Tuesday 16 December 2008

VLAD III

Dracula’s character has his origin in the historical figure of Vlad III, the prince of Wallachia, known due to the atrocities he committed during his reign.
His father, Vlad II, had managed to maintain his principality’s liberty and religious independence, thanks to a policy based on several volte-faces that led him, in 1437, to support the Sultan and the Turkish advance. So the Sultan, after he had noticed the prince’s volte-face, invited him to deal with him. It was in that moment that Vlad III, since he had been brought by his father in front of the presence of the Sultan as an hostage, could learn the Turkish torture’s techniques, that were used to punish the prisoners and the convicts. In particular he was excited and surprised at the possibility of impaling all his enemies, which allowed him to receive the name of “Tepes” (that in the Romanian language means “The Impaler”).
It dealt with a terrible instrument of torture that implied a long and painful pangs of death and that Vlad III chose for whoever was condemned to death, eliminating all the “social differences” concerning the way of dying of fellows of different social status. On the contrary, the rich people were impaled higher than the others, with the use of a silver stake.
Vlad III showed his cruelty to every human being who dared face him, with a series of killings that are remained in the historical memory and whose atrocity is destined not to disappear even in the future, thanks to the enchanting figure of the most famous vampire in the world, Dracula.

Elena Perini

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