Born in 1431, in the medieval citadel of Sighisoara, Vlad Tepes (pronounced Tsepesh) represents for Romanians a great historical figure while for the rest of the world is kwon mostly for its image as a vampire. But Vlad Tepes or Dracula was always famous. He was known as a great fighter against the Turks as ruler of Walachia, a Romanian Province, but also because of his propensity for cruelty.

But what are the origins of Dracula name? In the 15th century the Turkish Empire was very powerful and trying to continuously expand towards the West. In response to that, the Western leaders such as kings, princes and nobles were associating in orders and other political alliances. Thus, King Sigismund of Hungary, who became the Holy Roman Emperor in 1410, founded in 1408 a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. The coat of arm of this order was represented by a dragon (drac in Romanian) with a long tale swirled around its neck and a cross on top. The members of the order had to wear a chain and this dragon medallion by their neck. Also, during the different ceremonies, the members had to ware a black cape over a red blouse symbolizing Jesus' Passions. This is a reason today a vampire always wears a black cape with something red.
Vlad Dracul or Vlad II, Dracula's father, became member of this order around 1431 in a ceremony run by King Sigismund in person. It is very possible when the simple-minded peasants saw Dracula's father wearing the dragon medallion they associated the dragon with devil and nicknamed him Vlad Dracul. In Romanian "Dracul" means devil, so Dracula meant Dracul’s son (Evil’ son). Another theory says that Vlad Tepes was part of Dragulestilor family and Dragul was easily transformed into Dracul and from here in Dracula.
After his father, Vlad II, became ruler of Walachia in 1436, Tepes spent his childhood in Targoviste where the princely court was located. Trying to guarantee his faithfulness to the Sultan, Vlad II sent Tepes together with his younger brother, Radu, to the Turkish court as hostages. Dracula spent there about 6 years, learning Turkish, Greek and Latin, sciences and philosophy and also learning how to handle weapons and defend himself. It was there and then that young Vlad learned about a series of very cruel punishments which he later used, such as impaling, which is originally a Turkish punishment.
While he was in Turkey, Vlad find out about his father's assassination and also about his older brother's death, tortured first in front of his father and then buried alive by the noblemen of Targoviste led by Vadislav II.
In 1448 Vlad Tepes, only 17 years old, managed with the help of the Turks to become ruler of Wallachia for the first time. But only after two weeks he lost his throne in favor of another candidate supported by Huniady, the governor of Transylvania. Dracula's successor to the throne, however unexpectedly instituted a pro-Turkish policy, which Hunyadi found to be unacceptable. This made Huniady to host Vlad Tepes in Transylvania till they'll find a good opportunity to impose Vlad as ruler of Wallachia.
In 1453 the whole Christianity was shocked by the final fall of Constantinople in the hands of the Ottomans. In these conditions, in 1456, Huniady invaded Turkish Serbia while Vlad Tepes invaded Wallachia, becoming for the second time ruler of this region. Unfortunately, Vlad lost an important ally, Huniady being killed on the battlefield of Belgrade.
His first act of revenge was to kill Vladislav II and the boyars guilty for the assassination of his father and brother. On Easter Day 1457, Vlad eliminated the boyars by inviting them and their families to dine at the Princely Court in Targoviste; guards then entered and seized them at downfall, impaling many, while the ones left were marched off to work at Poienari citadel.
It is said that Dracula invited disabled, unemployed and lazy to feast with him at the Princely Court in Targoviste. He asked them if they want to be free of life's sufferings and receiving an affirmative reply, Vlad had them all burnt. Vlad the Impaler had a tremendous ambition to be acknowledged as a mighty ruler and that caused a lot of disputes with the Saxons of Brasov, Sibiu and the Birsa Land (the territory around Brasov). They were the masters of trade in Transylvania and Wallachia at the time; they had political influence especially at the Hungarian Court. In 1457, Dracula decided to end the Saxon's practice of trading freely throughout Wallachia. It was his way to protect the Wallachian merchants. From this moment, Saxons were among Vlad's enemies.
Meanwhile, Vlad Tepes formed alliances with his cousin Stephen the Great and King Corvinus of Hungary in order to be able to attack Turkish garrisons on the Danube River. Unfortunately, the help promised by King Corvinus had never come. To punish Dracula, Mohammed II (the second conqueror of Constantinople) decided a full-scale invasion of Wallachia, hoping he will transform this country into a Turkish land. The only chance of Dracula, without any help from his allies, was to transform his own country into deserted one; all the houses and all crops were burnt down and each well was poisoned. Moreover, when the Sultan, exhausted, finally reached the capital city, he was confronted by a most gruesome sight: thousands of stakes held the remaining carcasses of some 20,000 Turkish and Bulgarian captives, a horror scene which was ultimately nicknamed the "Forest of the Impaled." Right away, Mohammed II went back to his country. Anyway, he left next phase of the battle to Vlad's brother, Radu who pursued Dracula to Poienari fortress.
In the end, Vlad Tepes understood that all the help he expected was not to come. He decided to flee into Transylvania and continue the fight from there. King Sigismund had to explain to the Pope why didn't help Vlad Tepes when he needed, although the Hungarian King had received money in order to do that. By the help of the Saxons who forged a number of letters in which Vlad offered to help the Sultan to capture Transylvania, King Sigismund found a very good pretext to order Vlad's arrest in November of 1462.
Dracula was imprisoned in Budapest but he was more likely treated like a special guest of the Hungarian king. In 1476, by the help of Corvinus, Vlad regained his throne and continued the anti-Turkish struggle. He was in power for less than two months. It is said he was beheaded by a Turkish assassin posing as a servant or he was accidentally killed on the battlefield by his own man. The Sultan displayed Dracula's head on pike in Constantinople to prove that he was dead.
It is said his body was taken by the monks of the Snagov Monastery and buried inside the church. He was buried right in front of the iconostasis as a gesture of humiliation because in that area the priest is constantly walking on his grave. The excavation made in 1931 failed to discover any signs of Dracula's relics.

