's all the Irish writer's fault Bram Stoker . He lived in the 19th century and wrote horror novels, but none of them brought him success until he decided to write a novel about vampires. It was in the 19th century that everyone believed that ghouls exist. These are not just characters from folk tales. They live somewhere in unknown and scary forests of Eastern Europe, among Serbs, Czechs and Russians. Stoker heard about Vlad the Impaler Dracula from his friend, a Hungarian scientist, who spoke about the forgotten tyrant and gave medieval books about the monster. In gratitude, Stoker made this scientist a fighter against vampires and introduced him into the book under the name Van Helsing . In Stoker's novel, a vampire count lives in a Transylvanian castle, who bites the necks of his guests, drinks their blood and turns them into zombie slaves. He sleeps in a coffin, he has red elongated fangs, a deformed spine and, most importantly, he is very afraid of sunlight. Naturally, Stoker changed and came up with a lot. And Dracula was not a count, but a prince. And he lived not in Transylvania, but in Wallachia. and slept not in a coffin, but on an ordinary bed.

Disease or vampirism?

Regarding Dracula's appearance and his photophobia, Stoker described the symptoms of a real disease, unknown at that time. Such people really have long fangs, they cannot stand in the sun because their skin becomes blistered, their skeleton becomes deformed and they become very scary. All these are sick porphyria. It occurs very rarely when a person’s metabolic process in the blood is disrupted. Doctors managed to identify porphyria not so long ago - in 1963. Patients with porphyria, of course, did not drink blood, but because of their ugly appearance they were feared and were often called the living dead. Of course, such clinical features leave an imprint on the psyche. Thus, a person who is afraid of daylight and has anatomical defects begins to acquire a certain aura of mystery. Perhaps Stoker saw a porphyria patient in his life. His appearance impressed the writer so much that he gave it to his hero, the bloodsucker Dracula. What did the real Wallachian prince look like?

Appearance of Vlad Dracula

A lifetime portrait of Dracula and his description have reached us: “He was a short, tightly built, broad-shouldered man. His facial features were rough. His skin was delicate. He had an aquiline nose, wide nostrils, very long eyelashes, wide eyebrows and a long mustache.” Nothing that would remind me of porphyria. So the appearance of the literary Dracula has nothing in common with the appearance of the prototype. Moreover, there is no information in any historical source that Dracula drank blood. Other atrocities were attributed to him, but he was not noticed in vampirism.

The tradition of drinking the blood of their enemies existed among the Kurds, Japanese samurai and Papuans of New Guinea. This is not about pleasure, but about conviction. By drinking the blood of your enemy, you gain his strength and youth. By eating a heart, you take possession of its courage. These traditions were unknown to medieval Romanians. But in the 19th century, Stoker knew very well about them, and all his life he was interested in the memories of famous European travelers. Thus, the writer’s imagination, in addition to his frightening appearance, endowed the Romanian prince with a love for fresh blood. and behind these horrors it is no longer possible to see the image of the real Dracula, the one whom Romanians still consider a national hero. and they were so offended by Bram Stoker that they even banned the novel “Dracula”. Ceausescu stated that the novel dishonors the honorable name of the illustrious son of the Romanian people, Vlad Dracula. But why did one tyrant protect another so much? What was good about Vlad the Impaler and his crimes? And why do Romanians love Dracula so much?

In the Middle Ages, Wallachia was a small principality adjacent to Transylvania, and today it is part of Romania. Mountains and thick fog hiding small towns. It seems that the Romanians there are still afraid of vampires, but they don’t know what they are. In their fairy tales, no one drinks blood. Such characters have never existed in popular imagination. Then it is not at all clear where the legend of the bloody Dracula came from.

The childhood and youth of Vlad Dracula

In 1431, in the city of Sighisoara, in the family of the prince Vlad II Dracula and the Moldavian princess Vasiliki a son was born. In general, the ruler of Wallachia had four sons: the eldest Mircea , average Vlad And Radu and the youngest is also Vlad (the son of the second wife of Prince Vlad II - Koltsuns , subsequently Vlad IV Monk ). Fate will not be kind to the first three of them. Mircea will be buried alive by the Wallachian boyars in Targovishte. Radu will become the favorite of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II , and Vlad will bring his family the bad reputation of an cannibal. Vlad IV the Monk will live his life more or less calmly. The family's family coat of arms was a dragon. It was in the year of Vlad’s birth that his father joined the Order of the Dragon, whose members swore a blood oath to protect Christians from the Muslim Turks. They wore long black cloaks. By the way, the bloody Prince Dracula will wear the same one.

Over time, details of his birth appear in the legends about Prince Dracula. Allegedly, when the baby was born, one of the icons in the room began to cry blood. This was a sign of the birth of the Antichrist. In addition, two comets appeared in the sky at once, which was also not a good sign. Such tales are often invented after the birth of many prominent people.

