FREE DRACULAS WARS: AND HIS RIVALS PDF

James Waterson | 256 pages | 01 Oct 2016 | The History Press Ltd | 9780750964883 | English | Stroud, United Kingdom 's Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals by James Waterson

Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author for his novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires. Though Dracula may seem like a singular creation, Stoker in fact drew inspiration from a real-life man with an even more grotesque taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler Vlad Tepesa name he earned for his favorite way of dispensing with his enemies. Vlad II was granted the surname Dracul "dragon" after his induction into the Order of the Dragon, a Christian military order supported by the Holy Roman emperor. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the , and Wallachia were frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian Crusaders repulsed the invaders or marched eastward toward the Holy Land. But the meeting was actually a trap: All three were arrested and held hostage. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind. Years of captivity Under the Ottomans, Vlad and his younger brother were tutored in science, philosophy and the arts — Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior. According to some accounts, however, he may also have been imprisoned and tortured for part of that time, during which he would have witnessed the impalement of his the Ottomans' enemies. The rest of Vlad's family, however, fared even worse: His father was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by local warlords boyars and was killed in the swamps near Balteni, Wallachia, in Vlad's older brother, Mircea, was tortured, blinded and buried alive. Whether these events turned Vlad III Dracula "son of the dragon" into a ruthless killer is a matter of historical speculation. What is certain, however, is that once Vlad Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals freed from Ottoman captivity shortly after his family's death, his reign of blood began. Inthe city of Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, threatening all of Europe with an invasion. Vlad was charged with leading a force to defend Wallachia from an invasion. His battle to protect his homeland was victorious: Legend holds that he personally beheaded his opponent, Vladislav II, in one-on-one combat. Though he was now ruler of the principality of Wallachia, his lands were in a ruinous state due to constant warfare and the internal strife caused by feuding boyars. To consolidate power, Vlad invited hundreds of them to a banquet. Knowing his authority would be challenged, he had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies impaled. What is impaling? Impaling is a particularly gruesome form of torture and death : A wood or metal pole is inserted through the body either front to back, or vertically, through the rectum or vagina. The exit wound could be near the victim's neck, shoulders or mouth. In some cases, the pole was rounded, not sharp, to avoid damaging internal organs and thereby prolong the suffering of the victim. The pole was then raised vertically to display the victim's torment — it could take hours or days for the impaled person to die. Though Vlad is widely credited with bringing order and stability to Wallachia, his rule was undisputedly vicious: Dozens of Saxon merchants in Kronstadt, who were once allied with the boyars, were also impaled in The Ottoman Turks were never far from Vlad's thoughts — or his borders. When diplomatic envoys had an Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals with Vlad inDraculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals diplomats declined to remove their hats, citing a religious custom. Commending them on their religious devotion, Vlad ensured that their hats would forever remain on their heads by having the hats nailed to the diplomats' skulls. During one of his many successful campaigns against the Ottomans, Vlad wrote to a military ally in"I have killed peasants, men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the flows into the sea … We killed 23, Turks, without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace. Vlad's victories over the invading Ottomans were celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe — even Pope Pius II was impressed. But Vlad also earned a much darker reputation: On one occasion, he Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals dined among a veritable forest of defeated warriors writhing on impaled poles. It's not known whether tales of Vlad III Dracula dipping his bread in the blood of his victims are true, but stories about his unspeakable sadism swirled throughout Europe. Tens of thousands Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals In total, Vlad is estimated to have killed about 80, people through various means. This includes some 20, people who were impaled and put on display outside the city of Targoviste: The sight was so repulsive that the invading Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, after seeing the scale of Vlad's carnage and the thousands of decaying bodies being Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals apart by crows, turned back and retreated to Constantinople. Inwhile marching to yet another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were ambushed, and Vlad was killed and beheaded — by most reports, his head was delivered to Mehmed II in Constantinople as a trophy to be displayed above the city's gates. Stoker, who never visited Vlad's homeland, was nonetheless known to have read Wilkinson's book. And if ever there were a historical figure to inspire a bloodthirsty, monstrous fictional character, Vlad III Dracula was one. Original article on LiveScience. Follow NBC News. Marc Lallanilla. The Origins of Dracula: Vlad the Impaler - Warfare History Network

