Documentary on the life, facts and fiction on Vlad "The Impaler" AKA Vlad "Dracul" AKA Dracula
#Dracula #Documentary #Vampire #Vlad the Impaler #Transylvania #Biography #History
#Dracula #Documentary #Vampire #Vlad the Impaler #Transylvania #Biography #History
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TVTranscript
00:00:00The man known to history as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III or Vlad Dracula was possibly born in
00:00:12November or December of 1431 in the citadel of Sigishwara in the Principality or Voivodorship
00:00:20of Wallachia, which today lies in modern-day Romania. However, there is no certainty in this,
00:00:26such is the lack of substantial records for the time and place,
00:00:30and it is also possible that he was born at some stage in the late 1420s.
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00:02:02Vlad's father was Prince Vlad II, ruler of Wallachia, the illegitimate son of Prince Mircea I,
00:02:09the Brave of Wallachia. The identity of Vlad the Impaler's mother is not known for certain,
00:02:15but many historians believe she was Vlad II's first wife, Knyazhna, also called Eupraxia of Moldavia,
00:02:22the eldest daughter of Prince Alexander the Good. Alternatively, Vlad the Impaler could also have
00:02:28been conceived by one of Vlad II's mistresses, but there is no way of knowing for sure. Yet,
00:02:34regardless of who his biological mother really was, Vlad was regarded as a legitimate son of Vlad II,
00:02:42also known as Vlad Dracul. Vlad the Impaler's early life, and indeed much of his subsequent career,
00:02:49can be examined best by looking closely at that of his father. Vlad II's early years were not well
00:02:56documented, but he was most likely kept as a hostage, in the care of the Hungarian and German
00:03:02courts of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund I in the 1400s and 1410s. Hostages, or pledges,
00:03:10as they were more often known at the time, were a regular feature of political life in 15th century
00:03:16Europe. These were used to secure the faithfulness of a follower by keeping a family member at the
00:03:22court of their liege lord. It was also a way to maintain the association between noble families
00:03:28and build relationships. For Vlad the Impaler's grandfather, Mircea I, Vlad II's father, it allowed him
00:03:36to gain further access to the royal courts of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as securing a
00:03:42more opportunistic future for his illegitimate son. Conversely, for Sigismund it allowed him to ensure
00:03:48the loyalty of the voivodorship of Wallachia on the eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary.
00:03:54As a consequence of the arrangement, Vlad II was educated as a nobleman at the Hungarian court,
00:04:01and most likely converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism, the standard faith of the
00:04:07Holy Roman Empire, while he was staying in Hungary or the German states.
00:04:12After Mircea I's death in 1418, Vlad II was no longer required to remain at the court of
00:04:20Emperor Sigismund but chose instead to stay on as the Emperor's page, allowing him to further his
00:04:26chivalric and aristocratic education. His half-brother Mikhail or Michael I succeeded their father back
00:04:33home in Wallachia, but Michael himself died shortly thereafter in 1420. At this juncture, Vlad II turned
00:04:41his focus on acquiring the voivodorship of Wallachia for himself, competing with his surviving family
00:04:47members as well as the other illegitimate children of Mircea for the title.
00:04:53It is worth assessing the political landscape of southeastern Europe, the region in which Vlad II
00:04:59and Vlad the Impaler would operate throughout their lives at this juncture. For centuries the
00:05:04Balkans region had been largely dominated by the Byzantine Empire, the name for the state which had
00:05:10survived from the Eastern Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean after the Western Roman Empire
00:05:16was overrun and collapsed in the 5th century. But the Byzantine Empire was on its knees by the late 14th
00:05:24and early 15th centuries, controlling little more than the city of Constantinople, the city known as
00:05:30Istanbul today, guarding the gateway between Europe and Asia as well as some small territories in Greece.
00:05:37Much of its other territories in regions such as Anatolia in western Turkey, Thrace, Bulgaria and Macedonia
00:05:43had been conquered by the rising power in the region, the Ottoman Turks, a Muslim power who had expanded
00:05:50out of the region approximating to modern-day Turkey. Further to the northwest the main power was the
00:05:57Christian Kingdom of Hungary, the ruler of which was Emperor Sigismund at whose court Vlad II was a pledge
00:06:04for so many years. And then between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were several small
00:06:10states such as the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Bosnia, the Voivodorship of Wallachia and the
00:06:16Principality of Transylvania, the latter two constituting much of modern-day Romania. In the 15th century
00:06:23there were two processes playing out across the region. Firstly, the Ottomans were set on capturing
00:06:28Constantinople and bringing the long-lived Byzantine Empire to an end. Secondly, the Ottoman Sultans
00:06:35wished to expand further northwest into Christian Europe. In the process the buffer states on Hungary's
00:06:41eastern and southern borders such as the Voivodorship of Wallachia would become key battlegrounds during
00:06:47the 15th century in the fight against Ottoman expansion. Indeed, fighting had occurred at the Battle of
00:06:53Kosovo in June 1389 when the Ottomans clashed in a bloody but indecisive battle against the Serbs,
00:07:01Bosnians, and other Christian powers in the Balkans. In the aftermath of this the Serbs were weakened to
00:07:07the extent that they largely became vassals of the Ottomans. At the time of Vlad III's birth around 1431
00:07:14Wallachia was still largely a client Principality of the Kingdom of Hungary, but this was increasingly
00:07:21challenged by the Ottomans and many of the boyars or nobles of Wallachia were considering which side
00:07:27it would be best to be on. As the Turkish expansion continued, both Vlad the Impaler and Vlad II would
00:07:34be highly involved in these affairs. The population of the Principality of Wallachia was just as distinctive
00:07:41as its geography, made up of different cultures including Transylvanians, Slovaks, Germans, Greeks,
00:07:48Hungarians, Roma, Slavs, Jews, and Turks, and followers of various religions including Eastern
00:07:55Orthodoxy and Christianity, but there were also Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, and Catholics.