In the 15th century, the country was captured by the Turks. Sultan Murad II demands to pay tribute - to send boys and animals to Turkey. It is impossible to argue with the Turks, they just captured Constantinople and became a threat to the whole world. Gradually, the small countries of Eastern Europe came under their rule. From the Balkans the Turks went to Romania and Wallachia had to become a Turkish province. The prince denied it as best he could, secretly joined the knightly Order of the Dragon, and played a double game with the Sultan. He taught his sons that the most important thing is freedom.

But one day the Sultan revealed his secret plan and summoned the prince and his sons to his place and accused him of treason. And so that the prince would serve him faithfully, he took his two sons as hostages: Vlad and Radu. If their father had rebelled against the Turks, the boys would have simply been killed. However, there were also advantages to this conclusion. Education in Turkey at that time was considered one of the best. Only there could Vlad learn martial arts and military strategy to resist this empire. It had to be studied from the inside. This is exactly what Vlad's father would have wanted. Several years passed and all this time the brothers were together. Vlad supported the younger Radu and took care of him. Together they dreamed that they would run home and, together with their father and older brother, take revenge on the Turks.

But it happened differently. Wallachia had many enemies: Hungarian neighbors who wanted to take away its lands; the boyars who wanted to put their protege on the throne and the Turks who established their own order. The country was in chaos. The Romanians gradually converted to Islam. And Dracula Sr. fought as best he could to preserve his rights and religion. But one day his captive sons found out that their father had been killed. His older brother Mircea also died with him. The boyars placed their candidate on the throne. Now it turned out that the heir to the throne was fourteen-year-old Vlad Dracula. An heir who had nothing - neither power nor freedom. He cherished in his soul hatred of the Turks and revenge for the death of his relatives. In his hatred, he did not notice how the irreparable happened - the heir to the Sultan, Mehmed, liked his younger brother. Known for his perverted predilection for boys, he took the weak Radu into his harem and made him his favorite. Vlad was choking with hatred. Through the prison bars, he saw how the Turks executed Christians - how they sharpened smooth sticks with a diameter of about 25 cm and impaled people on them. The unfortunate ones took 12 hours to die, because the stake gradually passed through the entire body, pierced the internal organs and passed through the mouth. Then Vlad decided to learn the language, techniques and customs of the Turks, and when the time comes, kill them in their own favorite way. So another six years passed in hatred and sadness.

One day, Vlad was brought to the Sultan and he said: “Come back home. Sit on your father’s throne and serve me more honestly than he served.” Returning, Vlad saw his country in ruins. Boyar feuds and struggles for power gave rise to chaos. Theft, lynching and lawlessness flourished. Part of the population turned Turkish and converted to Islam. Neighboring Transylvania threatened war. It was then that Vlad Dracula made three oaths to himself: to avenge the death of his father and older brother, to rescue his younger brother Radu from captivity, and to free the country from the Turks. He will not pay tribute, he will not give up boys for numerous Janissary barracks, because he is not a puppet, he is Vlad Dracula. The one whose name will become a nightmare for the Sultan. Personal life For four years, Vlad faithfully paid tribute to the Turks, sent humble letters to the Sultan, and assured of his loyalty. At the same time, he secretly formed his army.

Continuing his father's work, he began to establish connections with neighbors. He became friends with the King of Hungary and at his court found what he had never had - friend and love. The successor of the Hungarian king became a friend Matthias Corwin , and with love - beautiful Lydia , the daughter of a Romanian boyar, is a quiet, submissive and beautiful girl. She was going to become the bride of the Lord, to spend her life in a monastery. But a chance meeting with Vlad Dracula turned her life upside down. The prince in love begged on his knees to refuse the tonsure, and Lydia agreed to become his wife. This decision will make her unhappy and force her to die young. They were married in a small Hungarian temple. Vlad was happy. For the first time in his life, he wanted not to fight, but to enjoy the quiet joys of family.

Domestic and foreign policy of Vlad Dracula

But Vlad understood that life under the rule of the Turks could not last forever. All this time he lived in captivity of his nightmares, and woke up from his own scream. In a dream he saw his dead father. He was lowered into the grave alive. I saw a little brother who still remained in the power of the Turkish Sultan. The dead called for revenge, and the living waited for his return. And Vlad finally made up his mind. Bloody revenge of Vlad Dracula. At this time, the Pope tried to organize a new crusade against the Turks, but only Wallachia and Hungary agreed to fight. Other countries feared the Sultan's revenge. Vlad Dracula was so happy at the opportunity to get rid of Turkish dependence that he refused to pay tribute to the Sultan. It was a challenge, but the Sultan, busy with the war with Greece, decided to postpone the punishment of the daring Dracula. Vlad understood that before the war it was necessary to strengthen his power. There was little time, so the prince did not choose methods.