He was also known as Vlad the Impaler for the brutality with which he dispensed with his enemies, gaining him notoriety in 15th century Europe. In modern Romanian, the word drac refers to the devil. Vlad III was born in in the state of Wallachia, now the southern portion of present-day . It was one of the three principalities that made up Romania at the time, along with Transylvania and . Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia was the scene of a great number of bloody battles. As Ottoman forces pushed westward, Christian Crusaders marched eastward Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals the Holy Land, Wallachia became the site of constant turmoil. InVlad accompanied his father and his Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals brother Radu on a diplomatic mission in the heart of the Ottoman Empire. However the three were captured and held hostage by the Ottoman diplomats. Their captors told Vlad II that he could be released — on condition that the two sons remain. Believing that it was the safest option for his family, Vlad II agreed. During the 5 years of captivity in the fortress, Vlad and his brother were taught lessons in the art of war, science and philosophy. However some accounts state that he was also subjected to torture and beatings, and it was thought that it was during this time that he developed his hated of the Ottomans. Upon his return, Vlad II was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by local war lords known as the boyar. He was killed in the marshes behind his house while his oldest son, Mircea II, was tortured, blinded and buried alive. To consolidate power and assert his dominance, he decided to hold a banquet and invited hundreds of members of his rival families. Knowing his authority would be challenged, he had his guests stabbed and their still- twitching bodies impaled on spikes. Byhe had succeeded to the Walllachian throne and was at war with the Ottomans. With enemy forces three times the size of his own, Vlad ordered his men to poison wells and burn crops. He also paid diseased men to infiltrate and infect the enemy. His victims were often disembowelled, beheaded and skinned or boiled alive. However impalement came to be his killing method of choice, largely because it was also a form of torture. It would often take hours, if not days, for the victim to finally die. His reputation continued to grow as he inflicted this type of torture on foreign and domestic enemies alike. When the Sultan Mehmed II came across the field of the dead being picked apart by crows, he was so horrified that he retreated to Constantinople. On another occasion, Vlad met with a group of Ottoman envoys who declined to remove their turbans, citing religious custom. As the Italian humanist Antonio Bonfini described:. Now long after the infamous impalement of Ottoman prisoners of war, Vlad was forced into exile and imprisoned Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals . He returned in to reclaim his rule of Wallachia, however his triumph was short-lived. While marching Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals battle with the Ottomans, he and his soldiers were ambushed and killed. Vlad the Impaler was an undeniably brutal ruler. However he is still considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. His victorious campaigns against the Ottoman forces which protected both Wallachia and Europe have won him praise as a military leader. He was even praised by Pope Pius IIwho expressed admiration for his military feats and for defending Christendom. However the two characters have little in common. TV A new online only channel for history lovers. Sign Me Up. Here are 10 facts about the man who inspired fear and legends for centuries to come. The Order of the Dragon was devoted to one task: the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Early Modern. Twentieth Century. Age of Revolution. The Worst Epidemic in History? Biography of Vlad the Impaler, Inspiration for Dracula

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. This entry was posted on August 10, by Peter Konieczny. Ever since, the historical character of Vlad III was mingled in the most unhappy ways with the figure of a bloodthirsty immortal vampire who ruled Transylvania and did a lot of horrible things to everybody. Hence, a very biased understanding of his life, deeds and times, from the historical perspective. Good for tourism, though, although the souvenir industry supporting the myth all over Romania is a huge kitsch. Any enterprise to present for the large western audience the life and wars of Vlad the Impaler is a very useful activity indeed. The historical character must be separated from the mythological and literary beast. His place among the Eruopean rulers of the day must be well established Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals objectively analysed. Sources must be critically presented and the truth must finally come out in a pleasant way. Unfortunately, this book fails on all levels and is a long tragedy of historical errors. He has already written three books on Islamic military history and one about Chinese wars against Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals Mongols. This time he addressed a topic completely unfamiliar to him and without being able to overcome the language barrier and