Conde vlad tepes biography

The Austrian chronicler Jacob Unrest stated that a disguised Turkish assassin murdered Vlad in his camp. In contrast, Russian statesman Fyodor Kuritsyn —who interviewed Vlad's family after his demise— reported that the voivode was mistaken for a Turk by his own troops during battle, causing them to attack and conde vlad tepes biography him.

Florescu and Raymond T. McNally commented this account by noting that Vlad had often disguised himself as a Turkish soldier as part of military ruses. The place of his burial is unknown. Rosetti in found no tomb below the supposed "unmarked tombstone" of Vlad in the monastery church. Rosetti reported: "Under the tombstone attributed to Vlad, there was no tomb.

Only many bones and jaws of horses. Vlad had two wives, according to modern specialists. Vlad's eldest son, [ ] Mihneawas born in Stories about Vlad's brutal acts began circulating during his lifetime. It was even rumored that Vlad once dipped his bread into the blood of his impaled victims, but this so far remains legendary, as the story has not been confirmed.

Meistersinger Michael Beheim wrote a lengthy poem about Vlad's deeds, allegedly based on his conversation with a Catholic monk who had managed to escape from Vlad's prison. InGabriele RangoniBishop of Eger and a former papal legate[ ] understood that Vlad had been imprisoned because of his cruelty. Turkish messengers came to [Vlad] to pay respects, but refused to take off their turbans, according to their ancient custom, whereupon he strengthened their custom by nailing their turbans to their heads with three spikes, so that they could not take them off.

The stories about Vlad's plundering raids in Transylvania were clearly based on an eyewitness account, because they contain accurate details including the lists of the churches destroyed by Vlad and the dates of the raids. The invention of movable type printing contributed to the popularity of the stories about Vlad, making them one of the first "bestsellers" in Europe.

He put the people in the cauldron and put their heads in the holes and fastened them there; then he filled it with water and set a fire under it and let the people cry their eyes out until they were boiled to death. And then he invented frightening, terrible, unheard of tortures. He ordered that women be impaled together with their suckling babies on the same stake.

The babies fought for their lives at their mother's breasts until they died. Then he had the women's breasts cut off and put the babies inside headfirst; thus he had them impaled together. There are more than twenty manuscripts written between the 15th and 18th centuries [ ] which preserved the text of the Skazanie o Drakule voievode The Tale about Voivode Dracula.

The nineteen anecdotes in the Skazanie are longer than the German stories about Vlad. On the other hand, the Skazanie sharply criticized Vlad for his conversion to Catholicism, attributing his death to this apostasy. The mass murders that Vlad carried out indiscriminately and brutally would most likely amount to acts of genocide and war crimes by current standards.

Most Romanian artists have regarded Vlad as a just ruler and a realistic tyrant who punished criminals and executed unpatriotic boyars to strengthen the central government. You must come, O dread Impaler, confound them to your care. Split them in two partitions, here the fools, the rascals there; Shove them into two enclosures from the broad daylight enisle 'em, Then set fire to the prison and the lunatic asylum.

In the early s, the painter Theodor Aman depicted the meeting of Vlad and the Ottoman envoys, showing the envoys' fear of the Wallachian ruler. Since the middle of the 19th century, Romanian historians have treated Vlad as one of the greatest Romanian rulers, emphasizing his fight for the independence of the Romanian lands. Giurescu remarked, "The tortures and executions which [Vlad] ordered were not out of caprice, but always had a reason, and very often a reason of state".

The stories about Vlad made him the best-known medieval ruler of the Romanian lands in Europe. Stoker "apparently did not know much about" Vlad the Impaler, "certainly not enough for us to say that Vlad was the inspiration for" Count Dracula, according to Elizabeth Miller. Consequently, Stoker borrowed the name and "scraps of miscellaneous information" about the history of Wallachia when writing his book about Count Dracula.

Vlad's bad reputation in the German-speaking territories can be detected in a number of Renaissance paintings. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. His face and chin were shaven but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck connected [with] his head from which black curly locks hung on his wide-shouldered person.

