In 1386, in Sighisoara, a small town located in Transylvania, a man was born who left an indelible mark on history. Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula, a descendant of the ruler of Wallachia, Basarab the Great, became famous not so much for his talent as a commander, but for his gloomy cruelty, unprecedented even for.
Vlad III, about whom there were numerous bloody legends, became the prototype of one of the main characters in Bram Stoker's novel - he is known as Count Dracula, whose biography is to some extent similar to the fate of Tepes.
It cannot be said that his youth was easy and cloudless, which would be quite predictable for a real prince of the blood - the future ruler of Wallachia. At the age of twelve, Vlad III, together with his younger brother, was sent as hostages to the Turkish Sultan, where he is kept until the age of 17, which in all likelihood negatively affected his psyche.
At the age of 17, after his release, Vlad Tepes, whose biography has since become very changeable, with the help of the Turks, seizes power for the first time and reigns in Wallachia under the name of Vlad III. The Middle Ages were distinguished by numerous wars, and the young ruler failed to hold the throne for a long time - the protege of Janos Hunyadi, the ruler of Hungary, overthrew him. But he shows excessive independence, loses the patronage of his Hungarian overlord, and Vlad Tepes regains the throne with the support of Hunyadi himself.
Of course, such a turn of events did not suit Turkey, and in 1461 a war began, in which Vlad III fully showed his talent as a commander. But, despite all his courage and cruelty, (and by that time there were numerous bloody legends about him), Tepes is defeated - mainly because the Turkish army greatly outnumbers his troops. Vlad III abandons the defeated army and wants to take refuge in the possessions of the Hungarian king, but he accuses the former ally of conspiring with the Turks, and puts him in prison.
Vlad III is released more than 10 years later, and he even manages to recapture the capital of Wallachia, but after a while Vlad Tepes, whose biography is associated with many deaths, dies under mysterious circumstances ... Not otherwise, someone has in store for him aspen stake :) The life of Tepes ended in 1476.
Bloody legends or terrible reality?
It should be noted that the character of Bram Stoker - Count Dracula, whose biography is very mysterious, is only a weak likeness of his prototype. Vlad Tepes embodies all the atrocities of the Middle Ages - from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition to sophisticated Turkish torture.
Contemporaries feared him no less than even if a small part of the bloody legends folded about him is a reality, then Vlad III earned the right to be called a vampire, because in order to be him it is not necessary to drink blood - it is enough to shed it abundantly ...
Vlad the Impaler staged the most grandiose massacre in 1460 - then in one of the cities of Transylvania about 30,000 people were impaled at the same time. This massacre took place on the feast of St. Bartholomew. Over this holiday, apparently - it is enough to recall the confrontation between Catholics and Huguenots in France and the famous Bartholomew's Night.
There is also a legend about one of Tepes' mistresses, who tried to deceive him by announcing her pregnancy. One can only be surprised at the courage of a woman who continued to insist on her own, after Vlad warns her that he does not tolerate lies. The finale of the story is tragic - Tepes rips open her stomach and shouts "I warned you that I don't like lies!"
Count Dracula, whose biography gave rise to numerous bloody legends, did not complain about the lack of imagination, his methods of dealing with enemies were varied - chopping heads, boiling, burning, skinning or ripping open stomachs was common for Vlad Tepes. But to all of the above, the ruler preferred to impale those who were objectionable, thanks to which he got his nickname - Tepes - "spear-maker". But the perverted methods of reprisal were due not only to the sadistic inclinations of the ruler, such executions also pursued other goals. For example, there is a legend that a bowl made of gold stood at the fountain in the very center of the capital of Wallachia. Anyone could drink from it, but no one dared to steal the cup - the subjects knew that Tepes dealt with thieves especially cruelly.
Sometimes the count liked to joke...
Vlad Tepes also had a semblance of a sense of humor. Just as he loved hoaxes - he drank smoking mulled wine in the cold, which scared his courtiers to death, who believed that the ruler was drinking warm human blood ...
Count Dracula, whose biography inspired Bram Stoker, gave rise to not only bloody legends. The ruler was no stranger to some justice. One day, a passing merchant complained to Tepes that his van was robbed at night, and a significant amount of gold was missing. Naturally, Vlad Tepes could not tolerate such impudence - theft was punished very severely, and all forces were thrown into the search for the criminal, whom they discovered overnight.
The stolen gold was thrown to the merchant, and one extra coin was placed with him. What happened to the thief, I think is understandable, given the habits of Dracula. In the morning the merchant came to thank the ruler - he said that the thieves not only returned all the gold, but even tossed one extra coin. Tepes smiled grimly and said that if the merchant had kept silent about this coin, he would have sat on a stake next to the thief. One must think that after such a statement, the merchant hastened to leave the hospitable Wallachia.
Many bloody legends about Dracula tell that Vlad the Impaler had a habit of eating breakfast among the dead and dying people impaled on stakes. These stakes differed in both colors and geometric shapes- by these signs it was always possible to distinguish a commoner from a noble nobleman (the nobles were planted a little higher). It was not enough for Dracula to simply deal with the objectionable, he carefully monitored that the stakes were not sharpened, which would lead to profuse blood loss and quick death. And a blunt stake provided his victim with excruciating agony, which could last for 4 to 5 days.
Vlad Tepes, whose biography is diverse, sought to show everyone his independence. One day, messengers arrived at the court Turkish Sultan. The unlucky Turks completely refused to take off their hats (faith does not allow or something). The enraged ruler ordered his subjects to nail turbans to the heads of the Turks, which was immediately executed. However, small nails were used for this procedure.
