The true history of Vlad III “the Tapes”


Vlad III Dracula was born in 1431 in Sighisoara, a medieval village in Transylvania and he was the son of Vlad II, the Prince of Wallachia. Since he was young he didn’t receive many attentions from his father, who was mainly mindful of his firstborn, and so he was assigned to Byzantine monks in order to receive a Christian education.
In the middle of 15th century Vlad II was oppressed by many foreign powers and was forced to interrupt the war against Turks in order to obtain the military support of Sultan Murad, who invited him to Adrianople to treat. However Vlad II , aware of the inclemency of Turks, brought with him his two sons – Vlad III and Radu – to offer them as hostages to save his life.
During his imprisonment Vlad III had the opportunity to learn the techniques used by Turks to torture prisoners, and he remained so impressed by the torture of impaling that, during his second reign, he inflicted it to such a high number of convicted that he started to be known as “the tapes” (which means “the impaler” in the Rumanian language).
In 1447 as soon as he received the news of his father’s death he decided to escape from his prison in order to recover the throne of his father, but his first reign lasted only a few months due to the return of Vladislao, who has been appointed successor to his father during his imprisonment. In 1456 Vlad III managed to regain the throne and he immediately started such a cruel repression against his enemies that earned the role of protagonist in Stoker’s novel: Dracula. At the end of his second reign he was deposed thanks to a deception of Turks and he managed to obtain his reign back only in 1475 but, just one year later, he was killed on the battlefield.