To begin with, he tried to stop the boyar feuds that were tearing apart his small country. In his family castle Targovishte, Vlad avenged the death of his father and older brother. According to legend, he invited the boyars to a feast, and then ordered them all to be slaughtered. It is believed that it was with this execution that the bloody procession of the great tyrant Vlad Dracula began. So the legends tell, but the chronicles convince each other - at the feast, Dracula only frightened the boyars, and only got rid of those whom he suspected of treason. During the first years of his reign, he executed 11 boyars who were preparing a coup against him. Having avoided a real threat, Dracula began to restore order in the country. He made new laws. For thefts, murders and violence, criminals faced execution - they had to be burned at the stake. When public executions began in the country, people realized that their ruler was not joking.

Vlad the Impaler quickly became famous as a just ruler. In his time, money could be left right on the street and no one would dare to steal it, because everyone knew that the punishment would be terrible. There was not a single thief in the country. For Vlad it did not matter whether a nobleman, a boyar or an ordinary beggar committed a crime. There was only one solution for everyone - execution. Legend claims that this is how he destroyed all the beggars and those who did not want to work. gradually he deliberately made people fear him. He even selected scary stories about his cruelty. He believed that this was the only way to make him respect himself and prepare the people for a difficult war with the Turks. In each city, Vlad left a golden cup at the main well so that anyone could drink the water. People feared and respected their ruler so much that no one dared to steal this cup. Some of his reforms healed the Wallachian economy in record time. Under Dracula, even hominy was cooked in milk, since milk was cheaper than water. He gave the green light to local merchants, and imposed a heavy duty on foreign ones. And when the merchants of neighboring Transylvania tried to rebel, he staged a show execution. In front of the entire merchant community, he ordered ten merchants who violated his law to be impaled. But they did not forgive him for this. Vlad punished the Saxons near Brasov, after which they began to make up terrible stories about him. The Saxons portrayed Dracula as a terrible, bloody and cruel ruler. To them he was a monster. Thus began the creation of the image of the Devil. The merchants decided to take revenge and spread rumors that Dracula is the Devil, destroying his people, that he burns entire cities, impales even babies, burns out the breasts of women, and then feasts among the corpses. Later, other terrible inventions were added to these fantasies.

One day Dracula hosted a dinner and invited beggars to his place. When the guests had eaten, the prince asked if they always wanted to be so full and happy. The guests nodded their heads happily. Then Vlad left, and the servants locked the house and set fire to it from all sides. No one survived. The same thing happened with the Turkish ambassadors. They came to the prince for negotiations, but refused to take off their turbans as a sign of respect. Then Dracula ordered these turbans to be nailed to the ambassadors' heads. There is only part of the truth in these stories. The beggars in the country really disappeared, but no one burned them at the feast. They were punished, and those who refused to work were burned. And no one nailed turbans to the ambassadors’ heads. Dracula knew Turkish customs too well. Since there was no chronicler at Dracula's court, there is too little information about him. The only "reliable" document was a pamphlet written by Saxon merchants. In it, he is naturally presented in the most negative light. But for the Romanian people he is a hero and a fair ruler who never killed innocent people.

Thus, in four years, Dracula completely changed the situation in his country. He founded the future capital - Bucharest, began building new castles and fortresses and continued not to pay tribute to the Sultan, realizing that they would soon want to punish him. But when Vlad turned to his allies Hungary and Moldova for support, they refused to help him. Friend and King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus has already spent the money allocated to him by the Pope for the crusade. Therefore, he was forced to support Dracula, but he did it in a very cunning way - he equipped an army and ordered him to stay on the border with Wallachia and wait. The angry Sultan gathered 250 thousand soldiers and sent them to Wallachia. Vlad was in despair, because he had only 30 thousand soldiers. Then he decided to retreat and wage a guerrilla war. His warriors attacked only at night, howling like wolves. The Turks were terrified; they thought they were fighting werewolves. This is exactly what Prince Dracula wanted. His army quickly appeared, killed and disappeared just as quickly. The Turks found nothing in Wallachia, not even horse feed. The water in the wells was poisoned. The Turks drank and died. Moreover, in all mountain gorges and ambushes awaited them in the forests.

The “scorched earth” tactic worked - the huge army of the Turks melted before our eyes. Everyone volunteered to join Dracula's army. Even 12-year-old boys and women were accepted into the army. And in 1462, one of the most famous and daring attacks of this war took place. Vlad dressed his soldiers in Turkish clothes and attacked the Sultan's headquarters at night. The panic began. No one understood who was attacking them and from where. The frightened Turks hacked at each other. The Sultan was not killed only by mistake - he was confused with the vizier. That night, Dracula's small army destroyed 30 thousand Turks. And the next day the Sultan discovered a forest of impaled Turkish soldiers - 4,000 dead. So Vlad surpassed his teachers in cruelty. The conqueror of Constantinople, the great and invincible sultan, after what he saw, said: “I cannot conquer a country ruled by such a bloodthirsty and great warrior” and simply retreated. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary attributed this victory to himself. Allegedly, it was he who led Dracula in the war. O sent a letter to the Pope and reported that the money had not been spent in vain.