How bloody legends about vampires appeared
Aspen stake, a bunch of garlic and, of course, 
crucifixion - what movie about vampires does without this paraphernalia? good remedy the fight against evil spirits also position sunlight, but few people have thought about why.
Origins for creation, as well as their fears sunlight served as one mysterious disease of the Middle Ages. It manifested itself in the fact that a person could not tolerate direct sunlight, from the impact of which the skin became covered with age spots, which caused quite severe pain.
The disease was called "porphyria" - the body of a person affected by this disease is not able to independently produce red blood cells. The disease is rare, and in those days representatives of the aristocracy were subject to it - this is where the thread stretches to Count Dracula (who, by the way, did not suffer from porphyria). In order not to experience pain, a person was forced to appear on the street only at night or eat raw meat in order to restore the blood balance of the body.
Another source attributes the rise of vampire legends to a certain medieval aristocrat who believed that her youth would be preserved forever if she took regular baths filled with the blood of young girls. These girls were taken to her castle and killed. This continued until one victim managed to escape and tell the ruler of those lands about what was happening in the gloomy castle. The Countess was imprisoned in her apartments, and doomed to starvation.
By the way, in the Middle Ages there was a belief that the one who drinks young blood restores his strength and prolongs his life. Who knows how many representatives of the aristocracy of those times resorted to this method of rejuvenation? They had plenty of options...
admin this clip will surely be in the subject ... especially if you like the group ARIA
Incredible Facts
Dracula is one of the most powerful and colorful images in the history of world literature. Without a doubt, this is an ambiguous character.
Dracula is an example of a classic vampire: on the one hand, he is elegant and thinking, on the other hand, he is bloodthirsty and constantly in anticipation of a new victim. Human blood for him is a source of food, and the goal to which he strives with his whole being.
However, despite the huge number of seduced women who were killed by Dracula, his crimes cannot be compared with the atrocities that the real Count Dracula committed in his time. Vlad III, or Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia (now Romania) became famous thanks to the following qualities and deeds:
Vampire Dracula
1 Dracula Dipped Bread In A Bowl Of Blood Before Eating It
The real Count Dracula may not have directly sucked blood from the necks of his victims, however, he still ate it: the blood of the people he killed flowed into a bowl into which he dipped pieces of bread and other food.
Fifteenth-century manuscripts mention one horrifying incident in the life of a bloodthirsty count. Vlad Tepes invited several guests to his castle and impaled everyone right at the dinner table.
Then he slowly finished his meal and dipped the pieces of bread in the blood that flowed from the bodies of the murdered guests. This kind of "dessert" Dracula enjoyed quite often.
2. He avenged his father by killing hundreds of innocent people
He did not just kill people, he tortured them, slowly piercing their stomachs with a blunt instrument of torture. It is known that Vlad Tepes spent most of his life in a Turkish prison, and when he was released, he learned that as a result of betrayal by his own people, his father was buried alive by Hungarian soldiers.
Vlad found out that many of the nobles who served his father were involved in a conspiracy against his father, however, he did not know who exactly was the traitor. He came up with the idea to invite everyone to his castle and deal with them. In total, about five hundred people gathered for the feast.
When the holiday was over, and the guests went to rest in their rooms, Dracula's soldiers burst into each one and pierced the nobles, among whom were most of the people innocent of the death of the old count.
Dracula continued to use this tactic countless times. Playing a hospitable host, he lured people to his home for various holidays, and then killed them. Ultimately, people knew what it meant to be invited to one of Dracula's holidays, and what threatened them there.
However, in any case, they accepted his offer, because in case of refusal, they risked being killed immediately. For many, this was a hopeless situation. In any case, a terrible and painful death awaited people.
Dragon and Dracula
3. Dracula means "son of the dragon"
The name Dracula was not invented by Bram Stoker. The real Vlad Tepes really preferred to be called that way. The bloodthirsty count's father, Vlad II, was a member of a secret society known as the Order of the Dragon.
He was so proud of his membership in this society that he even changed his name to "Dracula", which means "Dragon" in Romanian.
As a child, Vlad Tepes Jr. was also involved in a secret Order. This prompted him to change given name in the name of Dracula, which means "son of the Dragon". Nowadays, the name of the count is increasingly translated as "Son of the Devil."
In any case, such a frightening name was quite compatible with the things that the young Dracula did. Absolutely deservedly Vlad Tepes got a reputation as a bloodthirsty and terrible monster.
4. Dracula had a great sense of humor
This is indeed true. During his life, the bloodthirsty count not only killed and tortured his victims. According to those who knew Vlad well enough, he very often joked quite sharply on one or another occasion. His sense of humor was to be envied. He made especially sharp jokes about the unfortunate victims.
For example, one of the eyewitnesses of those terrible meals in Dracula's castle later wrote in his memoirs, like a count, watching how the unfortunate victims give up their breath, as if by chance remarked: what grace my victims have, how interestingly they move when you plant them On stake. He compared the convulsions of the dying to the movements of a frog.
One day, another guest of the count came to the castle filled with corpses. And since the smell of decomposing bodies hung in the air, the host politely inquired if the stench was disturbing his guest.
To which the unfortunate replied that yes, it interferes. Then the count pierced him and hung him from the ceiling, arguing that the smell under the ceiling was not so bad, and the stench would no longer bother the careless guest.
School of Dracula
5. The only punishment was impalement
It's easiest to think that Dracula was a lonely and unhappy lunatic who killed people for no reason. However, this is not the case. The Count was administering justice, no matter how terrible it sounded.
In those days, there was only one punishment, no matter what crime a person committed. Both murderers and petty thieves were impaled, who, in order not to die of hunger, dragged bread from pastry shops.