Conde vlad tepes biography: He was the second son

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. For the baseball player so nicknamed, see Vladimir Guerrero. One horrific tale tells of him inviting all the sick and poor in the area to a large dinner only to have them locked inside and the building burned.

Copies of the story were made from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century. There are some 22 extant manuscripts about Vlad in Russian archives. The oldest one is from the year and it ends as following: First written in the year meaningon 13 February; then transcribed by me, the sinner Elfrosin, in the year meaningon 28 January. There are 19 episodes or anecdotes in the Tale about Voivode Dracula and they are longer and more constructed than the German stories.

The Tale itself can be divided into two sections. The first 13 episodes are more or less non chronological events and are most likely closer to the original folkloric oral tradition about Vlad. The last six episodes are thought to have been written by a scholar who had the idea of collecting the anecdotes because they are chronological and seem to be more structured.

Out of the 19 "conde vlad tepes biographies" there are ten that are almost the same as in the German stories. Unlike in the German stories, the Russian stories tend to give a more positive image of Vlad. He is seen as a great ruler, a brave soldier and a just sovereign. There are also tales about atrocities but even most of them seem to be justified as the actions of a strong one-man ruler.

Out of the 19 episodes only four seem to be exaggerated with violence. The nationality and identity of the original writer of the Tale about Voivode Dracula is disputed. The two most plausible explanations are that the writer was either a Romanian priest or a monk somewhere in Transylvania or a Romanian or Moldavian from the court of Stephen the Great in Moldova.

One theory is also that the writer would have been a Russian diplomat named Fedor Kuritsyn but it is very unlikely that we can find a name to the real writer of the Tale. Regardless of how the name came to Stoker's attention, the cruel history of the Impaler would have readily lent itself to Stoker's purposes. The events of Vlad's life were played out in a region of the world that was still basically medieval even in Stoker's time.

The Balkans had only recently shaken off the Turkish yoke when Stoker started working on his novel and ancient superstitions were still prevalent. Transylvania had long been a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empirebut it had also been an Ottoman vassal although it never fell under Turkish domination, and was in fact semi-independent and at times under Habsburg influence.

Recent research by Miller and others suggests that Stoker knew little about the Prince of Wallachia. Miller says that since Stoker kept detailed notes, it is odd that he never mentioned Vlad. The legend of the vampire was and still is deeply rooted in that region. There have always been vampire-like creatures in various stories from across the world.

However, the vampire, as he became known in Europe, largely originated in Southern Slavic and Greek folklore — although the tale is absent in Romanian culture. A veritable epidemic of vampirism swept through Eastern Europe beginning in the late seventeenth century and continuing through the s. The number of reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary and the Balkans.

Travelers returning from the Balkans brought with them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire that has continued to this day. Philosophers in the West began to study the phenomenon. It was during this period that French Biblical scholar and Benedictine abbot Dom Augustine Calmet — wrote his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary.

It was also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire legend. Stoker's novel was merely the culminating work of a long series of works that were inspired by the reports coming from the Balkans and Hungary. Given the history of the vampire legend in Europe, it is perhaps natural that Stoker should place his great vampire in the heart of the region that gave birth to the story.

Once Stoker had determined on a locality, Vlad Dracula would stand out as one of the most notorious rulers of the selected region. He was obscure enough that few would recognize the name and those who did would know him for his acts of brutal cruelty; Dracula was a natural candidate for vampirism. Tales of vampires are still widespread in Eastern Europe.

Similarly, the name of Dracula is still remembered in the Romanian oral tradition but that is the end of any connection between Dracula and the folkloric vampire. Outside of Stoker's novel the name of Dracula was never linked with the vampires encountered in the folklore. Despite his alleged inhuman cruelty, in Romania Dracula is remembered as a national hero who resisted the Turkish conquerors and asserted Romanian national sovereignty against the powerful Hungarian kingdom.