Now all of Europe glorified Dracula and Corvinus as heroes. The Hungarian king told the offended Dracula that he could not help him. I just didn’t have time to gather an army. And Vlad believed his friend. All he had to do was finish off the retreating Turkish troops. One day, during a routine battle with the Turks, Dracula suddenly encountered the commander of a Turkish detachment in battle. A battle ensued, and when Vlad took off the Turk’s helmet with a blow, he saw his brother Radu. He realized that his brother had become a traitor and a loyal servant of the Sultan. Vlad wanted to kill him, but his brother shouted that Vlad was his debtor. It was he who begged the Sultan to grant him freedom and the throne. Having killed hundreds of enemies, Dracula could not kill just one. This mistake will cost him his life.

Betrayal

He soon learned that the Rada was supported by the boyars andmade a new contender for the throne. There was a rebellion against the prince. The boyars entered into a secret agreement with the Turks. and they launched a new attack on the country. It was a trap - Vlad's small army could not fight on two fronts. He had to give up positions and retreat into the mountains, and keep the last defense high in the mountains - in his impregnable fortress Poenari . It was here that Dracula's hopes of liberating his country were buried. Here his army held the Turkish siege for several months and he managed to transport his wife here, saving him from the possible revenge of the boyars. The Turks nevertheless surrounded the fortress. Vlad, with the last of his strength, ran to the tower with a secret exit, where the unfortunate Lydia was waiting for him. But Vlad did not have time - the Turks had already made a hole in the wall of the tower. Lydia chose death over Turkish bullying and jumped from the tower into the river. For a woman of that time, being captured by the Turks was worse than suicide. She died defending her honor. They say that it was after the death of Lydia that Dracula sold his soul to Satan. Dracula fled from the fortress, but his life stopped - his wife died, his brother abdicated, his allies betrayed him. All he had left was revenge. The Turks, led by Radu, captured Wallachia. Meanwhile, the King of Hungary had to answer for the failure of the campaign before the Pope. And he found the culprit...

Vlad, hoping for his support, came to Buda, but he was captured. Corwin accused him of treason, allegedly he agreed with Turkish Sultan to take over Hungary. Dracula was imprisoned and brutally tortured to extract a confession of “treason.” He pleaded not guilty to anything. So he spent ten years in a Hungarian prison. So his best friend, the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, shamelessly betrayed Dracula, slandered him, forged letters to the Sultan, and ordered the creation of documents about the prince’s cruel crimes. And the reason for betrayal is as old as the world - money. Royal life required royal expenses, and Matthias appropriated the money allocated by the Pope for the crusade, and decided to shift the blame for the failure of the campaign onto Vlad Dracula, who was also his best friend.

In order to convince the Pope that the prince was capable of treason, he called the offended merchants from Transylvania (the same ones whom Dracula had punished for lying). Now they could take revenge and created an anonymous pamphlet in 1463, which described the inhuman atrocities of Dracula and tens of thousands of tortured civilians. This is how Europe learned about the bloody monster Dracula. While he was in prison, terrible stories about his cruelty spread throughout the world.

Five centuries have passed and after the success of Bram Stoker’s book, cinema became interested in Dracula. The world saw the first silent horror story about Dracula "Nosferatu - a symphony of horror." It was with her that the bloody march of the movie vampire Dracula began. Over the past 80 years, more than 200 films have been made about the world's main vampire. From the cult film by Francis Ford Coppola to the ironic film starring Leslie Nielsen. All this time, Romanians had not heard anything about Dracula the vampire. Films and books simply did not get behind the Iron Curtain. Only in 1992 did they learn in Romania that their Vlad Dracula for the entire Western world is the Prince of Darkness and a symbol of evil.

Vlad Dracula's Castle

Thanks to Stoker's book, Romania became known to the whole world and tourism began to develop in the country. Today, thousands of tourists strive to see Count Dracula's castle. However, there are many such castles throughout Romania, and Dracula simply did not see most of them - they were built after his death. For example, Bran Castle is considered the true residence of the prince, but he never visited there either. We can definitely say that Dracula visited only the Poenari fortress and ancient city Sighisoara, where, in fact, he was born. But Romanian guides naturally don’t talk about this. By the way, the house where Dracula was born is now a restaurant with a vampire theme. Whether this is worth the slandered name of a national hero, only money will answer.

The last descendant of Dracula

A direct descendant of Vlad Dracula now lives in the center of Bucharest - Constantin Bolacheanu-Stolnic . The uniqueness of the situation is that he is already 90 years old and has no children. so he is the last of Dracula's line. Constantin Bolacheanu-Stolnic is a neuropsychologist, anthropologist and geneticist. The old professor descends from Vlad the Impaler's older brother, Mircea. He knows everything about his legendary ancestor Dracula. And he tells people what Vlad really was - a man who fought for the independence of his country, but, unfortunately, fell victim to political intrigue. He is a hero, a national hero. And not only in official history, but also in folk legends. It is not known what the history of Europe would have been like if the Turks had conquered it. And the fact that they did not do this is the merit of Tepes. He had a strong personality. He was well educated, having received the best education at that time - Turkish. He was a good warrior and one of the few who could resist Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The last descendant of Dracula has already come to terms with the fact that his ancestor was turned into a gold mine. But he is still trying to unravel the mystery of the last months of the prince’s life.