However, there is at least one known exception to the rule, where Dracula used a different type of punishment. Once, crossing the territory that belonged to the bloody count, one gypsy stole something. Dracula was ruthless this time too. He cooked the unfortunate thief, after which he forced other gypsies from the camp to eat him.
6. He got rid of all the sick and poor by burning them at the stake
Thus, the count tried to restore order on the streets of the city of Targovishte, which at that time was the capital of Wallachia.
Once Tepes invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses, under the pretext of a holiday. After the poor fellows ate their fill, Dracula politely excused himself and left his "guests".
On his orders, the house was boarded up on the outside so that no one could escape. Then the house was set on fire with everyone inside.
It is reliably known that not a single person survived in that terrible conflagration that the bloodthirsty count set up. Subsequently, Dracula repeatedly did this, burning entire villages inhabited by poor and sick people. In such an inhuman way, he "cleansed" cities and villages from all those whom he considered superfluous in this world.
7. The golden bowl is a symbol of unlimited power
Vlad Tepes controlled his people very tightly, suppressing any kind of crime. To prove how powerful his power was and how much people were afraid of him, he ordered a huge bowl cast of pure gold to be placed in the center of Targovishte.
For a long time, the bowl was located in the very center of the capital of Wallachia. However, none of the 60,000 people who lived in the city at that time even dared to touch her. Any resident knew what he would face if the bowl was stolen.
During the entire reign of the count, no one even touched this symbol of Dracula's power, although the bowl was in full view of thousands of people living in complete poverty. Such fear was instilled in people by the mere name of Vlad Tepes.
8. To poison the Turkish invaders, the count filled his own wells and wells with poison
In the 1400s, Wallachia was at war with its neighbors, the Turks. Vlad III, who did not like to lose, sent his army to push the enemies out of his land.
But, in the end, as a result of a stubborn struggle, the Turks forced Vlad to retreat. However, even retreating, Dracula did not give up. He burned all the villages located on the path of the Turkish army. He did this with the expectation that the opponents would have nowhere to rest.
Dracula went so far as to poison his own water wells. Together with the Turks, thousands of villagers were also poisoned. Feelings of compassion and pity were not familiar to Tepes. In war, all means are good, even if innocent people die.
Dracula Tepes
9 Dracula Killed Over 100,000 People In Total
Historians claim that up to 100,000 people could become victims of the bloodthirsty count.
There were no gender, age or status restrictions for Tepes. He could kill an old man, or he could impale an innocent baby. At the same time, without disdaining anything, he calmly finished his meal.
Eyewitnesses said that while they were looking at everything that was happening with a shudder, the count was only joking and quietly eating lunch or dinner.
During the war with the Turks, about 20,000 soldiers of the enemy army were impaled.
Vlad Dracula
10 Dracula's Body Disappeared
The count, who was feared and hated by his own people, died on the battlefield during the war with the Turks. His bloodthirstiness played a cruel joke on him. Dracula's army was several times larger than the army of the enemy army in terms of numbers.
However, despite such an obvious advantage, most of the soldiers decided to go over to the side of the enemy. Indeed, in the camp of the enemy there were no such harsh punishments as Dracula had. People, fed up with the cruelty of their ruler, without hesitation, went to betrayal.
Death of Dracula
Dracula's head was cut off by his own soldiers, and then sent to the Turkish Sultan. He, in turn, pierced her with a spear, put her on a stake outside his palace, so that every passerby could see the head of the defeated tyrant.
Some historians claim that Dracula's body was then interred in a cemetery at the Snagov Monastery, which is outside of Bucharest.
But there are also conflicting reports that his body was never found, while others say that possible remains were indeed discovered but then disappeared. There is a version that the body of Dracula was buried with all its riches.
Thus, the grave of the tyrant became a good target for the robbers, who, along with the treasures, smashed the remains of Tepes to pieces. Well, the most mystical version is that Dracula's body disappeared by itself, because he was a real dragon.
Vlad Tepes, Count of Wallachia, was a non-standard villain: thinking, suffering, unhappy and lonely in his own way. Thousands of people became its victims. His whole life was shrouded in mystery. This mysticism did not leave the image of Dracula even after death.
And let's talk about it interesting character during his lifetime, who became a legend and earned the nickname "horror of the Ottomans" among the people. And at the same time we will try to separate, so to speak, "the wheat from the chaff." He became the prince (ruler) of Wallachia three times, spent 12 years in prison, hid from enemies many times, was a living "collateral" for the Turks, eradicated crime in his principality and was the only one of the opponents of the Ottoman warriors who instilled fear in them, bordering on panic alone. appearance on the battlefield.
Exact date of birth Vlad III Basaraba, which is exactly what his real name sounds like, is unknown. Between 1429 and 1431 in the city of Sighisoara, a son was born in the family of Prince Vlad II Dracula and the Moldavian princess Vasiliki. In general, the ruler of Wallachia had four sons: the eldest Mircea, the middle ones Vlad and Radu, and the youngest - also Vlad (the son of the second wife of Prince Vlad II - Koltsuna, later Vlad IV the Monk). Fate will not be favorable to the first three of them. Mircea will be buried alive by the Wallachian boyars in Targovishte. Radu will become the favorite of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, and Vlad will bring his family the bad reputation of a cannibal. And only Vlad IV the Monk will still live his life more or less calmly. The family crest was a dragon. It was in the year of Vlad's birth that his father joined the Order of the Dragon, whose members swore on blood to protect Christians from the Muslim Turks. It is from his father that Vlad III will inherit his family nickname - Dracula. In his youth, Vlad III was called Dracul (Rom. Dracul, that is, "dragon"), inheriting his father's nickname without any changes. However, later (in the 1470s) he began to indicate his nickname with the letter “a” at the end, since by that time it had become most famous in this form.
