hey no once welcome back to my channel this is the metaton speaking and we all like vampire stories they are very scary and who's the most famous vampire of all time of course Count Dracula but did you know that Dracula himself was based on a real historical character and of course we're talking about Vlad III also known as Vlad Impala or Vlad Dracula Dracula what have you but who was this man what do we know about his history and how did he become the inspiration for the most famous vampire of all time born in 1428
Vlad III commonly known as Vlad Impala is the historical character upon which the fictional vampire Dracula is based on while on one hand Dracula the famous novel published by Bram stalker in 1897 has undoubtedly mortalized the person of lad theii Dracula of wakia it has simultaneously shrouded his figure in a series of fictional characteristics now so deeply rooted in the collective imagination that it's extremely difficult to discern between the dark novelistic character and the historical one now the name Vlad should be understood as a contraction of vladislav which in Slavic languages means professor of Glory
pretty nice and in autographed documents written in Latin Vlad would refer to himself as lisl the word Dracula Dracula Dracula Dracula are all different forms of what is a patronymic a patronic is a name derived from the name of a father or ancestor typically by the addition of of a prefix or suffix examples would be Johnson or Anderson this patronymic often appears in vlad's II's autograph texts in the form drulia all of these forms should be considered correct and in fact the proliferation of different spellings would have to be connected with the low literacy of
the people leading to the coexistence of different spelling whenever the word was reproduced in written form drulia literally means son of the Dragon because Vlad the third's father Vlad II of vakia was also known as Vlad dracul Vlad the dragon as he had been appointed a knight of the order of the dragon by sigismund of Luxembourg king of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor in 1431 it is also worth of note and really interesting the fact that even Vlad II sometimes is indicated in some documents simply as Dracula or Dracula but in that case it's not
a matter of a patronym it wasn't like the granddad's name but it should be indicated or translated as a reference to his membership to the order of the Dragon so Dracula when talking about Vlad II means Vlad of the Dragon for further context the order of the Dragon which was created as we said by sigismund himself had the purpose of opposing the hegemony of the Ottoman Turks and at the same time fostering loyalty among Hungarian and wakan nobility by gathering them into one single Brotherhood From This Moment On The House of Vlad II's descendants will
be known as draculesti now in Romanian one of the languages spoken in wakia the word dracul would progressively acquire negative connotations until it becomes another way to say devil while the word balaur originally the name of a specific dragon from Romanian mythology or a word of Slavic origin progressively became established to indicate the dragon proper all right but how do we know all of this well if the word dracul during the reign of Vlad II was just a nickname with no negative connotation already by the time of L thei things would change so much so
that Nikolai Madusa the Pope's Envoy to Hungary in 1470 referring to Vlad theii wrote the Tyrant dracul a name they the Romanians use for the Devil the progressive disappearance of the term draal in Romanian to represent or designate the Fantastical beast and instead it's focused to a demon or a devil probably has to do or should be connected with Vlad III's authoritarian Rule and to the instrumental usage by his detractors and political opponents specifically his rival in the wakan throne Dan III who on at least two occasions accused Vlad III of being Guided by the
devil or directly accusing him of being a demon the historical figure of Vlad theii is what would be considered a vode this is a noble title of Slavic origin whose literal meaning is war leader of the region of wakia now wakia is a region of present day Romania whose name broadly means land of the Romans or land of foreigners the name of alakia derives from the Germanic word Valas which originally indicated the Celtic population of the Voli despite its name Waka emerges as a political entity during the Middle Ages forming from a veritable Melting Pot
of different people and if the characteristic linguistic element remains neolatin its social fabric will also be constituted by Slavic Bulgarian and cuman elements now on this video we talked a lot about war and battles and of course professional Warriors like Knights and Menat arms and one of the things about people that did this for a job is that they got a lot of time to train but in our day and age with our busy lives sometimes it's difficult to make sure that you have enough time to train and organize your routine and training sessions well
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get the train at whatever time of the day you prefer so if you want to give it a try click my train well for my co-pilot Link in the description and you will get 14 days free trial and you'll have a personal online trainer assigned to you and massive thanks to train well for sponsoring my video [Music] previously a vessel of the kingdom of Hungary wakia became independent in the late middle ages under the leadership of a VOD so War leader with a name basarab and progressively gained importance becoming a frontier land with respect to
the growing expansion of the Ottoman Empire Vlad III's father Vlad thei was the illegitimate son of the previous VOD or War leader of wakia Mera the Elder and openly contested for the wakan throne with his brothers and cousins the latter belonging to the Dynasty house throughout the 15th century there was a constant succession of different Nobles on the wakan throne alternatively supported by either the Holy Roman Emperor or the ottoman Sultan obviously with the intention of bringing the region into either the Imperial or the ottoman orbit Vlad II so Dracula's father was recognized as the
