[A
TSD member, Michael Vorsino is completing his Masters degree in History (with
thesis on Vlad Dracula) at the University of Texas at Arlington. A single
father, he has two daughters – Samantha and Priscilla.]
Southeastern
Europe has long been one of the world’s hotbeds of instability and strife.
Owing in part to the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries with the simultaneous decline of the Byzantine Empire, this region
was used as a marching ground for numerous armies. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula
(1897), the Count refers to this instability when he tells Jonathan Harker: “In
the region through which you came last night, there can be but little doubt;
for it was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon,
and the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has
not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots, or invaders” (27).
In the
early to mid-fifteenth century, as the Ottoman tide reached its apex, freedom
from the suzerainty of Ottoman dominion was a dream shared by many regional
leaders. Relationships and partnerships were forged between these leaders, most
of which were not entirely successful, but few are more dynamic than the
triangle that was formed between Vlad Dracul, his son Vlad Dracula (better
known by Romanian historians as Vlad Ţepeş) and John Hunyadi.
Since the
fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the countries in this part of Europe have
been sandwiched between the dichotomous forces of the Christian west and the
Muslim east. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were particularly difficult,
as the expansion of the Ottoman tide swept across the continent. Striving to
preserve the independence of their states, this region has not surprisingly
produced some of the most incredible men of the time.
John Hunyadi was a celebrated war hero, made legendary by his
confrontations with the Ottoman Turks.
He was a man of immense power and wealth, often financing campaigns
largely out of his personal funds. His ultimate desire was to see the Ottomans
expelled from Europe forever. His political and military machinations reached
into surrounding countries, including Wallachia, where he set up and deposed
some of its leaders (based on their perceived loyalty to the Christian cause),
including Vlad Dracul, and his son Vlad Ţepeş (henceforth in this essay
referred to as Dracula). Dracula was driven by a passionate hatred of all that
would disrupt Wallachian independence, especially the Turks. This enmity was
fueled in part by a period of Turkish captivity during which he had endured
tortures of several kinds, including frequent use of the lash by his Turkish
tutors. When Vlad Dracula became voivode of Wallachia, he became widely known
for his liberal use of impalement as a form of punishment, hence his nickname
“the Impaler.” This torturous method of execution was used with great
effectiveness as a means of psychological warfare in his brutal battles with
the forces of Mehmed “the Conqueror,”
who was one of the most powerful sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Because of his
opposition to the Ottomans, Vlad Dracula is seen by many as the father of
Romanian sovereignty.
