This week's case comes from way back in the 1400s. It's a story about a boy surrounded by extreme violence. He returned to his home in Romania to find his family brutally slaughtered. Listen to this week's episode to hear about the horrific acts of violence committed by Vlad III aka Vlad the Impaler.
Sources:
- The German (Saxon) Pamphlets (1460s–1480s) — Printed in Nuremberg & Lübeck, these woodcut pamphlets spread the legend of Vlad’s atrocities across Europe, including tales of boiling, mutilations, and the infamous “forest of the impaled.”
- The Russian Chronicle / “Skazanie o Drakule voevode” (late 15th century) — A Slavic narrative of Vlad’s reign, sympathetic to him as a strong ruler against the Ottomans, but still full of detailed executions.
- Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Histories (1490s) — A Byzantine historian who described Vlad’s campaigns and cruelty, especially the confrontation with Sultan Mehmed II.
- Ottoman chronicles (including accounts by Tursun Beg) — Recorded Vlad’s wars with the empire and the shock at his use of mass impalement.
- Radu R. Florescu & Raymond T. McNally, Dracula: Prince of Many Faces (Little, Brown & Co., 1989) — Classic modern history blending the fact and legend of Vlad III.
- Elizabeth Miller, Dracula: Sense & Nonsense (Desert Island Books, 2000) — Separates Bram Stoker’s fictional Count from the historical Vlad.
- Matei Cazacu, Dracula (Tallandier, 2004; English translation, Brill, 2017) — A comprehensive biography from a Romanian historian, with close readings of chronicles.
- Constantin Rezachevici, Vlad the Impaler (Dracula): Between Legend and History (Romanian Academy, 2002) — Focuses on Vlad’s reign in Wallachia and his political strategies.
- Florin Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250 (Cambridge University Press, 2006) — Broader context of Wallachia and Ottoman frontier politics.
- National Museum of Romanian History (Bucharest) — Exhibits on Vlad III and Wallachian history.
- “The Impaler Prince: Vlad III Dracula” — Smithsonian Magazine, Oct 2011.
- “Vlad the Impaler: The Real Dracula” — History Extra (BBC History), Oct 2020.
