Son of the Dragon

Today our tale takes us back 600 years ago, high up in the Carpathian mountains of Eastern Europe. Nomadic Muslims had been rapidly moving westward, swarming over Eastern Europe, threatening to consume it. By the time we pick up with our story they had already captured Bulgaria and large parts of Romania. As the Muslims captured more and more of Eastern Europe they became more cruel, inflicting horrible punishments against those they captured. Many of the western leaders knew that a campaign needed to be waged against the Muslims, a Crusade, or Europe would be lost.

One of those leaders was a man named Basard, who was the ruler of a small Romanian Kingdom called Wallachia. Romania, and Wallachia in particular, was important because it was right on the border of Europe. In other words, Wallachia and the Carpathian mountains separated the Christians from the Muslims. Basard, the ruler of Wallachia was one of the rulers who helped initiate the fight against the Muslim Turks who were invading, along with another man, Jonas Hunyadi, also known as the White Knight. Basard was a successful ruler of Wallachia and he had earned the nickname “The Dragon”. But, before he sees the reality of his crusades, The Dragon dies....now it will be his son, Vlad, who will be responsible for keeping the Turks out of Europe.

To the people of his kingdom, Vlad became known as “The Son of the Dragon”. But, to the Turks, he became known as their worst nightmare, they called him Vlad the Impaler. They would grow to fear him as mortal men fear death. In Vlad’s own language, Son of the Dragon is pronounced “Dracula”.

Vlad had a deep hatred toward the Muslim Turks. When he was just a teenager, he had been captured by the Turks and thrown into a dark-cold a dungeon. They gave him daily whippings and they also starved him. From the narrow window of his cell, he was forced to watch the execution of other prisoners who were less fortunate than he was.

He watched prisoners hanged, being shot with arrows, being beheaded, or crushed under wheels or given over to wild beasts that tore them apart while they were still alive. Many other prisoners were impaled. Impalement is one of the most gruesome forms of execution imaginable. It involved piercing the body lengthwise with a sharpened pole. Then, the victim would be left hanging on the pole to die. The crows would come and pick the flesh off the bodies as they rotted in the hot Turkish sun.

Vlad watched the impalings every day, and he grew to hate the Turks, who were murdering his own people in this fashion. Watcheing these brutal executions did not break him down as it had been intended to do. It made anger even more powerful.

And then, when Vlad was 17, still in captivity, he received word that Jonas Hunyadi, the White Knight, had betrayed his father and murdered him. Hearing this news, Vlad went insane, swearing revenge on the man who had killed his father.

The Sultan who had been holding him prisoner offered him a deal. He would give Vlad a command position in his cavalry, and an army so he could defeat the White Knight, and in exchange, Vlad would open Wallachia to trade with the Turks. Dracula accepted the offer.

When Dracula arrived in Wallachia in 1448, he surprised Hunyadi and completely destroyed his army (however, the White Knight escaped). Dracula assumed the throne of Wallachia making himself king.

It didn’t last long though. Just two months later, Hunyadi regrouped his forces and attacked Dracula-- driving him away. Vlad was forced to flee Wallachia. As he left, he announced that someday he would return and reclaim his throne.

He stayed in exile for three years, until the Prince he was staying with was assassinated. Then, Dracula made a strange move. He went to his sworn family enemy, the White Knight, Hunyadi, and asked for protection.

Now, the Jonas Hunyadi had actually turned over control of Wallachia to some weasel named Vandislas. But, he realized that he needed a stronger presence on the throne than Vandislas. Who more powerful than the Son of the Dragon. So, Hunyadi gave Dracula an army and allowed him to overthrow Vandislas.

Legend says that Vandislas and Dracula actually met each other on the field of combat, as their armies paused to cheer their leaders on. Dracula approached Vandislas as if to talk to him and then took his head off with one slice. Upon seeing this, Vandislas’ army dropped their swords and ran away. So, Dracula took the throne back at the age of 25, and this time, he’s not going anywhere.

Dracula came to power just as horror stories were beginning to filter out of Turkey. Stories about thousands of Christians being impaled while Turks looked on and laughed.

Many nobles were unhappy about their new leader-- so Dracula decided to lay down the law. He called these men together, about two hundred of them, so they could complain to him in person.

After hearing all of their grievances, he said “Get out of my sight!” and then had his guards escort them into the courtyard. Once all the men were in the courtyard, Dracula appeared on the balcony, gave a nod to his guards, and all 200 men were speared. Then, their bodies were impaled outside the walls of the palace, as a warning to others.

Not long after that, he captured three hundred more noblemen, along with their families and put them to work digging a moat around his castle. From that point on, Prince Dracula had a reign of terror that would last for six long years, and no one was safe.

By today’s standards he would be considered a mass murderer. He killed for political gain and sometimes he just killed because he was bored. He hanged victims and burned them at the stake. He also ordered people to be boiled alive, have their nose or unmentionables cut off while others had nails driven through their bodies until they were dead. But most of all- he impaled them.

He had a horse attached to each of the victims legs, and the stake was gradually forced into their body. He would make sure the stake wasn’t real sharp in order to maximize the pain. Dracula’s reign was unbelievably cruel, inflicting many-many pains upon his own people.