The last years of life and death of Vlad Dracula

Vlad spent 12 years of imprisonment in prisons in Buda and Pest. In the meantime, the Pope was replaced, and the Turks became more active again. Europe faced the threat of Turkish invasion. His native Wallachia was ruled by his traitor brother Radu III the Handsome and, of course, by the Turks. There are suggestions that Radu converted to Islam. Therefore, the new Pope Pius II was afraid that the country might become completely Muslim. Then he remembered the captive Dracula. Who else, if not him, should fight for his country?

So after 12 years his imprisonment ended. The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus released him so that he could drive out the Turks and rule Wallachia again. At the same time, he set two conditions for him: 1) he would marry his relative Ilona, ​​so that Corwin would not suspect him of treason; 2) will accept Catholicism to prove his honesty to the Pope. Vlad will humbly accept all the conditions - he married a second time and became an apostate. All just to return and fulfill his third oath - to liberate the country. When he set out on his last campaign against the Turks he was 45 years old. His wife managed to give birth to two sons, and the king of Hungary finally fulfilled his promise - he gave him an army. With battles, Vlad ascended the throne for the third time. But an unpleasant surprise awaited him at home - now everyone was afraid of him to death, even his own servants. He renounced his faith. Behind my back they whispered: sorcerer, devil, apostate. In addition, Wallachia was again weakened by civil strife. Dracula again fought with the Turks and victory was his. One day in 1462, during a battle, he suddenly felt a terrible blow to his back. He was killed by his own boyars, treacherously, in battle...

Then, before burial, superstitious people drove a stake into the prince’s chest and cut off his head. This is how they treated traitors to the faith back then. Vlad Dracula was buried by monks Snagovsky Monastery. But a few years later the grave was opened and only rubbish and animal bones were found in it. The panic began. There were rumors that Vlad Dracula was alive. No one knew that his grave was securely hidden under a slab in front of the entrance to the same church. Someone reburied the body specifically so that parishioners would trample Dracula’s ashes. According to ancient Orthodox custom, this meant that with such humiliation the deceased would atone for his earthly guilt.

Many centuries have passed and now for Romania the prince has again become a hero. time put everything in its place. People understood too late the role that Dracula played in the liberation of the country. Today in Romania there is a popular song: “Where are you, Tepes, our god? Come back and send all the rulers of Romania to hell...”

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Fifth guard. 1 season. Episode 1 Prologue

Elegant and merciless, awe-inspiring and terrifying, the hero of numerous books and films, Count Dracula... Many people know the story of the vampire, but not everyone knows that Dracula is a real historical figure, a national hero of Romania, revered as a local saint. His name is Vlad Tepes. He lived in the 15th century. and became known as a valiant warrior, a merciless enemy of the Turkish invaders.

