PREFACE…………………………………………………………………………………..............2
Chapter I: WALACHIA - THE BEGINNING AND THE FIRST RULERS. ……………….......6
1.1 The foundation of the country; Princes Basarab I and Mircea the Elder..……6
1.2 Prince Vlad Dracul (1390-1447)……………………………..…………………..10
Chapter II: VLAD ŢEPEŞ (1431-1476)……………………………………........……………...13
2.1 Vlad Ţepeş becomes ruler Prince of Walachia…………………….................16
2.2 Vlad Ţepeş and the merchants from Southern Transylvania......…………...22
2.3 Vlad Ţepeş and his fights for Walachia‟s independence……...……………..25
2.4 The arrestment and detention of Vlad Ţepeş; his third reign in
November – December 1476…………………….………..………...................31
Chapter III: THE TRACES OF VLAD ŢEPEŞ IN ROMANIA…………………...…………...36
3.1 Christian buildings, fortresses and towns related to Vlad Ţepeş‟s life…..…36
3.1.1 The church of Târgşor………...……………………................................36
3.1.2 Comana Monastery………………………..………………………………37
3.1.3 Snagov Monastery.……………………………………….........................38
3.1.4 Bucharest Fortress................................................................................39
3.1.5 Poienari Fortress……………………...................................................…41
3.1.6 Târgovişte Fortress……………………………….............................……43
3.1.7 Sighişoara Town……………………………………………………...……45
3.1.8 Bran Castle……………………………………………………..…………..47
3.2 Vlad Ţepeş in the Romanian culture…..........................................................51
Chapter IV: VLAD ŢEPEŞ’S DESCENDANTS…………………………………...............….54
CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………………………......60
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………...……..67
READ THE FULL EBOOK BY CLICKING:
Payloadz: http://bit.ly/XiyE4B
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1g07IA4
Amazon: http://amzn.to/19pi66M
1
- PREFACE -
The subject of “Dracula” is one of the most fascinating and interesting in the world
being always presented as a fictional character that during the day lives a normal life, while
in the midnight transfigures in a cruel vampire, attacking people, sucking their blood and
transfiguring them to their turn, in evil persons. Even the real character that lived in the XV
century and inspired the creation of the fictional Dracula - the Walachian Prince Vlad Ţepeş
(or Vlad the Impaler) - is also often shown as a cruel despot that led his people with a
heavy hand, punishing with very rough methods everyone who breaks the laws! In these
summary descriptions, his harshness terrible frightened both his people and the country‟s
enemies, spreading his fame in the world. The most presented describes of Prince Vlad
Ţepeş are those of his cruel deeds, his so-called pleasure to torture people, the use of
most horrible torture methods of that Age, in order to get right the society, or to horrify the
enemies that dared to invade his country. I think every time the people read this type of
description of the legendary character, wonder themselves: Was Vlad Ţepeş really like this?
Of course, some of these things are true, some are exaggerated and there is a seed of
truth in everything. However, I hope that until the end of this book you will find the answer
to this question and to others more!
The character of Dracula was during the time treated in so many books, movies,
articles, etc, that it seems everything was told about him. Many writers, journalists, fictional
researchers, film producers, more or less known, have chosen the fictional character
Dracula as the subject for their work. So that, why another book of Dracula to be written”?
Well, first of all, the book you are holding now is not about the character of Dracula
anymore! There is nothing fictional in this book, nothing about the bloody sucker vampires,
or mysterious counts; nothing of all these! This book is a historically documented
description of the real life and facts of Prince Vlad Ţepeş ( Vlad the Impaler), that ruled
Walachia (the region of Southern Romania, today) for three times in the XV century. Vlad
Ţepeş is simply treated as he truly historicaly was: the ruler of Walachia, with his decisions
and deeds, the man with all his goods and bads, with his fulfillments and failures.
Everything written - as I like to believe - in an opened and friendly manner, easy to read
and understand, accessible to every reader. The main reason, for which I have chosen to
write this book was that despite of his popularity, many people in the world have in my
opinion a wrong imagine of the Walachian Prince Vlad Ţepeş! Moreover, most of them
know almost nothing about his real life, excepting his custom of impaling. There are many
English books or Internet sites that refer to his character, but weak of them treat his deeds
according to the historical facts!
2
Or use to present them distorted! I also think there are many important details of
Vlad Ţepeş‟s life unknown to the large readers, and it is pity to not be brought to the light,
as they are representative for the importance of this ruler in the Romanian history! For
example, I bet that less of Dracula passionates, know there is a strong connection between
Vlad Ţepeş and the birth of the capital of Romania, Bucharest city! Or which is the real
Vlad Ţepeş‟s castle and where is it? There are important things that happened during to
the prince‟ reign but in this case, they are hidden behind the imagine of just an impaler! It is
unfair to concern Vlad Ţepeş only from this point of view, we should look at him correctly
and to have an overall imagine of his personality and his historical special part.
