Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25947144-20150615145103

Vlad III Dracul. Also known as Dracula by foreigners, which once meant "son of the dragon", or by his nickname-"The Impaler". His reign was rather short, ruling in 1448, 1456-1462 and 1476. This probably meant much, much longer for his enemies though. He was considered to be a hero from many aspects in his country, protecting Romanians from north and south of Danube. He was known for his rather...unorthodox methods for punishments and cruelty. He was born in Transylvania in 1431. In 1436 his father, Vlad II, became the ruler of Wallachia and moved there along with him. When he was just 13, the Ottoman Empire, trying to conquer Wallachia since the early 1400s, took him and his brother Radu as political hostages. It's said that he was tortured in his time as hostage and developed a sadistic behavior as a result. Because of the conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, both trying to make Wallachia their vassal, the ottomans freed Vlad and his brother. Vlad hated the Ottoman Empire for torturing him and making a slave of him and hated his brother as a result since Radu was well behaved and quickly earned the friendship of Sultan Murad's son, Mehmet and he eventually converted to Islam and entered Ottoman service. All his life he took Radu's action as proofs of weakness and betrayal, and thought he will never be able to put the "monsters" down the way he did. However, Vlad felt pity over his brother's death. His second and main rule begin in 1456. He was known for his "eye for an eye" policy. His people respected and feared him for this. Anybody who would do any recognized crimes such as: stealing, murder, rape, fornication or adultery would be punished. The punishments methods included boiling, skinning, blinded, strangled, hanged, nailed, incinerated, buried alive, the removal of the nose, tongue, ears and genitals, but mostly, as his nickname suggests, impaling. Impaling was especially recognized as one of the most horrible and painful methods of execution in those times. A stalk would enter the anal cavity and forced inside until it came out on the other side and vice-versa. The stalks used usually were not very sharp to increase the pain greatly. Another thing he was known for was his hatred towards the boyars (nobles). Partly because of their implication in the death of his father and his brother and partly because of their lack of support for his causes. One of his first acts of revenge was on Easter 1459, in Targoviste, where he took hostage every boyar who came to his party. The oldest were impaled and the rest were put to walk 100 kilometers from the capital to built a fortress in Poenari. To test the respect of his boyars, but also to enjoy the results of his orders, he once commanded to have his dinning table in the middle of the "forest" of corpses and his boyars join him. The boyars barely were forced to stay in the middle of the thousands of rotting bodies, some of them being even still barely alive, the only thing worse than the sight being the smell. The smell was a mixture of rotting flesh, dried blood, drenched skin and fecals. The boyars barely held themselves from vomiting. But Vlad, he was completely unaffected. He was casually eating his meals, seemingly detached from any exterior factors. Boyars were whispering mean things to each other about him, "can't he smell this?", "he's just dead inside!". Vlad knew they would think about him like that. But his attention was fixed on a particular boyar who was holding his nose. The boyar couldn't take anymore and said: "You honestly aren't deranged by the smell?" "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realized the scent would derange you so much", said the prince in a slightly sarcastic tone. The boyar, scared, quickly excused himself. "Oh, I didn't mean to disrespect you. I'm...I'm just concerned about your safety and health, your majesty!" "It seems that you don't know that we don't quite appreciate dishonesty here. You will be impaled right away. Oh and do not worry, you will be put on the highest steak so you can be above all those horrible scents." A well-known incident is the feast. It's said that Vlad was walking in circles with concerned look on his face and said to one of his captains: "See this times are very hard. I looked upon my people and what did I see? Poor people, ill people and hungry people. I don't one to have any suffering man on my lands. Invite everybody at the feast tonight!" Every poor and unhappy men were greeted in a fabulous hall. Everybody ate, drank and had a good time until late that night. "What else do you desire? Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world?", asked the prince. When he heard everybody saying that such was indeed their wish, he ordered the hall to be set on fire. Later that night, he spoke to the same captain. "See? Now there are no poor or hungry people on my land!" Vlad always had a complicated personality. While he indeed had good qualities-he priced honesty and justice a lot, he was a patriot and always fought for his people-he was rather cold. Some people thought he was truly dead inside or even sadistic. He would often watch the horrible executions with a blank expression. The spear would be pushed slowly up a cavity until it came out of the chest, the neck or the mouth. The victims would be flooded with pain and couldn't do anything but scream endlessly. They would die anytime from a few minutes to a few days. This