Vlad III and the historical origins of Dracula

Vlad III and the historical origins of Dracula

From the author of The Day of the Heroes. A story about today's culture war in a time of dragons and heroes. Click Here to purchase from Amazon.

The story of Vlad III of Romania in the 15th century provides an insight into the ongoing conflict between Islam and Christianity in the medieval period. It is an interesting story, as it is from this man where our modern-day character of Dracula comes from. Vlad III was also known as Vlad the Impaler, a name which should give an indication of his favoured method of punishment and torture. It is also part of the reason for the creation of the myth of Dracula. Vlad’s father, Vlad II from the town of Transylvania in modern-day Romania, was knighted into the order of the dragons by the Hungarian King, Sigismund. This was part of an alliance against the Ottoman Empire who had been continuously attempting to push the boundaries of their territory, in order to impose their Islamic ideology through force. This is something that had been happening for centuries by the various Islamic cultures and was the reason behind the response of the Christian crusades. As a result of the knighthood, Vlad IIs new title became Vlad Dracul. Vlad III became ‘son of Dracul’, or Vlad Draculea, which is where the word Dracula comes from.

The background of Vlad III
Modern-day Romania in the 14th century was close to the edge of the Islamic Ottoman empire, which is now modern-day Turkey. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottomans, modern-day Istanbul, was the final death of what was left of the Roman empire and brought the Ottomans closer to the lands of Romania. About ten years earlier, Vlad II (Vlad III’s father), who was dedicated to the protection of Christianity, was captured by the Ottomans and imprisoned. He was allowed to return to Romania on the condition that his sons be brought up in the Ottoman empire, Vlad II agreed. Vlad III was raised as an Ottoman, with all of the Ottoman tradition to mould him into an Ottoman puppet. Vlad III trained in all areas military and strategy, becoming highly skilled. Skills that he would use successfully later in life. In 1448 Vlad III was placed as the ruler of Romania by the Ottomans. Even though he was brought up in Islamic Ottoman traditions, he had a hatred for the Ottomans and Islam and turned against his captors.

Vlad the Impaler 
When Vlad III took the throne of modern-day Romania, he refused to continue paying homage to the Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II, which was a condition of him being given power and something his father had done. When emissaries were sent from the Ottomans to Vlad III, he had them impaled. Vlad’s version of impalement was quite brutal, it involved the spreading of the legs and having a large wooden spike inserted through the individual’s backside. This spike was then placed vertically where the individual slowly descended down the wooden spike, sometimes over several days in excruciating agony before dying. This form of punishment would become Vlad’s trademark punishment, reports have even been found that suggest he would dine outside while watching his victims die.

Vlad III is highly celebrated in Romania today, not for his method of torture, but rather the many reforms he introduced, including land reforms and a taxation system that benefited his citizens. He also cleaned up the crime rate by swiftly dealing with any criminal through his favoured punishment of impalement. He is also highly celebrated due to his defence of his citizens against the Ottomans and protecting Christianity. When the Ottomans gathered an army to attack Vlad III, Vlad gathered all of the Ottoman prisoners he had captured in his raids against them, which numbered around 20,000 and had them all impaled. The Ottoman army was met with a forest of their impaled rotting country men, they were so horrified by the encounter, that they turned around and went home. Years later when the Pope called for a crusade against the warring Ottoman empire, the Ottomans sent a delegation to Vlad III to ask for peace. The Ottoman delegation refused to take their turbans off their heads out of respect, so Vlad III swiftly had their turbans nailed to their heads.

Vlad II and Mehmed II's envoy

Vampire mythology 
Vlad’s brutality was extreme, however, the transformation of this man’s life into the figure of Dracula comes from combining Vlad III's life with ancient pagan mythology. Before the Christianisation of greater Europe, it was very much a conglomerate of pagan societies. Even after the Christianisation of Europe, many pagan beliefs and practices remained, particularly in the rural areas.

Romania, along with the Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Turkish regions was settled by the Thracians from around 1500BC, consisting of anywhere between 90 and 200 tribes. The Thracians were distinctly different from their neighbours in that their beliefs were geographically specific, whereas other cultures generally borrowed the gods of those around them. The Thracians folklore of vampires is also quite distinct from that of their neighbours. Romanian tribes, Transylvania in particular, developed very strong beliefs around the Strigoi. The Strigoi in Romanian mythology were the troubled souls of the dead who had passed to the next world but had come back. They had come back to commit evil, including to consume the blood of their victims. The Romanian belief in the vampire Strigoi were so strong that they still exist today.  

How Vlad III became Dracula 
Bram Stoker’s original book Dracula in 1897 combined the life of Vlad Draculea with the ancient pagan beliefs of the Strigoi. Stoker spent several years studying Romanian folklore and with that, the life of Vlad Draculea. Stoker’s creative invention of Dracula through the combination of a real-life individual and ancient pagan mythology, have left us with a modern-day fascination of Dracula that we see through horror movies, teen shows, and even children’s cartoons. What it also does, is points us to a period of history that highlights that the struggle between Islam and the Judeo-Christian beliefs is not a modern phenomenon. Rather, it is one that has raged since the moment Muhammad realised that he could not convert the Christian and Jewish peoples to his new religion.

The Transylvanian castle Stoker selected for his book Dracula