Dracula's childhood passed here in this house, which has been preserved in the city of Sighisoara in Transylvania to this day, at st. Zhestyanshchikov, 5. The only thing that, over the past 500 years, the Transylvania region itself has changed its state affiliation, in the 15th century it belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary, but now it, the city of Segisoara and the house in which Dracula lived with his father, mother and older brother, are located on territory of Romania. 
The family of the future ruler of Wallachia lived in Segisoara until 1436. In the summer of 1436, Dracula's father took the Wallachian throne and, no later than the autumn of that year, moved the family from Sighisoara to Targovishte, where the capital of Wallachia was located at that time. According to all sources, Vlad III received an excellent education in the Byzantine style for those times. However, he did not manage to complete his education in full, because politics intervened. In the spring of 1442, Dracula's father quarreled with Janos Hunyadi, who at that time was the de facto ruler of Hungary, as a result of which Janos decided to install another ruler in Wallachia - Basarab II.
In the summer of 1442, Dracula's father went to Turkey to Sultan Murat II to ask for help, but he was forced to stay there for 8 months. At this time, Basarab II established himself in Wallachia, and Dracula and the rest of his family were hiding. In the spring of 1443, Dracula's father returned from Turkey along with the Turkish army and deposed Basarab II. Janos Hunyadi did not interfere with this, as he was preparing for a crusade against the Turks. The campaign began on July 22, 1443 and lasted until January 1444. In the spring of 1444, negotiations began on a truce between Janos Hunyadi and the Sultan. Dracula's father joined the negotiations, during which Janos agreed that Wallachia could remain under Turkish influence. At the same time, the sultan, wanting to be sure of the devotion of the "Wallachian governor", insisted on a "pledge" (amanat in Turkish). The word "pledge" meant that the sons of the "governor" should come to the Turkish court - that is, Dracula, who at that time was about 14 years old, and his brother Radu, who was about 6 years old. Negotiations with Dracula's father ended on June 12, 1444 of the year. Dracula and his brother Radu went to Turkey no later than the end of July 1444.
Modern researchers agree on one thing: it was in Turkey that Vlad received some kind of psychological trauma that forever made him the one who is remembered with horror and delight throughout Romania. There are several versions of what happened:
1. The future ruler of Wallachia was tortured by the Turks to convert to Islam.
2. As if Vlad's younger brother, Radu, was seduced by the heir to the Turkish throne, Mehmed, making him his favorite lover. In particular, a medieval author writes about this - the Greek historian Laonik Chalkokondil. However, according to him, this episode belongs to the later period of the 1450s.
3. The brutal murder of his father and elder brother in December 1446. The death occurred as a result of a coup d'état carried out by the Wallachian boyars, with the support of the Hungarians. Hunyadi's henchman, Vladislav II, ascended the throne of Wallachia. Dracula's father, on the orders of the Hungarian commander, was beheaded, and Dracula's older brother was buried alive.
4. Well, the most common - the customs at the Sultan's palace were so "simple" that under their influence later Vlad showed his sadistic inclinations. For example, according to legend, Vlad and his younger brother witnessed (they were specially brought) an "investigation" of the theft of a rare vegetable (perhaps a cucumber!) In the Sultan's greenhouse. Each of the 12 gardeners who had access to the greenhouse at one time or another that day had their stomach torn open, and the seventh in a row found what they were looking for. Those who have not been ripped open are lucky, those who have already been ripped open, "graciously allowed to survive", but the criminal who ate the fruit was still alive on a stake.
In the autumn of 1448, Dracula, together with the Turkish troops lent by the Sultan, entered the Wallachian capital - Targovishte. When exactly this happened is not known exactly, but there is a letter from Dracula dated October 31, where he signs himself as "voivode of Wallachia." Immediately upon accession to the throne, Dracula begins an investigation into the events related to the death of his father and brother. During the investigation, he learns that at least 7 boyars who served his father participated in the conspiracy and supported Prince Vladislav, for which they received various favors.
Meanwhile, Janos Hunyadi and Vladislav, who had lost the battle of Kosovo, arrived in Transylvania. On November 10, 1448, Janos Hunyadi, while in Sighisoara, announced that he was starting a military campaign against Dracula, calling him an "illegal" ruler. On November 23, Janos was already in Brasov, from where he moved with the army to Wallachia. On December 4, he entered Targovishte, but Dracula had already fled by that time.
From 1448 to 1455, Vlad Dracula lives in exile at the court of the Moldavian sovereigns. In 1456, Dracula was in Transylvania, where he gathered an army of volunteers to go to Wallachia and take the throne again. At that time (since February 1456) a delegation of Franciscan monks headed by Giovanni da Capistrano was in Transylvania, who were also gathering a volunteer army to liberate Constantinople, captured by the Turks in 1453. The Franciscans did not take the Orthodox on a campaign, which Dracula used, attracting rejected militias into their ranks. In April 1456, a rumor spread throughout Hungary that a Turkish army led by Sultan Mehmed was approaching the southern borders of the state. On July 3, 1456, in a letter addressed to the "Saxons of Transylvania", Janos Hunyadi announced that he had appointed Dracula "defender of the Transylvanian regions." After that, Janos, together with his troops, departed for Belgrade, already almost surrounded by the Turkish army. Belgrade was also followed by a militia assembled by the Franciscan monk Giovanni da Capistrano, which was originally supposed to go to Constantinople, and Dracula's army stopped on the border of Transylvania with Wallachia. The Wallachian prince Vladislav II, fearing that in his absence Dracula could take the throne, did not go in defense of Belgrade.
