His life was full of power struggles with fierce opponents. And he himself committed many atrocities that gave rise to horrific myths about vampires among the people. Vlad III Basarab (about 1431 - 1476) - the ruler of the small principality of Wallachia, located in the south of modern Romania, received two nicknames at once: Tepes and Dracula.
Devil or Dragon?
It is known that the prototype of many modern vampire stories and his father were in the knightly order of the Dragon, which was founded in 1408 by King Sigismund I of Luxembourg. According to some reports, it was a secret occult society that was looking for the source of eternal life. It is possible that they considered human blood to be the elixir for all diseases.
The word Dracul can be translated as "dragon", but in Romanian it also means "devil, devil." This is what Vlad II Basarab called himself, and his son inherited this nickname, although in his case it was transformed into "Dracula". The fact that the rulers of the Orthodox principality allowed themselves to be called so ambiguously may indicate their adherence to Satanism.
Impaler
The Tepes nickname is even darker. It comes from the Romanian word țeapă, which translates as “stake”. Vlad III was nicknamed the Impaler because he often carried out mass executions of innocent people in just such a cruel way. The ruler of Wallachia, according to some sources, loved to dine among the unfortunate, slowly dying subjects. He enjoyed their death throes and agony.
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Since the corpses of the deceased were completely drained of blood, the people began to say that Dracula not only eats while looking at them, but also drinks the blood of his victims. Perhaps people tried to somehow explain to themselves his atrocities.
Torture in Turkish captivity
Many researchers try to explain the cruelty of the ruler of Wallachia by the suffering he endured while in Turkish captivity. The fact is that in the summer of 1444, Vlad, who was a teenager, and his younger brother Radu were handed over by their own father to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Murad II (1404-1451) as hostages. If the Vlachs refused to pay tribute to the Turks and tried to fight for national sovereignty, the boys would be executed.
Some sources claim that Vlad was brutally tortured in captivity, forcing him to convert to Islam. He saw how other hostages were dealt with, whose relatives did not please the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. And this, they say, influenced the character of the young man.
Brother seduced by the sultan
The psyche of the Wallachian prince could also be negatively affected by the sexual harassment suffered by his brother Radu by Mehmed II the Conqueror (1432-1481), the son of the Turkish sultan.
At least the Greek historian Laonik Chalkokondil wrote that Radu Basarab and Mehmed II were in an intimate relationship. This allowed some researchers to suggest that Vlad witnessed the rape of his younger brother by the future ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
Bloody Easter
Dracula sought to assert his power in Wallachia, brutally cracking down on the boyars that he disliked, who secretly supported the political opponents of their suzerain. Once he invited representatives of the noble nobility to a feast on the occasion of Orthodox Easter and executed all his guests.
Historians recognize the veracity of this story, they argue only about the date of the event. Most likely, Easter in 1459 turned out to be so bloody, although some researchers point to 1457. They say that then 50 to 500 Wallachian nobles were killed, and this could be a kind of sacrifice to the Devil.
Support for the Orthodox Church
In light of all that has been said, it is not the cruelty of Vlad III that is really shocking, but his piety. Dracula generously donated money and land to Orthodox monasteries and parishes located not only in Wallachia, but also in Greece. In 1460, near the town of Giurgiu, he founded the Koman monastery, and a year later, at the expense of the ruler, a church was built in the city of Tyrgshor.
Many historians believe that the reason for Dracula's generosity was his attempts to drown out rumors among the people about his devotion to Satan.
Catholicism as the cause of vampirism
However, Vlad III did not manage to whitewash his name with donations. As an Orthodox principality, Wallachia faced constant pressure from Catholic Hungary and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The inhabitants of a small country considered loyalty to the faith of their ancestors to be their salvation. And they explained the cruelty of the blood-sucking ruler by his secret conversion to Catholicism.
Since the followers of the Western branch of Christianity, unlike the Orthodox, during the celebration of Easter do not partake of the blood of Christ (which is traditionally replaced by red wine), the Vlachs suspected that the apostate was trying to compensate for this deficiency by drinking human blood. That is, the conversion to Catholicism is the cause of vampirism. Romanians still believe that rejection of the religion of their ancestors pushes a person into the clutches of the Devil.
Explicit and fictitious crimes
It is worth recognizing, despite the unconditional cruelty of Vlad III, many stories about his atrocities were exaggerated in the popular mind, turning into legends-horror stories. For example, the story of 20 thousand (in some sources - 30 thousand) people, planted on stakes, whose appearance frightened the formidable warriors of the Ottoman Empire, was fabricated by political opponents and numerous enemies of Dracula after his death.
In addition, they say about the ruler of Wallachia:
He ordered to nail caps or turbans to the heads of either Turkish or Italian ambassadors who refused to take them off in the presence of Vlad III.
He ripped open the stomach of his mistress with a knife, who was trying to convince him of her pregnancy.
Put a woman on a stake because her husband had a short shirt.
He executed the boyar, who did not like the sight and smell of numerous corpses.
Gathered many beggars, promising them a sumptuous meal, and burned them along with the building.
And this is just a small part of the scary stories told about Dracula.
Plugged a stake in the heart and chopped off the head
The fact that the ruler of Wallachia was popularly considered a vampire is indirectly indicated by the way in which he was killed in 1476. Who committed the act of retaliation for the numerous atrocities remains unknown. Some historians believe that these were the Turks, other researchers blame the Hungarians or the outraged Vlachs, whose relatives fell victims to Dracula.
They pierced his heart with a wooden stake and chopped off his head, which was sent to Sultan Mehmed II so that no one had doubts about the death of Vlad III.
The grave was empty
The reason for the ominous rumors about the vampirism of the ruler of Wallachia was the fact that his tomb was empty. The decapitated corpse of Dracula, as you know, was buried in an Orthodox monastery located in the city of Snagov. But when researchers opened the tomb of the legendary vampire, many centuries later, they did not find any remains there.