The image of the vampire count has practically nothing in common with the prototype, the Dracula who actually existed. In Stoker's novel, Dracula is presented as a Transylvanian count from an ancient Szekler family, whose castle was located near the small post town of Bystrica behind the Borgo gorge. No less fantastic are the claims that the Saxons lived only in the north of Transylvania, and the Wallachians - exclusively in the south, that the region where Bystrica is located borders Bukovina, and the Ugric tribes inherited the fighting spirit of the Icelanders! All this is evidence of the complete ignorance of the author, who, having an undoubted literary talent, did not take the trouble to study the history of the country about which he was going to write. Of course, Dracula is not a documentary study, but a fictional novel, but, unfortunately, most readers perceive the facts presented by Stoker as a real story. In fact, Transylvania was never an independent state, but was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Bystrica is not a postal place at all, but one of the largest cities in the region, one of the seven that gave the name to the region - Siebenburgen, or Semigradye. Borgo is not a gorge, but a large mountain gap; The Saxons settled throughout the south of Transylvania. And finally, Count Dracula was not a count, but a governor of Wallachia and a Wallachian by nationality.
But, as you know, there is no smoke without fire. Something in the biography of Vlad Tepes attracted the writer and many researchers. Yes, this man’s past hides many dark mysteries. Even during his lifetime, amazing and terrible legends circulated about him. One day, a foreign merchant who arrived in Wallachia discovered that his wallet had disappeared. He complained to the governor, who found the thief and impaled him, and the merchant, by order of Tepes, was given a wallet containing one more coin. Having counted the money and discovered a surplus, the merchant again turned to the governor, and he said with a laugh: “Well done, if he hadn’t confessed, he would have been sitting on a stake next to the thief.” Another legend tells how Vlad the Impaler ended poverty: he called the poor and holy fools into his house, fed them to their fill and asked if they wanted to get rid of earthly suffering forever. Having received an affirmative answer, Tepes closed the doors and windows in the house and set it on fire.
There is a story about a mistress who tried to deceive the governor by reporting her pregnancy. Vlad did not believe it and warned that he would not tolerate lies. When the woman insisted, Tepes ripped open her stomach and shouted: “I told you I wouldn’t tolerate deception!”
The chronicles also contain the creepy and least plausible of all existing legends that Dracula liked to have breakfast at the place of execution or on the battlefield. He ate while watching the suffering of the dying.
There is also a myth that in the capital of Wallachia there was a golden bowl near the fountain. Anyone could come up and drink from it, but no one dared to steal it. Another document tells the story of how Tepes executed Turkish ambassadors who did not want to take off their caps, usually worn under a turban, in front of him. Enraged by the disrespect, Tepes ordered the ambassadors' caps to be nailed to their heads. These and dozens of other scary tales about Dracula were extremely popular among the people. By the way, Romanian peasants treated the cruel but fair ruler with respect and admiration. In those days, the common people were insensitive to cruelty. Severe disposition Dracula was considered an asset rather than a weakness, so in the oral legends about Vlad horrors were piled upon horrors. It is not surprising that Bram Stoker, who wrote a novel about vampires, liked the idea of ​​​​using the name Dracula, whose reputation was quite consistent with the color of the work. The novel was published in 1897 and almost immediately became a bestseller.
Why real life the governor and ruler of Wallachia was forgotten and he became known to the world as an insidious bloodthirsty vampire who destroyed thousands of people? To find the reasons that gave rise to myths and legends about the cruel bloodsucker, let’s go back six centuries and trace the life path of this extraordinary, amazing person or, as some say, the son of the devil in human form. Dracula's real name, Vlad, was given to him at baptism. The founder of the family into which Vlad was born was Basarab, the son of Tatamer, famous for his ability, albeit for a short time, to achieve the independence of Danubian Wallachia from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Dracula's father, as the chronicles testify, also bore the name Vlad and was the youngest - illegitimate - son of Mircea I, who, in order to maintain peace with King Sigismund, gave him as a hostage. But after the death of his father in 1418, and then his brothers, Vlad remained the only heir of Wallachia. At that time, he was still a “guest” of the king and, while living in Nuremberg, he joined the Order of the Dragon and ordered to depict a dragon even on coins, although the image on coins was considered sacred, which is why, by the way, counterfeiters were punished so cruelly.
The exact date of birth of his son, Vlad II, could not be established - chronicles indicate dates between 1428 and 1431. Built at the beginning of the 15th century. the house on Kuznechnaya Street in the town of Sighisoara is considered to be exactly the place where Vlad the Impaler saw the light, since his father, Vlad Dracul, lived here. The son immediately received the nickname Dracula - “son of the devil.” Therefore, many contemporaries believed that this family was related to witchcraft and witchcraft.
In 1442, Vlad Dracul and his sons Vlad and Radul went to Turkey. Apparently, this trip became the starting point from which Dracula’s bloody path began.
In order to ensure regular payments of tribute, which Wallachia paid in silver and timber, as well as the obedience of the ruler of the region, the Sultan demanded that his sons be left hostages. Together with several other high-born youths - Bosnians, Serbs, Hungarians - Vlad spent about ten years in Adrianople as a “guest”.
Much is known about the sophisticated executions of the Muslim Middle Ages, and even reading eyewitness accounts is scary. And young Vlad witnessed these terrible sights day after day, realizing that he might well one day find himself in the place of the victim. Here is the most striking episode witnessed by the prisoner.
