He's known as Dracula. But the real man behind the name never wore a cape, never drank blood, and never slept in a coffin. Vlad III , Vlad the Impaler was a hostage, a tyrant, and, depending who you ask, a national hero.
This is the true story of the man who terrified an empire, the legend that grew out of his name, and the strange, thin thread that connects him to the world's most famous vampire.
Was he a monster? A defender of his people? Both? Watch and decide for yourself.
#VladTheImpaler #Dracula #History #TrueHistory #Wallachia #OttomanEmpire #europeanhistory
He's known as Dracula. But the real man behind the name never wore a cape, never drank blood, and never slept in a coffin. Vlad III , Vlad the Impaler was a hostage, a tyrant, and, depending who you ask, a national hero.
This is the true story of the man who terrified an empire, the legend that grew out of his name, and the strange, thin thread that connects him to the world's most famous vampire.
Was he a monster? A defender of his people? Both? Watch and decide for yourself.
#VladTheImpaler #Dracula #History #TrueHistory #Wallachia #OttomanEmpire #europeanhistory
In the summer of 1462 Mehmed arrives with an army of 60,000 soldiers, plus about 10,000 bulgarians for logistics & 20-30,000 MERCENARIES! They are accompanied by albanian admiral Yakub & his fleet of galleys making junction on the Danube. The Mihaloğlu brothers (of Byzantine origins) lead the vanguard of 20,000 akinjis. Țepeș does not decree the Great Army (of about 22,000 peasants), but orders the retreat of the peasants into the forests and toward the mountains. He gathers about 2,000 of his soldiers plus courtiers and sons of boyars—totaling at most 4,000 men + 500 elite (mercenaries and well-equipped boyars): 2,000 cnezes or judges from the towns with their brave warriors (vitezi), around 500 mercenaries and artillery specialists to manage the cannons previously captured from the Turks themselves, as well as Saxon engineering specialists — from whom he had also "collected" various pieces. The remaining grand boyars after the conflict with Albu would have numbered around 20, each with about 50–80 cnezes and brave warriors.
Instead of dispersing these 4,500 men, he gathered them. The Ottomans choose a ford as their primary crossing point (Mehmed was likely advised by Radu the Fair). In a night operation, the Ottoman vanguard—consisting of the most disciplined Janissary troops—attempts to cross the river on light vessels and pontoons. Țepeș had anticipated them and set up his defense on the high bank in trenches fortified with palisades. Utilizing the cannons, bombardes, and gunpowder captured from the opposite shore, the Wallachians unleash a relentless bombardment upon the ships. The Janissaries are slaughtered in the water or on the narrow sand spit of the northern bank, unable to deploy their lines...
Seeing that he is repulsed with huge losses, the Sultan brings his own heavy siege artillery to the southern bank and begins a terrible bombardment to cover the logistical work of the Bulgarians preparing the landing. Under the cover of night, the Sultan sends the elite corps of Janissaries led by the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha on boats to another point slightly downstream, succeeding in setting foot on the Wallachian bank despite harassing attacks by Țepeș's cavalry (250 Janissaries killed on first assault).
The Janissaries who landed—at great sacrifice and with losses on both sides—manage to hide in the dug trenches and erect a protective palisade on the Wallachian bank, shielded by the fire of 60–70 cannons from their ships, which devastate the Wallachian ranks and force them to reorganize. Țepeș launches attack after attack with his heavy cavalry and infantry (using weapons and equipment taken from the Turks during the winter campaign). Although causing losses and delays, the uninterrupted waves of fresh troops brought over by the Sultan cross the Danube transported by the fleet, permanently consolidating the bridgehead.
The numerical superiority of the Ottomans is avoided in the open field; Țepeș switches to guerrilla warfare—scorched-earth tactics and harassment while retreating northwards, poisoning the wells, changing courses of springs to provoke swamps, poisoning springs with pig corpses (pig corpses & blood to close roads ”guiding” muslim ottomans) burning the villages and fields, evacuating the entire population along with their livestock into the mountains. Night ambushes in the forests decimate the Ottoman light cavalry, forcing them to advance very slow & in an extremely tight formation protected by Janissaries. Matthias Corvinus, of course, does not help Țepeș.
Toward Târgoviște under a scorching sun, without water, with harassed supply lines. Mehmed dispatches akinjis to the east toward Moldavia, where the Ottomans had learned that Țepeș had sent his most important boyar to prevent attacks from the Moldavians, who might take advantage of the situation to seize the port of Chilia. They manage to keep the port & repel the turco-tartar combined attack.
The forest of impaled bodies consisted of invading Turkish garrisons captured from across the Danube, not his Valachian women and children (for whom he entered in war with turks). The other atrocities are also fabrications of the Saxons and Swabians whose privileges he cut. He & his father were tough guys, but not crazy, as Murad 2 (in the time of Draculea) & Mehmed 2 (in the time of Țepeș) were the real terror of the time.