legitimate voard or warlord in 1431 by Emperor sigismund following his hoath an investure in the order of the dragon and by 1436 he was firmly in control of the region after sigis spoon's death sensing a loosening of Imperial protection and due to Growing hostility with his neighbor Janos hunadi who was a very powerful man he was the voard or warlord of Transylvania Regent of Hungary and he was also a knight of the order of the Dragon Vlad II undertook a fluctuating policy secretly agreeing with Sultan Murad II hunadi was then imprisoned by Murad himself due
to his less than transparent conduct which evidently sought to avoid openly clashing with both Christians and Muslim Powers following the Victorious campaign of hunadi who had in the meantime extended his control over wakia Vlad the second was not only freed but returned home at the head of a Turkish Army regaining power to ensure the wavering loyalty of the wakan voard the sultan took two of his sons Vlad theii so Dracula and Radu as hostages so now Vlad II thanks to the help of the Ottoman Turks is in power in wakia but unfortunately hunadi in 1447
organizes an offensive against Vlad II manages to defeat him and kill him and he did that because he had the support of wakan nobles both Dracula's father and M were killed now in all of this the ottoman Sultan mura the second is really irritated and therefore he decides to declare war on hunadi and at the same time time announces Vladimir III so Dracula as the legitimate ruler of wakia and mind you Dracula was still a hostage in his Palace at this time our year passes we are now in 1448 and the ottoman Sultan manages to
successfully move his troops engage with hunadi in Kosovo and defeats him so Vladimir III decides hey this is my opportunity to regain the throne and he declares himself legitimate Heir and gains control of the wakan throne but this is shortlived as in the same year hunadi manages to drive him out once again this is where the situation becomes really complicated and quite intricate because Vlad the third thinks that he can get some Refuge with the Ottomans but they refuse this time they're not supporting him anymore so he leaves first he goes to movia then he
goes to Transylvania and he starts garnering support in his mind now there is only Vengeance against the Turks who betrayed at him welcome to 15th century Eastern European politics now let's pause for a moment and imagine how sour this man Dracula would have been at this time in his life his father got killed by his rival in wakia at the same time the Turks are not supporting him so he wants them all dead and to make matters even more complicated in 1453 we've got the conquest of Constantinople at the arms of mhmed II which shifts
completely the axis of power in the balans in favor of the same ottoman world the Dracula Once Dead in the midst of all of this chaos get ready for a plot twist do you remember hunadi yeah the guy that killed the father and yeah that guy hunyadi is now in trouble because the ottomans are gaining more and more power and he never had you know he was at war with them but at the same time he now doesn't have the support there is a drift between him and the kingdom of Hungary so hungarians are a
problem ottomans are a problem problem what do you do of course you call Vlad III the son of the guy you murdered and promise him the Throne of wakia of course now the thing is that hunadi had given power to a sort of a puppet representative in the wakan throne which came from the dieste family so what do you do with him now if you promise the throne to Vlad III well while they were trying to figure this one out a battle happens the Battle of Belgrade where Hungarian troops face the ottoman Turks in battle
and Destroy them and in all of this Vlad III has an actual Jewel to death not joking against the previous wakan leader the dasty guy and kills him effectively regaining his father's Throne I should make a movie out of this never mind the vampire so Vlad the third is finally the ruler of the kingdom of alaka which initially isn't of that great importance so in order to consolidate power he renews his Allegiance with the hungarians while at the same time weaving a fruitful alliance with Steven the great VOD of mavia now remember he still wants
the ottoman Turks dead but he is a strategist and a pragmatist which means that at first he decides to renew his father's policy with the Turks which meant that he begins to once again pay tribute on an annually basis at the same time he's also not opposing Turkish forces that for their offensive against the hungarians necessarily had to Transit through wakia he knows he can't stop them so he doesn't even try now since we mentioned vlad's dad Vlad II remember that he was betrayed by the local Nobles and Vlad theii Dracula hasn't forgotten about that
which leads to the famous historical event called blood Easter at tarist according to the chronicle which we believe to be true maybe a little enriched perhaps it didn't actually happen during Easter but anyways Vlad the third chooses a day and invites 200 Nobles that he had ascertained were the same people that were disloyal to his father with an excuse they come to his court and he has them all arrested some he gets impaled right away yeah we start with impalement others he reduced to chains and in 1459 he has these Nobles that betrayed his dad
to force labor in order to build his castle The poinar Fortress which will become a symbol of his power yes Dracula's castle is a real thing and that that's how it was built this is the first historically documented case in Europe where a large group of high dignitaries were reduced to chains and forced to build a castle this is in fact where the nickname the Impaler originates from in fact impalement appeared to be Vlad the third's favorite method of execution and not only did he use it against these Nobles but he also used it against