In this book I tried to simply approach the real life of the Romanian Prince Vlad
Ţepeş, his true deeds, reigns, tumultuous life, and the importance of his personality in the
Romanian history. You must know that Vlad Ţepeş is one of the Romanian rulers that
successfully fought against the main threat for the existence of Romanian provinces
(Walachia, Transylvania, Moldavia) during the centuries: the Ottoman Empire. Since the
end of XIII century until the beginning of XX century (1922), the Ottoman Empire
represented a great administrative and military force in the world. It developed its
domination from Middle Orient, Elbrus, and Northern Africa until the Southeastern Europe,
in Balkans. As it had a numerous and well-trained army, the Ottoman Empire was guided
during its entire existence by the policy of continuous expansion, often threatening Europe
by the invasion. In the XV century, the Ottoman Empire developed such a strong military
force, thus in May 1453 the Sultan Mahomed II, succeeded to conquer the fortress of
Constantinople after few weeks of besiege, generating the fall of the great Byzantine
Empire, another important administrative and military structure of the world‟s history. This
resounding success, made the Sultan to fully hope to the conquest of Europe, thinking the
way to the heart of the Old Continent is now opened. In fact, this was the most greatly
desired dream of the Ottoman Sultans ever: to conquer the entire Europe and to subdue
the symbol of Christianity, Vatican Fortress! This meant that the entire world should bow to
them and nothing should hinder from the world domination for many years! Nevertheless,
for conquering Europe, the Ottomans needed to solve or better, to avoid the problems in
the most sensible region: the Balkans, in South-Eastern Europe. For fulfilling their dream of
touching Center Europe, they had to pass few countries as Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldavia,
Walachia, Transylvania and Hungaria. In this respect, they often tried to put as the leaders
of these countries, kings or princes to be subdued to the Ottoman Empire for two important
reasons: first, these little and subdued countries had to pay their annual tribute to the
Sultan, as he need this for sustaining the wars of expansion. Second, they strongly needed
quiet in this part of the continent and nobody to oppose them, to their march towards the
3
supreme domination in Europe! In the spite of the military force and influence of the
Ottoman Empire in Balkans, during the time it have often appeared here, some brave
prince rulers, that successfully opposed to the Ottoman army in its attempt of conquering
their countries and advancing towards the Center Europe. In the XV century, three princes
gained their fame around Europe, by bravery fighting against the Ottomans and foiling their
plans of expansion: Iancu of Hunedoara, Prince of Transylvania and King of Hungary
(1441-1456), Ştefan cel Mare (Ştefan The Great), Prince of Moldavia (1457-1504) and our
main hero, Vlad Ţepeş, Prince of Walachia for three times between 1448 and 1476. After
the conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, in the moments of full swing for the Ottoman
Empire, these three skillful and brave princes successfully fought during their reigns
against this military force, for defending the independence and freedom of their countries.
In the same time, by their army deeds they also foiled the Ottoman invasion towards
Centre Europe, being considered in that age, fiery defenders of Christianity! The bravery
and courage of Iancu of Hunedoara, Ştefan cel Mare and Vlad Ţepeş was recognized and
well appreciated by their contemporaries, the princes of Western countries and to Vatican,
by the Pope himself. Aware of the Ottoman danger for the European countries, these three
rulers insistently demanded to Vatican and Princes of other countries in Europe to help
them in their campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. Excepting Iancu of Hunedoara, the
others two never received it, thus being obliged to make extraordinary efforts and
sometimes concessions, for facing out the force of the Ottomans! This is the main reason
for which the personality of Vlad Ţepeş is so important and representative for the
Romanian history and why is considered one of the heroe rulers of this country!
My intention was to approach the subjects of this book from a realistically point of
view, describing them according to the historically truth. First, I made some referrals to the
main events of founding the Walachia country and to its first rulers, through which we can
also find the founder of this country, Basarab The First, the glorious grandfather of Vlad
Ţepeş, Mircea cel Bătrân (Mircea the Elder) but also his father, Vlad Dracul. I summarized
their presentation, trying to put in value their personalities, making a point the typical
representative and important historical deeds. In the second chapter, dedicated to the main
subject of this book, personality, life and deeds of Prince Vlad Ţepeş, you can find some
details about his youth, his first attempts to obtain the throne of Walachia, the main
domestic decisions and the main events during his reigns, especially the second (1456-
1462), which is the longest and the most representative. I also approached the subject of
Vlad Ţepeş‟s relationships with the Transylvanian Saxons merchandisers, with who he had
numerous conflicts during his life.