The hospitable Turks grew their usual vegetables for the table of their noble “guests,” but one day it was discovered that several cucumbers had disappeared from the garden. The vizier was unable to find out who stole the vegetables - no one saw the thief. Since suspicion of stealing a rare delicacy fell on the gardeners, a simple decision was made: to see what was in their stomachs. Such an unusual method of inquiry yielded results - pieces of cucumber were found in the fifth cut stomach. The culprit was beheaded, but the rest were allowed to try to survive. Vlad also heard great things about the Sultan’s mercy. When the despot of Serbia, Brankovic, rebelled, he condemned his two sons as hostages to death. The boys were brought to the foot of the throne, and Sultan Murad announced that, out of his infinite mercy, he would grant life to the captives. At a sign from the ruler, the Janissary bodyguard “only” blinded both brothers. The word “mercy” in relation to this case was used quite seriously, without any irony or mockery. As for the Turks’ favorite execution by impalement, not a day went by without it. It’s hard to imagine what kind of torment a twelve-year-old teenager endured, seeing blood shed every day. The impressions experienced by Vlad during the years of captivity, washed by rivers of blood, turned out to be decisive in shaping the character of the future governor and ruler of Wallachia. There was only one way to survive in the bloody hell - to hide his feelings, and he perfectly mastered this art.
In 1452, Vlad returned to his native land and soon took the Wallachian throne. However, the boyars were not interested in centralized strong power. They were quite satisfied with the rule of the Turks, because the Sultan’s governors did not encroach on the privileges of the ancient families, but only demanded the timely payment of tribute. Nobody wanted to quarrel with the Sultan. To retain power and save his own life, Vlad Dracula waged a ruthless fight against the boyars.
On the occasion of some holiday, Vlad invited almost the entire Wallachian nobility to Tirgovishte. About 500 boyars arrived because they did not want to clearly demonstrate distrust or hostility to the new ruler. And the number of invitees, it seemed to them, guaranteed safety. Judging by the records in the chronicles, the feast was luxurious. According to legend, Tepes asked how many rulers each of them remembered. It turned out that even the youngest of them remembers at least seven reigns. Tepes's response was an attempt to put an end to this order: by order of the owner, the guests were impaled before they had time to sober up. The problem of the “internal enemy” was solved forever.
Next in line was the fight against the Turks. The former prisoner's hatred for them was enormous. Vlad sought to show his teachers that he had learned all the lessons taught to him well. The Sultan sent a punitive detachment against the rebel, but the Turks themselves fell into a trap and surrendered. The prisoners were taken to Tirgovishte and publicly executed, impaled - every single one - within one day. A stake with a gold tip was prepared for the Turkish aga, who commanded the detachment.
The enraged Sultan marched a huge army against Wallachia. But the ruler was ready for this. Not trusting the aristocrats, Vlad recruited an army from commoners, personally knighting them. He formed an alliance with Hungary. Pope Pius II promised to give money for the war with the Ottomans. However, when the Turkish troops approached Wallachia, the allies left Dracula alone with the enemy. Here Dracula showed his talent as a commander. Realizing that in open battle he was doomed to defeat, Vlad allowed the Turks to capture the capital of the principality and began a guerrilla war. His famous “night raid” on the Sultan’s camp went down in history - Vlad, with 7,000 soldiers, attacked the enemy’s camp at night, destroyed about 15,000 Turks and barely broke into the Sultan’s own tent. Frightened, the enemy hastily left Wallachia, leaving Rada the Beautiful in his place. The decisive battle took place in 1461, when Vlad's militia inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turks. However, in 14 62, Dracula was forced to flee to Hungary, losing Wallachia to his “Turkish” brother Radul. According to numerous legends, last refuge Poenari Castle became Dracula's castle in Wallachia. To reach its gates, you need to climb 1,500 steps. Poenari Castle was allegedly built by the boyars who angered Dracula. He lured them to lunch, and then drove them into the mountains, where they built a castle from river stones. Myths claim that it was here that Dracula held his defense and lost his beloved wife, the beautiful Elizabeth. She chose death over dishonor and threw herself from the tower into the river. Dracula escaped through an underground passage and disappeared into Hungary. The Hungarian King Matthias had no intention of entering the fight against the Turks; he wanted much more to keep in his treasury the money allocated by the Pope for the war. And he blamed all the blame for the failure in the fight against the Ottomans on Dracula, whom he captured. It was during this period that chronicles suddenly began to describe the cruelty and sadism of Dracula, and this is where the legends about his causeless cruelty and love of bloodshed came from. Vlad spent about 12 years in captivity and was released only after marrying Matthias’ cousin. True, some chroniclers believed that the king would not have given his sister for a prisoner and Vlad was released after four years, he lived as a guest and converted to Catholicism. This fact gave rise to the Orthodox belief that Vlad became a vampire. Many legends say that, once in captivity, Dracula consoled himself by impaling rats, mice and birds in the absence of human victims. They also report that he caught rats and mice himself, and that birds, at his request, were bought at the market. In captivity, Dracula earned money as a tailor! But annals and chronicles refute these dark speculations. All this is nothing more than a legend. What really happened? Visegrad Castle, where Vlad was imprisoned, was called “earthly paradise” in those days. There were luxurious halls, gardens, fountains, even a library and a venue for knightly tournaments. Taking advantage of all these amenities, Dracula lived with his wife and children in the five-story “Solomon's Tower.” There is also evidence in the chronicles that at the time of the Turkish invasion of Wallachia, Vlad was already married to Matthias’s cousin, who was completely safe at her brother’s court. She was not in Poenar Castle, did not rush anywhere, and already in captivity gave birth to Vlad’s sons. The story about the children of Tepes from the Kirillo-Belozersky manuscript indicates that Dracula's eldest son Mikhnya was illegitimate. This means that Vlad could have had an unmarried wife. Vlad, of course, could not send her to Hungary and, most likely, hid her in the Poenari castle. And the castle was besieged not in the presence of Tepes, who shamefully fled, but after Vlad was taken into custody by Matthias and could not return to help his defenders.