00:08:02The land and its people were battle-scarred, hardened by the continual fighting, external pressures,
00:08:08and internal upheaval from serving as the field upon which wars were fought by the Islamic and Christian
00:08:15armies for the fate of Europe. As an illegitimate son of Mircea I, Vlad II was not directly in line
00:08:24for the throne following his half-brother's death in 1420, but he would ultimately reign as Voivoda twice,
00:08:31firstly from 1436 till 1442 and again from 1443 until his death in 1447. But at the time of Vlad the Impaler's
00:08:41birth this all lay ahead, and at that juncture Vlad II was assigned by the Hungarian nobles to serve at
00:08:49Sigishwara to defend the region against any possible Ottoman incursions. His task was to defend the
00:08:56mountain passes from Transylvania into Wallachia from enemy raids, particularly from the Ottoman Empire,
00:09:03a powerful Islamic realm. If Wallachia fell to the Ottoman threat, this would potentially open the
00:09:11rest of Europe to a massive assault by the Islamic forces, weakening the Christian states. Upon coming
00:09:17to power in 1436, Vlad II found himself at a precarious crossroads, his principality torn between
00:09:25the growing strength of the Islamic Ottomans and the divisive factions of the Catholic European Court.
00:09:31Vlad Dracul was expected to side with his fellow Christians against the Turks, who had already taken
00:09:37much of the Orthodox lands of the Byzantine Empire. In 1431, the same year Vlad the Impaler was born,
00:09:45his father was inducted into the Chivalric Order of the Dragon, a military order founded by Emperor
00:09:52Sigismund in 1408. The order was responsible for protecting Christian lands from their many enemies,
00:09:59particularly from the Ottoman Turks to the south-east. As a result of becoming a member of this prestigious
00:10:05order, Vlad II received the cognomen Dracul, derived from the word Drac or Dragon, although in modern
00:10:13Romanian Drac translates to the word Devil. Vlad II Dracul would have several children, three legitimate
00:10:21sons Mircea II, Vlad III and Radu the Handsome, and at least one illegitimate son, Vlad the Monk. The
00:10:29sons all received the sobriquet named Dracula, meaning Son of the Dragon, after Vlad II had been
00:10:36inducted into the Order of the Dragon. Dracula would become a synonymous moniker for Vlad the Impaler
00:10:43and a title he would proudly bear throughout his life, in contrast with modern times in which the
00:10:49name Dracula has become synonymous with evil. At the age of five Vlad Dracula, in line with his
00:10:56family's position as one of the bulwarks of Christian rule in the Balkans, protecting against the Ottoman
00:11:02advance, began training for knighthood at Tirigoviste, learning the skills expected of a boyar's son
00:11:09including jousting, horsemanship, court etiquette, archery, strategy, swimming, hunting, tracking,
00:11:17and combat training. Vlad excelled at these activities and seemed to thrive during the intensive physical
00:11:24training, building the foundation for his upcoming military career. It would serve him well in his
00:11:30future career as Prince of Wallachia and as a commander, leading soldiers and volunteers against
00:11:37his many enemies. He would also have become familiar at an early age with the new firearms and cannons
00:11:44which were beginning to be introduced into Europe's armies and which would transform the nature of
00:11:49warfare in this highly militarized part of the world in the years ahead. As second son of Vlad II, the
00:11:56young Vlad Dracula was raised in an aristocratic household alongside his siblings, educated as was
00:12:03appropriate for all young boyars or nobles of the period, studying reading, philosophy, writing,
00:12:10mathematics, the classics, and different languages under the tutelage of noblewomen, tutors, and courtiers.
00:12:17Vlad was most likely raised under the Eastern Orthodox faith and was also taught history,
00:12:23politics, and the delicate nature of Wallachia and its place in the larger scheme of matters of land,
00:12:30faith, and war. Following the deaths in quick succession of Emperor Sigismund in 1437 and then his
00:12:38successor as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, Albert II on the 27th of October 1439, the Hungarian
00:12:46nobles voted Władysław III of Poland in as the new King of Hungary, the following year. Władysław
00:12:54chose a Hungarian boyar and military commander, John Hunyadi, also known as Yanku of Hunedwara,
00:13:01to serve as Voivoda of Transylvania. Hunyadi sought to continue Hungarian influence in Wallachia,
00:13:08and demanded that Vlad II take part in his ongoing efforts to resist the Ottoman advance north-west.
00:13:14Conversely, the Turks were seeking to invade the Principality of Transylvania at this time,
00:13:20and asked the Wallachians to assist them. Vlad II ignored the Ottomans, turning to serve alongside
00:13:27the Hungarians and Transylvanians. John Hunyadi, Vlad II and their allies successfully pacified the
00:13:35eastern counties, pushing the Turks back and ultimately reinstating the protection of Hungary's southern
00:13:41border in March 1442, when the future Vlad the Impaler was still only in his early teens. Vlad II
00:13:49was promptly accused of treason by the Ottomans for helping the Hungarians, and faced reprisals.
00:13:57Shortly after his shared victory over the Turks, Vlad Dracul brought his sons Vlad and Radu to the court of
00:14:04Sultan Murad II and all of them were immediately imprisoned by the Ottomans, and held until a new
00:14:10alliance could be arranged between Vlad II and the Turks. The Sultan demanded payment and a show of
00:14:17loyalty, so Vlad Dracul could redeem himself in the eyes of the Turks for his efforts. He reluctantly agreed,
00:14:24handing over his sons to the Sultan as hostages, until the debt was repaid to the Ottomans. All of this
00:14:31highlights the increasing difficulties faced by the nobles of Wallachia in this period, caught as they
00:14:37were between two powers, the King of Hungary and the Ottoman Sultan, who both viewed the Wallachians
00:14:43as their subjects. Vlad II returned to Wallachia from the Ottoman court, having left his sons behind
00:14:50as pledges, only to find that he had been replaced with Basarab, Dracul's cousin, by John Hunyadi during
00:14:57his absence. Hunyadi then turned his focus on the approaching Ottoman army and defeated them in
00:15:03August 1442, following the Turk attempt to annex Wallachia. Vlad Dracul tried to remain neutral during
00:15:11the period of his sons' imprisonment and hoped to see them released shortly after, while he also sought
00:15:17during the mid-1440s to build a relationship between the Turks and the Christians of Wallachia and Hungary,
00:15:24hoping for a diplomatic resolution to the growing tensions which Wallachia had become the epicentre of.
00:15:32In the course of the mid-1440s, Vlad II Dracul's compromised position, in which his sons were
00:15:38effectively being held as shorty for his good behaviour by the Ottomans, was eventually uncovered
00:15:44in Buda, the Hungarian capital, infuriating the Hungarians who, under the command of Hunyadi,
00:15:50led an attack against Vlad II, forcing his eldest son Mircea to flee. With the aid of the Ottomans,
00:15:57Vlad II was able to overthrow the Hungarians and retake Wallachia, but his success was short-lived.