4
It is a special part of analyzing his life as the merchandisers from Southern
Transylvania had a great influence to the courts of Transylvania and Hungary, and finally
proved to have an important part for the run of Vlad Ţepeş‟s life! I continued by describing
the fights of Walachian prince against the Ottoman Empire and his efforts for keeping the
independence and sovereignty of Walachia. Excepting the deeds and events from his life,
in the second part of the book you will find the descriptions of all the places and
constructions in Romania that are in strong connection with the personality of Prince Vlad
Ţepeş. There is about churches, monasteries, fortresses, castles, towns that he built,
consolidated or had things in common during his life. I put all of them together as I never
found elsewhere, describing both according to the particularly information and my personal
experience in visiting them. All of these buildings and places remained in time as symbols
of Vlad Ţepeş reigns, as traces of his passing on the Earth. Of course, such an interesting
and special character as Prince Vlad Ţepeş, could not escape to the attention of the
Romanian writers and artists. Starting with the XIX century, he was the subject of more
literature and artist creations, so that I have continued the odyssey of Vlad Ţepeş
personality by revealing some of these works. Finally, I have touched one of the most
controversial subjects regarding Prince Vlad Ţepeş, the matter of his descendants; I have
referred to this subject, starting with the presentation of his sons and grandsons, until his
descendants from the XX century and those that even live today!
Anyway, I hope that the rich information gathered in this book are enough interesting
to raise your interest, they will give you more answers and will clarify some doubts you may
have about Vlad Ţepeş. I only tried to reveal to the reader the real side of the historical
personality of Prince Vlad Ţepeş, his deeds as they happened and all the things that
remained over centuries as his heritage for the Romanian people. In the work of nine
month for creating this book, I made researches to the National Romanian Library from
Bucharest, and specific Internet sites, using the most trustful romanian authors and serious
historical sources in order to present you everything according to the historical truth. I tried
to approach all the respects regarding the life of Prince Vlad Ţepeş, joining also the
pictures in order to strengthen every topic I referred. As never it has been told everything
about the personality of Vlad Ţepeş I do not pretend I did it in the present book. However,
as everything has a value in the world , in my opinion the value of this book is the
consistency of the information included! Even there are still many things to tell about Prince
Vlad Ţepeş, I believe that after you will finish reading this book you will be satisfied of the
things discovered. I also hope you to have a nice reading and in the end, to be content that
you have in mind the correct imagine of the Walachian Prince Vlad Tepes, as he deserves
over centuries.
5
- Chapter I: WALACHIA – THE BEGINNING AND FIRST RULERS -
1.1 The foundation of the country; Princes Basarab I and Mircea The Elder.
We are in the XIII century in Walachia, a small country in Balkans, South Eastern Europe.
Situated to the north of Danube, south-eastern of Transylvania, south of Moldavia, and
most important, between two great forces who will dispute for centuries the supremacy in
region (Hungaria and Ottoman Empire), Walachia was always in the wind‟s blow, a territory
very disputed due to its strategically position but also for the wealth of its land. In the XII
century, Walachia was reffered in different bysantine, bulgarian, hungarian sources - but
also later in the western ones - as the region where existed more little feudal countries
called „ cnezat”, lead by rulers called „ cneaz”. The first little states appeared around
Danube and Carpathians quite late, being surrounded by some powerful feudal states,
which intended to enlarge their frontiers over them. The Mongols subdued these little
countries for almost one century, and later the Poles and their rivals, the Hungarians
continuously threatened the walachian “cnezats”. Because of this permanent instability and
subdue, the feudal countries from the future territory of Walachia, could not unify in order to
form a centralized state and to became a powerful country. At the end of XIII century, the
economical developement of cnezats and the favourable external policy situation, led to the
happy situation to build up the future country of Walachia, by unifying all these little feudal
countries, under the leadership of one prince ruler. Taking advantage of the decline of
Mongolian power and the internal political crisis from Hungary - as in 1301 ended the
dynasty of Arpadians, starting the domestically struggles for the royal throne – the
Walachian Prince Basarab the First, unified all the scattered cnezats between southern
Carpathians and Danube River, in one single country1.
Basarab is the first attested ruler of the entire Walachia,
becoming the prince ruler of the country for 42 years, between 1310
and 1352. The first refference made regarding his reign, could be
found in a hungarian chronicle that mentions in 1324 that Basarab was
already “great ruler in Romanian Country”. He established the court
residence to Curtea de Argeş, where he even built a church and a
great monastery, that both can be admired even today. Thus, Curtea
de Argeş it is considered the first capital of Walachia in history!
Basarab I- Picture to