Dracula: the historical truth

"The Dark ages" were, as they are depicted by their name,years of terror, invasions and blood.
This age of darkness regarding humanity also has a couple of representative names such as: Gingis Han, The Inquisition, the vikings and ofcourse, Dracula.
The mythology, superstitions and fairy tales often exceeded the cruelty of what really took place at the time. A world very hard to understand and very differnet from the world we know today was soon born, a reality in wich behading someone was considered to be a mild punishment.
S Such a statement may seem exaggerated or at least paradoxical but put in the context of the times Vlad Draculea lived through, it becomes true and logical. Among the methods of torture- used and gathered in a german manuscript ! - we enumerate:
- The torture with hungry rats consisted in a bottomless cage filled with rats,placed over the victim's abdomen. The only way for the rats to excape from the cage was by making their way out through the victim’s body.
- The chair with spears. The victim was placed on a metallic or wooden chair with short and sharp spears that pierced through the flesh of the victim. Usulay, the metallic chairs were also heated so that they could burn the skin of the person placed on them.
- Cutting with the saw
The victim was simply cut into two or more pieces with the sharp object designed especially for this atrocity,
- The iron bull . represented a device made out of iron in the shape of a bull. The object had a cavity in it similar to a belly in wich the unlucky person was placed. Under the devillish ,,bull’’, a fire was permanentley kept alive. The fire heated the iron and killed the victim by frying it to death.
TThis dark list can go on and on and we can remind you of people boiled in oil, people made to eat their own flesh, innocent women and children who were broke on the wheel and unfortunately, many, many other horrible things. In a top made by BBC regarding methods of torture, impaling, method brought to Europe by tartars, not by Vlad Draculea, was situeted only on the 23rd spot.
Not only the fact that this methods of torture exited is scarry but we must also hilight how the wars were carried in The Dark Ages.
It is estimated that Gingis Han is responsable for the death of over 40 million people in Asia,The Middle East and Europe. It is documented that during the mongolo invasion, pyramids of human heads stood at every corner.
is responsable for the death of over 40 million people in Asia,The Middle East and Europe. It is documented that during the mongolo invasion, pyramids of human heads stood at every corner.
Even here, the list of atrocities committed by royal houses in Europe and Asia can continue.
As a consequence, a natural question arises: how did the ruler of Walachia ended up in becoming a symbol of cruelty?
We must say from the begining, that he was seen in such a way strictly by the ones he was in direct conflict with: Germans, Ottomans and Hungarians. Only after the year 1462, the portrayal of Vlad becomes negative among other people as well, when after the betrayal of Matei Corvin, people wanted to justify the action by demonizing Vlad. In the rest of Europe there are even chronicles that mention the voivode under the name of ,,Dragul’’that is, the one loved by the people( The Dearest).
“There was once a ruler whom they call the Voivode, a witty man, good as it can be at the art of war.”
Mihail Bocignoli, June 29, 1524
Also Slavic legends about Vlad Voievod are written in an admirable tone and presented as parables of wisdom and bravery.
. Returning to the German environment, the main promoter of Vlad's diabolical image, it is very interesting to note the affinity of this environment,toword horror stories, exaggerations and tortures.
Vlad Draculea's great misfortune was that, in the same German environment, the pattern was invented at the time. Thus the written word propagated at an infinitely higher speed than at that moment, and the stories about Dracula The Tyrant spread with rapidity.
A very interesting study made by historian Florin Stroe shows that in the time of Vlad, the Germans bought more horror stories than Bibles. So there is a real fashion for these stories and the German market is constantly demanding new "creations".
The exaggerations of the Germans with whom Vlad had a direct, armed conflict were ridiculous, the voivode being made in some writings, even Turkish or Tatar.
Interestingly, it was the Germans who brought more sadism to the impaling punishment by inventing "the german chair", wich made the vicitim agonize from pain days in a row
As As for Vlad Draculea, he himself explains why he chose this terrifying method of punishing Wallachia’s external and internal enemies.
“When the Turks come and see this, they will flee from fear!”
Constantly in a military conflict with an incomparably greater power, the voivode uses this way of torture as a psychological method and not as a way to satisfy a morbid pleasure.
We can conclude that in such a cruel and troubled environment, Vlad Draculea can not be considered an overwhelmingly cruel ruler, apart from the methods of his time, but rather a military genius who knew how to use absolutely any resources, including horror, to defend his lives and his country.