The description found in the chronographs dates back to the period of his stay in Hungary. appearance Vlad, made by one of the ambassadors who personally saw Dracula at the royal court. It depicts Tepes as a man of short stature, but of strong build. His features were blooming and rough, the skin of his face was delicate, a large aquiline nose, flaring nostrils, very long eyelashes, green, wide-open eyes, lush black, menacingly frowning eyebrows, a large mustache. This matches the famous portrait of Dracula. As we see, at a time when legends about the bloodthirsty vampire Dracula circulated in Europe, nothing in his appearance indicated any resemblance to vampires.
Having accumulated strength, in 1476 Vlad recaptured Wallachia from his brother, but his position remained very weak. The boyars regained their power, and when the Turks marched against Dracula, he only managed to gather 4,000 men. With such an army he was doomed to defeat. There are several versions of his death. According to one, he was killed by the boyars who went over to the side of the Sultan. Having found Tepes' body, the boyars chopped it into pieces and scattered it around. Later, monks from the Snagovsky monastery collected the remains and interred them.
According to another, more widespread version, Dracula fell in battle with the Turks - and the governor was stabbed in the back by one of his own soldiers. The Turks cut off Dracula's head, preserved it in honey and displayed it on the wall of Istanbul as proof that their cruel enemy was indeed dead. Another version claims that the Sultan sent an assassin to Dracula.
The version that Vlad had a Turkish servant - an agent who enjoyed the full trust of the ruler is unlikely. Dracula was too experienced and cautious to trust anyone recklessly. The only explanation for the fact that Vlad had a Turk with him before the battle is that he received information about the enemy from a prisoner. It is unlikely that in such a situation the prisoner was left unattended and, moreover, given the opportunity to obtain weapons.
There is a detailed description of Vlad's death. It states that Tepes climbed alone to the top of the hill to inspect the battlefield, and then Wallachian fighters attacked him, mistaking him for a Turk. Dracula indeed often dressed like a Turk, but his detachment was not so large that one of the warriors did not remember this, and indeed did not recognize their commander in any clothing.
Other historians argue that the attack on Vlad during the battle was deliberate. This is the most likely version. Dracula had many enemies among the boyars, and they knew very well that Vlad was very well guarded and you could only get close to him during a battle, when he was less concerned about his own safety.
There are many myths about the grave of Vlad the Impaler. Legends say that the grave is empty, that it is regularly covered with stones by local residents who are afraid of Dracula the vampire, since he is buried alive in it.
In 1932, the real grave of Tepes was found and examined by archaeologist Rossetti. It is located in the Snagovsky monastery, under the floor of the church. During his lifetime, Dracula actually maintained this monastery and, according to all canons, should have been buried here. According to the stories of the monks, Tepes was buried at the Royal Doors so that the priest, carrying out the holy gifts, would trample underfoot the bloodthirsty monster each time. The explanation was clearly invented much later, since at that time no one would have thought of desecrating the grave of a benefactor, and the place under the altar was honorable and served as a worthy grave for the sovereign.
At the beginning of the century before last, not very literate bishops ordered the destruction of frescoes depicting Dracula, and in 1815 the grave in Snagov was desecrated: the inscription on the tombstone was knocked off. During the Second World War, the monastery several times found itself on the front line and the gravestones were partially broken and mixed up, and this significantly complicated the task of archaeologists - it turned out to be very difficult to find the right grave. The burial place under the altar turned out to be empty. But Vlad’s remains were found under another slab, located opposite the place of honor, right next to the entrance to the church. This situation could have been caused by the desire of the ruler to hide the real burial place.
The body was completely decayed, not only the bones were scattered, which makes it impossible to find out whether the body had a head, but also the precious stones in the settings. Gold, silver and faience jewelry and some details have been preserved. On top of everything there was a thick layer of rust - apparently the remains of a weapon placed in the coffin. The identity of Tepes was identified by indirect signs: by the details of the costume, consistent with the era and with his position, by the correspondence of the burial place to the legends, by the decoration worn on his neck - a wreath of earthenware and silver flowers, decorated with garnets, which was later identified as a prize for victory at the tournament . It is known that Dracula loved to participate in competitions and could receive such a trophy. The deceased was dressed very carefully; accordingly, the entire inconsistency of the assertions that Tepes’s body was cut into pieces and he was collected in parts and buried in the clothes in which he fought becomes clear. It appears that a woman was involved in organizing the funeral. This is evidenced, in particular, by a bag found under the remains of clothing, apparently hanging on the neck, in which there was a woman’s ring with an unpreserved stone. Relatively recently, reports appeared in the media that Americans want to clone Dracula in order to find out whether he really was a vampire. However, the remains found by Rossetti cannot provide material for such an experiment.
Everything we have learned about Dracula allows us to assert that he was an extraordinary person, a wise commander and a prominent politician. Was he a hero or a tyrant? It is difficult to give a definite answer. Most likely, both. He ruled with an iron fist, destroyed his enemies with sophisticated cruelty, and dealt with the invaders of his native land in such a way that the Turks themselves felt sick. And at the same time, given the morals and customs of the Middle Ages, such behavior was hardly unusual. Dracula's relative, the Moldavian prince Stefan, impaled two thousand people, but went down in history under the nicknames “Great” and “Saint”. Dracula's terrible reputation is the result of the intrigues and machinations of his many enemies and envious people. Vlad was only a fraction more cruel than the time in which he happened to live.
The line of Dracula did not end with the death of Vlad. His descendants live in our time, and no deviations have been noticed in their life and behavior, especially the craving for drinking human blood.