He is also remembered in a conde vlad tepes biography manner in other Balkan countries, as he fought against the Turks. It is somewhat ironic that Vlad's name has often been thrown into the political and ethnic feuds between Hungarians and Romanians, because he was ultimately far from an enemy of Hungary. While he certainly had violent conflicts with some Hungarian nobles, he had just as many Hungarian friends and allies, and his successes in battle with the Turks largely benefited Hungary in the long term.

Hungary later found itself under siege but was never entirely penetrated by Ottoman forces. Though neither the first nor the last powerful ruler to take on the Ottoman EmpireDracula's demoralizing battle tactics were quite influential in damaging the illusion of Turkish invincibility and reversing the European aura of appeasement. In this tradition, he is the "undying hero who in the moment of need will rise up and save the Romanian nation from destruction.

For this reason, the association of his name with vampirism does not make sense to Romanians. In Romania he is still considered by some to be a "savior" to the people of his country. He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cruel and terrible appearance, a long straight nose, distended nostrils, a thin and reddish face in which the large wide-open green eyes were enframed by bushy black eyebrows, which made them appear threatening.

His face and chin were shaven but for a moustache.

Conde vlad tepes biography: › Geography & Travel

The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck supported the head, from which black curly locks were falling to his wide-shouldered person. His famous contemporary portrait, rediscovered by Romanian historians in the late nineteenth century, had been featured in the gallery of horrors at Innsbruck's Ambras Castle. All accounts of his life describe him as unrepentantly ruthless, but only the ones originating from his Saxon detractors paint him as exceptionally sadistic or somehow insane.

These pamphlets continued to be published long after his death, though usually for lurid entertainment rather than propaganda purposes. It has largely been forgotten until recently that his tenacious efforts against the Ottoman Empire won him many staunch supporters in his lifetime, not just in modern day Romania but in the Kingdom of HungaryPolandthe Republic of Veniceand even the Holy Seenot to take into account Balkan countries.

A Hungarian court chronicler reported that King Matthias "had acted in opposition to general opinion" in Hungary when he had Dracula imprisoned, and this played a considerable part in Matthias reversing his unpopular decision. Apart from the Dracula movies, which are partially based on Vlad as well as Elizabeth Bathory, there has been comparatively fewer movies about the man who inspired the vampire.

The movie Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula[14] filmed on conde vlad tepes biography in Hungary and starring Rudolf Martin, attempts to portray Vlad the Impaler as a generally sympathetic, though tragic figure. The film takes a number of liberties with the details of his life, but remains overall a fairly accurate outline of his story. In the opening of the film, which is set in Transylvania inhe leaves his beloved wife Elisabeta at his castle to fight an army of Turks, who have invaded Transylvania and are threatening all of Christendom.

Vlad Draculea, as he is known in the film, leads his army to victory against the Turks and impales many of them on stakes, before praising God for his triumph. However, he then experiences a premonition in which Elisabeta flings herself out of the window of the castle to her death in the river hundreds of feet below, since the surviving Turks shot an arrow through the castle window, with a letter attached to it falsely informing her of Vlad's death in the battle.

Rushing back to the castle, a distraught Vlad is shown his wife's dead body in the chapel, and is told by an elderly priest that due to her suicide, Elisabeta's soul cannot enter heaven. Overcome with grief and anger, Vlad renounces God and proceeds to plunge his sword into a stone crucifix nearby, causing blood to gush out of the hole and fill up the floor of the entire chapel.

Vlad then swears that he will live beyond his own death and avenge Elisabeta's unnecessary death with all the powers of darkness, and then drinks some of the blood from a goblet next to the stone crucifix. Over four hundred years later, inVlad is still alive in Transylvania and is revealed through the course of the film to have been transformed into a vampire, becoming known as Dracula and possessing all of the strengths and weaknesses described in Bram Stoker's novel.

