Vlad III, ruler of Wallachia (now part of Romania) in the 15th century is one of the more notoriously brutal rulers of history. While Bram Stoker clearly derived the name Dracula and the location Transylvania, scholars debate just how much the historical prince influenced the creation of the fictional vampire.
Still, it cannot be denied that Vlad the Impaler, as he was known, who styled himself Dracula, had something of a taste for blood. His Impaler nickname derived from his penchant for doing just that to his enemies. Some 80,000 of whom he is estimated to have killed in decades of warfare and terror. Of course, he lived in a particularly bloody time and place.
His affinity for blood, though, may have been even more personal, new scientific research suggests.
Firstly, some history.
Because the historical record is often spotty when it comes to the story of Vlad the Impaler (otherwise as known as Vlad III), we know only that he was born between 1428 and 1431 during a time of unrest in Wallachia.
His mother, the queen, came from a Moldavian royal family and his father was Vlad II Dracul. The surname translates to “dragon” and was given to Vlad II after his induction into a Christian crusading order known as the Order of the Dragon.
“Dracula”, the sobriquet Vlad III adopted means, simply, ‘son of the dragon’. Because Wallachia was on the frontline of the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s conquests in European, it was a territory in constant turmoil. As a boy, Vlad was made hostage to the Ottoman sultan. After his father was deposed and his family murdered, Vlad was freed and took back the throne from his father’s murderer, lost it again, then finally took it back in 1456.
Vlad the Impaler was an undeniably brutal ruler. Nevertheless, much of Christian Europe supported his strong, if macabre, defense of Wallachia from various incursions from Muslim Ottoman forces.
In fact, even Pope Pius II expressed admiration for the notoriously violent ruler’s military feats. A threat to Europe was deemed a threat to Christendom and, therefore, the Pope.
Though the real Dracula brought some stability and protection to a vulnerable region, Vlad III […] still seemed to relish his own brutality.
Not least, perhaps, because it so terrified his enemies, who were not exactly averse to brutality themselves.
Sultan Mehmed II, notorious for his own atrocities, was aghast after seeing the decaying corpses of about 23,000 of his own men lined up on stakes for miles (some say as many as 60) around the capital of Targoviste when he invaded Wallachia in 1462.
“How can we despoil of his estates a man who is not afraid to defend it by such means as these?” Mehmed said, deciding that anyone willing to go to such lengths to save his kingdom deserved to keep it. The Ottoman forces retreated the next day.
All That’s Interesting
Vlad III Dracula’s favourite method of killing was impaling: driving a wooden or metal pole up through the body, starting in either the rectum or vagina, until it came out through the victim’s mouth, shoulders or neck. Sometimes the pole was rounded so that it would go through the body without puncturing any internal organs and prolonging the victim’s torture. In these particularly gruesome cases, it could take hours or even days for the victim to finally die.
But if he ever cried over any of his victims, it’s likely that the tears rolling down his face were made of blood.
According to Phys.org, a group of researchers from the University of Catania, SpringStyle Tech Design Ltd, Romania National Archives, and Politecnico di Milano, Via Mancinelli recently analyzed the proteins from letters written by Vlad the Impaler during his reign. Some of molecules they found suggested that the prince suffered from hemolacria, a condition that causes bloody tears.
The scientists looked at three letters that the prince wrote by hand in 1457 and 1475 in an effort to determine whether Vlad suffered from any ailments. They used ethylene-vinyl acetate to retrieve proteins and peptides that Vlad’s hands would have left on the paper, then they analyzed the material using mass spectrometry.
The scientists were able to retrieve 500 peptides, 100 of them human, from the letters. The peptides showed evidence of a genetic disorder called ciliopathy, which causes issues including kidney disease, as well as an inflammatory disease that may have affected his respiratory tract and skin.
But their most fascinating discovery came from a letter dated Aug 4, 1475. The correspondence was addressed to the citizens of Sibiu, a town in modern-day Romania, and announced that Vlad would soon be living in the village.
Ooh, how excited they must have been.
On this paper, researchers found peptides typically seen in proteins of the retina and tears that suggest Vlad had hemolacria.
The study authors noted that, “He probably suffered, at least in the last years of his life, from a pathological condition called hemolacria, that is, he could shed tears admixed with blood.”
Hemolacria causes blood to mix with tear duct fluids, causing tears to have a bloody tinge or even appear to be made completely of blood. It can be linked to eye injury or bacterial conjunctivitis.
All That’s Interesting
It’s possible, of course, that the proteins and peptides originated with other people who would have handled the paper over the years, but given that Vlad’s skin would have had the most contact, as he was writing, it’s believed most likely that they came from him.
Unfortunately, there are no physical remains of the actual Vlad Dracula available, so as to be more certain. According to legend, Vlad was deposed, and later killed in battle. His head was said to have been paraded in Constantinople and presented to his old enemy, Mehmed II. Whether the legend is accurate or not, his remains have never been found.
