There was a governor in the Muntyansky 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 the unknown and terrible forests of Eastern Europe, among the 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 hard as 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. In addition, ambushes awaited them in all the mountain gorges and 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 hold 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 the Turkish Sultan to seize 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 the ancient city of 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 in prison 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. Dracula's stern disposition 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 was the real life of the governor and ruler of Wallachia 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 he was doomed to defeat in open battle, 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, Poenari Castle became the last refuge of Dracula 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 site 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.
A description of Vlad’s appearance found in chronographs, made by one of the ambassadors who personally saw Dracula at the royal court, dates back to the period of his stay in Hungary. 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.

Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or simply Dracula, was a legendary military prince of Wallachia. He ruled the principality three times - in 1448, from 1456 to 1462 and in 1476, during the beginning of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Dracula became a popular folklore character in many Eastern European countries due to his bloody battles and defense of Orthodox Christianity against the invading Ottomans. And at the same time he is one of the most popular and bloody figures in the history of pop culture. The blood-chilling legends about Dracula are known to almost everyone, but what was the real Vlad the Impaler like?

1. Small Motherland

The real historical prototype of Dracula was Vlad III (Vlad the Impaler). He was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania in 1431. Today, a restaurant has been built at his former birthplace, which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.

2. Order of the Dragon

Dracula's father was called Dracul, which means "dragon". Also, according to other sources, he had the nickname "devil". He received a similar name because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Ottoman Empire.

3. Father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa

Although nothing is known about Dracula's mother, it is assumed that his father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa at the time. However, since Vlad II had several mistresses, no one knows who Dracula's real mother was.

4. Between two fires

Dracula lived in a time of constant war. Transylvania was located on the border of two great empires: the Ottoman and Austrian Habsburgs. As a young man he was imprisoned, first by the Turks and later by the Hungarians. Dracula's father was killed, and his older brother Mircea was blinded with red-hot iron stakes and buried alive. These two facts greatly influenced how vile and vicious Vlad later became.

5.Constantine XI Palaiologos

It is believed that the young Dracula spent some time in Constantinople in 1443 at the court of Constantine XI Palaiologos, a legendary character in Greek folklore and the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Some historians suggest that it was there that he developed his hatred of the Ottomans.

6. Son and heir Mikhnya is evil

It is believed that Dracula was married twice. His first wife is unknown, although she may have been a Transylvanian noblewoman. She bore Vlad a son and heir, the evil Mikhny. Vlad married a second time after serving his prison sentence in Hungary. Dracula's second wife was Ilona Szilágyi, the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman. She bore him two sons, but neither of them became a ruler.

7. Nickname "Tepes"

The nickname "Tepes" translated from Romanian means "piercer". It appeared 30 years after Vlad's death. Vlad III earned his nickname "Tepes" (from the Romanian word țeapă 0 - "stake") because he killed thousands of Turks in a grisly manner - impalement. He learned about this execution as a teenager, when he was a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.

8. The worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire

It is believed that Dracula is responsible for the deaths of more than one hundred thousand people (most of them Turks). This made him the worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire.

9. Twenty thousand rotting corpses frightened the Sultan

In 1462, during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Dracula's Wallachia, Sultan Mehmed II fled with his army, horrified by the sight of twenty thousand rotting Turkish corpses impaled on stakes on the outskirts of Vlad's capital, Targovishte. During one battle, Dracula retreated into the nearby mountains, leaving behind him imprisoned prisoners. This forced the Turks to stop their pursuit, since the Sultan could not stand the stench of decaying corpses.

10. Birth of a legend

Impaled corpses were usually displayed as a warning to others. At the same time, the corpses were white because the blood completely flowed out of the wound on the neck. This is where the legend came from that Vlad the Impaler was a vampire.

11. Scorched earth tactics

Dracula also became known for the fact that during his retreat, he burned villages along the way and killed all the local residents. Such atrocities were committed so that the soldiers of the Ottoman army had no place to rest and so that there were no women whom they could rape. In an attempt to cleanse the streets of the Wallachian capital Targovishte, Dracula invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses under the pretext of a feast. At the end of the feast, Dracula left the house, locked it from the outside and set it on fire.

12. Dracula's head went to the Sultan

In 1476, 45-year-old Vlad was eventually captured and beheaded during the Turkish invasion. His head was brought to the Sultan, who put it on public display on the fence of his palace.

13. Remains of Dracula

It is believed that archaeologists who were searching for Snagov (a commune near Bucharest) in 1931 found the remains of Dracula. The remains were transferred to the historical museum in Bucharest, but later they disappeared without a trace, leaving the secrets of the real Prince Dracula unanswered.

14. Dracula was very religious

Despite his cruelty, Dracula was very religious and surrounded himself with priests and monks throughout his life. He founded five monasteries, and his family founded more than fifty monasteries over 150 years. He was initially praised by the Vatican for defending Christianity. However, the church subsequently expressed its disapproval of Dracula's brutal methods and ended its relationship with him.

15. An enemy of Turkey and a friend of Russia.

In Turkey, Dracula is considered a monstrous and vile ruler who executed his enemies in a painful way purely for his own pleasure. In Russia, many sources consider his actions to be justified.

