Very little is known about the personal life of the famous ruler of Wallachia. Almost everything connected with the name of this person is shrouded in mystery. Today, everyone who hears the mention of the name Dracula associates it with vampirism and blood. In fact, he was related to both, but it looked a little different. In his writings, the Byzantine Procopius of Caesarea mentioned that the ancient Slavs called vampires brave warriors who worshiped blood as a spiritual entity.
Vlad Tepes and Turkish Ambassadors. Theodore Aman.
There is almost no data on the family life of Count Dracula. It is known that he recognized three sons. According to the Italian researcher Rafaello Glynni, there was also a daughter.
Was the Italian noblewoman of the 16th century Maria Balsa, wife of Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, Count of Muro Lucano and Lord Acerenza (Italy), the illegitimate daughter of Vlad III Tepes? Perhaps the family coat of arms of Mary in the city of Acerenza may contain hidden clues to her origin.
The first of the sons was most likely illegitimate. His name was the same as his father. He was born to an unknown Transylvanian noblewoman. His second son, born in the legal marriage of Michnya (1462-1510), left his mark on history. During his lifetime he bore the nickname "evil". In many ways, he followed in the footsteps of his father and won the Wallachian throne in 1508. Although he ruled for only one year, during this time he proved himself as the true heir to his bloody father. He established a terror that makes many bloodthirsty dictators seem like little children by comparison. He cut off his lips and nose to all those who disagreed. A worthy son of Count Dracula. The influential Wallachian family of Craiovescu opposed Michni the Zloi, he was forced to flee to Transylvania, where after a while he was killed in the Catholic cathedral of Sibiu. After him, the son of Mircea III began to rule.
Portrait of Dracula. Ambras Castle.
The third son of Vlad Tepes was the legitimate Mikhail. His traces disappeared in 1483 in the city of Buda. It is known that he served there as a Catholic bishop.
Niccolò da Modrussa, papal legate at the court of Mattia Corvino, described the appearance of Vlad III the Impaler, a ruler from Wallachia: with large green eyes, wide open and framed by black eyelashes, very thick and long, which gave the eyes a terrifying look. His face and chin were shaved, but he wore a mustache. Wide temples increased the width of the forehead. The bull's neck was connected to the head, from which black locks of hair descended on the wide cheekbones of his face.
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Dracula's castle in Transylvania.
The first mention of the daughter dates back to 1531. It was brought at the end of the 15th century by the Neapolitan Georgy Kastrioti (1405–1468), the national hero of Albania, who returned from the war with the Ottoman Empire.
He brought the Neapolitan king Ferdinand I of Aragon (1424-1494) a seven-year-old girl who was saved from hostilities. Her name was Maria Balsa. Balsa, translated from the Old Romanian language, means "daughter of the dragon." Dracula, by the way, means dragon. The girl was raised at the Neapolitan court and was presented by King Ferdinand as a bride to his nephew Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, who took Maria to Lucania, Italy.
The dragon symbol is very important when it comes to Dracula. The father of Vlad III, Count Dracula, Vlad II in 1408 became one of the founders of the Order of the Dragon, which fought against the Ottoman Empire.
Ferdinand the First of Aragon.
Italian researcher Rafaello Glynni, studying the genealogy of local families in the 15th century, came to the conclusion that Maria Balsa, wife of Count Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, is indeed the illegitimate daughter of Count Dracula. Glynnie examined the coat of arms of Maria Balsa in the Cathedral of Acerenza and found that it depicts a winged dragon with its tail wrapped around its neck, and also has three stars on the shield. Coincidentally, the coat of arms of the Counts of Ferrillo also depicts a dragon.
The description of the symbol that distinguished the Order of the Dragon, to which both Vlad II and his son Vlad III Tepes belonged, reads: “The dragon is depicted in the form of a circle. The tip of the tail is wrapped around the neck, along the back is a red cross."
In the Balkan countries, in particular in Romania, only Vlad Tepes's family had the right to depict a dragon on the coat of arms. The stars on the coat of arms of Maria Balsa are similar to those on the headdress of Vlad III.
"… the dragon bent down to form a circle, its tail wrapped around its neck …"
In 1456, the Cathedral of Acerenza was severely damaged by an earthquake. In 1520/1524, Maria Balsa, together with her husband Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, financed the renovation of the building. After the restoration, new frescoes appeared here - images of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Romania.
Another mural depicts a woman killing a dragon. As many researchers believe, this is Maria Balsa herself. Since the father of Mary could have been Vlad Tepes, is not this a symbolic image of the struggle with your past, bloody childhood memories?
Pavel Romanutenko