all sorts of members of the merchant class anyone who Dar oppose him would be impaled it is however worth emphasising izing that some elements relating to vlad's III cruelty come from Chronicles written by his opponents and detractors living a veil of Doubt on their authenticity we shouldn't just believe anything political opponents say of their Rivals it is however true that his propensity for impalement is transmitted by Chronicles from both the Christian and Muslim worlds suggesting that the references to it although perhaps enriched and exasperated are substantially true if at the beginning of his reign the
third maintained a hazy policy without openly clashing with the Turks it is evident that he was planning to tie himself more closely to the Christian West and this is evident from his agreement with Matas corvinus king of Hungary and the sons of hunyadi whose cousin he married okay now we get to the part where we talk about the way he took revenge against the ottoman Turks but Christian and Muslim sources disagree when it comes to the beginning of the opening of hostilities against the ottoman Turks while several Western Chronicles report that the VOD of wakia
refused to pay tribute to the sultan as early as 1459 Islamic sources report that Vlad openly revolted against the sultan only in 1462 in any case to a peremptory summon from the sultan to go to Constantinople to account for his conduct and his negotiations with mathas corvinus Vlad III reacted by having the ottoman Messengers eliminated According to some rumors probably well founded once they crossed the danoob they had orders to take him prisoner as had happened to his father before him but Vlad III saw them coming a mile away and eventually Vlad II will indeed
cross the danoob but at the head of his troops and launching a terrible offensive that devastated Bulgaria then an ottoman Province far and white at the end of The Campaign Vlad sent Maas corinos two sacks fulls of ears noses and severed heads ACC compain by a letter I have killed peasants women old and young who lived in oblos and noelo where the danoob flows into the sea up to rahova which is near chilia from the lower danoob to places like some of it and Gigan we have killed your highness it must be known that I
have broken the peace with him we will finish together what we started together and we will benefit from this situation since if almighty God hears the prayers and orations of Christianity if he welcomes the supplications of his Pious servants he will grant us victory over the infidels enemies of the Cross isn't it fascinating that the historical character whom was the basis for the creation of Dracula the vampire who eight crosses actually calls his enemies enemies of the cross I found it fascinating it is evident that at this time vlood was pushing to secure support from
the Hungarian Crown aware that his forces could hardly resist alone against those of the sultan regardless of his recent victories mhmed II's reaction was immediate and after Gathering an imposing Army he personally moved against wakia historical sources disagree regarding the size of the Turkish Army but it must have undoubtedly been impressive the Greek historian laicos hon cilus contemporary to the events speaks of the Titanic Army second only to the one that had taken Constantinople while the Turkish historian tsun Bay also contemporary speaks of 300,000 men probably to be understood as including non-combatant personnel as well
with that being said the figures reported by ventian chronicl are actually more cautious they speak of a force of 60,000 regular soldiers and 30,000 recruited Among The Sultans Falcon subjects despite the alliance relationship and the marital bound Maas corinos did not send any military aid to Vlad who to counter the ottoman troops found himself issuing a general Levy mobilizing the entire population including Gypsy communities peripheral to the wakan world and often in a semi servile State sources disagree on the size of the wakan army but it is commonly believed that they could not count on
more than 30,000 men to oppose the Turks the ottoman advance in wakan land proved incredibly difficult right from the crossing of the danoob and the Gera and scorched Earth tactics employed by Vlad exacted a considerable blood toll on the Sultan's troops again the Greek leonos reports the use of infiltrating Bubonic plague patients into the Turks camp with the intent of infecting the enemies and that before a massive wakan Ambush remembered as the night attack at targoviste Vlad himself infiltrated the Turkish Camp strong in his perfect knowledge of customs and language so as to gather all
the necessary information we are told because remember Vlad thei was a hostage with the sultan since he was a kid so he spoke the language probably without any accent and very very fluently where have I heard of that again someone who was a hostage and then they rebelled don't you dare to say the word tberg in front of me no no the night attack near the wakan capital while wrecking havoc in the ottoman Camp was not decisive and Vlad and his forces went into hiding leaving the field open to the Turks who entered tavist in
the last days of June 146 too approaching the wakan capital however mahmmed II's forces were greeted by a chilling scene also reported by our Greek Chronicle we read the Sultan's Army entered into the area of the impalements which was 17 States long and seven states wide about 3 Square kilm there were large states there on which as it was said about 20,000 men women and children had been spitted the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes there were infants too effects to their mothers on the stakes and birds and
made their nests in their entrails now these were the corpses of political dissidents and their families which vad theii Dracula had left there for people to see as a warning initially to scar his own population but in this case the Invaders the campanion wakia in any case had proven exceedingly costly in terms of men and money for the sultan and he decided to withdraw with a bulk of his army perhaps also intimidated by vlad's ability and ferocity mhmed II nevertheless celebrated a formal triumph over the wans and left in wakan land a contingent of jeries