16. Transylvanian subculture

Dracula enjoyed enormous popularity in the second half of the twentieth century. More than two hundred films have been made starring Count Dracula, more than any other historical figure. At the center of this subculture is the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with the land of vampires.

17. Dracula and Ceausescu

Strange sense of humor. | Photo: skachayka-programmi.ga

According to the book "In Search of Dracula", Vlad had a very strange sense of humor. The book tells how his victims often twitched on the stakes “like frogs.” Vlad thought it was funny, and once said of his victims: “Oh, what great grace they show.”

20. Fear and the Golden Cup

In order to prove how much the inhabitants of the principality feared him, Dracula placed a golden cup in the middle of the city square in Targovishte. He allowed people to drink from it, but the golden cup had to remain in its place at all times. Surprisingly, during the entire reign of Vlad, the golden cup was never touched, although sixty thousand people lived in the city, most in conditions of extreme poverty.

Interesting facts from the life of Vlad Dracula

Vlad III Tepes (Dracula) - ruler of Wallachia (born approximately 1431 - died 1476)

Vlad Dracula (Dracul) is a real historical figure of the 15th century. The biography of Lord Dracula is interesting, tragic and based on information contained in Serbian, Polish, Byzantine and even Russian chronicles. The great Moscow sovereign Ivan III ordered to write down the history of the ruler Dracula, nicknamed Tepes (namely the ruler, not the count!) for the edification of his descendants. Many historians believe that these notes were carefully studied in his youth by Ivan Vasilyevich IV, who later received the nickname Grozny.

The famous humanist and poet Cardinal Aeneas Piccolomini (1405–1464), while traveling around Europe, personally met with Vlad Dracula. In his work “Cosmography,” the cardinal describes his appearance as follows: “A man of average height, with a high forehead and a face that sharply tapers towards the chin.”

To this description we will add that Vlad III Tepes and all other representatives of the Draculeshty family, including those living today, never suffered from pallor or other vampire ailments. Vlad himself was not really tall, but he had enormous physical strength. He had a large aquiline nose, broad shoulders and a thick neck. There was a lush head of dark hair on his head. According to chroniclers, Vlad was an excellent horseman and was excellent at wielding bladed weapons. In his younger years, he became the winner of the prestigious jousting tournament in Nuremberg in Germany.

Vlad's ancestors came to Romania and Moldova from Hungary in the 13th century. They adopted the language and faith of their new homeland, becoming its rulers. In the center of Chisinau there was a monument to the ruler of Moldavia, Mircea the Old, the grandfather of Vlad II. Wallachia was founded in 1290.

Exactly 100 years later, the illegitimate son of the ruler Mirce was born, who was named Vlad. He was distinguished by his courage and bravery in the battles that raged in those parts every now and then. The people nicknamed him Dracula, and in this nickname there is not even a hint of mysticism: Vlad II Dracula was a member of the secret knightly order of the Dragon, or rather, the defeated dragon. There is nothing secret that would not become obvious: many people, including the Turks, learned about the order.

At the end of 1431, Vlad II had a son, who also received the name Vlad in honor of his father.

“The Wallachian dog has become old and does not listen well to its owner,” the Sultan told the viziers, throwing a green silk cord onto a golden dish.
It was a sentence. Vlad II became the ruler of Wallachia, taking the throne of his father, who died at the request and verdict of the Turkish Sultan.

“Let's see if the dragon knights will help the new Wallachian ruler in battles with the warriors of Islam,” the Grand Vizier laughed sarcastically. “So that he doesn’t plot against the padishah, let him give his son as a hostage!”

So, while still a boy, the future Vlad III Dracula, later nicknamed Tepes (“Tepes” translated into Russian means “stake”), became a hostage of the Sultan.

In those days, in order to keep vassals always ready to rebel in obedience, the Turks took their children hostage and executed them with cruel death at the first manifestations of disobedience of their parents. Often the boys were first castrated, and then sent to the harem and only after a while they were killed. The hostage's life was constantly hanging in the balance. I had the opportunity to leave my father's house and be raised at the court of the Sultan.

For 7 long years, outwardly maintaining humility, the young man languished in captivity and only after the death of his father and older brother received freedom.

“You will take the place of your parent,” the Grand Vizier nodded favorably as he released Vlad. – Don’t make mistakes if you want to save life and power.

He did not know that not much time would pass and the young Wallachian ruler, who had well learned the lessons of Turkish cruelty, would begin to instill panic in the Muslims and receive from them the nickname Kazykly - the Piercer!

God, what freedom this is! A recent hostage, mourning the death of his father, was released under escort on the condition of maintaining submission to the Ottomans and paying tribute. Vlad went home along with the officials, spies and guards assigned to him. But, once in his hometown of Seguisoara - on the territory of modern Romania, Dracula immediately threw off his mask of humility: he expelled all the Turks and, on pain of death, forbade them to appear in his possessions. This turned out to be not empty bravado of a 19-year-old youth who was eager for revenge!

