History Movie of the week: Vlad the Impaler: The True Life of Dracula

Everyone heard of Dracula, the bloodsucking terror of the night, the mysterious vampire lord both seductive and gruesome, and you probably heard that the author of "Dracula" Bram Stoker took inspiration in a historical figure known for his cruelty and blood thirst: Vlad Tepes - the Impaler. Being named after his most common punishment, The Impaler was actually Vlad III Basarab, son of Vlad II Dracul and grandson of Mircea the Elder and he wasn't a count in Transylvania but a prince in Wallachia the southern region of today's Romania. In fact Transylvania was a province of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom at that time and although Vlad Tepes was born in Transylvania and spent his early years there, he was never ruler of Transylvania.
His father Vlad Dracul( Vlad the Devil) got his name not for being a horned scoundrel but for being a member of Societas Draconistratum - latin Order of the Dragon, a military order established in 1408 by Sigismund of Hungary and sworn to protect Christianity against the Turks.

Draco is latin for dragon, but it also mean 'devil' in romanian, most probably because at that time wallachians didn't really regard a flying, scaled ,fire-breathing creature as anything else than the devil's work. To avoid the confusion , little Vlad junior was often called 'Draculea' , something that it would roughly translate into 'little Dracu' or 'little devil' so we can easily understand how that ended up like Dracula.

Now, if you're expecting some hot vampire action, this movie is probably not for you, but if you're wondering why was Vlad the Impaler regarded as such a cruel leader, you might find yourself looking at the other side of the story. You see up until Stoker's novel, Vlad the Impaler was never regarded as a blood thirsty monster at all, at least not in this region of the world.

In a time where Europe was under constant threat by the Ottomans, and Wallachia was at the border with the Ottoman Empire, peace was fragile and often Wallachian rulers had to resort to drastic measures to protect their christian kingdom. Vlad the II sent his two younger sons, Vlad III (Tepes) and Radu to live at the Ottoman court in order to prove his good intentions, and hoping it will prevent a war. Radu managed to accommodate pretty well with the Turkish way of life and pretty soon converted to Islam. There are also rumors that the sultan, Mehmed II had a homosexual relationship with Radu. Vlad on the other side struggled to keep appearance but he secretly resented the turks. After his father and his oldest brother Mircea II were seized , blinded and buried alive after a revolt of the wallachian nobles with the support of the Hungarian ruler Vlad started resenting the hungarians as well. Still, in order to revenge his father he knew he had to continue to keep appearance so he cleverly gained the trust and respect of the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom afterwards slowly climbing to power.

The movie begins with Vlad Tepes defeating his rival, Vladislav Danesti and establishing him as the rightful ruler of Wallachia. His goal is clear : to construct a powerful , prosper , independent kingdom based on virtue and valor just as his grandfather Mircea the Elder did before him.
An almost impossible task as he finds his country impoverished and ravaged by war and crime. His decisions are contested by the corrupt and traitorous boyars, the nobles forming the administration in Wallachia.
If you ever felt like you are being screwed by today's politicians you are going to love the scenes where Vlad deals with the corrupt boyars. Other scenes you are probably going to find a little weird but certainly memorable. Here are just a few:

At one point , Vlad, has to deal with the increasing number of criminals pretending to be beggars during the day and attacking caravans during the night. His solution:
He throws a big party for all the beggars , puts his men to remove the real crippled from the tavern so only the criminals are left in, locks the tavern's doors and sets fire to the building.

While receiving Ottoman emissaries, Vlad is puzzled by their refuse to respectfully remove their hats. They defend themselves by claiming it will be a sin in front of Allah to remove their turbans. Vlad decides to nail their turbans to their heads so the wind won't blow them off, thus 'leading them into sin'.