15 October 2014

Vlad for the day


Steffani Jacobs has an article at WarriorScout.com about Dracula (no, the real one):
Archaeologists excavating at Tokat Castle (photo, above) in Turkey believe they've found clues to the first captivity of Vlad the Impaler (photo, inset), the man who inspired the legend of Dracula.
During a restoration process at the castle, archaeologists discovered a secret tunnel leading to a military shelter, along with two dungeons believed to have once held the Wallachian Prince Vlad III 'the Impaler', the man who inspired the legend of Dracula.
Prince Vlad III was posthumously given the nickname "the Impaler" because of his particular taste for blood and torture. The fifteenth-century prince would impale his victims by inserting a wood or metal pole through the body. Usually, it was inserted vertically so that the exit wound would be near the victim's neck, shoulders, or mouth. Vlad had such an affinity for torture that he often made the pole dull, so that the victim had prolong suffering; in many cases, it would take hours or even days for the victim to die.
The vampiric legend stems from the rumor that Prince Vlad would dip his bread in blood before eating it. Before becoming prince, however, Vlad and his brother Radu were taken hostage in 1442 by Sultan Murad II during a diplomatic meeting with Vlad II. It's during this captivity that archaeologists believe that Vlad III and Radu were held at Tokat Castle.
It would be nearly ten years after being released from his captivity that Vlad would take the throne, beginning his brutal rule. The prince had a relatively short reign (1456 to 1462) that ended when he was defeated by the Ottomans he was determined to conquer.
In 1462, the Hungarians, who had initially pledged support of his crusade against the Ottomans, turned on Vlad and ambushed and captured him on his way home to Wallachia.
The exact length and whereabouts of Vlad's second captivity have been a mystery for years, but may historians suspect that it was from 1462 to 1474.
Archaeologists, historians, and fans alike have been searching for clues for years to unlock the mystery of his first and second captivity.
According to archaeologist Ibrahim Cetin, who's been working on the excavations, the researchers unearthed a military shelter and dungeons that were "built like a prison. The castle is completely surrounded by secret tunnels," Cetin told the Hurriyet Daily News. "It is very mysterious." Cetin claims that at one time, presumably his first imprisonment, Dracula was a captive in one of the excavated dungeons, but which chamber he was imprisoned has yet to be determined.
Rico says it's one of those legends that takes on a life of its own...

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