Dracula chose the city of Brasov as his stronghold and began to prepare for a long and bloody war. His other stronghold was in Tirgovishte, which stood on the high bank of the Yalomirtsy River. At the same time, Gospodar Vlad III was actively involved in the internal affairs of his state.

From the Turks, Vlad adopted the cruel method of execution - impalement. Historical chronicles note: Dracula’s executioners achieved such virtuoso art (if brutal murders can be called art) that the stake passed through the human body, minimally touching the internal organs. The victim suffered for a long time before dying. To prolong the agony, a special crossbar was nailed to the stake so that the body would not completely sit down, like on a skewer, and the victim would not die quickly.

Soon Vlad gathered all the boyars together with their families for a feast in the palace - in total, according to chroniclers, there were up to 500 guests. They feasted in Tirgovishte. Allegedly, Vlad III celebrated his accession to the throne. During the feast, when the wine flowed like a river, the ruler, with an innocent look, slyly asked the order of the tipsy guests:

- Tell me, boyars, how many rulers have you decided?
- A lot, sir! – the guests began to vying with each other. – Not one or two.
“Great,” Dracula grinned. And he shouted angrily: “They are all killed, like my father and older brother.” Killed because you constantly plotted and sold yourself wholeheartedly to the Turks, becoming blind executors of their will. Traitors! Now a new nobility will appear in my state! Hey guards! Take them all!

The ruler ordered those who were older, regardless of gender, to be impaled. He gathered the rest in the courtyard of his palace-castle and gloomily told them:
- You will go on foot under escort to Poenri. There, build a fortress on the top of the hill above the river. Whoever survives should consider himself lucky. Build day and night. A count awaits the careless!

In fact, Vlad III sent his enemy boyars to hard labor.

The Lord sincerely believed that all citizens must work for the good of their homeland, and therefore did not favor those who could not do this - the poor, the beggars, the sick and thieves.

One day the ruler addressed a speech to the city beggars - the crippled and the beggars:
– Do you want to get rid of the oppressive feeling of hunger forever and not chatter your teeth from the cold?
Hearing how the beggars and cripples murmured approvingly in response, Vlad III suggested:
- Come to me, become my guests.
The brotherhood of poor beggars, petty thieves and cripples were treated to glory in a large barn. When the “guests” got pretty tipsy, Vlad quietly went out and gave a signal to the palace guards. The soldiers he had trained quickly boarded up the windows and doors, and then set fire to the barn from 4 corners. A high flame quickly rose and dry boards crackled in the fire. The roar of the fire drowned out the screams of those burned alive.

According to the version of other chroniclers, the ruler gathered enemy spies in one of the old castles and burned it along with the traitors. This version is more plausible - small Orthodox Wallachia had enough enemies. As if between millstones, it was squeezed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire on one side and the Catholic kingdom of Hungary on the other.

Foreigners who visited Wallachia wrote with surprise that “there is no crime in the country.” All the years of the reign of Vlad III, in the square of his capital there was a large golden cup from which anyone could drink spring water. They were terrified of stealing, knowing what fate awaited the thief - stake! Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Tepes, did not spare thieves. This may seem strange, but the ruler enjoyed the love and trust of the people. He saw him as a protector, and the new boyars, created by the ruler to replace the executed traitors, stood up for their ruler.

In particular, Vlad did not favor the Turks. Chroniclers mention a case when the ruler strictly ordered the Sultan’s envoys who arrived to him:

- Bare your heads! You are in the palace of the Orthodox ruler of Wallachia.
“You know better than others: our faith in Allah does not allow us to do this.”
– Do you believe so fervently that you are ready to suffer for your faith and the prophet?
“Yes,” the Turks answered firmly, not knowing what the padishah’s vassal was planning.
- Hey, guards! - the ruler clapped his hands - Take them! Let the executioner nail their turbans to their heads!

The ruler preferred mass executions to single executions. Moreover, he ordered the stakes to be placed in the form of different patterns, and most often - circles. He especially loved executions during feasts. The Lord sat at a table laden with dishes and goblets of wine, and admired how the condemned were writhing in pain on the stakes.

But Vlad did not forget about other types of execution: he skinned criminals alive and threw them into boiling water. Beheaded, blinded. Strangled, hanged, cut off noses, ears, genitals and limbs. After the executions, the bodies were put on public display.

Dracula treated female chastity with special “trepidation.” The victims of his cruelty were girls deflowered, unfaithful wives and unchaste widows. Often their genitals were removed and their breasts were cut off. One such unfortunate woman, by order of the ruler, first had her breasts cut off, then her skin was torn off and impaled on a stake in the main square, and her flayed skin was placed next to her on the executioner’s bench.

However, Dracula not only eradicated crime and “pinned down” the debauchees. He did his best to protect his subjects from the violence of the even more cruel Turk enslavers.

Russian chroniclers talk more kindly about Dracula than German and, of course, Turkish ones. Wallachia and Muscovy sent diplomatic missions to each other, mostly consisting of Orthodox priests. Ivan III was flattered that the Wallachian prince personally wrote letters to him in Church Slavonic.

1462 - Vlad III Dracula unexpectedly attacked the Turks and drove them out of the Danube Valley.