sight and the horrible screams didn't seem to affect him at all. He seemed to have no mercy over those he considered criminals. A proof of the effectiveness of his methods is perhaps the golden cup: it's said that Vlad once placed a gold cup across a fountain in the city Targoviste and said it belonged to everyone to drink water from the fountain and nobody ever dared to steal it in his entire reign. Perhaps one of the greatest acts of rebellion against the Ottoman Empire was the Night Attack. It all started when Vlad refused to pay Jizya, a tax for non-Muslims, by sending a letter to Mehmet II, explaining that the war with Saxons costed him a lot and that he couldn't leave the country with the risk of the Hungarians trying to invade Wallachia in his absence. Mehmet found out soon about Vlad's alliance with the leader of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, and sent his man Hamza Pasha with a cavalry of 1.000 men to ambush and capture him. Vlad was warned about this and planned his own ambush. While Hamza and his men were passing a narrow road in their way to Giurgiu, Vlad launched a surprise attack and surrounded the turks with his handgunners until the entire expedition force was killed. In his next move, he went on a campaign and slaughtered enemy soldiers; first in southern Wallachia, then, in Bulgaria by crossing the frozen Danube. While in Bulgaria, he divided his army and slaughtered thousands of turks. In a letter to Corvinus, he stated: "I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers...Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him (Sultan Mehmet II)" When the war started, the chances were against Vlad. Mehmet had around 110,000-120,000 soldiers and 175 battleships while Vlad barely had, at most, 30.000. Many of them were untrained peasants, women and children from the age from twelve up. Vlad stated that "it would be better that those who think of death should not follow me". The Turks first tried to disembark at Vidin, but were pushed back by arrows. On June 4, a contingent of janissaries (elite soldiers) landed in the night, at Turnu Severin, where 300 of them died from Wallachian attacks. The Ottoman army managed to advance as Vlad instituted a policy of scorched earth, poisoned the waters, and created marshes by diverting the waters of small rivers. Traps were created by the digging of pits, and then covered with timber and leaves. The population and animals were evacuated and as Mehmed advanced for seven days, his army suffered from fatigue as "he found no man, nor any significant animal, and nothing to eat or drink." Vlad adopted guerrilla tactics and he would also send people suffering from lethal diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis, syphilis and those who suffered from the plague. The bubonic plague managed to spread in the Ottoman army. The Sultan managed to capture a Wallachian soldier and at first tried to bribe him for information; when that didn't work, he threatened him with torture, to no avail. Mehmed was said to the soldier, "If your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!" The Turks continued with their advance towards Targovişte. On June 17, when the Turks camped south of the capital, Vlad launched his night attack with 24,000 horsemen. Before making his attack, Vlad went freely into the Turkish camp disguised as a Turk and wandered around to find the location of the Sultan's tent and learn about his organization. Mehmed had disallowed his soldiers to exit their tents during the night, as to not cause panic in case of an attack. Vlad, being aware of Mehmed's strategy, had decided for an attack in the night. The skirmish would cause great confusion in the Ottoman camp. The Wallachians made noise from their buglers and illuminated the battle with their torches and in that night, they launched several attacks. The Wallachians slaughtered a great number of Turks. Some blame a Wallachian boyar named Galeş, who supposedly led a simultaneous attack on the Turks with a second army, for not being brave enough to cause the expected devastation on the enemy. Vlad Ţepeş himself aimed for the tent of the sultan, as he routed the Asian cavalry, but mistakenly went for the tent of the two grand viziers Ishak Pasha and Mahmud Pasha. The janissaries pursued the Wallachians and killed 1,000-2,000 of them. Mehmed decided to besiege the capital, but instead found it deserted with its gates wide open. The Turkish army entered the capital and for half an hour, the army marched on the road that was bordered by some 20,000 impaled Turks. There, they found the rotten corpse of Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, to symbolize his 'high ranking'. "That bloody forest, that's the work of no man-that's the work of a monster! We had to retreat, your highness!" "That shouldn't have been possible, we had four times their army and four times losses." "Sh...should we sent another army?" "Are you mad? We have to wait until he leaves." "Leaves what, your highness?" "Leaves the country, leaves the throne, dies...it doesn't matter what comes first...as long that man is on the throne, our soldiers can simply put their own heads on sticks" It's said that one night, Vlad was dining among the corpses and asked one of his trusted captain: "Do you know what is very sad?" "No, your majesty, what?" "I won't live forever. One day, I won't be no more, some weak man will come in my place and those criminals will return to their deeds. And my people will miss those good days" 