Dracula is the creation of Bram Stoker, as the main character of the Gothic-horror novel released in 1897, and to write about this creation, supposedly inspired by the ruler of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler, would mean to bore you for a few minutes, serving you probably something that you already know. I will not do that, but I will bring again to your attention, for the third time on my blog, one of the greatest and most respected rulers that the lands of Romania have ever had.
Vlad The Impaler, or Vlad Draculea(not Dracula), as he was called before becoming The Impaler, ruled between 1448, 1456-1462 and 1476 and was one of the most cruel, country-loving, and fearless ruler that Wallachia has ever had, and implicitly the lands of today's Romania. It has remained in the hearts and in the memory of many of us, and seeing how Romania has transformed itself, thirty years after the revolution of 1989, I believe that we desperately need another leader like him.
In the following I will leave aside the known historical facts about Vlad the Impaler, and I will present to you some of his lesser known aspects and deeds, which certainly did not reach the hands of Wikipedia but, which deserve to be known, and certainly worth becoming the subject of a post on the Hive blockchain.
What made Vlad the Impaler famous was certainly his cruel side towards the scums, lazy, thieves and beggars, and whenever he met them, he ordered them to be impaled, his thirst for blood being probably one of his main inspirations for Bram Stoker in creating the character of Dracula.
However, Vlad Tepes loved, even outside of his marriage to Anastasia Holszanska, the niece of the queen of Poland at the time, and his lover's name was Katharina, who came from the Saxon community of Brasov. She was 17 years old when she started her relationship with him, and Vlad was 34 years old. Their relationship lasted 20 years, but Pope Pius II never granted Dracula a divorce so he could marry Katharina.
Vlad Tepes(The Impaler) was held hostage by the Turks, during the period when his father was killed, the one who gave him the name of Draculea, and to avenge his father, he gathered all the boyars from the castle, organized a great party, and when they were sleeping exhausted he ordered them killed. Not knowing exactly who had plotted to kill his father, he killed them all, such actions at his castle were not uncommon. That is why Dracula's castle became famous as a killing shelter.
The cruelty that characterized Dracula of Transylvania was famous not only inside the country but also outside it, and one of such cruel practices of the Wallachian ruler was the last dish he served to his guests. This was "the bread soaked in the blood of those who were stabbed". With this gesture he wanted to set an example, but at the same time to frighten his guests, and it seemed to have made him famous for being too damn blood thirsty.
One of the most famous scenes of the Romanian film about Vlad Tepes, entitled the punishment of the scumbags, shows the ruler's attitude towards beggars, robbers and lazy scums. As in the case of the boyars killed to avenge his father, he at one point gives a big party inside an inn, gathers such low-ranking people, and then sets fire to the building, letting them burn alive. The fact that his father, Vlad the Second, seems to have been a member of the Secret Order of the Dragon, may have inspired his son to burn alive those who were not the model of inhabitants of the country.
Impaling, however, was his preferred method of punishing wrongdoing, as well as his Turk prisoners, and it is said that during his reign he killed nearly 100,000 people in this way. Probably this cruel way in which a robber, or thief, would have died at that time, made a gold cup left by the ruler near a fountain located in a central area of a large spot, not be stolen by the 60,000 inhabitants of the city of Targoviste, although probably many of them were very poor at that time. Today I think that such an artifact, left in the middle of the crowds, anywhere in this country, would have been stolen in a few minutes, and that is why I consider that Romania urgently needs a new Vlad the Impaler.
From the cruel methods of punishing thieves, and those who were trying to conquer the country at that time, women were not trampled on either. A legend tells of the lazy wife of a hard-working peasant at the time, who refused to make him a new shirt, even though she had everything she needed to do so, that the woman was punished just as severely as thieves and beggars. Her hands were cut off, and she was impaled afterwards, and then exposed to be seen by all passers-by.
Vlad Tepes in turn was not spared a cruel death, and as macabre as his punishments. At the end of his last reign, in 1476, thanks to the boyars who conspired against him proving a cowardly attitude towards the ruler of Wallachia, and obedience to the Turks, he was beheaded and his head was sent to the sultan of that time who put it on the top of an impale, thus celebrating the death of the cruel Romanian ruler and their victory against a strong opponent.
How many of these cruel torture methods and character sides of the Walachian Ruler, known but also unknown to the whole world, were the basis of the character of Dracula, who got around the world and made Transylvania famous for vampires, remains a mystery, but certainly many Romanians will not forget Vlad Tepes, and you can be sure he wasn't a vampire. He was cruel, a country loving leader, probably misunderstood but, definitely not a vampire.
Thanks for attention,
Adrian