Vlad the Impaler Chapter 17

 Saxons and unrest

17.

If there was a misunderstanding all would have been resolved but Vlad did impale dozens of Saxon merchants in Brasov who he was advised that they were working with some boyars to topple him. Vlad’s paranoia with the boyars was they are at the hidden enemy of his.

“The boyars are influential and held wealth. They cannot be trusted.” Vlad conferred with Janus.

“I can agree, My Lord. During my father’s time, while serving your father, he did tell me that the boyars may control your father on the administration.” It was Janus's affirmative reply to Vlad’s concern that triggered his view of the boyars. He had informers among the traders and households. It was then the words came back of treachery and Vlad singled out the Saxons. He had heard of the Saxons; they had settled in the land since the twelfth century when the invitation for two reasons; them to defend the borders there at Hermannstadt and also their mining expertise. The settlements expanded to Hartibaciu River valley and towards the foot of the Cibin. They stayed and expanded into the art of trade.

The hatred of Vlad towards the Saxons came from a schism between the Hunyadi family and the Hapsburg king of Hungary. Whilst Vlad supported the Hunyadi's who had helped him seize his throne, the Saxons supported the king of Hungary. His first violent encounter with the Saxons came in 1457 when they protested against the rule of Hunyadi’s widow, Erzsebet Szilagy, in Bistrita.

Vlad helped the Szilagy forces enter Bistrita, where they looted and burned the houses of the suspected ringleaders. The Saxon cities of Brasov and Sibiu rose in ire, and a rival claimant to the Wallachian throne, Dan III, was crowned at Brasov, with another, Vlad’s half-brother Vlad the Monk, crowned at Sibiu.

“They are displaying their respect towards me.” Vlad then responded by placing trade restrictions on Saxon goods in Wallachia and attempting to solve the issue through diplomacy. He received no response. (Extract from https://historycollection.com/12-unexpected-facts-about-vlad-the-impaler-the-real-dracula/6/)

“Gather the army. We will show them who rules the land.” Vlad called on Janus. He declared war on the Saxons, and immediately burned several villages to the ground along with the entire possessions of Vlad the Monk’s supporters. He then moved against Dan III’s supporters near Brasov.

Vlad wiped out the village of Bod and took several prisoners whom he had impaled at Targoviste.

“Behead them. That will show them ---” Vlad was interrupted by Janus.

“No, my Lord. If you behead them, you will only inflame them. I will say we impale them on the stakes like the boyars. Show them dying on the stakes with the blood at their feet. It’s fear we want to strike in their heart. Beheading is too merciful.”

So, it was then that Vlad took the advice of his friend who also led his army.

“Death must not be seen as ---instant. They must be seen with blood. Their blood.”

At Talmes, Tepes burned the city and had the people who hacked to pieces like cabbages.

“Let the ones who know me that only pieces of them will be left if they defied me.”

When he returned to Wallachia and upon hearing that the Saxons there were plotting against him, he impaled all Saxon merchants who circumvented his trade restrictions and had some boiled in a huge cauldron. He also impaled a group of Saxon students he suspected of espionage.

“My Lord, those are innocents. They are scholars and held no arms against you.” Lord Vlad was to be advised by the Saxons elders. “Spare them, my Lord.”

“The scholars held no arms in their hands, but their words spelled treason to my name and land. I cannot tolerate that. Let it be seen and fear me for I am ruthless.” Vlad declared to the enemies of his.

The death of the many Saxons had then reached the heart of the Saxons, and they knew that Lord Vlad was not a fearless leader but one without mercy. The Saxons remembered one other that was before Vlad.

“Attila the Hun was one. He conquered an empire.” The words and likeness of the two leaders were debated and soon reception by the Saxons to negotiate peace. It was not unprecedented for all warring sides to call for truces. A grand feast was called and the leaders met but the circumstances were odd. Instead of dancing ladies, and jesters, the reception was held with a different grandeur in the huge courtyard.

“Dine with me, fellow Saxons.” Vlad his reception with the emissaries to a grand feast, while to the sides, there were the impaled dead Saxons. “Drink to your brethren’s. They died impaled.”

“Lord Vlad, I must protest ----” The emissary was to raise the point towards Vlad.

“To the victors, his whims. Are we to acknowledge that or shall we draw swords? Or better still ---- blood to the ground.” Vlad drew the sword of his since young. “My blade does not only shed blood, it absorbed it into the sharpness.”

“I ---” The emissary was dumb struck then. He was to negotiate a truce and the dead Saxons were then irrelevant. The emissary knew that if the war was to resume, then more will die. And more horribly.

A truce was called but Vlad was not to stop there.

“The Saxons delayed and now the other must be removed.” Vlad went for Dan III’s supporters. “Burned their harvest and kill their herds.”

Vlad deployed the scorched strategy; he burned crops around Brasov.

“Hunger will drive them towards me,” Vlad told his leader and then to Janus.

“See to that no one lived to fight me again.” Janus carried out the order. The inhabitants of Dan III’s suburb were impaled and hacked to pieces or impaled.

Some were brought to see Vlad in his tent.

“I will spare no one,” Vlad told Janus and while he ate dinner. “Go ahead. I am to dine.”

Janus killed the prisoners. He returned to see Vlad with his armor coated with blood.

“There is no better refreshment than this.” Vlad dipped the bread into the goblet of thick red wine and ate it with relish while the red wine dripped off his mouth. He was seated there with other leaders watching Janus then at the feast watching the killings of the Saxons’ captured.

“Janus, you are right. I am feared now.” Vlad roared out and then told Janus to sit by him.

“Take my goblet. It tasted like fresh blood and to my liking.”  From a distance, the words of Vlad were heard as if he was tasting red blood. “It gives me strength and courage.”

The fearless Lord fame reached across the lands, and he was named the Dracula the Impaler, the son of Dracul. Vlad proceeded with the war and finally captured Dan in 1460, forcing him to dig his own grave while a priest read the burial mass, after which the pretender was beheaded.

“Why was he spared the stake, my Lord?” Janus had asked.

“He is of my bloodline and for that, I offered him a merciful death.” Lord Vlad was then the overall Lord of Wallachia and the adjacent lands. He was a grand Lord seen by many but cursed in the back as the Blood Lord, or Dracula as he was known.

Vlad’s fame had gotten him into believing that he was invincible. He then defied the Sultan of Ottoman by not sending the tributes due.

“My fame will reach the ears of the Sultan of the Ottomans. I will not be his servitude anymore.” Vlad told his leaders. “I am Vlad II of Wallachia.”

“My Lord----”, One of the leaders seated there spoke out. “My Lord, the Ottomans outnumbered us many times over.”

“And many times, they have lost to us before. It’s not the size of the army but the morale of the army. Ours are stronger and we shall remain strong.” Vlad looked to the one who spoke. “Do you fear me or the Sultan more?”

The leader stood up and bowed to the Lord of his. It was then Janus spoke up.

“My Lord, your brother Radu ---they named him the Handsome for he appeals to the ladies. He lived with the Sultan. He ---”

“Radu the Handsome, is it? He is no kin of mine when he converted and lived like a Turk. I shall denounce his rights to Wallachia, and he tries to get here, he will be impaled.” With those words, Lord Vlad III as he was known then was reveled by the others in his lands. In his lands, he was known as Tepes; the other name for the Impaler.

Revelled as Vlad understood it, but the upset was the Sultan when he was told that the Wallachian had reneged on their tributes.

“Ten thousand ducats are in default for three full rounds of seasons, my Sultan.” The vizier told the leader of the Ottoman. “And so are the boys to fight in your Janissaries.”