– Is our former hostage showing disobedience? – Having learned about this, Sultan Mehmed II, nicknamed the Conqueror, grinned. “Let them bring me his head on a platter!”

The Turks could not tolerate neglect of their power, which had already conquered a large part of Europe! Soon, a twenty-thousand-strong Janissary army advanced to the possessions of Vlad III, against which Dracula could field half as many fighters. But they burned with hatred for the enslavers, and the ruler managed not only to study the enemy’s language, but also to learn all his strengths and weaknesses. The Turks knew practically nothing about him as a military leader, while he had extraordinary military talent. The Gospodar occupied several well-fortified mountain fortresses and took control of the main passes.

He sent a select detachment of daredevils to meet the Ottomans, ordering them to capture the Turkish vanguard at any cost. Soon the brave men returned and brought the captured Janissaries. The Lord rejoiced.

In the morning, axes began to sound, stakes were sharpened and driven into the walls of Tirgovishte. The bound Janissaries began to be impaled on stakes. Belyuk-bashi, officers of the Janissary corps received the last honors: their stakes were gilded with ocher.

- To Wallachia! - Mehmed II growled when he learned about the fate of the Janissaries. - Go on a hike! No one will be spared, and the Wallachian ruler will be put on a chain like a dog.

But the ruler managed to prepare well for the invasion of the Turks. Having placed detachments along the route of the Ottoman army, he attacked at the most inopportune moments for the enemy - at crossings or at night. The 40,000-strong Turkish army retreated, and Vlad suffered few losses.

On the third campaign, the Sultan sent 250,000 soldiers against Vlad III the Impaler: more than the population of Wallachia, including women and children. The ruler fielded an army of 40,000 against the enemy. Dracula avoided large-scale clashes, preferring guerrilla tactics. He personally carried out reconnaissance and mostly made do with the forces of his guard. Dressing in Turkish clothes, Vlad Tepes and his comrades raided the enemy camp at night, lit fires, and chopped down the Turks. Panic began, the sleepy Turks killed their own, and Vlad’s guards disappeared into the darkness.

Once, after a particularly bloody raid on the camp, selected Turkish cavalry rushed after a detachment of night Wallachian “werewolves”, and the entire Ottoman army moved after the vanguard. When dawn broke, a terrible sight met the eyes of the Turkish warriors. 7,000 of their horsemen, led by the noble commander Yunus Bey, sat not on horses, but... on stakes. In the same battle formation in which Vlad was pursued.

Retreating to the capital, Dracula burned villages and poisoned wells.
Approaching Tirgovishte, the Sultan saw an eerie picture, known in history as “Forest of stakes.” A whole forest of stakes grew in front of the city, on which Vlad planted about 20,000 Turks.

The stench from the bodies of the executed, decomposing in the sun, spread far in the sultry air.

“It is impossible to take the country away from a husband capable of such acts,” said the shocked Sultan.

As always, betrayal played a vile role. The Turks retreated, but did not retreat. Their fourth campaign against Wallachia ended in the defeat of the ruler.

Dracula was betrayed by everyone: both the mercenaries and the Transylvanians who swore allegiance. The Moldovans were in no hurry to provide help. Even Radu’s own brother took part in the campaign against Wallachia as part of the Turkish army.

Many boyars, who had recently stood up for the ruler, joined the Turks. They drove Vlad into the Poenri fortress. The prince's wife chose death over the shame of captivity and threw herself from a high tower. The Turks captured the fortress, but Vlad was able to escape through an underground passage.

For his time, Vlad III Tepes was a brilliantly educated man: he spoke Turkish, Hungarian, Latin, German and Russian, read books, had a quick pen and loved philosophy. Finding no other way out, Dracula went to seek help from the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus.

Seeing the troubled Wallachian ruler, defeated in the bloody struggle with the Turks, Matthias was delighted - now Vlad is in his hands! He arrested him and ordered him to be imprisoned.

The years of Dracula's imprisonment were described in more detail by the Russian diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn, clerk of Grand Duke Ivan III. Vlad spent the first period of captivity in prison, where he showed another of his many talents: he made boots, which the guard sold at the market. This significantly supplemented the meager diet of the noble captive.

Deacon Kuritsyn testifies: Vlad remained in prison for many years and steadfastly adhered to the Orthodox faith, although Matthias constantly persuaded him to accept Catholicism, promising freedom, the return of the throne and the hand of his cousin. The Russian chronicler connects Dracula's release with the fact that he nevertheless accepted “Latin charm” (Catholicism). However, recent research proves: Vlad did not betray Orthodoxy! Matthias's mercy is explained simply: the king of Hungary, receiving money from the Pope for the war against the infidels, abused “misuse.” He freed an ardent fighter against Islam so that he could rake in the heat with his hands.

According to Western chroniclers, even in prison, Dracula sharpened twigs with a knife and impaled rats, mice and birds on them. Allegedly having gained freedom 4 years later (according to other sources, only 14 years later), he married the king’s sister and lived in an ordinary house.

