What info does anyone have on the real Dracula? Also, myths and legends from the time (NOT cheesy Hollywood movies).

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I know he really impaled people. Think his nickname was "Vlad the impaler".

Well Archosaur, I don't think I could do justice the stories about Vlad. I just look up Wikipedia. It has alot on him.
Sorry I'm new and don't know how to get the link just yet.

Vlades Tepes, (Vlad III)! Is best known by the Romanian people for his success in standing up to the encroaching Ottoman Turks and establishing relative independence and sovereignty (albeit for a relatively brief time).

Another factor influencing political life was the means of succession to the Wallachian throne. The throne was hereditary, but not by the law of primogeniture. The boyars (wealthy land-owning nobles) had the right to elect the voivode (prince) from among various eligible members of the royal family. This allowed for succession to the throne through violent means. Assassinations and other violent overthrows of reigning parties were thus rampant. In fact, both Vlad III and his father assassinated competitors to attain the throne of Wallachia.


More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his inhuman cruelty. Impalement was Vlad IIIs preferred method of torture and execution. Impalement was and is one of the most gruesome ways of dying imaginable, as it was typically slow and painful.

Vlad usually had a horse attached to each of the victims legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mothers chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

He was a very heartless man! It almost seems as if he didn't have a soul at all, like he wasn't human.

This is pretty much all I know about vlad!

http://www.vladtheimpaler.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_impaler

His father also offered Vlad and his brother as political hostages to the Ottomans. I guess he was treated pretty badly though, and he grew to really hate the Ottomans and his father, his father for both giving him up to the Ottomans and for making peace with the Muslims. His hatred for both probably played a big role in why he was so brutal.

From what I understand, he definitely was brutal, but there were reasons behind his actions i.e. he didn't kill just to kill. He killed Ottomans as a warning to stay out of Romania. He killed the boyars and nobles, as Dragonwick said, because there was always danger from political rivals. The wikipedia article I read mentioned he killed a lot of people as a warning to stop the anarchy going on in Wallachia. And as horrific as the tactics were, they worked pretty well. The Turks were held at bay, he consolidated his power (at least for awhile), and he brought some stability to Wallachia.

Still don't like the guy much, though.

I remmeber this guy!!!!!!!!

That's him.

In my opinion, he's was a sicko for impaling people like that.

ah...he ordered OTHER people to do it...typical tyrannical leader....can't do his own dirty work....

Never knew that. I just held he impaled people. They never brought that up.

He was stark raving mad, a brutally sadistic man who in my opinion was the ultimate tyrant. From what i can remember about him he had almost a third of his population executed, rumour had it that he would often dine in the areas where the murders took place, on one ocasion a high ranking nobleman complained off the stench so Vlad had him impaled on a longer stake and had his nose chopped off so the smell would no longer offend

When I said "afraid to get his hands dirty" I was joking.

As Eden pointed out, Vlad was a very sick twisted guy, and he certainly partook (is that a word?) in his share of debauchery....but you can't impale thousands of people by yourself, any more than you can crucify them.

Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, even Saddam Hussien...all of them were just as bad. Vlad's signature "impaling" was a scare tactic, used to keep people in line.

How was a I suppose to know?

Completely. Probably the worse in human history.

They all where too. You scare you people to death. They'll do what you want them to do.

I heard that he also burned people alive in a church or something

Well, Vlad picked up the practice from the Ottoman turks, who held him and his brother as prisoners while they were children. It's nothing short of poetic justice that after defeating an invading army of said Turks, he impaled them and left a forest of rotting corpses for the next army to find. They turned back.

I'll be visiting several Vlad-related sites later this year, apparently the house he was originally born in in Sighsoara is still standing.

cool AC!! Hope you bring us back alot of pics!

Exactly. They were all extraordinarily cruel, but they all had a reason for doing what they did. It doesn't soften what they did at all, but history tends to just shrug these characters off as insane or crazy, when in reality they were much more complex than that.

There's no doubt in my mind that the Ottoman's were physically capable of defeating Vlad, it was the psychological war he was waging that kept them at bay.

Oh okay.

I never knew that before. I don't recall the programs bringing that up. :/

OH! Cool. Bring out pictures please.

I heard Draclua's castle is haunted.

Vlad Dracula's main bedroom was feet above the torture room so that he could hear the screams. It's told on the discovery channel that he HAD a dungeon, but it was scarecely used. He prefered to torture his victims. he would skin the feet of them, tie them up, place salt on the skinned feet and let goats like it off. When he was imprisoned at one point for 12 years, the others in his cell were killed horribly, and he placed there heads on stakes at his window. This is all recorded fact. History Channel =) came on last night actually! Coincidence.