The brief Life of Count Dracula

 

This was a short easy read on the life of Vlad the Impaler.  “In Search of Dracula” however remains the best of Vlad the Impaler. The book covers the usual ground including Vlad’s birth, his three reigns in Wallachia and a few up and downs of his political career.  There were a few new facts learned as well. Such facts include the monasteries, forts and building he helped build. It also shows that Vlad the Impaler has living descendants and was and still connected to other European royalty.

The books biggest weakness as far as I am concerned was the grammar and spelling. The book was littered with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Hard to take a work seriously if the translator cannot get the spelling and grammar correct.

What jumps out is that his first reign was short. His second reign was the longest. The third second longest. Throughout his rule Vlad was constantly challenged both without and within his realm. From outside his realm threats were emanating from Turkey. The Ottomans wanted puppet ruler in places like Wallachia who would pay tribute and provide troops for the janissaries. The Ottoman’s wanted to conquer Europe. Within his realm there were the Saxon merchants who were settled there by the Romans and the Boyars. Boyars were the elite rich people. Both groups were at odds with the Voivode or the ruler of Wallachia.

Vlad had tactics to deal with these groups.  There were often military raids for backing pretenders to the throne. Many Boyars were taken to build a castle and then killed. The Saxon merchants unhappy with Vlad spread stories about him though Europe. It was Boyars who killed his father and oldest brother.

There were three rulers known for fighting the Ottomans. First was Jonas Hunyadi from Hungary , Vlad Dracula and Stephan the Great from Moldovia. So vital was Wallachia and these other areas that the Pope sent money to Wallachia to fight the Ottomans but Hunyadi ended up keeping the funds and only arriving at the last minutes.

Vlad’s second reign was undone thanks the Boyars. They sent a fake letter to the ruler of Hungary saying that Vlad was conspiring with Ottoman forces to capture the ruler. This lead to Vlad being imprisoned in Hungary for 12 years. He married Hungarian royalty during this time and he fought on Hungary’s side during his imprisonment.  Vlad was ultimately killed in battle against the Ottomans. It is believed that he was beheaded and that his head was displayed outside the walls of Istanbul. Other beliefs say that his body was retried from the Ottomans an buried in Snagov.