Today, on "dhampyresa goes tl;dr about history"...
I am here to talk about the clusterfuck that is the Vlad Tepes/Mehmed the Conqueror/Radu cel Frumos relationship.
I hope you will forgive the informal tone of this and any possible mistakes, because it's not my area of expertise (for a given value of expertise), but I will try my best to explain why this period of Wallachian/Ottoman histoy is super interesting!
For the sake of convenience, I am dispensing with the diacritics on all names.
First, I will explain what Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire are. Wallachia is basically all the parts of modern-day Romania that aren't Transylvania. The Ottoman Empire is, before our story starts, most/all of Turkey and various bits of the Balkan, NOT however, including Wallachia.
Currently ruling Wallachia is voivode Vlad Dracul, Knight of the Order of the Dragon and father of Vlad Tepes and Radu cel Frumos. His children have Draculea as their last name (Tepes and cel Frumos are nicknames, whose significance I will soon get to) and all four of them are often referred to as the Draculesti. The Draculesti are Orthodox Christians. This will become relevant later.
Currently ruling the Ottoman Empire is sultan Murad II. Murad, being the head of an Empire, naturally wants to expand that empire, because that's pretty much what empires do: expand. His path to expansion includes failing to take over Constantinople (it's okay, there's no shame in it, they've been trying for literal decades, at that point) and attempting to take over Wallachia.
Vlad Dracul, understandably, is not okay with that. Unfortunately, he is not in a very advantageous position but still manages to work out a peace of sorts with the Ottomans. Said peace includes a tribute being paid, though, and most important to our story, said tribute includes Darcul's youngest sons, Vlad and Radu, being sent over to the Ottoman court as hostages. Vlad is 12. Radu is 6.
There, they meet Mehmed, who is 11.
Then Murad has the absolute brilliant idea to fucking abdicate and leave his 11 year old son alone to rule the Ottoman Empire. And by "alone", I really mean alone. When the enemies of the empire team up to attack what they see as a weakened prey, Mehmed has to write a letter to his father, because said father is doing I know not what I know not where.
The letter, btw, reads as follows: "If you are the sultan, come and lead your army. If I am the sultan, come and lead my armies." proving if need be that Mehmed is very smart.
Sometime after this, the Danesti become rulers of Wallachia. They kill Dracul. The only of his legitimate sons to still be in Wallachia, Mircea, is blinded and buried alive, because the boyards know how to have fun.
The Danesti are Catholics (and very probably had papal backing to take over Wallachia) and have absolutely zero intent of upholding Dracul's peace with the Ottomans.
Murad is having none of that and, what a coincidence, it just so happens that he has two (count 'em! two!) legitimate sons of the freshly deposed Dracul. Why, the oldest one is even old enough to reign on his own, provided he has good counselor and an Ottoman army at his back. What Murad wants is a puppet king.
What Murad gets is Vlad the Impaler.
Dun dun DUN! That's right, that's what Tepes means. "The Impaler".
Vlad takes Murad's army, rides into Wallachia and takes over. Once there, he cuts all ties with the Ottoman Empire. He has no more intent of upholding his father's peace than the Danesti did. Then the Danesti come back full force and kick Vlad out. Vlad spends the following years in exile, starting a bit of a pattern. You'll see.
If you're wondering where Radu is in all of this, he's still a hostage at the Ottoman court in Adrianopolis. Vlad's betrayal of the Ottomans should have gotten him killed. Luckily for Radu, it turns out Mehmed likes him. Like, like likes him.
The story of how they get involved is very interesting, if you ask me (and if you're not asking me, you probably haven't read this far). Mehmed pursues Radu. Radu stabs Mehmed and RUNS UP A TREE. Mehmed falls instantly in love, as far as I can tell. Not only does Mehmed not have Radu killed (Mehmed is sulatn again, at this point and for good, this time), but he also both promises NEVER to try to kill Radu and makes him one of his advisors in his siege of Constantinople. From here on in, he's called Radu cel Frumos ("Radu the Handsome").
Oh, did I not mention? That decades long siege of Constantinople is going to be broken by Mehmed. To do this, he plans to attack the side of the city facing the sea. The bay has been closed for years to boats so that wall is virtually undefended. there remains, however, the little problem of how to get in the bay. If he were Scipio Africanus at the siege of Carthagena, Mehmed would have emptied the laggon, but he is neither. What he does instead is have his army carry the boats over land and lay naval siege on Constantinople after that. The city falls nine days later.
The year is 1453. Mehmed is 21.
At the news that Constantinople is now Istanbul, Christendom freaks the fuck out. Who's going to stop the seemingly-unstoppable sultan?