and knights led by none other than Radu vlad's younger brother who had been handed over with him as a hostage at the tender age of Muhammad's II Court appointing him VOD Radu faithful to the sultan fought several pitched battles against his brother Vlad but he was always defeated and due to vlad's centralizing policy and cruelty the wakan Nobles defected one against the other leaving him with increasingly meager forces mostly made up of mercenaries having fled to hunger in Desperate search of Maas cin support Vlad was instead captured and imprisoned as the Hungarian Monarch had no
desire to directly enter into conflict with the Ottoman Empire to justify his turnabout in the eyes of Christianity ginus fabricated false evidence against Vlad which he circulated among the powers of the West letters attributed to Vlad himself in which he declared himself allegedly ready to switch back to the Turkish side and abandon the Christian faith if the sultan would restore him to R's Throne of course these were false Vlad III remained a prisoner in Hungary for 14 years before being freed by corvinus to employ him in the internal struggles that were again inflaming wakia with
the intent of resting it from ottoman influence ascending to the wakan throne for the Third third time Vlad met his death on the battlefield in 1477 deprived of Hungarian Military Support fighting against ottoman forces that supported yet The Pretender to the wakan throne basarab Lota of the dasty house even before brah stalker's vampire Vlad theii became a literary figure with incredibly negative characteristics and this even before his death during his imprisonment in Hungary the first to promote the figure of Vlad thei as that of a tyrannical and cruel Monarch was precisely the man who had
betrayed him the king of Hungary Maas corvinus in 1463 corvinus circulated at the court of Emperor Frederick III the pamphlet history of vood Dracula which subsequently was enriched with details becoming the theatrical work story of the madman called Dracula of wakia corvino's aim is evidently to cast as much discredit as possible on vlad's figure so as to justify his own choices during the conflict with the Turks the tales sprouted from corino's pamphlet and the theatrical people in German converged into and benefited from a tradition that was being created among the Saxons of Transylvania a population
also of German mother tongue that during the reign of lad thei had suffered strong relationships from the VOD the support offered to his adversary Dan II of dasty this is the tradition that links The Purge of the rebellious Nobles to an Easter celebration thus mixing the sacred with the profane which depicts Vlad thei feasting among the impaled bodies and even dipping bread red in the blood dipping from the corpses suggesting the element of vampirism for the first time that will then be developed by brah stoker Vlad III would end up becoming representative of tyranny and
impiety and his face will be used in sacred art on the second half of the 15th century to represent the great villains of History such as Pontius pilot or AAS the Roman proconsul who according to tradition order the crucifixion of St Andrew while these historical elements led to the construction of a figure with demonic traits aggravated by the negative interpretation of the nickname drulia which inspired Bram Stoker and which the Irish writer himself contributed to further demonize from an impartial analysis of the sources the character that emerges restored to his historical Dimension is not particularly
more cruel than that of the average warlord of his time certainly a controversial figure who like most of the petty Lords in the balcan area tried as much as possible to keep a foot into shoes cultivating a fragile balance between the Empire and Hungary on one side and the Ottomans on the other showing undeniable opportunism and propensity to change sides depending on the moment but perhaps given the events of his youth feeling truly torn and divided between two worlds the Christian and the Muslim one finding himself to cross blades with his own brother with whom
he had shared the fate of Hostage at the ottoman court and then the Betrayal suffered by Matias corvinus can only help us put ourselves in his shoes who was at the end of the day similar to the condo of the time the events relating to his war against the Turks finally trace the profile of an incredibly astute and capable military leader a ferocious executioner of his enemies and their families whom regardless of his absolutely horrible Deeds probably should be remembered not just as the blood sucking vampire but as the political leader and historical figure which
in my opinion ends up being more interesting than that mantled in the guise of the monster Valas which originally indicated the Celtic population of the Voli however it progressively extended by Germanic populations to any foreign reality located to the south or west whether it is actually Celtic or later Roman its derivatives will be used by the Anglo-Saxons to define the British Romans and to create the word Welsh and the word Welsh was used by Flemish to define the French speaking element the Norse use the word Valen to indicate the kingdom of France or the Roman
Empire German speaking Swiss use the word vire or vire to indicate Italian and Latin speakers more derivatives of this word were also acquired in Slavic languages which is why this word is used to indicate Romanian speakers and in Polish Italians are still called this today all right Noble ones but I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did please remember thumbs up and if you're not yet a member of this community become a noble one subscribe to my channel for more content from the Metatron also don't forget to take advantage of of the amazing
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