THE HISTORICAL DRACULA: VLADISLAV BASARAB III (PART I)

Vladislav

Transilvanian flag


Valachian Prince Basarab I



THE HISTORICAL DRACULA: VLADISLAV BASARAB III, 1431-1476


Copyright © 1992, Ray Porter (Romanian spellings added by The Vampir Metrou March 13, 2008)

I. Historical Background


Most of you are probably aware of the fact that when Bram Stoker penned his immortal classic, Dracula, he based his vampir villian on an actual historical figure. Stoker's model was Vlad III Dracula (called Tepes, pronounced tse-pesh); a fifteenth century Printul (crowned prince) of Wallachia of the princely House of Basarab. Valachia (Saxon version-Wallachia) is a provence of Romania bordered to the north by Transilvania and Moldavia, to the east by the Black Sea and to the south by Bulgaria. Wallachia first emerged as a political entity during the late thirteenth century from the weltering confusion left behind in the Balkans as the Eastern Roman Empire slowly crumbled. The first prince of Valachia was Basarab the Great (1310-1352), an ancestor of Dracula. Despite the splintering of the family into two rival clans, some members of the House of Basarab continued to govern Valachia from that time until well after the Ottomans reduced the principality to the status of a client state.


In order to understand the life of Vlad Dracula it is first necessary to understand something about the nature of Valachian society and politics. The throne of Valachia was hereditary but not by the law of primogeniture; the boiars (Saxon version-Boyars), or great nobles, had the right to elect the voivode (Elected prince vs. Printul, Crown Prince of noble blood) from among the various eligable members of the royal family. As with most elective monarchies during the Middle Ages the power of the central government tended to be dissipated among the nobility as various members of the ruling family vied for the throne. Valachian politics also tended to be very bloody. Assasination was a common means of eliminating rivals and many of the voivodes ended their lives violently and prematurely. By the late fifteenth century the House of Basarab had split into two rival clans; the descendants of Prince Dan and those of Prince Mircea the Old (Dracula's grandfather). These two branches of the royal house were bitter rivals. Both Dracula and his father, Vlad II Dracul, murdered rivals from the Danesti upon reaching the throne.


The second ascendant fact of the fifteenth century Valachian political life was the influence of powerful neighbors. In 1453 Constantinople and the last vestiges of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire, which had blocked the Islam's access to Europe for nearly one thousand years, succumbed to the armed might of the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror. Long before the fall of the Imperial City the Ottomans had penetrated deep into the Balkans. Dracula's grandfather, Mircea the Old, was forced to pay tribute to the sultan early in the fifteenth century. The Hungarian Kingdom to the north and west of Valachia reached the zenith of its power during the fifteenth century and assumed Constantinople's ancient mantle as defender of Christendom. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the princes of Valachia attempted to maintain a precarious independence by constantly shifting allegiances between these powerful neighbors.


Dracula ruled as Prince of Valachia on three seperate occasions. He first claimed the throne with Turkish support in 1448. On this occasion he ruled for only two months (October-November) before being driven out by a Danesti claimant supported by Hungary. Dracula dwelt in exile for several years before returning to Valachia to kill the Danesti prince, Vladislov II, and reclaim the Wallachian throne with Hungarian support. Dracula's second regnal period streched from 1456 to 1462. It was during this time that Dracula carried out his most famous military exploits against the Turks and also committed his most gruesome atrocities.


In 1462 Dracula fled to Transilvania (Saxon version-Transylvania) Romanian lands occupide by Hungary, to seek the aid of the King of Hungary when a Turkish army overwhelmed Valachia. Instead of receiving the assistance he expected Dracula was imprisoned by the Hungarian king. He remained a prisoner of Matthius Corvinus of Hungary for several years. For most of the period of Dracula's incarceration his brother, Radu cel Frumos (English version-Radu the Handsome), ruled Valachia as a puppet of the Ottoman sultan. When Radu died (ca. 1474-1475) the sultan appointed Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan, as prince.


Eventually, Dracula regained the favor and support of the Hungarian king. In 1476 he once again invaded Valachia. His small force consisted of a few loyal Valachians, a contingent of Moldavians sent by his cousin Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia, and a contingent of Transilvanians under their prince, Stephen Bathori (Saxon version- Bathory). The allies succeeded in driving Basarab out of the country and placing Dracula on the throne (November 1476). However, after Dracula was once again in control, Stephen Bathori returned to Transilvania taking most of Dracula's army with him. The Turk's soon counter-attacked with overwhelming force. Dracula was killed fighting the Turks near Bucuresti (Saxson version-Bucharest) in December of 1476. His head was sent to Constantinople where the Sultan had it displayed on a stake to prove that the terrible Impaler was really dead

Copyright © 1992, Ray Porter (Romanian spellings added by The Vampir Metrou March 13, 2008)