None other than the one man the Ottomans are afraid of: on Vlad Draculea, also called Tepes. Iirc, there is reason to believe Mehmed feared Vlad would take back Constantinople. I'm not sure what with, but that is what it is.
Vlad, probably also confused as to how, exactly, he's supposed to take back Constantinople, instead takes over Wallachia. He proceeds to rule Wallachia from 1456 to 1462.
In this time, there are a lot of anecdata thrown around about Vlad. These stories come to us mostly through anti-Vlad propaganda of either Ottoman or Catholic (Danesti) origin, btw, so take them with enough salt to kill a slug. Some of these stories include Vlad forcing the nobles who killed his older brother (by blinding him and burying him alive, let me remind you) to build him a castle until they drpped dead, inviting all the beggars in the country to a fest before locking the doors and setting them on fire, impaling people willy-nilly (and that's not a euphemism). For example, a merchant staying at his court once complained that 160 gold coind had been stolen from him. Vlad found the thief and had 161 coins returned. The merchant mentionned the additional coin -- and a good thing he did, too, or else Vlad would have had him impaled next to the thief. There is also the incident where Vlad kills some Ottoman ambassadors by nailing their turbans to their heads and I am fairly sure he sent said heads back to Mehmed. Fedex really does ship everything.
It's not all murder and blood, though. Vlad's very harsh view of justice leads to a crime rate that is essentially zero. There is a story about a golden cup, set on a well in the capital city, that anyone could drink from. the cup was never stolen. (It should also be noted that he applied his punishments equally on all social stratas and if anything more heavily on nobles. Also, that everyone impaled people back then. It was the fashionable thing to do to your enemies.) More importantly, though, Vlad kept the Ottomans at bay.
Him alone, in his back water of a country, without any support from surrounding countries, keeps away the man who conquered Constantinople. For this, he's still considered a national hero in Romania.
Now, you remeber the Danesti, yes? This is where they try one more bid for control of Wallachia, backed by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Vlad shuts that shit down real fast and while he's at it, probably swept up in some sort of patriotic fever, decides to take back control of the Danube, killing some thirty thousand ottoman soldiers, most of whom end up impaled as a warning to the ottomans to keep out. (In fairness to Vlad: what the fuck else was he supposed to do with them? He can barely feed his own people!)
So Mehmed and radu get on the war path, and both surviving Draculesti brothers end up on opposite sides. Vlad is fighting two of the people he grew up with.
During this war, Vlad attempts to kill Mehmed during what's called the Night Attack, but doesn't manage to. He does manage to kill some 20k ottomans who, you guessed it, end up impaled.
That's not enough to deter Radu, however, who soon takes control of Wallachia from Vlad. Mehmed, meanwhile, is back in the Ottoman Empire, trusting that Radu will take care of things. And Radu does.
Vlad legs it to the court of Hungary. Yeah, to the guy who both backed the Danesti against Vlad and then didn't back Vlad against the Ottomans. It should come as no surprise, then, that Vlad ends up virtually prisoner. While he's imprisoned, there's one incident I feel like I should mention: a thief bursts in uninvited in his house, pursued by a police man. Vlad lets the thief go and kills the policeman, on account of the officer being a gentleman and so being supposed to know better.
Vlad spends twelve years in Hungary.
Between 1473 and 1475, Radu and this one Danesti called Basarab basically play pingpong with the voivodeship of Wallachia, until Radu dies in 1475. Vlad then manages to rustle up an alliance with Transylvanians and a Hungarian noble, Stephen (or Itsvan) Bathory.
If the name "Bathory" sounds familiar, it's because he's a relative of the (in)famous countess, Erzebeth Bathory, who supposedly bathed in the blood of virgins to reamin forever young.
Vlad manages to retake the voivodeship from Basarab, but is abandoned by Bathory. In early 1476, Vlad is killed in battke against the Ottomans. Interestingly enough, it might even have been Bathory himself who killed him, proving once again that Vlad can trust no one.
Where it gets really interesting, though, is that Vlad's body is beheaded and his head on a pike is sent back to sultan Mehmed (on his express orders), just so Mehmed can make sure Vlad is really dead.
Mehmed dies in 1481.
But wait! I haven't told you about the invention of biological warfare yet!
Basically, Vlad would have those of his people who had diseases such as the plague (did I not mention the Black Death outbreaks of 1456 and 1466? Becuse that was happening. Also, famines) into the Ottoman camps, with the explicit aim to contaminate as many as possible.
So there you have it. This is what Wallachia/the Ottoman Empire looked like in the 15th century.
And now I will go meet with some friends and then see Mad Max:Fury Road in theaters for the fifth time.