00:16:04The boyars, led by a cousin of Vlad's, confusingly called Vladislav, overthrew him and sought to gain
00:16:11aid from John Hunyadi to prevent Vlad Dracul from returning. The coup by the boyars resulted in Vlad II
00:16:19having to raise an army with the help of the Ottomans who had remained behind, and to recruit from Wallachia.
00:16:25Hunyadi and his forces arrived and, in 1447, the Hungarians, Transylvanians and the Wallachian boyars,
00:16:32led by Vladislav, defeated Vlad Dracul and Mircea's armies, capturing Mircea. Mircea was subsequently
00:16:40tortured, having his eyes burned out and then being buried alive. Vlad Dracul returned to avenge his son,
00:16:48but was captured and executed shortly after, most likely either by being beheaded or burned at the
00:16:54stake at some point in November 1447. It is generally believed that Vlad Dracul was portrayed in this
00:17:01instance by his cousin Vladislav, who subsequently succeeded to the Voivodorship as Vladislav II in
00:17:081447. This background of political intrigue and internecine conflict, both within Wallachia and the
00:17:15wider Balkans would inform all of Vlad the Impaler's own career. He and his brother Radu had been left
00:17:21in the care of Sultan Murad II, who treated the children well despite their status as prisoners.
00:17:28The boys most likely witnessed the brutality that the Turks could inflict on their captives during the
00:17:331440s, and were advised to remain obedient. According to many historical sources, the positive
00:17:40treatment of Vlad and Radu by the Sultan was due to their being regarded as guests rather than prisoners,
00:17:46in much the same way as their father had been well treated as a pledge at the court of Emperor Sigismund
00:17:53over thirty years earlier. The goal of such positive treatment was to engender the loyalty of the
00:17:58Wallachian princes and ensure that they would one day return to Wallachia and rule the Voivodorship as
00:18:05pro-Ottoman rulers, who would ally with the Turks against the Hungarians and their allies. However,
00:18:12Vlad would prove impervious to these efforts to win him over. Vlad III and Radu Dracula continued their
00:18:21studies at the Ottoman court at the Egrigoz Citadel in the Anatolian plateau located in what is today
00:18:28central Turkey. Despite their Christian background, the brothers studied the Quran as well as literature
00:18:34and the Persian and Turkish languages, receiving the traditional education of noblemen which included
00:18:39logic, warfare, philosophy, combat and horseback riding. Vlad threw himself into the fighting arts,
00:18:47his hatred for the Turks seeming to drive his training, focusing on his ultimate goal to become
00:18:53Voivoda of Wallachia and annihilate the Ottomans. Despite the Ottomans' efforts to control the Wallachian
00:19:00princes, Vlad fiercely resisted and was subjected to brutal punishment as a result. Radu conversely
00:19:07embraced his experience with the Turks, converting to Islam and later volunteering to serve as a Janissary,
00:19:14the elite household guards of the Ottoman sultans who were usually former Christians who had converted
00:19:19to Islam and were also circumcised as part of the process. In this position Radu grew close to the
00:19:26Sultan's son and heir, Mehmed II, who he would go on to serve later in his life. As a result of their
00:19:33closeness, rumors even spread in later years that the two were lovers. Radu's conversion, closeness with
00:19:41Mehmed II and admiration for Ottoman culture infuriated Vlad Dracula and fueled his hate for the Ottomans.
00:19:49After the death of his father and older brother at the hands of the Hungarians, Vlad Dracula now found
00:19:55himself to be the heir to his family's position within Wallachia and with it a serious contender to
00:20:01claim voivodership through the elective vote of the Wallachian nobles, the Boyars. Moreover, the death of
00:20:07his father released Vlad and Radu from their captors. While Radu remained behind in Anatolia at this juncture
00:20:15to continue his service with the Turks, Vlad swore to avenge his family as he perceived that his father and
00:20:21brother had perished as a result of Ottoman interference in Wallachia and his half-brother was
00:20:27lost to him as someone who had islamicized at the Ottoman court. But before he acquired his revenge
00:20:34he needed an army. To prevent the Hungarians from taking over Wallachia following Vlad II's death,
00:20:40the Turks, ironically enough, provided Vlad III Dracula with the army he needed to begin acquiring power
00:20:47back in Wallachia. No doubt the Sultan believed that he was effectively arming a vassal prince when
00:20:53he did so, though the Turks would learn in due course that this was certainly not the case. Armed
00:20:59with this Ottoman support, Vlad was able to seize power in Wallachia in 1448 when he was perhaps no
00:21:07more than seventeen years of age, certainly no more than twenty-one. He successfully deposed his cousin
00:21:13Vladislav II at this juncture during a period when Vladislav was battling the Ottomans to the south.
00:21:19One of Vlad's first fabled acts as prince was to invite many of the boyars who may have been involved
00:21:26in his father and brother's death to a feast. According to some sources he then had his men stab
00:21:32them and take them to be impaled as a show of strength, although the truth of these claims is not certain.
00:21:39Vlad III Dracula was only in power for a matter of months as prince of Wallachia when he was ousted
00:21:47again by the Hungarians, Transylvanians and Wallachians, and his cousin Vladislav II was yet
00:21:53again reinstated as voivoda after he had returned from his campaign against the Turks. Vlad was
00:22:00consequently forced briefly into exile, settling in neighbouring Moldavia in order to avoid further
00:22:07problems at home. While in Moldavia Vlad spent time in the company of his uncle Prince Bogdan II
00:22:13and his cousin Prince Stephen, until Bogdan was assassinated in October of 1451 by Petru Aron,
00:22:21Bogdan's brother. Vlad and Stephen fled to Transylvania through the Borgo Pass where the two
00:22:28men eventually fell into the care of John Hunyadi and the Prince of Hungary Ladislaus. Hunyadi had previously
00:22:35suffered some significant losses in Kosovo and Varana over the course of the past couple of years,
00:22:41costing him influence, power and prestige. He had lost two of his titles, those of Viceroy of Hungary
00:22:48and Governor of Transylvania, and was facing further distrust from the Hungarian Diet or Parliamentary
00:22:54Assembly. These setbacks aside, he maintained several estates throughout his domain and still commanded a
00:23:01mighty military force which he could call upon at short notice. Hunyadi decided to show Vlad mercy
00:23:07despite his recent transgressions, knowing Dracula's hatred could be useful if targeted at the Turks.