1476 - having received the help of the Transylvanians and Moldovans, Vlad invaded Wallachia and was again able to seize power. When the allies returned home, the Turks found the moment opportune and attacked Wallachia. The Lord resisted steadfastly, but died in the battle of Bucharest around 1480, at the age of 46. Allegedly, he became a victim of his own masquerade - habitually dressed as a Turk, the ruler went on reconnaissance, and when he returned, his soldiers mistook him for an enemy spy and killed him by piercing him with spears.

The boyars cut off the head of Vlad III to save their own heads (at least that's the legend), and sent it as a gift to the Turkish Sultan. This later gave birth to a belief: vampires die from a wasp stake and the separation of the head from the body. But Romanian peasants still believe today that Dracula is alive! Archaeologists who carried out excavations at the altar of the church in the Snatovsky monastery, where Vlad III Tepes was allegedly buried, did not find his body in the crypt. But in a secret crypt they found a skeleton with a crown on its skull and a necklace with the image of a dragon. Dracula? But which one?

The castle on the banks of the Arges River, where Dracula lived, is believed to be cursed. Wolves howl at night around it, and a host of bats live in the ruins.

But there is another version of the fate of Vlad III Dracula, which was outlined by some chronicles of Western Europe.

According to this version, the fatal role in the life of the ruler was played by the same Aeneas Piccolomini, who from the moment of their first meeting managed to become Pope Pius II. He wanted to go down in history as the head of the church, under whom Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher would be recaptured. Knowing Vlad personally, dad believed that only he was suitable for the role of leader of the troops in the new crusade against the infidels. The pope invited him to Rome, but the ruler was extremely reluctant to leave his possessions and sent his cousin to the pope in his place.

War is always a big expense! The Pope gave the Gospodar's cousin a huge sum, with a request to transfer it to Vlad, so that he would arm the assembled troops and move them against the Turks. The cousin swore to do everything exactly. Who knows how the fate of world history would have turned out if the dreams of Pius II had come true? Vlad was a very talented commander and fiercely hated the Turks! But Fate does things in its own way and chooses historical paths itself.

The cousin used the money he received from his dad to create a conspiracy against Vlad. Having managed to deceive the suspicious and distrustful ruler, he overthrew him from the throne, carrying out a palace coup. But he did not dare to execute Tepes, so he imprisoned him in a fortress, placing a strong guard.

Like any scoundrel who usurped the throne, the new ruler was constantly looking for excuses for himself. He again began paying tribute to the Turks, and in 1464 he ordered the publication of a book about what a terrible villain Vlad Dracula was. Some real facts were interspersed on the pages of the book with outright lies; the artists hired by the new ruler made naturalistic illustrations that made an indelible impression on their contemporaries.

Until that time, practically no secular books were published—printing publications were usually of a religious nature. The new ruler, in fear of his overthrown brother and in the desire to justify himself in the eyes of his contemporaries and descendants, disdained all the rules of honor and moral prohibitions. Not to mention faith and conscience. In 1463, while Vlad the Impaler was still alive, he published the book “The History of Voivode Dracula.” It said that the ruler bathes in the blood of victims to preserve his youth and strength.

Lampoon went for a walk around Europe, spreading the dark glory of Vlad to various countries. The author reproduced portraits of Vlad, and later historians discovered them in museums in Vienna, Budapest, Nuremberg, and Berlin. It’s not for nothing that they say – a drop breaks a stone! The new ruler finally achieved his goal: the image of Tepes as a formidable warrior of the Turks faded over time in people’s memory.

In addition, the famous Dracula turned out to be not immortal - he died and was buried in a monastery surrounded by lakes, not far from modern Bucharest. Buried and forgotten for many centuries. It was only thanks to the efforts of the usurper that the image of the cruel ruler Dracula remained in folklore.

Yes, Vlad III the Impaler took many secrets to his grave! Now many museums are filled with attributes of “vampirism”, and Satanists consider Dracula to be their spiritual father. This is complete historical and religious illiteracy, lack of knowledge. In fact, the ruler of Wallachia believed passionately, was an Orthodox man, and built churches and monasteries.

It is characteristic that Turkish and German chroniclers aggravated the dark aspects of Dracule’s character and rule, while Romanian ones, on the contrary, whitewashed him. The Russians understand that the ruler of a small country at the turn of the Christian world boldly resisted military Muslim expansion. And alone, without counting on anyone's help. Thanks to Vlad Tepes, the people of Romania, its language and culture, and the Orthodox faith were preserved. Perhaps it was no coincidence that he became a favorite hero?

How Vlad III the Impaler was made into a vampire

How did it happen that the name Dracula became a household name for characters in novels and horror films?

It all started at the end of the 19th century, almost 400 years after the death of Vlad III. The first electric lamps were already burning, the telegraph was working, steamships and battleships were sailing across the seas. Türkiye has long lost its former power and has turned into an ordinary, rather backward country.

And Europe was suddenly swept by a fashion for mediums and all sorts of otherworldly horrors - theaters were simply chasing plays where the action took place in ancient castles with ghosts and other nerve-tickling effects. Gentlemen publishers did not lag behind, demanding from the authors bloody dramas with a bloody slant.

Demand dictates supply: the “gold mine” was actively developed by journalist and playwright Brem Stoker. He had a quick pen, a wild, dark imagination, and he easily guessed what the public and theater owners needed. “Bloody” dramas and novels came out from his pen in batches. Stoker got rich from evil spirits, ghosts and similar evil spirits.