This entry was originally posted at https://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/88868.html and has
comments over there.
I hope you will forgive the informal tone of this and any possible mistakes, because it's not my area of expertise (for a given value of expertise), but I will try my best to explain why this period of Wallachian/Ottoman histoy is super interesting!
For the sake of convenience, I am dispensing with the diacritics on all names.
First, I will explain what Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire are. Wallachia is basically all the parts of modern-day Romania that aren't Transylvania. The Ottoman Empire is, before our story starts, most/all of Turkey and various bits of the Balkan, NOT however, including Wallachia.
Currently ruling Wallachia is voivode Vlad Dracul, Knight of the Order of the Dragon and father of Vlad Tepes and Radu cel Frumos. His children have Draculea as their last name (Tepes and cel Frumos are nicknames, whose significance I will soon get to) and all four of them are often referred to as the Draculesti. The Draculesti are Orthodox Christians. This will become relevant later.
Currently ruling the Ottoman Empire is sultan Murad II. Murad, being the head of an Empire, naturally wants to expand that empire, because that's pretty much what empires do: expand. His path to expansion includes failing to take over Constantinople (it's okay, there's no shame in it, they've been trying for literal decades, at that point) and attempting to take over Wallachia.
Vlad Dracul, understandably, is not okay with that. Unfortunately, he is not in a very advantageous position but still manages to work out a peace of sorts with the Ottomans. Said peace includes a tribute being paid, though, and most important to our story, said tribute includes Darcul's youngest sons, Vlad and Radu, being sent over to the Ottoman court as hostages. Vlad is 12. Radu is 6.
There, they meet Mehmed, who is 11.
Then Murad has the absolute brilliant idea to fucking abdicate and leave his 11 year old son alone to rule the Ottoman Empire. And by "alone", I really mean alone. When the enemies of the empire team up to attack what they see as a weakened prey, Mehmed has to write a letter to his father, because said father is doing I know not what I know not where.
The letter, btw, reads as follows: "If you are the sultan, come and lead your army. If I am the sultan, come and lead my armies." proving if need be that Mehmed is very smart.
Sometime after this, the Danesti become rulers of Wallachia. They kill Dracul. The only of his legitimate sons to still be in Wallachia, Mircea, is blinded and buried alive, because the boyards know how to have fun.
The Danesti are Catholics (and very probably had papal backing to take over Wallachia) and have absolutely zero intent of upholding Dracul's peace with the Ottomans.
Murad is having none of that and, what a coincidence, it just so happens that he has two (count 'em! two!) legitimate sons of the freshly deposed Dracul. Why, the oldest one is even old enough to reign on his own, provided he has good counselor and an Ottoman army at his back. What Murad wants is a puppet king.
What Murad gets is Vlad the Impaler.
Dun dun DUN! That's right, that's what Tepes means. "The Impaler".
Vlad takes Murad's army, rides into Wallachia and takes over. Once there, he cuts all ties with the Ottoman Empire. He has no more intent of upholding his father's peace than the Danesti did. Then the Danesti come back full force and kick Vlad out. Vlad spends the following years in exile, starting a bit of a pattern. You'll see.
If you're wondering where Radu is in all of this, he's still a hostage at the Ottoman court in Adrianopolis. Vlad's betrayal of the Ottomans should have gotten him killed. Luckily for Radu, it turns out Mehmed likes him. Like, like likes him.
The story of how they get involved is very interesting, if you ask me (and if you're not asking me, you probably haven't read this far). Mehmed pursues Radu. Radu stabs Mehmed and RUNS UP A TREE. Mehmed falls instantly in love, as far as I can tell. Not only does Mehmed not have Radu killed (Mehmed is sulatn again, at this point and for good, this time), but he also both promises NEVER to try to kill Radu and makes him one of his advisors in his siege of Constantinople. From here on in, he's called Radu cel Frumos ("Radu the Handsome").
Oh, did I not mention? That decades long siege of Constantinople is going to be broken by Mehmed. To do this, he plans to attack the side of the city facing the sea. The bay has been closed for years to boats so that wall is virtually undefended. there remains, however, the little problem of how to get in the bay. If he were Scipio Africanus at the siege of Carthagena, Mehmed would have emptied the laggon, but he is neither. What he does instead is have his army carry the boats over land and lay naval siege on Constantinople after that. The city falls nine days later.
The year is 1453. Mehmed is 21.
At the news that Constantinople is now Istanbul, Christendom freaks the fuck out. Who's going to stop the seemingly-unstoppable sultan?