00:23:14Furthermore, Vlad's intimate knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, having spent years at the Sultan's
00:23:19court, could make him a significant and invaluable advisor for Hunyadi if courted correctly, while the
00:23:26shared hatred for the Turks of Hunyadi and Vlad, as well as the growing disillusionment between Hunyadi
00:23:32and Vladislav may have also been a contributing factor in the truce. Hunyadi, who was of course
00:23:38responsible for the death of Vlad's father and brother, needed allies, and Vlad needed protection.
00:23:45Each could provide the other with exactly what they required in the short term.
00:23:50It is not known for sure whether a genuine peace had been reached or whether there was simply a
00:23:56mutual understanding of Vlad and Hunyadi's need for each other. When Mehmed II ascended the Ottoman
00:24:02throne in January of 1451, Vladislav sent congratulations to the new Sultan and restarted the two-sided
00:24:10alliance between Wallachia and its neighbours, extending its hospitality and service to both the enemy
00:24:16realms of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. This arrangement both protected and threatened
00:24:22Wallachia, but gave Hunyadi an opportunity he could extend to Vlad Dracula to help him fight the Turks.
00:24:30Vlad was offered a military posting under Hunyadi and also granted a place at his court. Hunyadi brought
00:24:36the young man with him to the Hungarian Diet and continued to instruct him in the arts of war and to further
00:24:43his nobleman's education. Dracula swore fealty to Vladislav when he was crowned as King of Hungary,
00:24:50and Hunyadi was able to make peace with his former enemy Count Ulrich Cili, a supporter of the new Holy
00:24:56Roman Emperor Frederick III and relative of the previous Emperor Sigismund. Meanwhile, while Vlad's
00:25:04influence amongst the Hungarians was growing in the late 1440s and early 1450s, his rival for power in Wallachia,
00:25:11his cousin Vladislav II was finding his own position compromised during these years. In October 1448
00:25:19another major battle had occurred between the Ottomans on the one hand and the Hungarians and their allies
00:25:25at Kosovo. The campaign had been led by John Hunyadi as a kind of religious crusade including contingents of
00:25:32German mercenaries. Vladislav did not send any aid personally, despite the appearance of some 8,000
00:25:39Wallachians on the field of battle in autumn. The battle ended in a crushing defeat for Hunyadi and
00:25:45his allies, opening the way for the Ottomans to initiate a final assault on Constantinople without
00:25:52fearing any major military unrest in the Balkans in the years that followed. For his part Hunyadi never
00:25:58forgave Vladislav for his betrayal. A diplomatic and trade war was consequently initiated by Hungary
00:26:05and Transylvania against Wallachia in the years that followed and the Hungarian commander was
00:26:11increasingly in favour of having Vladislav removed from the Voivodeship and replaced by Vlad Dracula.
00:26:18Five years later came the seismic event in the expansion of Ottoman power in south-eastern Europe.
00:26:24On the 29th of May 1453, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II, the Ottoman Empire conquered the city of
00:26:32Constantinople, ultimately destroying the remnants of the Byzantine Empire and establishing the Ottoman
00:26:39Empire's capital there. The great church of Hagia Sophia, which had been built as a Christian
00:26:44cathedral over 900 years earlier, was converted into a mosque. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks,
00:26:52who wielded a mighty army that went unrivalled across the continent, opened up the possibility that the
00:26:58Sultan Mehmed II could now threaten much of south-eastern Europe. And John Hunyadi was advised that,
00:27:05because of Vladislav's relationship with the Sultan, the next assault on European lands would probably
00:27:11fall on Belgrade. If Belgrade fell, this would open the Kingdom of Hungary to further assaults by the Turks,
00:27:18especially by the Turkish fleet, which could use the Danube to sail into the cities of Vienna and Buda.
00:27:25In the winter of 1455 to 1456, the Ottoman army was raised near the fortress of Adrianople,
00:27:32or what is today Idirna, in northwest Turkey. Saint John of Capistrano, a Minerite Franciscan monk,
00:27:39who would later be canonized by the Catholic Church, spoke at Gyor, Hungary, and inspired others to action
00:27:46against the Ottomans, exclaiming, God wills it that we chase the Turks out of Europe. Such words had rallied
00:27:53millions to crusade over the course of the past four centuries, and Hunyadi, Vlad and Hunyadi's son
00:28:00Laszlo had been in attendance, moved by the call for a new crusade against the impending invasion of
00:28:06the Ottomans. Vlad was instructed to stay in Transylvania and given permission to launch attacks
00:28:12against Vladislav II, which would potentially alleviate pressures on Belgrade and pull Ottoman focus
00:28:18away from their objectives in the city. Vlad was more than happy to oblige. Vlad led several
00:28:25excursions throughout Wallachia and Transylvania to harass and overwhelm Vladislav, who found himself
00:28:32combating both the standing armies and recuperating from small skirmishes. These culminated in a meeting
00:28:39at the market town of Tarxor on the 20th of August 1456. Here Vlad the Impaler met Vladislav on the field of
00:28:47battle as their armies prepared to fight one another. But before a wider clash erupted, Vlad rode across
00:28:53the field and challenged his foe to hand-to-hand combat. Vladislav agreed and in the clash which ensued,
00:29:01Dracula killed Vladislav II. Thus, after nearly nine years, he had finally avenged himself on the man
00:29:08who had overthrown and killed his father and brother. In the days that followed, Vlad regained the voivodorship
00:29:15of Wallachia and established himself as the undisputed ruler of the Principality. Upon taking
00:29:21up the crown of Wallachia, Vlad took the title Prince Vlad, son of Vlad the Great, sovereign,
00:29:28and ruler of Ungru Wallachia and the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras. The duchies had been granted to him
00:29:35by King Ladislaus for returning to his favour. He worked with local mayors in Transylvania and Hunyadi's
00:29:42son Laszlo, the new commander of Belgrade, to establish a relationship with them and protect
00:29:47his borders. To the north he tried to incite the boyars to revolt against his Moldavian enemy Petru Aron,
00:29:54another local Balkan prince who, like Vladislav II, had thrown in his lot some years earlier with the
00:30:00Ottomans. In 1457, just a few months after acquiring control of Wallachia, Vlad's cousin Stephen was also
00:30:08successfully installed in Moldavia following the overthrow of Petru Aron there, and thanks to the
00:30:15dissidents Vlad had aroused with the boyars and a troop of around 6,000 Wallachians. By now Vlad began
00:30:22to develop his identity as both a violent and strict leader, as well as a strong commander. With a mind
00:30:29for social and economic preservation of the Wallachian state, he bolstered the military and economy,
00:30:35and rebuilt villages to allow local merchants to thrive while restricting foreign trade to help
00:30:40the local market to grow. The Ottomans sent emissaries to Vlad Dracula following his rise to power
00:30:47in an attempt to acquire tribute and a free passage through Wallachia for their troops as a show of
00:30:52loyalty to the Turks, but Vlad refused to travel to Constantinople to pay homage to the Sultan. It is
00:30:59around this time he rebuilt some of the walls around his cities and fortifications, and also began to
00:31:05embrace the practice of impalement as punishment, a common practice used to execute prisoners and
00:31:11traitors of the Ottoman Empire, something he must have witnessed as a young hostage.