The film then follows the plot of the novel, except the character of Mina Harker is revealed to be the reincarnation of Elisabeta, sharing her exact physical appearance, and a passionate romance between Mina and Dracula is added in the film to coincide with the opening of the film Dracula turning Mina into a vampire so they can be together as husband and wife for an eternity, just as he and Elisabeta were meant to be together all of their lives.

Through Dracula's death, Mina is freed of the vampire's curse, in accordance with the novel. The film presents Vlad the Impaler as a brutal but tragic character who became the immortal vampire Dracula out of his love for his deceased wife, and shows his actions as Dracula to be his own personal war against God for denying the entry of Elisabeta's soul into heaven, mixing historical fact with the fiction of Bram Stoker's world-famous vampire character.

His appearance as Vlad is similar to historical depictions of Vlad the Impaler; his suit of armor in the battle against the Turks has a distinct wolf-like appearance; he is shown to be able to fight multiple armed men single-handedly, both as Vlad and Dracula, and golden dragons appear frequently on his clothes and in his castle once he becomes the vampire Dracula.

Though many Westerners are baffled that a man whose conde vlad tepes biography and military career was as steeped in blood as was that of Vlad Dracula, the fact remains that for many Romanians he is an icon of heroism and national pride. Spikes were introduced into the victim's anus and pushed in until the other end emerged from the victim's mouth.

The impaled victim was then hoisted vertically, and left to writhe in agony, sometimes for days [source: Fasulo ]. The aged vampire in Stoker's novel required blood to stay alive; Tepes shed blood by the bucketful to promote his lifelong goals. Conservative estimates put his victim count at 40, [source: University of Louisiana ].

It's also significant to note that eating and death were so intertwined in Tepes' life. He often dined with guests before killing them, and he was reputed to have taken meals outdoors, among impaled dead and dying [source: Martin ]. Why is blood such a significant symbol of vitality and power in fiction, allegory and reality? Find out about the symbolism of blood on the next page.

Most Christians wouldn't infer vampirism from the story of the Last Supper. Christ offers the chalice containing wine to signify his blood to his disciples and directs them to drink it. But there is a parallel between the Eucharist and vampire legends: Both suggest that the consumption of blood is an act of obtaining vitality. Christ told his disciples he'd shed his blood for their forgiveness.

By drinking it, they were taking part in his everlasting divinity. Similarly, through ingesting the blood of others, vampires of lore may live eternally here on Earth. According to some sources, blood is also reputed for its mythic ability to maintain beauty. When Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula fed on blood, his appearance reverted to a handsome, youthful version of himself.

The 16th-century Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory is said to have used the blood of her murdered victims to promote her skin's health. Some Renaissance-era women believed applying the blood of doves to their skin could maintain beauty [source: McNally ]. And even today, some women apply rouge or pinch their cheeks to create the appearance of a healthy flush.

Anthropophagy cannibalism is another example of the symbolic and literal vitality derived from eating the flesh or drinking the blood of others. Through cannibalism, symbolic vitality generally comes from two sources: kin and the vanquished. Endocannibalism refers to eating the flesh of a member of one's group. In some cultures, eating the flesh of a relative serves as a way of carrying on the line of ancestors [source: Goldman].

Conde vlad tepes biography: Surrounded by enemies that included the

Exocannibalism is eating the flesh of one outside the eater's group, like a conquered foe. Tepes committed exocannibalism in one account when he ingested the blood of captured Turks, although there's no evidence he believed he gained any tangible power from the act. Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world? None escaped the flames.

Vlad explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did this "in order that they represent no further burden to other men, and that no one will be poor in my realm. When in the presence of the prince, they refused to remove their hats. Vlad ordered that the hats be nailed to their heads, such that they should never have to remove them again.

Note: The nailing of hats to the heads of those who displeased a monarch was not an unknown act in eastern Europe and by the princes of Moscow. A merchant from a foreign land visited Tirgoviste. Upon returning to his wagon in the morning, the merchant was shocked to find golden ducats missing. Then the merchant complained of his loss to the prince, Vlad assured him that his money would be returned.

