Romanian documentary sources have enabled us to reconstruct quite accurately the history of one of the most known in the region of Transylvania, Vlad Tepes voivod, an obscure nobleman belonging to the Order of the Dracul who inspired the character of Dracula's work Bram Stoker. The story goes back to 1430 when the emperor of the Roman Empire and King of Hungary and Bohemia, Sigismund, designated as the new voivod of Wallachia region a Romanian nobleman named Vlad (father of Dracula), which knighthood of the Order of the Dragon (Dracul) was founded in 1418 to fight against the thrust of Turkish armies Threatening Eastern Europe. During his time as voivod Vlad had four children each of which the final destination I came across a very different Mircea, Vlad Tepes, Vlad Radu the beautiful and the monk. Transylvanian Medieval history was marked by its geostrategic position which placed it as the place-passed between the Muslim East and Christian West. The ongoing clashes between the two worlds and the unstoppable advancing armies of the Sultan became the region of Transylvania in a combat zone in which voivodes had to deal with both sides to maintain their domains. Sometimes, as Christians respect their oaths while many others, agreed to pay tribute to the Turks to prevent their territories nobility were destroyed. Thus, it seems, Vlad father was convened in 1440 to a meeting with Sultan Murad II. The voivod traveling with their children Vlad Tepes and Radu the meeting with the Sultan but upon arrival at the meeting, the Wallachian nobles were taken prisoner by the Turkish army and taken to the court of the sultan in Constantinople to be used as hostages in political negotiations with the Christian kingdoms. Vlad Tepes in his captivity he learned the Turkish language and the vices of politics.
father Vlad was finally killed by rivals Vlach families after their captivity in Constantinople, Vlad Tepes became the new voivod of Wallachia between 1448 and 1476. Wallachia region became the scene of the bloody actions of Dracula (the final "a" indicating "son of", ie "the son of the dragon"). In the northern border and its famous castle built on a tributary of the Danube, Dambovita, built a second fortress in 1659 became the city of Bucharest, the capital of modern Romania. Very near this place, Dracula was killed and beheaded by the Turks who moved and showed the head of the voivod in the main square of Constantinople, although his body was buried in the monastery Snagob Island, near Bucharest. Dracula's life eventful and bloody us since the time of his captivity in Constantinople.
and Ottoman Historical sources tell us of an extremely aggressive Dracula during his captivity in Constantinople until the point of being feared by Turkish jailers themselves, an attitude very different from that shown by his brother Radu who was very interested in the affairs Sultan even to join of his harem. Some of Germanic origin anonymous writings dating from the seventeenth century shows us a frightening Dracula profile:
"A monster, fierce warrior named Dracula committed acts so at odds with Christianity as killing men and brought them on stakes, sliced, boiling mothers and children live and forcing men to commit acts of cannibalism. "
"Once did make a huge pot with two handles on it a device made of planks with holes, so that a man could pass through his head. Then he lighting a big fire under the pot and made pour water in it and boiled the men in this way. "
From historical sources we conclude that his penchant for torture led him to develop extremely cruel methods such as empalamamiento. The prisoner was tied to two horses and tightened the strings so that the body was fully extended after it introduced a round peg and oiled by the straight across his belly and abdomen. The purpose of impalement was the suffering and agony of the prisoner, even if the impalement was starting at the navel or heart level death was instantaneous. Vlad Dracula was not to be touched by age, sex or religion of the prisoners coming to impale mothers and infants, including some sources indicate that mothers impaled the severed heads of their children on the breasts. Another of his hobbies was the mutilation of the victims before impaled. Cut off ears, noses, genitals and limbs forced to devour themselves relatives of the executed before witnessing his impalement. Their cruelty reached unimaginable extremes, some texts speak of how they skinned the soles of their captives, they threw some salt and let animals lick their wounds indefinitely.
taste for torture even reached her sexual desires. In several papers we read how a soldier navel to ream his wife's breasts, or how he it punished one of his lovers who demanded the recognition of a child by opening the abdomen to see if, indeed, they could recognize. There are many stories that show us an extremely cruel and Dracula during her captivity in Constantinople where he said that many animals walk impaled by cells such as cats or rats.
But why Vlad Tepes, the son of the Order of Dracul, was chosen to star in Bram Stoker's vampire novel? As we have seen in previous posts, Vlad Tepes was not the only historical figure who showed a disproportionate fondness for blood (remember the bloody passions of the Countess Bathory). But Bram Stoker wrapped the cruelty of Vlad Tepes the night and supernatural qualities we've seen in mythological creatures such as harpies, strigose, Empusa and Lilith own to create the archetype of Nosferatu, the undead night sowing fears and immortality. But what holds the literary character of Dracula? In this and other issues I will discuss in subsequent entries.