00:31:17The first targets of Vlad's wrath were those responsible for the death of his brother and father,
00:31:23particularly the boyars in Wallachia and Transylvania. He seized their assets, lands and other commodities,
00:31:30which he then redistributed to his allies, and captured his enemies and brought them into his
00:31:35custody. The boyars were then executed, mainly through the process of impalement, and the bodies
00:31:41were propped up around his realm as a warning. His methods were both a message to his foes and a means
00:31:47to eliminate those who had dared to challenge him. Other methods of torturous death Vlad had
00:31:54allegedly carried out included allowing animals to feast on his victims, exposing them to the elements,
00:32:01burning them alive, cutting off body parts such as fingers, toes, limbs, eyes, ears, noses, tongues,
00:32:08breasts, nipples, penises, etc., skinning them alive and boiling. It was said he would sometimes feast
00:32:15while people were impaled or tortured, revelling while people died around him. If we are to believe
00:32:21the tales of Vlad the Impaler's beastly behaviour, then women were subjected to some of the worst abuses
00:32:28at the hands of the prince, particularly with respect to their sexual fidelity. If a woman was
00:32:33discovered to have had an affair while married, or had been promiscuous while unmarried or widowed,
00:32:39Vlad apparently treated them to especially severe punishments, including mutilation and impalement
00:32:45on a hot poker while their lovers watched in horror. The paramours would often be made to be involved in
00:32:52the torture, forced to consume the mutilated body parts while their partner bled out. How much of
00:32:59this supposed behaviour should be literally believed is open to interpretation. Much of it may have been the
00:33:06fanciful imagination of writers in the more civilised climes of Vienna and Buda, writing about a
00:33:12supposedly savage border lord far away in Wallachia. Some of this brutality is more attestable. For
00:33:19instance, Vlad was especially violent towards foreign peoples on his lands. There were populations
00:33:25of Saxons or Germans from the southeastern region bordering on what is today Poland and the Czech Republic,
00:33:32who settled throughout the Wallachian principality and served as a separate community within the realm.
00:33:38In one notable story, Vlad learned that a Wallachian merchant in the city of Brazov had his goods taken
00:33:45by Saxon merchants who had refused to pay him. Vlad allegedly had all the Saxons in Brazov rounded
00:33:52up and impaled for their treachery towards a Wallachian citizen. The extent of this is again unclear,
00:33:59but there were extensive pogroms of the Saxons in Wallachia around the mid-16th century.
00:34:05Legends surround Vlad Dracula pertaining to his cruelties but also to how much his own people
00:34:12feared his wrath. One famous story concerned the Golden Cup, a magnificent chalice that was placed
00:34:19in the town square of his capital Tirugavista in plain view of all who pass by. The statute of the
00:34:26Golden Goblet was simple, anyone could use it to drink from. But the cup could never leave the confines of
00:34:33the square. At the time, there were around 60,000 individuals living in Tirugavista. The cup was
00:34:40never taken during Vlad's reign. Such was the fear he is believed to have inspired in his subjects.
00:34:47Vlad was also said to have been faced with a large population of poor individuals and had to come up
00:34:53with a means of ending poverty in Wallachia. To do so, Vlad supposedly invited hundreds of the impoverished
00:35:01from Tirugavista to a massive feast where they revelled in the generosity of their prince and
00:35:06ate and drank to their heart's content. Vlad responded by locking the doors of the hall and setting it
00:35:14ablaze. No one escaped. These stories became commonplace and were sensationalized by the Turks, Saxons,
00:35:21Hungarians, Transylvanians and other enemies Vlad made over the course of his life. While his subjects
00:35:29became all too familiar with his punishments, Vlad the Impaler also showed a deep devotion to military
00:35:35and political deeds such as helping his cousin Prince Stephen take the Moldavian throne in 1457,
00:35:42providing about 6,000 cavalrymen to fight against Petru Aron. Stephen, in return, helped Vlad combat the
00:35:49continual raids and attacks by the Ottomans against the southern border of Wallachia, attacks which were
00:35:55initiated by the Sultan Mehmed II in response to the new crusade declared by Pope Pius II against the
00:36:03infidels in January 1460. Vlad Dracula joined the effort, which was now led by John Hunyadi's son
00:36:10Matthias Korvinas, allying himself with Korvinas to combat the Ottomans. Mehmed II took the last
00:36:18independent city in Serbia, Smedarjevo, in a violent assault in 1459. Just a few months later, Vlad's ally,
00:36:26the Hungarian general Michali Szilagyi was captured during a battle near Bazias and was sawn in half after
00:36:34being tortured, a grim fate which many of his men suffered. The Sultan then took several cities in Greece
00:36:41and threatened to return to Wallachia unless tribute, called Gizia, was paid to him. Envoys were sent to
00:36:48Vlad's court to collect both the money and men for the Janissary forces. It was at this juncture in
00:36:541460 that Vlad Dracula decided to clarify his position towards the possibility of any relationship
00:37:01with the Turks. When the emissaries arrived, he asked them to take off their turbans, part of the
00:37:07traditional wardrobe of an Ottoman, because removing the hat in the presence of a Wallachian prince,
00:37:13especially in his court, was customary and expected. The diplomats refused as it was part of their
00:37:21attire. Vlad informed them he would not give the Sultan anything and would not negotiate, and promptly
00:37:28had the representatives' turbans nailed to their heads. As a form of symbolic rejection of any claims
00:37:34to Turkish overlordship in Wallachia, it was certainly a blunt and effective one.
00:37:40Meanwhile, the Turks began recruiting troops as they crossed the Danube and led assaults against
00:37:47the Transylvanians, to which Vlad promptly responded by impaling any prisoners his men took in the
00:37:53conflict. In November 1461 he wrote to the Sultan explaining that he was unable to pay tribute due
00:38:00to financial issues, but noting that he would be willing to go to Constantinople to negotiate a deal.
