Ping!
If you take no other lesson from the story,
coat the tips of your bullets with bacon fat.
No 72 virgins for you! /soupnazi
twenty thousand dead Turks surrounded the city, impaled on stakes.
Wow. For an idea of what that looked like, think of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena filled to capacity.
How can that be?
Everyone knows violence never solves anything!
</rolling eyes>
Vlad Dracul III was a freedom fighter.
May we all take lessons on how to deal with islam from him.
send Assad to kill off the jihadis... one devil to kill another
To paraphrase (and presage) Orwell, many in western Europe slept peaceably in their beds because rough men stood ready to do violence on their behalf.
“Though Vlad Dracul is—and for good reason—”
Technically, Dracul was the name of his father. It’s a common error I’ve noticed. For our Vlad, it is Dracula, the suffix containing the meaning “son of the dragon.”
He also, so far as I know, wasn’t an atheist. Though, in the books I have read on the subject, they treat him as a religious opportunist. He was Orthodox, and then converted to Catholicism in order to secure the support of Rome. He also married a Catholic bride, or at least that’s how I remember it from the books I’ve read on the subject (it’s been a few years).
His impaling of enemies was most likely learned from the Turks themselves, as Vlad spent some time as a political prisoner among them. His father was forced to deliver him and his brother to the Turks, and it was there that they were trained and educated. Vlad’s brother evidently became the boy toy of the Caliph and would later side against his brother in the conflict.
When Vlad was released, they expected him to be a good vassal, as they had trained him and prepared him for that purpose. Instead, however, he set to work getting revenge almost immediately. First, on the nobles who had hindered the war effort and who had worked against his father. He killed most of them in various strange and unusual ways, and had them replaced by his own people.
It’s difficult, however, to ascertain how bloody he actually was, because a lot of the tales were told by Vlad’s enemies. Since Vlad was the only one fighting the Turks, he put a lot of the other rulers to shame for their inaction. It seems likely that a lot of his cruelty was exaggerated, or perhaps even invented by those who opposed Vlad’s actions.
His tale ends tragically though. I think there are various stories on how exactly he died, but his life does not end in victory. It’s possible someone either killed him by accident in the confusion of the night, or he was murdered. His head was later delivered to the Turks and impaled on a stake, and his body buried elsewhere. His son was also assassinated, and I think his brother later rules for a time.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read my books on the subject, so it’s best to double check my recollection before quoting me on it.
Sheesh. Send flowers to your Mom on her birthday every year but do they call you Vlad the Flower Sender? No! Brush your horse and pet your dog your whole life but do they call you Vlad the Animal Lover? No! But impale a lousy hundred thousand people...
Vlad Tepes was a soldier of God. I hope he rests in Paradise with Christ.
Thanks for portraying this great and little recognized hero.
Bram Stoker mixed the legend of Vlad Tepys with that of Helena Bathory, a truly wedged aristocrat who murdered village maidens with impunity and creativity, and came up with his Dracula character which has become the backbone of the modern Goth sub culture.
Most illustrations show Vlad’s impalings incorrectly. A long sharpened stake went up the butt and out the mouth. I know, “thank you for sharing”. But context is everything and if we judge historic events through our enlightened humanistic ethos, we can easily be accused of cultural imperialism. Back then you had to fight fire with fire. Humans can be nasty or angelic, take your pick and live it the way you see it. But try to see it logically.
Vlad-fan ping