During an outdoor festival, he had twenty thousand citizens arrested and impaled, in one afternoon, claiming that they were traitors. These weren’t just men either, it included women, children, even a few infants. 20,000 people in one day.

During the executions, he had his servants prepare a table of food and he sat and ate his lunch while watching the torture. He occasionally had a servant dip his bread in the blood of the dying, because he enjoyed savoring the taste of life.

During this incident, he saw one of his knights holding his nose, because of the horrible smell. So, Vlad had him executed too, but, he added, make his spike longer, so he doesn’t have to smell his companions.

In another incident, Dracula invited hundreds of poor people to his dining hall and treated them to a lavish meal. After the dessert was served, Dracula and his staff slowly left the room, locking the doors behind them.

He then had his archers fire flaming arrows through the windows, catching everything in the dining room on fire. The peasants screamed and banged at the locked doors. Dracula’s only comment was that it was better that they die on a full stomach.

Once, a man was traveling through Wallachia and he had his money stolen from his wagon. He went to Dracula and complained. Dracula told him that the thief would be caught and his money would be returned to him the next morning.

The next morning, the man went to his wagon to find all of his money there, plus one extra gold piece. The man went back to Dracula to thank him, and to return the extra gold piece. Dracula laughed, telling him to keep the money and then said “If you had tried to keep the extra money, you would now be hanging along side the thief who stole your money.”

Another time Vlad spotted a farmer wearing an apron that was shorter than the traditional apron usually worn during harvest. He asked the man why, and he explained that his wife had been unable to finish it because she was sick. Vlad grew furious and shouted, “I won’t have lazy women in my Kingdom, her duty to you should come before her health.”

Despite the man’s protests, Dracula’s men drug the woman out of the house and impaled her. Then, Dracula went to the next farm, found an unmarried girl and ordered her to marry the farmer. As he left, he said “I’ll come back in a month to see that your husband is properly clothed and fed.”

One woman who was hoping to marry Dracula, told him she was pregnant with his child. When it was discovered that she wasn’t pregnant, Dracula went nuts. He stripped her, and then slashed her body open lengthwise. And then, while she was still conscious, ordered that she be exhibited for all to see.

If any wife in his kingdom had an affair, the punishment was to have their female body parts cut out of their body. Then, they were skinned alive and exposed in a public square, with their skin hanging on a separate poll. The same punishment was applied for women who had improper relations before they were married.

During a raid on a city in the Carpathian mountains, he torched the city and rounded up the inhabitants. Many of the inhabitants were impaled. Those who weren’t, were chopped up like sides of beef as he watched and ate his dinner.

Two Muslims came to visit Vlad one day. Dracula told them they were being disrespectful by not removing their turbans in front of him. They explained that their religion would not allow them to remove their turbans in public.

So, Vlad then told his guards to remove the men and nail their turbans to their skulls, so they could never take them off again. Of course, the two Muslims were never seen alive again.

The fact is that Dracula had a nearly crime free kingdom, because everyone was too frightened to break the law. Vlad was so sure of this that he once placed a golden cup on display in the town square for the passers by to drink out of. The cup was never stolen and remained where it was throughout his reign.

But, the reason Dracula’s reign was never challenged and he was allowed to rule, was because he was one of the key crusaders in the fight against the Muslim Turks who were trying to invade Europe. The Turks were scared to death of this guy, and for a good reason.’

During one attack, a Muslim sultan landed on shore expecting to find his army waiting for him. Instead, he found his entire army up on spikes, stretching for miles along the river banks. Literally, thousands of men. Their bodies were half eaten and the ground and the air were covered by countless ravens. The Impaler had been there.

In another incident, Dracula was severely outnumbered, by about 250,000 to 30,000. But, he had about 20,000 captured Turkish soldiers. So, he impaled them-- all 20,000 and left them for the Turks to find.

When the Turks saw so many of their own country men hanging on spikes, they began to cry, vomit and shout out “Allah, protect us!” And then they turned and ran, believing that Vlad the Impaler was the devil and they couldn’t defeat him.

The beginning of the end came for Dracula when he learned that his brother was preparing to attack him and remove him from power. His castle surrounded and all those inside knew that they would be impaled if they were captured. Vlad’s wife chose suicide-- throwing herself off of a tower. Dracula managed to escape in the darkness.

After thirteen years in hiding, Dracula finally decided to return and re-claim his throne. He overthrew his brother, but once he was back in power, he found himself in control of a very unsupportive Kingdom.

Not long after he regained his throne, the Turks invaded yet again. But this time, he couldn’t raise an army. So, with a very small force, he went out and fought the Turks to his death. His body was mutilated and his head was cut off.

The Turks took his head back to Constantinople, where the Sultan exhibited it for all to see. The Impaler had finally been defeated.

Extra Facts: --In the 1930’s, Archaeologists excavated Dracula’s tomb. Under the marble slab they found a six foot deep empty pit. Many began to believe that perhaps Vlad Dracula really was the Living Undead. But, several years later, a headless skeleton was found in another part of the cemetary. Since the skeleton was wrapped in cloth that appeared to have been a royal garment, they now believe this is Dracula’s body, minus the head of course.

--They estimate that Vlad killed over 100,000 people during his reign.