Wheel of Topics #12

Vlad the 3rd, prince of Wallachia, was three time the Voivode of
Wallachia between 1456 and 1476. He was nicknamed Vlad Tepes and
Drakulya. Yes, that Drakulya. Although is action can look atrocious,
in his time he was considered a war hero and a great example of courage
and determination.

The title Voivode is an ancient slavic title giving his possessor the
right to control all military forces of a given region. Since the
military power of some region was the only real power, it often meant
that the Voivode control everything in his region. This was the case in
Wallacia, a small country in the carpathian plateau(south of
Transilvania and Moldavia).

The reason why he was called Drakulya is simple. His father was Vlad
II, nicknamed Vlad Dracul. Dracul mean Dragon. This name was given to
him when he entered the Order of the Dragon, a chivalric order who
protected Christianity in europe against their ennemy, mainly the
Ottoman turk. Has the son of the Dragon(Dracul), Vlad III was nicknamed
Drakulya, wich meant "Son of the Dragon".

But I don't think he really liked that title, after what his father did
to him. To gain help from the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II sold two of his
sons to them, Vlad III and Radu. This was a double betrayal, he
betrayed his order and his familly for personnal gain(namely full power
in Wallachia). Radu converted to islam, but Vlad stayed true to is
belief. His time in the Ottoman empire gave him his main reason to
fight them.

When he finally return to Wallachia, it was to become a puppet leader
under the Ottoman. Unfortunatly(or fortunatly, I'll let you choose),
Hungary invaded the land and in the chaos, Vlad III escaped to Moldavia.
After his escape, he struck an alliance with Hungary to protect the
carpthain mountain from the Ottomans.

I will finish it tomorrow, if you don't mind.

Grim the pirate

I was going to tell you more about Vlad III, but I'm not sure where I
left... so, I told them about Draculya, is slave time, is escape, and
now he was with Hungary. Ok all set, lets finish this.

During is time with the Hungarian(is it the right word?), he gave all
the information he had about the Ottomans to them. This, added to his
hatred of the Ottomans, allowed him to gain a good place within the
hungarian army, a power that he used to retake the control of the war
torn country of Wallachia.

During his rule, he was seen as both a great leader(by his people) and a
dangerous man(by his many ennemy). He helpled to rebuild the economy,
stabilized the political situation, repopulate many village, and expand
the aggricultural prosperity. To do this, he decided to attack the
problem at his source, the many corrupt Boyars(slavic word with a
meaning similar to "feudal lord"
of Wallachia. The constant strife between them was driving the country
to ruin, destroying village, crops and the economy. He killed many of
them, and pushed the others from any position of power, giving himself
total control over the land.

Once Wallachia was stabilized, he started to raise a strong military
forces. Is main goal was to protect his land from the Ottomans, who
still wanted to expand their empire and spread the faith of Islam. It
was during that time that Vlad III gained the nickname of Tepes(roughly
translate to "the Impaler",
because of his habit of impaling all his prisonners. Altough his
actions where horrible by modern standart, in his time, he was
considered a champion of Christianity by the Pope. He fought the
Ottomans for a long time, and many of his fight where against ennemies
that far outnumbers his soldiers, and yet won most of them.

In the end, he was defeated, not by the Ottomans, but by the ones he
thought was his ally. To protect themselves from the Ottomans, his
former allies captured him and accused him of treason by presenting
false document. He was imprisoned for ten years, and Wallachia was
taken over by his brother Radu with the help of the remaining Boyars,
who worked for the Ottomans. He died a few month after he was freed, on
a battlefield, when fighting to regain control of Wallachia.

Although he is seen as a monster in western europe, in eastern
europe(mainly in Romania) he is seen as a great hero and an even greater
leader. Sometime, the worse vision of history doesn't come from your
ennemies, but from your allies who doesn't want to face your ennmies.

Grim the pirate