Page 43 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2012

The Real Count Dracula The Real Count Dracula Bram Stoker was going to call his book Wampyr, which means “vampire” in Romanian, but while he was doing research he came across a 15th-century prince named Vlad the Impaler, who called himself “Dracula.” First published in 1897, Dracula has never been out fo print. But the book didn’t achieve worldwide recognition until the release of the first movie about the count, especially Dracula, the 1933 version starring Bela Lugosi. ENTER THE DRAGON The real Dracula’s ancestors were warlord princes of Wallachia, a principality in what is now Romania. Dracula’s father, Basarab, was in line for the throne, but there were a lot of relatives in the way. So for the moment, Basarab had to settle for the post of governor of Transylvania. In 1431 he was inducted as a knight in the Royal Order of the Dragon. His second son, Vlad, was born a few months later, and the little tyke was nicknamed “Dracula,” which means son of the dragon. THE LITTLE PRINCE Vlad was born into a world of non stop intrigues, power struggles, and war. When he was about three years old, his father, the Dragon, seized the throne of Wallachia after defeating one of his cousins. Now little Vlad father, mother, and older brother, and took the just kill his own people. Foreign dignitaries and was a true prince. His father made pint-sized throne of Wallachia. When Vlad found out what traders, monks, priests, Turks - everyone was a warriors of Dracula and his two brothers. The had happened, he vowed revenge. The sultan likely candidate. Travelers started to go the long boys learned the medieval martial arts - archery, released him and gave him a contingent of way around Wallachia. It was during this time swordsmanship, and riding - while wearing troops to lead against the White Knight. This that the Turks named him “Vlad the Impaler.” little chain-mail suits just like their pop. Vlad was 1448. Vlad was 17 years old. Virtually and crime was punishable by might have grown into a Prince Charming, but impalement. Sometimes Vlad killed just his father made one fatal mistake that changed THE UPSTART because he was bored. He tortured and Vlad’s life forever. Vlad did pretty well for a kid. The Turks mutilated people, hanged them, burned them at In those days, the Ottoman Turks were a by his side, he routed the White Knight, and the stake, and boiled them alive, but impalement force to be reckoned with, so when the sultan of placed himself on the Wallachian throne. But it was his favorite. It’s estimated that Vlad the Turkey summoned the Dragon, he jumped. wasn’t going to be that easy. He had held the Impaler was responsible for 100,00 deaths. Believing it to be a call under truce, he brought throne for two months before being forced out. Vlad and his younger brother with him. The Eight years later, while the White Knight was THE END...? sultan seized the boys as hostages so that the invading Turkish Serbia, Vlad finally secured All this murder and mayhem made Dragon would side with him against an his position as the ruler of all Wallachia. The Tirgoviste, Wallachia’s capital, the safest place ambitious political shark of the time, the White White Knight was killed in the fight against the on earth. To prove it, Vlad put a golden cup on Knight. Turks, and his army was defeated. Denied his display in the central square, supposedly for revenge, Vlad took it out on everyone else who thirsty travelers to use. You can bet the cup TOUGH TURKEY crossed his path. stayed right where is was for the six years that The boys were locked in a dungeon, Dracula was in charge. denied food, and flogged daily. But it was what LOVELY DOWNTOWN WALLACHIA Vlad was killed outside Bucharest in a was going on outside their cell that would prove Wallachia was about the size of New skirmish against his oldest enemy, the Turks, to be more important to Vlad’s development as York State. Its populace, mostly peasants, stood but it’s an historical toss-up as to whether he an evil-doer. at half a million. On Dracula’s coronation, he died in battle or was killed by his own men. The The dungeon window faced onto the declared martial law. His first act of revenge Turks decapitated him and sent his head to yard where executions were held several times a was directed at the boyars, or nobles, who had Constantinople, where it was put on display to week. Young Dracula watched as, depending on sided with the White Knight against the Dragon. prove that the man they had named “the their crimes, the sultan’s victims were hanged, He gathered up hundreds of them, including Impaler” was really dead. His body was buried shot with arrows or spears, beheaded, crushed their families, at the cathedral on Easter Sunday. at a monastery near Bucharest, but disappeared. under wheels, and even occasionally given to He impaled the oldest, then forced the others to When archeologists in the 1930s removed the wild beasts of prey. Most of them though, were March 50 miles to where they were put to work slab over Dracula’s supposed grave, they found impaled... a process somewhat like spitting a building a castle for him. They mixed mortar, an empty pit. Think about it. [] chicken. carried rocks and lumber, dug a moat. So much for the upper classes. The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show ENTER THE WHITE KNIGHT In most stories, it’s the White Knight AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IMPALER with Rob McConnell who rides in on his charger and saves the day. Dracula didn’t neglect the lower classes NOW Available But this is real life. And this particular White wither. He had the poor and the sick of 7/24/365 Knight wanted more than anything to be the Wallachia gathered up and treated them to a king of Hungary. He saw Wallachia as a banquet at his castle. Needless to say, it was at stepping-stone, and the Dragon as an their last meal. He sometimes wiped out entire www.xzbn.net/live.htm impediment. The White Knight killed Vlad’s villages for no particular reason, but he didn’t