00:38:06The Sultan heard of Vlad's renewed alliance with Corvinus at this juncture and attempted to lure
00:38:12Vlad into a trap so that he could capture him to bring him to Constantinople in chains instead.
00:38:18Vlad learned of the plot and he set his own trap for the Sultan's Bey or Chieftain of Nicopolis,
00:38:25Hamza Pasha and his men in a narrow pass north of Giorgio, using gunpowder to easily overpower the Turks.
00:38:32The Bey and his men were quickly surrounded and defeated by the Transylvanian army.
00:38:37Vlad the Impaler then had the Turkish troops killed.
00:38:41By impaling them. He had Pasha skewered on a stake that would stand taller than his men,
00:38:46to signify his rank and place. He had the staked bodies placed in a field,
00:38:51forming a macabre forest. Vlad was evidently perturbing the Sultan in Istanbul at this stage.
00:38:58When he was informed of the ambush, he is said to have struck the messenger who delivered the news,
00:39:04in fury at this later setback. Vlad now undertook a fierce campaign into Ottoman lands in the spring
00:39:12of 1462. Because of his fluency in Turkish, Vlad was able to infiltrate the Ottoman territories on the
00:39:18other side of the Danube, leading his forces through the Turkish-occupied regions of Bulgaria,
00:39:24in between the Black Sea and Serbia. He would demand the gates to open for him,
00:39:29and once they did, he would lead an army into the fray. Vlad the Impaler executed every soldier
00:39:35and Ottoman sympathizer, traveling over 800 kilometers during the course of two weeks.
00:39:41They killed well over 23,000 Turks and allies, impaling them, and leaving their bodies on the stakes
00:39:48for others to see. In response, the Sultan sent his men to destroy the port of Braila in Wallachia,
00:39:54but the 18,000 man force he had sent under his vizier Mahmud were defeated by Vlad and his troops,
00:40:01leaving only around 8,000 Ottomans alive. These victories solidified Vlad's place in Europe as
00:40:08a successful warlord, a fearsome defender of Europe's borders against the Ottoman infidels.
00:40:14For a short time, at least, he was celebrated by the Pope and was revered by Christians,
00:40:20but was deeply feared by Muslims. The Sultan grew infuriated at the news of Vlad the Impaler's
00:40:27continuing successes and turned to deal with the prince himself. Both rulers now prepared their
00:40:34armies for the upcoming conflict. The Sultan raised an army of between 150,000 and 300,000 men,
00:40:41comprised of his bodyguards, engineers, women for comfort, priests, astrologers, riflemen, pikemen,
00:40:49cannons, slave soldiers, archers, infantry, janissaries, and cavalry. Dracula's brother Radu even
00:40:57served as part of the mustard Turkish forces, commanding around 4,000 cavalrymen. Vlad rallied a
00:41:03significantly smaller force, especially since Corvinus did not aid him, despite Dracula's request for
00:41:09assistance. Men, women, and children aged between 12 and 18 were recruited, including Roma slaves and
00:41:16farmers, building an army of around 30,000 poorly trained, armed, and armored Transylvanians.
00:41:23Even though he was vastly outnumbered, Vlad the Impaler and his force was able to kill around 300
00:41:29janissaries after the Sultan left Vidin, and he knew the only way to win was to commit unthinkable and
00:41:35vicious acts. Vlad could not hope to win against the Ottomans in the field now. The best he could
00:41:41hope for was to wage a guerilla campaign in country that he and his forces had greater knowledge of,
00:41:48and in which they would have greater local support. The Prince of Wallachia ordered the evacuation of
00:41:54the neighboring territories, removing the people and animals from the land as the Sultan's army advanced.
00:42:00He poisoned the rivers and lakes with the bodies of animals and humans, and burned farmland to destroy
00:42:07crops in a scorched earth tactic. This would leave nothing for the advancing Turks but barren fields.
00:42:14Knowing his army would be no match for the Ottomans, Vlad resorted to night raids to harass the Turkish
00:42:19opponents. Vlad also ordered men, women, and children who were suffering from contagious diseases such as
00:42:26bubonic plague, leprosy, tuberculosis or cholera to travel to the Ottoman camps or to stay in villages
00:42:32that would be in the path of the invaders. This would potentially infect the area and help contaminate
00:42:38the Turks with the illnesses. Vlad was essentially using germ or biological warfare here to slow down
00:42:45the Ottoman advance and deplete their forces. These efforts were clandestine and incredibly effective
00:42:51in causing problems for the Ottomans in their attempts to take Wallachia. The capital of Wallachia,
00:42:57the city of Tarogovista, home to Vlad Dracula's Poinari castle, was met with the advancing Turkish
00:43:04troops who, previously, had been unable to take either the island of Snagov or the fortress of Bucharest.
00:43:11Vlad ordered his 24,000 men to take refuge in the mountains near the capital as the Ottomans reached
00:43:17the city limits. Knowing that he and his men would either die at the hands of the Sultan's army or
00:43:23from starvation should they hunker down in the mountains, Vlad the Impaler implemented his education
00:43:29and past experiences to escape. Vlad disguised himself once more and snuck into the Ottoman army
00:43:36camp passing by unnoticed thanks to his mastery of the Turkish language and made his way through the
00:43:42tents. He discovered the Sultan had ordered his men to remain in their tents to keep them from
00:43:47losing their nerve should they fall under attack. He uncovered the location of the Sultan's tent
00:43:52and then slipped back to his camp in the mountains to plan an attack on Mehmed's men and assassinate
00:43:59the Sultan in his tent later. On the evening of 17 June 1462 the Prince of Wallachia split his men
00:44:06into two divisions and had them set to attack from either side of the camp using the Turkish prisoners
00:44:12to help them infiltrate the camp's outskirts. The first wave hit and rolled through the camp. The
00:44:18opposite side did not act. The Wallachians slayed around 15,000 Ottomans losing only around 5,000 men
00:44:26in the process. Vlad Dracula inadvertently entered the wrong tent. Nevertheless, the incident which has
00:44:32become known as the Night Attack on Targoviste has gone down in history as one of the most daring elements of
00:44:40Vlad's colorful career. The episode in which he nearly managed to infiltrate the Ottoman camp and slay
00:44:47the conqueror of Constantinople. As dawn rose, Vlad the Impaler and his men retreated to the mountains
00:44:54and escaped without any pursuers. Many of the Ottomans were disheartened and wanted to head back towards
00:45:01the Ottoman lands. But Sultan Mehmed ultimately determined to continue the campaign. Yet just hours later they
00:45:08came upon the macabre field which Vlad had had decorated months earlier with the bodies of Hamza
00:45:13Pasha and his 20,000 man army. The Turks were horrified by the scene, which even by the standards of
00:45:20Balkan warfare in this brutal period was particularly shocking. Consequently, the Sultan now ordered his men
00:45:27back, leaving Radu with his Janissaries to oversee affairs near Targoviste on the 22nd of June.