On July 22, 1456, the Turkish army retreated from the Belgrade fortress, and in early August, Dracula's army moved to Wallachia. The Wallachian boyar Mane Udrische helped Dracula to gain power, who had already gone over to his side and persuaded several other boyars from the princely council under Vladislav to do the same. On August 20, Vladislav was killed, and Dracula became a Wallachian prince for the second time. 9 days before (August 11) in Belgrade, Dracula's longtime enemy and murderer of his father, Janos Hunyadi, died of the plague.
In his family castle Targovishte, Vlad avenged the death of his father and older brother. According to legend, he invited the boyars to a feast in honor of Easter (500 people), and then ordered to stab (as options, poison or impale) all of them to one. It is believed that it is with this execution that the bloody procession of the great tyrant Vlad Dracula begins. So the legends tell, but the chronicles convince by another - at the feast, Dracula only scared the boyars, and got rid of only those whom he suspected of treason. During the first years of his reign, he executed 11 boyars who were preparing a coup against him. Having avoided a real threat, Dracula began to restore order in the country. He issued new laws. For thefts, murders and violence of criminals, only one punishment awaited - death. When the country began public executions, people understood - their ruler is not joking.
In this regard, true equality before the law reigned in the principality of Wallachia: no matter who you were, a boyar with a three-hundred-year-old pedigree, or a rootless beggar, death awaited you for any crime or disobedience to the dragon prince. Often long and painful. The legend claims that in this way he destroyed all the beggars and those who did not want to work. There is an opinion that gradually he deliberately made people afraid of himself. He even selected scary stories about his cruelty. But, what is most strange, the common people LOVED their "dragon".
A contemporary describes the Vlachs as a very thieving and impudent people. Imagine his surprise when, a year after the beginning of the reign of Vlad Dracula, it was possible to throw a gold coin on the street and come tomorrow to find it lying in the same place.
Also widely known is the episode with the Turkish ambassadors, described by the Russian ambassador to Hungary Fyodor Kuritsyn in 1484 in The Tale of Dracula Voevoda:
"I came to him once from the Turkish poklisarium<послы>, and when you go up to him and bow down according to your custom, and cap<шапок, фесок>I didn’t take off my 3 chapters. He asks them: “What for the sake of tacos do you do a great favor to the sovereign and such a shame do you do to me?” They answered: “This is our custom, sovereign, and our land has.” He said to them: “And I want to confirm your law, but stand strong,” and commanded them to nail caps to their heads with a small iron nail and let them go, rivers to them: “When you go, tell your sovereign, he has learned to endure that shame from you, we but not with skill, let him not send his custom to other sovereigns who do not want to have it, but let him keep it with him.
In 1461, Vlad Dracula refused to pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed. The Ottomans did not forgive this, and in the same spring, a 250,000-strong army of Turks invaded Wallachia (according to modern data, it was still smaller "only" 100-120 thousand). However, Dracula did not give up and launched a real and merciless attack against the conquerors. guerrilla war. He armed everyone. In his 30,000-strong army, peasants and nobles, monks and beggars fought together, even women and children from the age of 10 participated in battles with the Turks. On July 17, 1461, as a result of the famous "night attack", Vlad's army defeated and forced the huge army of Mehmed II to retreat. Turkish prisoners captured in this battle from 2000 to 4000 thousand people were put on stakes. Moreover, senior commanders on stakes with gold tips, officers on stakes with silver tips, but ordinary soldiers had to be content with an ordinary tree. Even by Turkish standards, such a massacre was a little too much. It was then that Vlad got his Ottoman nickname - Kazykly (tur. Kazıklı from the word Tur. kazık [kazyk] - "count"). That is, in the translation "kolschik", or "stalker". Later, it was this nickname that was simply translated into Romanian literally - Tepes (Rom. Țepeș). If we summarize the most famous names and nicknames of Vlad, we get: Vlad III the Dragon Impaler. Sounds like it?
In the same 1461, due to the betrayal of the Hungarian monarch Matthias Korvin, Dracula was forced to flee to Hungary, where he was later taken into custody on false charges of collaborating with the Turks and spent 12 years in prison.
In 1475, Vlad III Dracula was released from a Hungarian prison and again began to participate in campaigns against the Turks. In November 1475, as part of the Hungarian army (as one of the commanders of King Matthias, "royal captain"), he went to Serbia, where from January to February 1476 he participated in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Šabac. In February 1476, he took part in the war against the Turks in Bosnia, and in the summer of 1476, together with another "royal captain" Stefan Bathory, he helped the Moldavian prince Stefan the Great defend himself from the Turks.
In November 1476, Vlad Dracula, with the help of Stefan Bathory and Stefan the Great, overthrew the pro-Turkish Wallachian prince Layota Basarab. On November 8, 1476, Targovishte was taken. On November 16, Bucharest was taken. On November 26, the general meeting of the noble people of Wallachia elected Dracula as their prince.
Then the troops of Stefan Bathory and Stefan the Great left Wallachia, and only those soldiers who were directly subordinate to him (about 4,000 people) remained with Vlad Dracula. Shortly after this, Vlad was treacherously murdered on the initiative of Layota Basarab, but the sources differ in the stories about the method of murder and the direct perpetrators.
Medieval chroniclers Jakob Unrest and Jan Długosz believe that he was killed by his servant, who was bribed by the Turks. The author of The Tale of Dracula Governor Fyodor Kuritsyn believes that Vlad Dracula was killed during the battle with the Turks.
