16 Dark, Shocking, and Wild Facts About The Real-Life Dracula That Will Make Your Stomach Turn, And Then Turn Again
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The Last Voyage of the Demeter has finally landed in theaters just in time to get us ready for ~spooky~ season. In case you weren't aware, this is the latest installment from the Universal Monsters' catalog, and it focuses on the often overlooked "The Captain's Log," chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. And it's a chilling tale about the doomed journey, and its crew, that brought Dracula to England.
So, I decided to go down a rabbit hole of interesting, dark, and wild facts about the real Dracula. Turns out, his life was a lot like something out of Game of Thrones. Here's what I found out:
Note: Some disturbing and graphic content ahead.
1.The inspiration for Dracula is generally believed to be the real-life Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, aka "Vlad the Impaler," who was born in 1431 in Transylvania, an area that is now part of modern-day Romania.
2.And the name "Dracula" comes from the fact that Vlad III's father, Vlad II became known as "Vlad Dracul" after joining the Order of the Dragon — a Christian military order. "Dracula," as it translates, meant "Son of Dracul," or "Son of the Dragon."
3.When he was young, Vlad III (or Dracula as I'll continue to call him), and his younger brother were actually held in captivity for many years after accompanying their father on a diplomatic meeting to the Ottoman Empire that went wrong.
4.Interestingly, during this time of captivity — which MAY have included imprisonment and torture, but remains unconfirmed — Dracula and his brother were educated quite well, including in the arts of horseriding and war.
5.Meanwhile, Dracula's father was released, returned home, and then ousted as ruler and killed along with Dracula's older brother, who was also tortured, blinded, and buried alive.
6.Some years later, after being released, Dracula returned home to Wallachia and eventually lead the defense against an invasion. According to legend, he actually beheaded his opponent in one-on-one combat.
7.During his rule, Dracula became quite "bloodthirsty," running Wallachia with strict order and ruthlessness.
8.Some of the intense things he did include having diplomats' turbans nailed to their heads...
9....ordering more than 23,000 prisoners and their families impaled...
10....and then putting their impaled bodies out on display along enemy routes.
11.According to one French historian, speaking of those victims, "There were infants affixed to their mothers on the stakes and birds had made their nests in their entrails."
12.Apparently, in some cases, the poles used for impaling were not even sharpened, but actually rounded in order to avoid damaging internal organs and prolonging suffering.
13.In his own words, Dracula said he killed everyone from peasants, men, and women, old and young, not including "those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers."
14.Apparently, he even kept sacks full of severed noses and ears as proof of his gruesome deeds.
15.It's estimated that Dracula killed roughly 80,000 people, including the 20,000-plus people he had impaled.
16.Finally, in 1476, Dracula and some of his soldiers were ambushed — Dracula was killed and beheaded. Allegedly, his head was even sent to his enemy as a trophy to be displayed in the city.