None other than the one man the Ottomans are afraid of: on Vlad Draculea, also called Tepes. Iirc, there is reason to believe Mehmed feared Vlad would take back Constantinople. I'm not sure what with, but that is what it is.
Vlad, probably also confused as to how, exactly, he's supposed to take back Constantinople, instead takes over Wallachia. He proceeds to rule Wallachia from 1456 to 1462.
In this time, there are a lot of anecdata thrown around about Vlad. These stories come to us mostly through anti-Vlad propaganda of either Ottoman or Catholic (Danesti) origin, btw, so take them with enough salt to kill a slug. Some of these stories include Vlad forcing the nobles who killed his older brother (by blinding him and burying him alive, let me remind you) to build him a castle until they drpped dead, inviting all the beggars in the country to a fest before locking the doors and setting them on fire, impaling people willy-nilly (and that's not a euphemism). For example, a merchant staying at his court once complained that 160 gold coind had been stolen from him. Vlad found the thief and had 161 coins returned. The merchant mentionned the additional coin -- and a good thing he did, too, or else Vlad would have had him impaled next to the thief. There is also the incident where Vlad kills some Ottoman ambassadors by nailing their turbans to their heads and I am fairly sure he sent said heads back to Mehmed. Fedex really does ship everything.
It's not all murder and blood, though. Vlad's very harsh view of justice leads to a crime rate that is essentially zero. There is a story about a golden cup, set on a well in the capital city, that anyone could drink from. the cup was never stolen. (It should also be noted that he applied his punishments equally on all social stratas and if anything more heavily on nobles. Also, that everyone impaled people back then. It was the fashionable thing to do to your enemies.) More importantly, though, Vlad kept the Ottomans at bay.
Him alone, in his back water of a country, without any support from surrounding countries, keeps away the man who conquered Constantinople. For this, he's still considered a national hero in Romania.
Now, you remeber the Danesti, yes? This is where they try one more bid for control of Wallachia, backed by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Vlad shuts that shit down real fast and while he's at it, probably swept up in some sort of patriotic fever, decides to take back control of the Danube, killing some thirty thousand ottoman soldiers, most of whom end up impaled as a warning to the ottomans to keep out. (In fairness to Vlad: what the fuck else was he supposed to do with them? He can barely feed his own people!)
So Mehmed and radu get on the war path, and both surviving Draculesti brothers end up on opposite sides. Vlad is fighting two of the people he grew up with.
During this war, Vlad attempts to kill Mehmed during what's called the Night Attack, but doesn't manage to. He does manage to kill some 20k ottomans who, you guessed it, end up impaled.
That's not enough to deter Radu, however, who soon takes control of Wallachia from Vlad. Mehmed, meanwhile, is back in the Ottoman Empire, trusting that Radu will take care of things. And Radu does.
Vlad legs it to the court of Hungary. Yeah, to the guy who both backed the Danesti against Vlad and then didn't back Vlad against the Ottomans. It should come as no surprise, then, that Vlad ends up virtually prisoner. While he's imprisoned, there's one incident I feel like I should mention: a thief bursts in uninvited in his house, pursued by a police man. Vlad lets the thief go and kills the policeman, on account of the officer being a gentleman and so being supposed to know better.
Vlad spends twelve years in Hungary.
Between 1473 and 1475, Radu and this one Danesti called Basarab basically play pingpong with the voivodeship of Wallachia, until Radu dies in 1475. Vlad then manages to rustle up an alliance with Transylvanians and a Hungarian noble, Stephen (or Itsvan) Bathory.
If the name "Bathory" sounds familiar, it's because he's a relative of the (in)famous countess, Erzebeth Bathory, who supposedly bathed in the blood of virgins to reamin forever young.
Vlad manages to retake the voivodeship from Basarab, but is abandoned by Bathory. In early 1476, Vlad is killed in battke against the Ottomans. Interestingly enough, it might even have been Bathory himself who killed him, proving once again that Vlad can trust no one.
Where it gets really interesting, though, is that Vlad's body is beheaded and his head on a pike is sent back to sultan Mehmed (on his express orders), just so Mehmed can make sure Vlad is really dead.
Mehmed dies in 1481.
But wait! I haven't told you about the invention of biological warfare yet!
Basically, Vlad would have those of his people who had diseases such as the plague (did I not mention the Black Death outbreaks of 1456 and 1466? Becuse that was happening. Also, famines) into the Ottoman camps, with the explicit aim to contaminate as many as possible.
So there you have it. This is what Wallachia/the Ottoman Empire looked like in the 15th century.
And now I will go meet with some friends and then see Mad Max:Fury Road in theaters for the fifth time.
This entry was originally posted at https://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/88868.html and has
comments over there.