As a conclusion, Vlad's actions must be understood in the context of his times when life was less valued. He was forced to promote a special policy, balancing between two powers, the Hungarian Kingdom and Turkish Empire which was at that time the biggest threat for the Western Europe. Killing the Saxons merchants trading south of Carpathians was Vlad's way to promote the Walachian merchants, to help the economy and collect more taxes.
When he came in power in 1456 for the second time, the country was lacking laws; many crimes and burglary were going on and the boyars were constantly in fight for the throne of the country. Impaling the bad ones was Dracula's way of law enforcement and a strong example for the rest.

There is no evidence that Vlad was a vampire. One of the German pamphlets shows Dracula dining outside surrounded by impaled bodies and drinking their blood. But because Vlad stopped the Saxons trade south of the Carpathians, he became most hated by the Germans.
The legend of the vampire was deeply rooted in the Balkan region. Vampires are mythological or folkloric creatures believed to be the re-animated corpses of human beings who subsist on human or animal blood. A vampire is usually created when a person dies and the soul is unable to enter heaven or hell. That's because the person died in a so-called "state of sin", by suicide or holding heretical beliefs. They are considered to be a threat for the living people. Usually they return home where they have to be offered food and drink. They are excluded by smearing garlic around the doors and windows. There were quite a few stories about vampires in the 18th and 19th centuries. The last one happened in a Romanian village in 2004 when several relatives of the late Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire because all the family's members felt ill. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water and drank it. The police investigated the case because it's illegal to dig up somebody's body without the authorities' permission.
Bram stoker started to write a novel about Count Vampire but during his detailed research he discovered the great figure of Vlad Tepes. The whole setting is moved in Transylvania and Cont Dracula, a totally fictitious character was born. Although, Bram Stoker never traveled in Transylvania, his researches about Romanian folklore, geography and history made his book a masterpiece in its mixture of fantasy and precise settings. The novel had been a best seller since 1897.
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