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History See other History Articles Title: Vlad Dracula: Terror of the Ottomans (Happy Halloween!!) VLAD DRACULA - TERROR OF THE OTTOMANS Walachia first had a fight on its hands against the Hungarians - however the rise of the Ottoman Empire during the 15th Century saw the region overrun by the non-White Turks. It was from this time that the famous Vlad Dracula, a prince of Walachia in 1456, emerged to become the scourge of the Turks. For a short while he succeeded in liberating Walachia from the Turks. Although his name has been appropriated for another completely unconnected use in western literature (as a vampire), Vlad was in fact the terror of the non-White Ottoman Empire for many years, and through his sheer terrorism he inflicted some of the greatest defeats upon the Ottomans during their long reign in the Balkans. Vlad Dracula is also known as Vlad the Impaler - he earned this nickname for his habit of impaling the Turks on stakes. His father had fought the Turks along with the famous Hungarian hero, Janos Hunyadi, and in this way Dracula always kept close contact with the Hungarian court at Budapest. When Vlad became prince of Walachia, the might of the Turks forced him to sign a treaty with the non-Whites, in terms of which he had to pay 10,000 gold ducats per year and provide a constant stream of White male babies for use in the Janissaries. When Vlad became lax in providing the required White youngsters, armed Turkish units began carrying out raids in Walachian territory. This precipitated a breakdown in the treaty between Vlad and the Turks. FIRST GREAT IMPALING OF THE TURKS In 1461, Walachian soldiers took a Turkish fort called Giurgiu near the Turkish center of Nicopolis and slaughtered all the non-Whites they could find, impaling them on stakes, with the tallest stake being reserved for the Turkish governor of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha. Above: A 15th Century woodcut shows the - probably allegorical - scene of Vlad Dracula having a meal amongst the victims of his impaling activities. In one instance he impaled 20,000 Turks - the sight of the massacre so shook an invading Turkish army that they turned back rather than face the man who could do such a thing - even though, ironically, Vlad had learned the impaling trick from the Turks themselves. Dracula continued along the Danube to the Black Sea, sending a message back to the Hungarian court that "we have killed 23,884 Turks". Accompanying this message, Dracula sent two bags full of Turkish heads, ears and noses to underline his point. By 1462, the Ottomans had drawn up an overwhelming army of 60,000 men to wipe out the upstart Walachian Prince. The Turks advanced in two parts - half sailed along the Danube River while the other half marched overland through Bulgaria. Dracula's men kept the Turks shadowed along the Danube - when the Turks started disembarking, the Walachians burst upon them from the forest on horseback and drove them back into their boats with the ferocity of the attack. However, Dracula knew that he could not face the Turks in open battle, as he did not have the numbers to defeat the non-Whites in this manner. GUERRILLA WAR AND THE IMPALING OF 20,000 TURKS AT TIRGOVISTE Dracula decided to wage a guerrilla war against the Turks, combining it with a scorched earth policy. Constant raids and food shortages then took their toll on the invading Turkish army. The Turkish Sultan himself barely escaped capture when a Walachian party raided his camp in the Carpathinian mountains overlooking Tirgoviste. Thousands of Turks were captured and killed in this engagement - and when the Sultan advanced upon Tirgoviste itself, he found a mile long gorge filled with 20,000 impaled Turks. The brutal display was too much even for the notoriously cruel Turks. They withdrew without joining battle for Tirgoviste, with the Sultan complaining that he could not "win this land from a man who does such things". Sadly for Dracula, he was then deposed as Prince of Walachia by his brother who was kindly disposed towards the Turks. After being attacked by his brother's forces, Dracula fled to the Hungarian capital, where he was given refuge. In 1476, he once again became prince of Walachia after invading with a new army. His reign did not last long - ambushed outside Bucharest, his headless corpse was found in a swamp. His head was delivered on a platter to the Turkish Sultan at Constantinople - the non-Whites' final revenge on the White prince who had inflicted so many defeats upon them. Walachia then fell once again under Ottoman rule.
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