Also preserved is the testimony of the Moldavian prince Stefan, who helped Vlad take the Wallachian throne:
"And I immediately gathered the warriors, and when they came, I joined with one of the royal captains, and, united, we brought the said Drahulu to power. And he, when he came to power, asked us to leave our people to him as guards, because he did not trust the Vlachs too much, and I left him 200 of my people. And when I did this, we (with the royal captain) withdrew. And almost immediately that traitor Basarab returned and, having overtaken Drahula, who was left without us, killed him, and all my people were also killed, with the exception of 10."
The basis of all future legends about the unprecedented bloodthirstiness of the ruler was a document compiled by an unknown author (presumably on the orders of the Hungarian king) and published in 1463 in Germany. It is there that for the first time there are any descriptions of the executions and tortures of Dracula, as well as all the stories of his atrocities.
From a historical point of view, the reason to doubt the accuracy of the information presented in this document is extremely high. In addition to the obvious interest of the Hungarian throne in replicating this document (the desire to hide the fact of the theft by the king of Hungary of a large amount allocated by the papal throne for crusade), no earlier references to any of these "pseudo-folklore" stories have been found.
A list of the atrocities of Vlad Dracula the Impaler in this anonymous document:
There is a known case when Tepes summoned about 500 boyars and asked them how many rulers each of them remembers. It turned out that even the youngest of them remembers at least 7 reigns. Tepes' answer was an attempt to put an end to such an order - all the boyars were impaled and dug around the chambers of Tepes in his capital Targovishte;
The following story is also given: a foreign merchant who came to Wallachia was robbed. He files a complaint with Tepes. While they are catching and impaling the thief, on the orders of Tepes, the merchant is thrown a purse, in which there is one coin more than it was. The merchant, having discovered a surplus, immediately informs Tepes. He laughs and says: “Well done, I wouldn’t say - you should sit on a stake next to the thief”;
Tepes discovers that there are many beggars in the country. He convenes them, feeds them to their heart's content and addresses the question: “Don't you want to get rid of earthly suffering forever?” On a positive answer, Tepes closes the doors and windows and burns all those gathered alive;
There is a story about a mistress who tries to deceive Tepes by talking about her pregnancy. Tepes warns her that she does not tolerate lies, but she continues to insist on her own, then Tepes rips open her stomach and shouts: “I told you that I don’t like lies!”;
A case is also described when Dracula asked two wandering monks what the people say about his reign. One of the monks replied that the population of Wallachia scolded him as a cruel villain, and the other said that everyone praised him as a liberator from the threat of the Turks and a wise politician. In fact, both one and the other testimonies were fair in their own way. And the legend, in turn, has two endings. In the German "version", Dracula executed the former for not liking his speech. In the Russian version of the legend, the ruler left the first monk alive, and executed the second for lying;
One of the creepiest and least credible pieces of evidence in this document is that Dracula liked to have breakfast at the site of an execution or the site of a recent battle. He ordered to bring him a table and food, sat down and ate among the dead and dying on the stakes of people. There is also an addition to this story, which says that the servant who served Vlad food could not stand the smell of decay and, clutching his throat with his hands, dropped the tray right in front of him. Vlad asked why he did it. “No strength to endure, a terrible stench,” the unfortunate man replied. And Vlad immediately ordered to put him on a stake, which was several meters longer than the others, after which he shouted to the still living servant: “You see! Now you are above everyone, and the stench does not reach you”;
According to an old Russian story, Tepes ordered to cut out the genitals of unfaithful wives and widows who violate the rules of chastity, and rip off their skin, exposing the bodies to the point of decomposition of the body and eating it by birds, or do the same, but first pierce them with a poker from the crotch to the mouth;
Those who came to him demanding recognition of vassalage to the ambassadors Ottoman Empire Dracula asked the question: "Why didn't they take off their hats in front of the Orthodox ruler." Hearing the answer that they would bare their heads only in front of the Sultan, Vlad ordered the turbans to be nailed to their heads.
Just illustrations for this "document" from 1463
However, modern historians deny most of these horror films, considering them fiction. Although Tepes impaled people in the hundreds, and the Turks (whom he apparently did not consider to be people) even in the thousands. And the "honesty" of his subjects was bought with the lives of 15% of the population of Wallachia. He was simultaneously feared to the point of fainting, hated, idolized and loved. Few of the medieval rulers evoked such conflicting emotions in those around them.
And another, and more famous "life" of Vlad Tepes Dracula began in the first quarter of the 20th century, after the appearance of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula".
According to legend, the ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III Basarab Dracula, nicknamed Tepes, is buried either here: in the Komana monastery, founded by Vlad 15 years before. 
Or in the Church of the Annunciation in Snagov. 
There are quite a few theories and legends about the origins of vampires. One of them says that they are descendants of Cain, who became the first biblical murderer of his own brother. But all this is speculation to the main version. Until now, not everyone knows that the origin of the vampire is directly related to the name of Vlad Tepes, the Romanian governor of the 15th century, later the ruler of Transylvania. It is he who is the very famous Count Dracula!
Earl - real being national hero Romania and a crime fighter. Its history goes back to medieval Transylvania...
History of Count Dracula
Bloodthirsty ruler
Vlad the Impaler was the ruler of Transylvania (a region located in northwestern Romania) from 1448 to 1476. His favorite pastime was the sadistic torture of enemies and civilians, among which one of the worst - piercing the anus. For the fact that Vlad the Impaler loved to impale living people, he was nicknamed Vlad the Impaler. However, his most cruel atrocity was something else: somehow the Romanian governor invited a large number of beggars to his castle (in which, in fact, he carried out all the torture - see photo below) for a dinner party. When the poor fellows were eating peacefully, Count Dracula locked them in a room and set them on fire. In addition, the chronicle describes a case when this sadist ordered his servants to nail Turkish ambassadors their hats only because they refused to take them off in front of the ruler.