Once in Vienna he heard about the story of the ruler Vlad Dracula. Stoker immediately discarded wars and victories, cunning and long captivity, but turned the ruler Dracula into a count, endowing him with the traits of a bloody maniac, psychopath and vampire! This became Bram Stoker's finest hour - with his light hand, the image of a terrible bloodsucker began to walk around the world, luring innocent creatures into the castle and killing guests.

Other authors did not lag behind - did the vampire belong to Stoker alone?! Everyone wanted to make a fortune from vampires and ghosts. The books sold in large quantities, and the audience died at the performances. Later, the “vampiriad” began to be filmed - first in silent films, later in sound and color, and now on television screens and replicated on video cassettes and disks. The old terrible fairy tale-lie turned out to be surprisingly tenacious!

But do they remember the real Lord Vlad, not invented by idle scribblers? Remember! In Romania, it turns out, there is even a special society “Dracula”, uniting admirers of their idol.

In the town of Bran (also known as ancient Brosov, or Brasov), lost in the picturesque Carpathian mountains, on a high rocky hill rises the castle of the legendary Vlad the Impaler, made of strong wild stone. Over the past 600 years, the banner of enemy foreign conquerors has never flown over it! Now the castle is a museum where tourists like to come to see where and how the despot who became almost fabulous lived, the sworn enemy of the Turkish enslavers, who at the same time terrified his subjects. By the way, it was this real castle of the ruler Vlad Dracula that Hollywood filmmakers filmed when creating the world famous film.

The castle has a bad reputation among the local population. They say that at night the floorboards creak in the halls and long passages and the shadow of a cruel and unhappy ruler suddenly appears. And woe to anyone who gets in the way of the ghost. Therefore, there were few daredevils who would dare to spend the night in the halls of the famous castle-museum.

Believe it or not, one of them was the infamous Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. According to completely credible evidence, he saw the ghost of Dracula and even spoke to him.

In the minds of modern people, Dracula is associated with a bloodthirsty and powerful vampire. This is the prince of darkness who rules over all the bloodsuckers of the world. Mere mortals cannot defeat him, since they do not have the strength and capabilities to do so. Nobody knows the whereabouts of the bloodthirsty prince. We only know that he sleeps in a coffin, is afraid of sunlight, and is active at night. No one knows his army, which does dirty deeds, turning people into blood-sucking creatures. This is such creepy information associated with this mysterious person.

However, it should be noted that such data did not fall from the sky and were not born in the fevered imagination of individual representatives of the human race. They have very specific historical sources, and the prince of darkness himself lived on Earth 500 years ago in human form. His name was Vlad the Impaler, and he had the most noble origin.

Biography of Dracula

At the end of autumn 1431, in the city of Sighisoara, in the center of Transylvania (historical region of Romania), a son was born to the Wallachian ruler Vlad II. They named him Vlad in honor of his father. The baby had a noble origin, since his paternal grandmother belonged to the Batory family. These were powerful Hungarian magnates who played a prominent role in the lands of Eastern Europe. There is practically no information about the baby's mother. We only know that her name was Snezhka.

The Principality of Wallachia was a state entity. It was located in the south of modern Romania and was a tasty morsel for the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 15th century, the principality became dependent on the Turks. Therefore, it became a rule to hand over princely children as hostages. Vlad was no exception. At the age of 12, he and his younger brother ended up in Turkey, where they lived for 4 years as a hostage.

Apparently the boy was treated poorly in captivity, as he became nervous and hot-tempered. At the age of 17, the Turks placed Vlad at the head of the principality. But he remained the ruler for a little more than 2 months. He was expelled by the Hungarian governor Janos Hunyadi. Vlad was forced to go to the ruler of Moldova, who was his uncle. However, in 1452, his uncle was killed as a result of unrest, and the young man was sheltered by the Hungarians.

The Lord of Wallachia negotiates with the Turks

Government activities

In 1456, the Hungarian and Wallachian nobility placed Vlad on the throne, and he became the ruler of Wallachia. They began to call him Vlad III, but the reign of the young man lasted only 6 years. During this time, the new ruler proved himself to be a tough ruler.

There were 500 thousand people under his command. Among them there were not only honest people, but also criminals. But Vlad III did not understand such things as forgiveness, mild or conditional punishment. For any criminal offense he was impaled. If a person stole a loaf of bread or stabbed a neighbor during a quarrel, there was one punishment. The offender was taken by the arms and placed on a wooden stake with a blunt end. The unfortunate man died in agony, while others looked on.

And what’s amazing is that crime in the principality has come to naught. In the capital Targovishte, on the central square near a reservoir of water, a golden cup stood around the clock. Anyone could drink from it. But it never occurred to anyone to take this cup with them, although it cost a lot of money. At the same time, there was no security nearby. These are the miracles that happened in the Principality of Wallachia.

As for foreign policy, it was aimed at fighting the Ottoman Empire. A decisive step was the refusal to pay tribute to the Turkish ruler. This happened in 1461. Vlad III, who by this time had received the nickname Tepes(the cutter), showed amazing tenacity and will. He did not succumb to the cowardly entreaties of his commanders, but began to prepare for an enemy invasion.