have direct access to Romanian bibliography and especially collections of medieval documents and letters linked to the subject. While he is clearly a fan of Ottoman history and military actions, giving really good explanations about the Islamic world, diplomacy, matrimonial alliances etc, he lacks basic knowledge of Balkan and eastern European medieval geography, languages, history, religions, diplomatic affairs and geopolitics. Still, also in this field there are various mistakes. The style of the writing is cursive, easy to follow, sometimes too many times ironic and witty, but the wrong information he gives all over unfortunately transform this book into a totally useless instrument. He uses the term razzia for raids, Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals this generally applies to the Mediterranean geographic space. Very many mistakes appear when writing Romanian names. The has diacritics, which can be avoided, and the meaning of the word remains the same. Historical and explanation errors are all over the Introduction. This could also be the effect of the lack of good sources and historical literature dealing with medieval history in this space and time, but the events can be checked even online. The fortress of Chilia was not taken by the Moldavians inbut inand in it is Mathias Corvinus who invades , not just for Chilia issue, and is defeated. The timeline is much too long — from to ! Chapter I talks about religion and social structure in the Turkish tribes and presents the Balkans on the eve of the Ottoman conquest and beyond. One good idea emerges from the whole chapter, i. The historical argument, unfortunately, lacks clarity and valid information. Perhaps the author is referring to the Norman invasion in and the battle of Dyrrachium, the creation of the second Bulgar Empire in following the rebellion of the Asen brothers of Vlach origin and the incursions of the Pechenegs in the late s, stopped at Lebunion inwhen the Vlachs from the nearby mountains Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals fought Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals the Byzantines. Strangely, not a word about these capital events. Which Balkan states? There were no independent states in the Balkans in that moment, certainly not ones to ally or compete against Wallachia. The further idea that Hungarians inhabited the plains, while the majority of the Slavs and Vlachs inhabited the mountains and forests is very romantic, in the 19th century style. The only major confrontations in early were in Moldavia, where the Hungarian army led by King Sigismund was defeated, and at Rovine, in Wallachia, where the Ottomans were eventually defeated by the Mircea the Elder, voivod of Wallachia. There were no military actions in Transylvania proper. There is a lot of information on various countries and states, but there is much too little information on Wallachia and its history, almost not at all at the end of the chapter. There are several battles presented in the book, because there were many military events during this time in the area. It would be interesting to know the sources the author used, because not one of these battles is presented correctly, some of them really lack proper information and some have utter nonsense. It is too bad that all these battles and also others from the 16th and 17th centuries are presented in this shallow way, the book is about military history after all. At page 74, we find out that Vlad II was associated to the throne of Wallachia. Actually, the young Vlad II grew up at the court of King Sigismund, while his brother Michael I was associated to the throne of Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals father. In the 15th century, there were no more nomads roaming Transylvania, and the Hungarians and Saxons had already been settled for the last years at least. The Romanian elite of Transylvania, anyway, slowly joined the ranks of the , for obvious reasons. It seems that the early Vlachs raised cattle and lived a semi-nomadic existence travelling between temporary winter dwellings and the high mountains. Other confusions in the book are only between the Wallachians from the eponymous country north of the Danube and the Balkan Vlachs. There was, therefore, not the level of complexity seen in these other Balkan societies. The idea that all the boyars stood together and Wallachia was cohesive is wrong in any kind of society we would take to study; a country or a social layer is not a monolith, not ever. Ungro-Wallachia was the name for Wallachia in several medieval sources, but it was not another name for Transylvania. The confusions continue, as the author speaks about the Catholic monasteries in Transylvania belonging to several orders, as being in Wallachia, where Catholicism was not so well represented. One important point would have been to present the forming of the medieval state of Moldavia, but the information is again very shallow. He also completely omitted the battle of Rovine ina very important battle. At page 82, there is an exaggerated statement, i. On the contrary, it also had Orthodox rulers from south-eastern European countries. For the wrong information at page 90 about the coins minted by Vlad II, they had on the obverse the Wallachian eagle with the cross and on the reverse a dragon, with wings open and curly tail, but not the dragon of the Order as stated in the book. He married a local woman from a Hungarian family. John Hunyadi had hence mixed blood and he spoke both languages. Actually, he had to join an Ottoman army sent to plunder, but managed to save as many inhabitants — mostly noble, of