Vlad The Impaler

Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes in Romanian) was descended from Basarab the Great, a fourteenth-century prince who is credited with having founded the state of Wallachia, part of present-day Romania. The most famous of the early Basarabs was Vlads grandfather, Mircea cel Batrin (Mircea the Old). As Wallachian voivode (a word of Slavic origin, used in Romania for the leader of a principality, a war-lord, or a supreme chief), Mircea was prominent for his struggles against the Ottoman Empire and his attempts to exclude permanent Turkish settlement on Wallachian lands. Mircea died in 1418 and left behind a number of illegitimate children. As there were no clear rules of succession in Wallachia (the council of boyars had the power to select as voivode any son of a ruling prince), Mirceas death led to conflict between his illegitimate son Vlad (Vlad the Impalers father) and Dan, the son of one of Mirceas brothers. This was the beginning of the Draculeti-Daneti feud that was to play a major role in the history of fifteenth-century Wallachia. In 1431, the year in which Vlad the Impaler may have been born (not confirmed), his father Vlad was stationed in as a military commander with responsibility for guarding the mountain passes from Transylvania into Wallachia from enemy incursion. In 1431, the senior Vlad, then serving as a military commander in the Transylvanian town of Sighioara, was summoned to Nuremberg by Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, to receive a unique honor. He was one of a number of princes and vassals initiated by the Emperor into the Order of the Dragon, an institution, similar to other chivalric orders of the time, modelled on the Order of St George. It was created in 1408 by Sigismund and his queen Barbara Cilli mainly for the purpose of gaining protection for the royal family; it also required its initiates to defend Christianity and to do battle against its enemies, principally the Turks. As an indication of his pride in the Order, Vlad took on the nickname Dracul. (The Wallachian word dracul was derived from the Latin draco meaning the dragon.) The sobriquet adopted by the younger Vlad (Dracula indicating son of Dracul or son of the Dragon), also had a positive connotation. In Romanian history, Vlad is usually referred to as Tepes (pronounced Tse-pesh). This name, from the Turkish nickname kaziklu bey (impaling prince), was used by Ottoman chroniclers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries because of Vlads fondness for impalement as a means of execution. The epithet, which echoed the fear that he instilled in his enemies, was embraced in his native country. No evidence exists to suggest that Vlad ever used it in reference to himself. By contrast, the term Dracula (or linguistic variations thereof) was used on a number of occasions by Vlad himself in letters and documents that still survive in Romanian museums. We know little about Vlads early childhood in Sighisoara. His mother ...