00:45:34There is a myth that Dracula's first wife, a woman who has never been officially named and whose identity
00:45:41has been left to the legends of Romanian history, saw the arrival of Radu and his men at the base of
00:45:46the castle at Targoviste, perched up high on the cliffs overlooking Targoviste and the Arges river.
00:45:53Despite having one son, Michnia the Bad, with Vlad the Impaler, further details about her remain unknown.
00:46:00The legend, though, is that at the sight of the Ottomans, Vlad's wife is said to have remarked,
00:46:06she would rather feed the fish than be taken by the Turks. She then threw herself to her death in
00:46:12the waters below. Radu now established himself as the new ruler of Wallachia while the Ottomans moved
00:46:20on to burn the city of Braila. Radu Dracula led several attacks throughout Wallachia while his brother
00:46:26and the remnants of Vlad's forces hurried to the town of Chilia. Here Stephen III of Moldavia had
00:46:33initiated a siege, hoping to take advantage of the distress his former close ally found himself in,
00:46:39as a result of the massive Ottoman invasion of his lands. Vlad and his army successfully repelled Stephen
00:46:46and his forces, injuring Stephen in the process, but despite this limited success, Vlad was forced to
00:46:52flee to Hungary to seek aid from Matthias Korvinas to plan future battles and strategies. In Hungary,
00:46:59by the end of the autumn of 1462, Vlad believed that he had successfully acquired Hungarian support
00:47:06to launch a counterattack against the Ottomans the following spring, that Korvinas had actually planned
00:47:12a trap at Castle King's Rock, capturing Vlad just as he crossed into Wallachia. Why Korvinas betrayed
00:47:18Vlad is not precisely known, although it has been suggested Korvinas hoped to be named Holy Roman
00:47:24Emperor and it would have been in his interest to end any aggression with the Ottomans so that he could
00:47:30turn his attentions towards Central Europe. Whatever the purpose of it, Korvinas would not be named Holy
00:47:36Roman Emperor, although in 1464 he was dubbed King Matthias of Hungary. Vlad fell victim in late 1462 to his
00:47:47having been a border warlord caught between the Hungarians and the Ottomans. Despite his determined
00:47:53opposition to the Turks over a decade and a half long period, he was still distrusted in Buda and as
00:48:00a consequence he was imprisoned on suspicion of coordinating with the Sultan, despite how improbable
00:48:06this seems. Between 1462 and 1466 Vlad was first detained in Oratia Fortress located in Podu d'Ambovice today,
00:48:16then in Visegrad. Over the course of this period King Matthias and Vlad's relationship grew more favourable,
00:48:23though he was not released. In the meantime his brother Radu, the real collaborator with the Sultan,
00:48:28ruled Wallachia as the new voivoda. During the early years of his house arrest, Vlad Dracula converted to
00:48:35Catholicism and married Ilona Shilaji, cousin to King Matthias. He was given greater freedom in 1466.
00:48:44Vlad and Ilona were also gifted a home in Pest, one of the two towns on either side of the Danube,
00:48:50along with Buda, which would later join to become Buda-Pest. Here they lived with their two sons,
00:48:56Vlad IV, Tepolis, and Mircea. Vlad spent many years here,
00:49:02settling into a seemingly sedentary retirement. But in truth he longed to return to Wallachia
00:49:08and reclaim his position there. To this end in the mid-1470s, after well over ten years in Hungary,
00:49:14Vlad Dracula reached out to Stephen V Batori, a prominent military commander, future voivoda of
00:49:21Transylvania, Hungarian Judge Royal, and ally of King Matthias, to help him with the task of building an
00:49:27army comprising of Moldavian, Hungarian, Transylvanian, and Wallachian forces.
00:49:33The mission for Stephen and Vlad was simple. Take Wallachia from Prince Basarab Laiota Chalbertran,
00:49:40who had claimed the voivodorship from Vlad's brother Radu in late 1474 or early 1475. Radu appears to have
00:49:49died shortly thereafter while trying to reclaim the position himself, though the details of his death
00:49:55are unclear. This left Vlad as the only Dracula, a legitimate son of Vlad II Dracul, left to seek
00:50:02the position of voivoda and Vlad, who was nearing his fiftieth year by this time, was determined to
00:50:08reclaim it. He managed to do so with little effort. Vlad and Stephen's forces arrived in the autumn of
00:50:141476 and met no resistance. Instead Basarab's army fled and allowed Dracula to resume his rule over Wallachia.
00:50:23Stephen Batori returned to Transylvania, leaving Vlad alone to defend his land from any threat.
00:50:31Vlad did not have long to enjoy his reclamation of the rule of Wallachia. Not long after his
00:50:37re-establishment on the Wallachian throne on 26 November 1476, Vlad's lands were once again besieged
00:50:45by a large army of Ottoman Turks who campaigned north against him in an effort to reimpose Basarab
00:50:52as a pro-Ottoman voivoda. Vlad found he had only around 2,000 men to fight the Ottoman's force,
00:50:59of even in excess of 4,000 who relatively easily crushed his Wallachian army. Vlad also died around
00:51:06this time, though the exact date and details of his death are not clear. Though it was known he had died
00:51:12by the 10th of January 1477, he might have died on the field of battle against the Turks,
00:51:18or may have been betrayed by his Wallachian boyar enemies and murdered, or was injured in a hunting
00:51:24accident which led to his death around the time of the new Ottoman invasion. There are several myths
00:51:29regarding Vlad Dracula's demise that have helped fuel the myth of Dracula throughout the world.