On returning to his cart the next morning and counting his money the merchant discovered the extra ducat. The merchant returned to Vlad and reported that his money had indeed been returned plus an extra ducat. Vlad ordered the thief impaled and informed the merchant that if he had not reported the extra ducat he would have been impaled alongside the thief.

Vlad once noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a caftan shirt that he adjudged to be too short in length. When the woman was brought before him he asked her how she spent her days. The conde vlad tepes biography, frightened woman stated that she spent her days conde vlad tepes biography, baking and sewing. Vlad then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but admonished her to work hard or she would suffer the same fate.

On St. In order that he might better enjoy the results of his orders, the prince commanded that his table be set up and that his boyars join him for a feast amongst the forest of impaled corpses. While dining, Vlad noticed that one of his boyars was holding his nose in an effort to alleviate the terrible smell of clotting blood and emptied bowels.

Vlad then ordered the sensitive nobleman impaled on a stake higher than all the rest so that he might be above the stench. Vlad Dracula once had a mistress that lived in a house in the back streets of Tirgoviste. This woman apparently loved the prince to distraction and was always anxious to please him. Once, when he was particularly depressed, the woman dared tell him the lie that she was with child.

Vlad had the woman examined by the bath matrons. When informed that the woman was lying, Vlad drew his knife and cut her open from the groin to her breast, leaving her to die in agony. At dinner one evening Vlad ordered a golden spear brought and set up directly in front of the royal envoy. Vlad then asked the envoy if he knew why this spear had been set up.

Benedict replied that he imagined some boyar had offended the prince and that Vlad intended to honor him. Vlad responded that the spear had, in fact, been set up in honor of his noble, Polish guest. The Pole then responded that if he had done anything to deserve death that Vlad should do as he thought best. Vlad Dracula was greatly pleased by this answer, showered him with gifts, and declared that had he answered in any other manner he would have been immediately impaled.

They had only recently shaken off the Turkish yoke when Stoker started working on his novel and the superstitions of the Dark Ages were still prevalent. The legend of the vampire was and still is deeply rooted in the Balkan region. There have always been vampire-like creatures in the mythologies of many cultures. However, the vampire, as he became known in Europe and hence America, largely originated in the Slavic and Greek lands of Eastern Europe.

A veritable epidemic of vampirism swept through Eastern Europe beginning in the late seventeenth century and continuing through the eighteenth century. The number of reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary and the Balkans. Travelers returning from the Balkans brought with them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire that has continued to this day.

Philosophers in the West began to study the phenomenon. It was during this period that Dom Augustin Calmet wrote his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary. It was also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire myth. Did Bram Stoker base his Dracula upon the historical Dracula? There is fairly strong evidence the two Draculas are connected.

Arguments in favor of this position include the following: The fictional Dracula and the historical Dracula share the same name. There can be no doubt that Bram Stoker based his character upon some reference to Vlad Dracula. Stoker researched various sources prior to writing the novel, including the Library at Whitby and literature from the British Museum.

It is entirely possible that his readings on Balkan history would have included information about Vlad Tepes. Stoker was the friend of a Hungarian professor from Budapest, named Arminius Vambery, who he met personally on several occasions and who may have given him information about the historical Dracula. Other references in the novel may also be related to the historical Dracula.

Professor Miller counters each of these arguments. In particular she notes the only reference provided by Stoker in his notes that contains any information about Vlad Tepes is a book by William Wilkinson entitled An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldaviawhich Stoker borrowed from the Whitby Public Library in while there on vacation.

The book contains a few brief references to a "Voivode Dracula" never referred to as Vlad who crossed the Danube and attacked Turkish troops. Also, what seems to have attracted Stoker was a footnote in which Wilkinson states "Dracula in Wallachian language means Devil. As far as any likeness between the historical Vlad Dracula and descriptions provided in the novel, professor Miller notes that it is most likely Stoker drew his description of Count Dracula from earlier villains in Gothic literature, or even from his own employer, Henry Irving.