Scary People: Vlad Dracula III

"Son of the Devil"
Scary People: Vlad Dracula III

(Extended Version)

Scary vampire? No. But he's the inspiration for the famous 1897 Bram Stoker novel that even lives up to the standards and imaginations of modern day books. One common thing that the vampire Dracula and the real one have is blood. While the novel Dracula bit the neck of lovely ladies, the real Dracula was showcasing a bloodbath of scarier proportions.

Real life Dracula was born as Vlad III or Tepes in 1431 in Transylvania (that sounds familiar) to a military governor and emperor of Wallachia. His father, also named Vlad, was assassinated by his own relative, John Hunyadi, due to that Hunyadi didn't approve of Vlad's pro-Turkish ways. After learning of his father's death, while in captivity he found out the gruesome details of how the boyars of Tirgoviste (or Targoviste as it's referred to today) gouged the eyes of his brother, Mircea, and buried him alive.

Needless to say, Vlad swore vengeance and made it well known why Dracul meant "Dragon" or "Devil." And when you add the "a" to "Dracul" it means "son of the Devil." Oh, and he proved it with lots of wit, courage, blood and death. Still teenager and next in line for the throne of Wallachia; young Dracula had a problem: the boyars had ceased the throne after the death of his father. With the help of the Turkish cavalry, he took back the throne that was suppose to be his and had it for a short time length. This was until Hyundai appointed Vladislav II. Vlad persuaded Hyundai, his father's murderer, to join forces with him in hopes that he could acquire the throne again. But, in 1456, Vlad got vengeance and killed his father's murderer; he would then defeat Vladislav II to reclaim his throne and thus, his reign of terror would soon begin.

You'd probably be wrong to say that Vlad was a perfect candidate for Humanitarian of the Year award. One true story is that he treated his captives like slaves - worse than animals. While working on the rigorous task of building his castle he made the slaves work naked and he tortured them severely. Another true story is that he wanted to get rid of those he considered weak, so he posed a fake gift of acceptance and promised them a better land for them and that he would end all the pain. He did...in a wrong way. He lined up all those in the hall and set it on fire, killing everyone.

His reign of terror didn't stop there; one day he decided to teach merchants a lesson, and killed 30,000 of them by impaling them outside the city walls, leaving them to rot to the bone as a reminder to those who had thoughts about messing with the Impaler. For those who are attracted to Bram Stoker's version of Dracula may be interested to know that a rumor circulated around that time that the real life Vlad would dine on the flesh and drink the blood of his enemies.

But he wasn't just known for impaling his victims of those who even looked at him wrong; he was also known to: decapitation, burning, skinned alive, and just tortured them for the heck of it. Speaking of, your not eating while you're reading this right? Good, cause it only get's worse. He would even have his poor victims of punishment eviscerated which was more or less taking organs out of somebody. Actually, that's not even the worse of it, there's some aspects even worse than all of this that I will just simply save the gross-bomb by leaving them out. (Of course, you can always just check out of my website for the "uncensored" version.)

Vlad wouldn't win Husband of the Year either, as he's actually killed his own wife for lying about being pregnant. He had second wife as well, but she jumped to her death in fear of being captured by the Turks, for whom Vlad and his army were battling back in 1461. Some would say, with the details, that he sort of lost this war. He may have been a feared figure, but he was human. He made the mistake of trying to kill the Sultan one night by setting up an attack on his tent; only problem is, it was the wrong tent. They then invaded Wallachia and destroyed his very own country, village by village, human being by human being. The Sultan was shocked to see a forest of dead Turkish shoulders, all impaled...all rotting in the sun.

The Sultan got tired of seeing all the blood and dead bodies and would eventually give Radu the task of where he left off. What's the peculiar part of this? Radu was Dracula's brother. Needless to say, Vlad would nearly escape through a secret passageway but was eventually caught by King Matthias Corvinus. You could say Matthias and Vlad formed a relation as King Matthias would let him come and go as he pleased as long as he reported to the King on a regular basis. Vlad would eventually even marry the King's cousin.

Radu eventually claimed the throne of Wallachia, but he was despised upon by his people. Believe it or not, people actually liked Vlad as there was (hard to believe) peace among the people of Wallachia while Vlad was emperor and the city was virtually free of crime. King Matthias and Dracula would join forces to take Radu down and reclaim the land for which Vlad built and finally defeat the Turks once and for all. After the success of dethroning his own brother (which Vlad never took pride in), Radu would die of a disease a few years later.

Vlad's demise was met by a few speculations: one is that during a battle with Sultan Mehmed II, his own men killed him. Another is that he was decapitated and that he was only recognized by his own medals. One thing is for sure though, is that he was a ruthless, blood thirty warrior and that if he was a vampire (which you could say to a degree he was), he was very successful in acquiring a lot of blood for his sick temptations and cravings.

Vlad and the paranormal: there is something paranormal about Vlad Dracula - locals say that Vlad still roams the ruins of his castle along with the tortured souls who suffered through his punishments. Renovations for the castle were planned for fifteen years ago, but those plans were nixed when the workers left scared when they found Dracula's medallion which, according to legend, he called upon the Devil himself for his power. Oh and the castle is open for tourism...any takers?

Eat your hearts out, Twilight. The real king of vampires left this Earth a long time ago. Until next time, this has been another Scared Sheetless. Don't forget to look for the extended version of this on my website which is located at scaredsheetlessncn.blogspot.com Have a haunting day!

Sources:

www.vladtheimpaler.com - Cool site. Loads of information on the Impaler himself.
www.theshadowlands.net - My favorite paranormal website; also where I got the bit about Vlad's ghost still roaming his castle. Seriously though, if there's any takers, I want to go!