It happened the following year. A 100,000-strong Turkish army crossed the border of the principality. It was headed by Sultan Mehmed II himself. It seemed that nothing could withstand such a powerful armada. All the allies of Vlad the Impaler, who swore allegiance to him, suddenly stopped responding to his calls for help. They left the ruler alone in the face of enormous danger.

The situation became critical, but the ruler of Wallachia did not lose heart. He conscripted all men over 15 years of age into the army. By his order, residents of cities and villages that were on the path of the Turkish army left their homes and went into the interior of the country, taking livestock and food with them. The dwellings themselves and the lands around were put on fire. As a result, the Turks found themselves in complete ashes on their way. Accordingly, the enemies could not replenish food supplies.

Partisan detachments became more active, regularly attacking Turkish patrols and causing them significant damage. The captured enemies were immediately impaled. No one was spared. All this gradually struck terror into the hearts of the Turks. The fighting ardor of the enemies faded, but these were “flowers”.

The invaders tried the “berries” on the night of June 17, 1462. This is the so-called " night attack", which went down in world history. The Turkish army approached Targovishte and set up a camp, but the siege did not work out. With a detachment of 7 thousand people, Vlad Tepes unexpectedly attacked the Turkish camp. Panic arose in the enemy camp, 15 thousand Turkish soldiers died. The rest The forces hastily retreated from the capital of the principality and went to the border. The military aggression failed.

The Turks placed Tepes's brother at the head of their demoralized army. That guy's name was Radu. He was also a hostage in Turkish captivity and experienced all the bitterness of humiliation. But he did not have enough moral strength to oppose his enemies. He became their ally, and even persuaded the Moldavian prince Stefan to come over to his side. He opposed Vlad III and forced him to retreat to Transylvania.

The Hungarian monarch was there with his army Matthias Corwin. He had the most friendly relations with the ruler of Wallachia. Therefore, Tepes trusted the Hungarian completely. But he unexpectedly ordered Vlad’s arrest for secretly conspiring with the Turks.

It must be said that already in those years the subjects called the ruler of Wallachia Dracula. This nickname translates as "son of the dragon." The fact is that the father of the young ruler was at one time a member of the knightly Order of the Dragon. It was considered an elite community of Hungarian knights. It was created in 1408 by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I of Luxembourg.

Charge of treason

And so a man of noble blood, a winner over the Turks, the head of state finds himself in prison, and he is charged with treason and betrayal. Those arrested talk about intercepted letters to the Turkish Sultan. Allegedly, Dracula asked Mehmed II to forgive him and offered his help in the war with Hungary and its king Matthias Corvinus.

The charges are very serious. Vlad is taken to the capital of Hungary, Buda, and put in prison. He spends 12 long years there without trial or investigation. The man was in prison, but they didn’t even show him the letters he supposedly wrote. Subsequently, historians examined copies of these letters. They were written in Latin and in a manner unusual for the ruler of Wallachia. Naturally, there were no signatures. But the originals were not found. This is not surprising, since they, apparently, never existed.

Why did the king of Hungary accuse his friend and ally of treason? After many years, it turned out that the Pope allocated a very large sum of money to Matthias Corvinus to conduct military operations with the Turks who profess Islam. However, the king spent most of this money on his own needs. And he conducted military operations sluggishly, with small forces and without victories.

But he needed to justify himself in the eyes of the head of the Catholic Church. That is why he blamed all military failures on Vlad III. The king presented him as a traitor who transferred all strategic plans to the enemy’s camp. Hence the continuous defeats. However, the Pope was not born yesterday. He was a man wise with life experience. Therefore, he sent his assistant Nicolas Modrussa to Hungary to conduct an impartial investigation.

Such an investigation was carried out. Dracula was interrogated, but he denied all accusations. However, the Hungarian king added fuel to the fire. He told the representative of the Catholic Church about the terrible atrocities that the ruler of Wallachia committed in his lands. On his orders, tens of thousands of innocent people were tortured. Beggars were burned alive and monks were impaled. And the foreign ambassadors had their hats nailed to their heads because they did not take them off in Vlad’s presence.

However, this statement was not subsequently confirmed by any other evidence. In sparsely populated Europe, people were killed by the tens of thousands, and no one even heard about it. Therefore, it can be argued that all of Matthias Corwin's statements were lies. He passed off the ruler’s harshness as pathological cruelty. But Vlad Tepes was not a fanatic. He punished people, but for a reason. Moreover, the punishment was quite severe even by the standards of that time.

This is how Dracula's atrocities were imagined

Last stage of life

During the 12 years that the ruler of Wallachia served in prison, many events happened. The main thing was that the new ruler of the Principality of Radu completely fell under the influence of the Turks. This caused great alarm in Rome. The Catholic Church needed a man who could stand up to the Muslims. Therefore, Vlad was released from prison, and a crusade against the Ottomans was declared. But in order to earn freedom, the former ruler had to renounce Orthodoxy and accept the Catholic faith. He also married the cousin of the Hungarian king.