Such atrocities left their mark on the personality of this ruler. Count Dracula became the prototype of the hero of the novel of the same name, written Why was Tepes unusually cruel? Why did he keep the whole of Transylvania in fear, confusing and bewildering all European monarchs? More on this later.
The insidious and cruel Count Dracula
Transylvania is the place of his birth. "Dracul" (Dragon) is a nickname. At the age of 13, the son of the Wallachian governor Vladislav II was captured by the Turks and held hostage for almost 4 years. It was this fact that influenced the psyche of the future ruler. He was described as an unbalanced person with many obscure habits and strange ideas. For example, Count Dracula was very fond of eating at the place of execution of people or the recent battle with fatal. Isn't it strange?
The nickname "Dragon" Tepes received due to the fact that his father had a membership in the elite Dragon, which was created by Emperor Sigismund in 1408. As for the title - Vlad III, he should have been called the ruler, and not the count, but such naming is arbitrary. But why is this ruler considered the progenitor of vampires?
It's all about Tepes' extraordinary passion for bloodshed, for inhuman torture and murder. Then it becomes incomprehensible why the Russian Tsar from - John Vasilievich - was nicknamed "Terrible"? He, too, should be dubbed a vampire, because it was he who drowned Ancient Russia in the blood in the literal sense of the word. But that's another story...
Not every inhabitant of the planet Earth knows that Count Dracula - one of the most popular heroes of many horror films, as well as the most famous vampire - is a real figure that has taken place in history. Count Dracula's real name is Vlad III Tepes. He lived in the 15th century. and was the ruler of the Wallachian principality, or as it is also called: Wallachia.
Today we will analyze in detail the biography of Vlad Dracula and try to understand why he "became a vampire" after his death.
Tepes is a national hero of the Romanian people and a locally revered saint who is revered by the local church. He was valiant warrior and a fighter against Turkish expansion into Christian Europe. But why did he become known to the whole world as a vampire who drinks the blood of innocent people? Now let's figure it out.
Not everyone knows that the creator of the current image of Dracula was the English writer Bram Stoker. He was an active member of the Golden Dawn occult organization. Such communities have at any time been characterized by a great interest in vampires, which is not an invention of writers or visionaries, but a concrete medical fact. Physicians have long investigated and documented the real facts of vampirism, which happen in our time and which is one of the most serious diseases. The image of a physically immortal vampire attracts occultists and black magicians who seek to oppose the lower world to the upper worlds - Divine and spiritual.
In the VI century. Byzantine Procopius of Caesarea, whose works are the main sources on the history of the ancient Slavs, noted that before the Slavs began to worship the god of thunder (Perun), the ancient Slavs worshiped ghouls. Of course, this was not about Hollywood vampires attacking defenseless girls. In ancient, pagan times, outstanding warriors, heroes who especially revered Blood as a spiritual and physical entity, were called vampires. There are even opinions that there were certain rituals of worshiping the Blood - ablutions, sacrifices, and the like.
AT ancient time vampires were called outstanding warriors, heroes
Occultist organizations have completely perverted the ancient tradition, turning the worship of the sacred, spiritual Blood into the worship of the biological. The Principality of Wallachia, which appeared in the XIV century, on the banners of which since ancient times, there was an image of a crowned eagle with a cross in its beak, a sword and a scepter in its paws, was the first large public education in today's Romania. One of the leading historical figures of the era of the national formation of Romania is the Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes.
Prince Vlad III Tepes, Orthodox sovereign ruler of Wallachia. Almost everything related to the activities of this person is shrouded in mystery. The place and time of his birth are not precisely established. Wallachia was not the most peaceful corner of medieval Europe. The flames of countless wars and fires destroyed the vast majority of handwritten monuments. Only according to the surviving monastic chronicles was it possible to recreate the appearance of the real historical prince Vlad, famous modern world under the name of Count Dracula.
The year when the future ruler of Wallachia was born can only be determined approximately: between 1428 and 1431. built in early XIV in. the house on Kuznechnaya Street in Sighisoara still attracts the attention of tourists: it is believed that it was here that a boy was born, named Vlad at baptism. It is not known whether the future ruler of Wallachia was born here, but it is established that his father, Prince Vlad Dracul, lived in this house. Dracul means dragon in Romanian. Prince Vlad was a member of the knightly Order of the Dragon, whose goal was to protect Orthodoxy from the infidels. The prince had three sons, but only one of them became famous - Vlad. It should be noted that he was a true knight: a brave warrior and a skilled commander, a deeply and truly believing Orthodox Christian, always guided by the norms of honor and duty in his actions. Vlad was distinguished by great physical strength. His fame as a magnificent cavalryman thundered throughout the country - and this is at a time when people from childhood got used to a horse and weapons.
How statesman Vlad adhered to the principles of patriotism: the fight against invaders, the development of crafts and trade, the fight against crime. And in all these areas, in the shortest possible time, Vlad III achieved impressive success. The chronicles tell that during his reign it was possible to throw a gold coin and pick it up a week later in the same place. No one would have dared not only to appropriate someone else's gold, but even to touch it. And this is in a country where, two years before, there were no less thieves and vagabonds than townspeople and farmers! How did this transformation take place? Very simply - as a result of the policy of systematic cleansing of society from "asocial elements" pursued by the Wallachian prince. The court at that time was simple and quick: a tramp or a thief, regardless of what he stole, was waiting for a fire or block. The same fate was in store for all gypsies or notorious horse thieves and, in general, idle and unreliable people.