00:51:35A few believe Dracula was not killed during this period, instead being captured and ransomed, then moved
00:51:41to Italy, remaining there until his death and being buried at Santa Maria Nova Church in Naples. This
00:51:48theory has frequently been disputed and contested by other archaeologists, historians and researchers,
00:51:54who find the evidence supporting this notion almost entirely lacking and unsubstantiated. The most
00:51:59commonly accepted story about his death says that Vlad the Impaler met his end at the hands of the
00:52:05Ottomans, either being captured by the Turks, beheaded, having his head preserved in honey,
00:52:11and then put on a pike to be brought to Istanbul as evidence of his death, or being impaled in the
00:52:17same manner he had become infamous for. Either way, the law of his reign was the stuff of legend and became
00:52:24intermixed with the truth of his life. It is not known exactly where Dracula was buried, although there were
00:52:31rumors that he was interred callously by his adversary Basarab the Elder at the Komana Monastery,
00:52:37which Vlad had established and constructed. In 1931 archaeologists found a casket draped with a purple
00:52:44and gold veil at the Snagov Monastery in Bucharest. Aside from a skeleton, the coffin contained pieces of
00:52:51silk brocade, a ring like one worn by members of the Order of the Dragon, and a crown reminiscent of an
00:52:57oil painting of Vlad the Impaler. Was this, Vlad himself? The contents of the grave of Snagov were taken
00:53:05to the History Museum of Bucharest to be studied, but all the artifacts and bones promptly vanished,
00:53:11adding further to the mystery and legend of Vlad Dracula and the whereabouts of his corpse.
00:53:17In the aftermath of Vlad's death, the Principality of Wallachia continued to experience years of
00:53:23instability, being governed by short-lived rulers such as Basarab Lautar cel Batran,
00:53:29who briefly reclaimed the voivodership at the time of Vlad's death, but who was then himself quickly
00:53:34overthrown by a new Hungarian-supported voivoda, Basarab IV. Throughout this tumultuous era,
00:53:41the Principality was devastated as a result of being caught between the Ottoman Turks on one hand,
00:53:47and the Christian powers to the north-west and the Kingdom of Hungary on the other. Thus, for instance,
00:53:52on the 13th of October 1479 the Battle of Breadfield was fought in nearby Transylvania,
00:53:59a major battle between the Hungarians, allied with the Serbs, Wallachians, and others,
00:54:04against the Ottomans. This was the largest battle yet fought in the Balkans to prevent the Ottoman
00:54:09advance in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople, and ended in victory for the Hungarians and their
00:54:16Allies. Ultimately, however, the Turkish advance was too strong, as sheer numbers led the Sultans to
00:54:23begin imposing themselves more fully over Wallachia, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Serbia in the early
00:54:3016th century. This was compounded by growing divisions within European Christendom following the inception
00:54:36of the Protestant Reformation in the late 1510s. Thus, in 1526, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent defeated
00:54:44the remaining Balkan powers and the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohac. Consequently, for the next two
00:54:50centuries, the Austrian Habsburgs were the front line of European Christendom's defence, a role it had to
00:54:56perform on many occasions, most notably in 1683 when the Turks threatened to capture Vienna itself,
00:55:03and during which they were only prevented from doing so by the arrival of the Polish army to relieve the
00:55:08Austrians. Given all of this, it is unsurprising to find that Wallachia, despite Vlad's efforts to
00:55:15resist Turkish encroachments, fell firmly under Ottoman control in the 16th century and remained
00:55:21in that position until the late 18th century when Turkish domination was swapped for Russian
00:55:26geopolitical dominance in the region. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when Romanian nationalism became a
00:55:32major force in the region in the course of the 19th century, Vlad was reimagined not as a brutal
00:55:38sadistic ruler, but as a Romanian nationalist himself who had tried to resist Turkish subjugation of Wallachia.
00:55:46Today, Vlad Dracula is frequently considered to be a prime example of a human embodiment of evil.
00:55:53His violence and cruelties towards his own people and enemies became synonymous with his name.
00:55:59His most famous portrayal came in the form of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a late 19th century Gothic novel
00:56:06told from the letters of different characters regarding their interactions with a strange man,
00:56:11Count Dracula, who is later revealed to be a vampire. Stoker took his inspiration from Vlad's name,
00:56:18but mainly from the mythology of Romania and the wider Balkans and other aspects of vampiric lore.
00:56:24How does one appraise a character such as Vlad III Dracula, whose life is shrouded in myth,
00:56:31exaggeration, and fantastical tales? Firstly, it must be said that many of the tales about him were
00:56:37doubtlessly embellished and have been further so over the last 120 or so years as sensationalist accounts
00:56:44have abounded of the life of the man who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. What should be said first is that
00:56:51Vlad was almost certainly not as tyrannical and bloodthirsty as many accounts of his life made
00:56:57him out to be. These exaggerated tales about him started early and have continued ever since.
00:57:03Pamphleteers and writers in late 15th and 16th century Europe were just as anxious to concoct
00:57:09elaborate tales about the strange lord who lived on the peripheries of Europe and engaged in excessively
00:57:16cruel behaviour. Thus any assessment of Vlad the Impaler must be undertaken with a hefty dose of
00:57:22scepticism about what has been written about him over the last 550 years.
00:57:28And yet, these reservations aside, there is no doubting that Vlad's reputation must have come
00:57:34from somewhere. He did widely employ the tactic of impaling his enemies on spikes, even though it may
00:57:41be fantastical to suggest over 100,000 people fell victim to this proclivity of his. Equally, he may
00:57:49well have widely employed torture and other terror tactics to try to rule Wallachia. But, while it does
00:57:55not excuse his behaviour, this must be viewed in context. What must be remembered in interpreting Vlad
00:58:02the Impaler's life was that he was living through a period of increasing brutality and slaughter in
00:58:09south-eastern Europe as the religious wars between the Christians of Hungary and the buffer states
00:58:14such as Wallachia intensified against the onslaughts of the Ottoman Turks. Wallachia found itself in the
00:58:21unenviable position of being caught in the middle of the clash between Christian Hungary and the Muslim
00:58:27Ottomans, continuously devastated by both sides as they tried to impose favourable candidates as Voivoda,
00:58:34all sides engaged in atrocities and criminal acts of violence. Viewed in this light, Vlad was not
00:58:41really the instigator of extreme violence in 15th century Wallachia, but was actually more a product
00:58:47of the culture of violence. What do you think of Vlad the Impaler? Was he a grim hero and a protector of
00:58:55Romania, caught up in a wider religious war in the Balkans, which Wallachia found itself at the forefront of,
00:59:02or was he a bloodthirsty madman who exemplified the worst parts of humanity? Please let us know
00:59:09in the comment section and in the meantime. Thank you very much for watching.
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