In 1476, Vlad Tepes marched against the Turks as part of the Hungarian army. As a result of this, Wallachia was liberated. All over Transylvania, people joyfully greeted the former ruler, who, judging by denunciations, committed terrible atrocities in these lands some 14 years ago.

In November 1476, the winner was again proclaimed ruler. But this time the reign turned out to be very short. In December of the same year, Vlad III died mysteriously. There is a version that traitors killed him, cut off his head, put it in honey to preserve it, and delivered it to the Turkish Sultan. He ordered it to be exhibited in the square in Constantinople. And the headless body was taken by the monks of the nearest monastery and buried in the chapel. Thus ended the life of a man who later became the most bloodthirsty mystical villain ever born in the fevered imagination of people.

Transformation of Dracula into a vampire

Based on all of the above, we can conclude that Dracula was not a villain, but a patriot of his homeland. In both domestic and foreign policy, he was guided by the interests of ordinary people. However, immediately after his death, an opinion began to form that the former ruler of Wallachia was a pathological personality. But who spread such statements?

All of them came from people close to the Hungarian royal court. The Russian embassy in Hungary, as well as the embassies of other countries, received information from the same sources. Accordingly, distorted and deliberately false information spread throughout Europe. Folklore also contributed to the bloodthirsty image. People picked up rumors and gossip, and terrible legends were born that made their blood run cold.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, when everything mystical and mysterious was in fashion in Europe and America, Count Dracula entered the arena. It was an opportunistic image born from the imagination of an Irish novelist Bram Stoker. He wrote the novel "Dracula", which sold a huge number of copies.

Later, the bloodthirsty image was picked up by film directors. And why not, if it brings money. Spectators watched films about vampires, became numb with horror, and Vlad the Impaler finally turned into a terrible creature who has been terrorizing people for 500 years.

Of course, those who do not believe in vampires understand that this is all fiction. And those who believe? They take all information at face value. At one time in Europe, even at the official level, they believed that vampires existed. Then they became unsure of this and calmed down. But there are some individuals who are sincerely convinced that bloodsuckers are not a myth or fairy tale, but a cruel reality.

It should be noted here that everyone is free to think as they see fit. But history must be objective. And in relation to the ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III, obvious injustice was committed. He was not a bloody usurper. This is a tough but fair ruler who cares about the good of the nation.

However, convincing people is much more difficult than convincing them. That is why we are reaping the fruits of those intrigues that are already nearly 500 years old. We pay tribute to obvious scoundrels and hate decent and honest people. There is absolutely nothing more to say here. Life is often unfair, which in no way detracts from the beauty of existence itself, in which, fortunately, there is no place for bloody vampires.

The article was written by Maxim Shipunov

There are quite a few theories and legends about the origins of vampires. One of them says that they are descendants of Cain, who became the first biblical murderer of his own brother. But all this is speculation about the main version. Until now, not everyone knows that the origin of the vampire is directly related to the name of Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian governor of the 15th century, later the ruler of Transylvania. He is the very famous Count Dracula!

The Count is a real national hero of Romania and a crime fighter. Its history goes back to medieval Transylvania...

The story of Count Dracula

Bloodthirsty ruler

Vlad Tepes was the ruler of Transylvania (a region located in northwestern Romania) from 1448 to 1476. His favorite pastime was sadistic torture of enemies and civilians, including one of the most terrible ones - piercing the anus. Because Vlad the Impaler loved to impale living people, he was nicknamed Vlad the Impaler. However, his most cruel atrocity lay elsewhere: once the Romanian governor invited a large number of beggars to his castle (in which, in fact, he carried out all the torture - see photo below) to a dinner party. When the poor fellows were eating peacefully, Count Dracula locked them in a room and set them on fire. In addition, the chronicle describes a case when this sadist ordered his servants to nail their hats to the heads of Turkish ambassadors only because they refused to take them off in front of the ruler.

Such atrocities left their mark on the personality of this ruler. Count Dracula became the prototype for the hero of the novel of the same name, written Why was Tepes unusually cruel? Why did he keep all of Transylvania in fear, confusing and confusing all European monarchs? More on this later.

The insidious and cruel Count Dracula

Transylvania is his birthplace. "Dracul" (Dragon) - nickname. At the age of 13, the son of the Wallachian governor Vladislav II was captured by the Turks and was held hostage for almost 4 years. It was this fact that influenced the psyche of the future ruler. He was described as an unbalanced person with many strange habits and strange ideas. For example, Count Dracula was very fond of eating at the site of the execution of people or a recent fatal battle. Isn't it strange?

Tepes received the nickname "Dragon" due to the fact that his father had membership in the elite Dragon, which was created by Emperor Sigismund in 1408. As for the title - Vlad III, he should be called a ruler, not a count, but such a naming is arbitrary. But why is this particular ruler considered the progenitor of vampires?

It's all about Tepes's extraordinary passion for bloodshed, for inhuman torture and murder. Then it becomes unclear why the Russian Tsar - Ivan Vasilyevich - was nicknamed "The Terrible"? He, too, should be dubbed a vampire, because it was he who drowned Ancient Rus' in blood in the literal sense of the word. But that is another story...