"Tepes" literally means "impaler"
It is important to know what the nickname under which Vlad III went down in history means. Tepes literally means "impaler". It was the pointed stake during the reign of Vlad III that was the main instrument of execution. Most of those executed were captured Turks and Gypsies. But the same punishment could befall anyone who was convicted of a crime. After thousands of thieves died on stakes and burned in the flames of bonfires in city squares, there were no new hunters to test their luck.
Vlad did not give indulgence to anyone, regardless of social status. Anyone who had the misfortune to incur the prince's wrath, expected the same fate. The methods of Prince Vlad also turned out to be a very effective regulator of economic activity: when several merchants accused of trading with the Turks expired on a stake, cooperation with the enemies of the Faith of Christ came to an end.
The attitude towards the memory of Vlad Tepes in Romania, even in modern times, is not at all the same as in Western European countries. And today, many consider him a national hero of the era of the formation of the future Romania, which dates back to the first decades of the XIV century. At that time, Prince Basarab I founded a small independent principality on the territory of Wallachia. The victory he won in 1330 over the Hungarians - the then owners of the Danube lands - secured his rights. Then began a long, exhausting struggle with big feudal lords- boyars. Accustomed to unlimited power in their tribal domains, they resisted any attempts by the central government to gain control over the entire country. At the same time, depending on the political situation, they did not hesitate to resort to the help of either Catholic Hungarians or Muslim Turks. After more than a hundred years, Vlad Tepes put an end to this unfortunate practice, once and for all solving the problem of separatism.
A pointed stake during the time of Vlad III Tepes was the main instrument of execution
Below are some of the stories written by an unknown German author at the suggestion of King Matthias Hunyadi in 1463:
— A foreign merchant who came to Wallachia was robbed. He files a complaint with Tepes. While they are catching and impaling the thief, on the orders of Tepes, the merchant is thrown a purse, in which there is one coin more than it was. The merchant, having discovered a surplus, immediately informs Tepes. He laughs and says: “Well done, I wouldn’t say - you should sit on a stake next to the thief.”
- Tepes discovers that there are many beggars in the country - he calls the beggars, feeds them to their fill and asks the question: “Do they want to get rid of earthly suffering forever?” On a positive answer, Tepes closes the doors and windows and burns all those gathered alive.
- There is a story about a mistress who tries to deceive Tepes by talking about her pregnancy. Tepes warns her that she does not tolerate lies, but she continues to insist on her own, then Tepes rips open her stomach and shouts: “I told you that I don’t like lies!”
- A case is also described when Dracula asked two wandering monks what people say about his reign. One of the monks replied that the population of Wallachia scolded him as a cruel villain, and the other said that everyone praised him as a liberator from the threat of the Turks and a wise politician. In fact, both one and the other testimonies were fair in their own way, and the legend, in turn, has two endings. In the German "version", Dracula executed the former for not liking his speech. In the Russian version of the legend, the ruler left the first monk alive, and executed the second for lying.
“One of the creepiest and least credible pieces of evidence in that document is that Dracula liked to have breakfast at the site of an execution or the site of a recent battle. He ordered to bring him a table and food, sat down and ate among the dead and dying on the stakes of people.
- According to the testimony of an old Russian story, unfaithful wives and widows who violate the rules of chastity, Tepes ordered to cut out the genitals and peel off the skin, exposing them to the point of decomposition of the body and eating it by birds, or to do the same, but after piercing them with a poker from the crotch to the mouth .
- There is also a legend that there was a bowl at the fountain in the capital of Wallachia, made of gold; everyone could go up to her and drink water, but no one dared to steal her.
The reign of Count Dracula had a great influence on his contemporaries
Vlad III Tepes became a literary hero shortly after his death: the Tale of the Muntian governor Dracula was written about him in Church Slavonic after the Russian embassy of Ivan III visited Wallachia. The death of Tepes occurred in December 1476. He was buried in the Snagov Monastery.
In the first quarter of the 20th century, after the appearance of the novel by Bram Stoker "Children of the Night" (English "Children of the Night") and "Vampire (Count Dracula)" ( English meaning"Dracula"), as well as the classic German expressionist film "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror" main character of these works - "Count Dracula" - became the most memorable literary and cinematic image of the vampire. The emergence of a connection between the image of Vlad III Tepes and Count Dracula is usually explained by the fact that Bram Stoker heard the legend that Tepes became a vampire after death. It is not known whether he heard a similar legend; but there were reasons for its existence, since the killer Tepes was cursed by the dying more than once, and, in addition, changed his faith (although this fact is questioned). According to the beliefs of the Carpathian peoples, this is quite enough for a posthumous transformation into a vampire. However, there is another version: after the death of Vlad Tepes, his body was not found in the grave.
In the middle of the 20th century, a whole pilgrimage of tourists began to the grave of the famous "vampire". To reduce the flow of unhealthy attention to the tyrant, the authorities moved his grave. Now she is on the island and is guarded by the monks of the monastery.
The very name of the hero of these essays sounds more than ominous. Dracula is the name of the leader of vampires from horror films, and this name is borrowed from Tepes, who is the prototype of the on-screen monster. For more than five centuries, Vlad Tepes has been haunted by the sinister shadow of his fearsome reputation. It seems that we are talking about actually a fiend of hell. In fact, he was a fairly common figure for that era, where, in terms of his personal qualities, demonstrative cruelty occupied by no means the last place.
Vlad III Tepes in the mass consciousness has become a monster that has no equal
There are still disputes about the identity of the Wallachian ruler, and most of even quite serious books about him bear names like “Vlad the Impaler - Myth and Reality” or “Vlad Dracula - Truth and Fiction”, and so on to the extent of the authors' imagination. However, trying to understand the events that are more than half a millennium away from us, the authors, sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes intentionally, pile up new myths around the image of this man.