course — as possible. There were no knights in the Romanian countries. The info is part of the last two pages of the chapter, Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals there is finally a bit of information about Vlad III, mostly unreliable. While trying to explain the circumstances of these events, the author writes about Balkan states like they were independent or at least with a very large autonomy. Which other Balkan powers?! There was no other Balkan power than the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century! With all due respect, a very serious question arises right now — does the author know the geographical extent of the Balkan Peninsula and the geopolitical realities of the 15th century in the area? At pagethere is the story of how Vlad III took the throne, executed Vladislav II but… remained in Wallachia as a ruler, did not return to Transylvania, as the author writes! At pages there is info on the coins minted by Vlad, including one with a comet o one of the sides. In reality, it seems there were actually two coins minted by Vlad the Impaler, one indeed with a comet, but specialists do not fully Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals on their chronology. At page there is maybe the utmost nonsense of the book. There was no other administrative body over the high council of boyars, except for the ruling prince. Also, the idea of eastern European peasant armies being gathered against Ottomans etc is way overdue, no feudal ruler would be so careless as to arm peasants and send them against professional troops for a series of objective reasons. The idea of peasant armies was very fashionable in the 19th century during the romantic nationalist revival of eastern European peoples and during Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals 20th century, especially during Communism. Serious researchers do not even mention this subject. First of all, the term sluji means domestic servant, while the term for the household troops in the Romanian countries is slujitori. They were not only bodyguards of the ruler, the term has a broader meaning. While there are hints that Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals actually had gypsies into his army, it is exaggerated to talk about a gypsy guard. Not exactly, his relations with the church seem to have been very limited and practical for political purposes. Again, in the next lines, the author confuses Wallachia with Transylvania and the explanation about the Roman Catholic Church expanding and being used by Vlad is Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals invention. At page and not only, the author states that the Romanian countries — Wallachia and Moldavia - were in the Ottoman devshirme system. Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals wrong, the devshirme was never applied to the Romanian Countries, as they were not directly ruled by the Ottomans and they had not been subdued through conquest. It is not. It is known from the contemporary sources that he asked the Sultan to pardon him, because the Transylvanian campaigns drained all the money for the tribute, and the sultan accepted the reason. Also from sources we know very well the causes of the rebellion of the town Bistritz. The author tries to guess at page the reasons, but again lacks important details from medieval documents. At page he again confuses the two territories, Transylvania and Wallachia. Speaking about the relations of Vlad with the peasants, he writes that the Romanian peasants had allied with the Hungarian peasants in the rebellion of At page and not only, he mentions that the Ottomans wanted to secure the Danube Delta. Well, it already belonged to them, there was nothing to secure, and there was no fleet on the lower Danube able to compete against the Ottoman fleet. At pagetalking about the nailing to the head of the turbans of the Ottoman envoys, the author tries again to guess a series of reasons for it. Actually, the legend clearly says that they kept their hats on in front of Tepes, so he wanted them to keep their custom forever and he ordered the ordeal. Another geographical error is at page There are a series of illustrations in Chapter III. At page 8 of these, the author speaks about the fortress of Poenari, but the photo on top is a photo of the . Later on, he also calls the Modavian ruler king. A further analysis could have been useful here and the result of the sentence might have been different. The description of the Ottoman campaign at Vaslui in January is completely wrong on all levels, from the description and numbers of the armies and the general information regarding the Ottoman route to the description of the landscape and the details of the battle. Chapter V briefly deals with the fall of Vlad towards the end of the chapter. Estimates range from 40, topeople over his six-year rule. There is also no critical analysis of medieval sources, starting from the Turkish and Byzantine chronicles Romanian chronicles are scarce, as they have been almost completely destroyed, it seems, in the 16th century wars and finishing with the legends and stories written about him and published in Europe even then. The custom was to peel the skin off the skull and fill it with hay, so the skin dried and the face remained recognizable. The rest of the chapter deals with the Ottoman campaign in Moldavia. The whole campaign of is, of course, as usual, with more Draculas Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals than valid information. Well, Transylvania was part of the Habsburg Empire, and the other two were officially part of the Ottoman Empire.