Vlad II Dracul

Vlad II Dracul
Prince of Wallachia
A contemporaneous portrait of Vlad Dracul.
Reign	1436–1442; 1443–1447
Born	c. 1393
Birthplace	Wallachia, (Romania)
Died	December 1447 (aged 54)
Place of death	Bălţeni, Wallachia
Predecessor	Alexandru I Aldea Basarab II
Successor	Mircea II, Vladislav II
Wives	Cneajna of Moldavia An unknown noblewoman
Offspring	Mircea II, Vlad Călugărul, Vlad III Dracula (Vlad Ţepeş), and Radu cel Frumos
Royal House	House of Drăculeşti (branch of the House of Basarab)
Father	Mircea the Elder
Mother	Maria Tolmay (concubine)

Vlad II (c. 1393 – December 1447), known as Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon"), was a voivode (duke) of Wallachia. He reigned from 1436 to 1442, and again from 1443 to 1447. He was the father of Mircea II, Vlad Călugărul, Vlad III Dracula (posthumously known by the epithet Ţepeş "the Impaler"), and Radu III the Beautiful.

Vlad II received the surname Dracul "the Dragon" in 1431, after being inducted into the Order of the Dragon, founded in 1408 by Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, as part of a design to gain political favor for the Catholic Church and to aid in protecting Wallachia against the Ottoman Empire.

Family

Vlad II Dracul was a member of the House of Drăculeşti lineage, and son of Mircea cel Bătrân. Although Vlad II was in favor of Catholicism, he is known to have murdered members of the rival princely House of Dăneşti, a not-so-distant relation to his own father's House of Basarab, and gained power in Wallachia, upon returning from exile in Transylvania in 1436.

The identity of Vlad's first wife is unknown. His second wife, Princess Cneajna of Moldavia, was the eldest daughter of Alexandru cel Bun.

Of his legitimate children, Mircea was the eldest, his mother's identity being unknown. Vlad Călugărul was the product of Vlad and one of his mistresses, a Wallachian noblewoman called Călţuna. Vlad Ţepeş and Radu were both sons by his marriage with Princess Cneajna.

Vlad, having numerous mistresses, also fathered several illegitimate children, including another son named Mircea (the name Mircea being a family favorite due to Vlad's father, Mircea cel Bătrân, a popular Wallachian voivode).^[1]

Ottoman campaign, ascending to the throne

In 1431, Vlad Dracul's brother Alexandru I Aldea took the throne from Dan II, the latter having held it on and off since 1420. In 1436, following Alexandru I Aldea's death from illness, Vlad Dracul ascended to the throne.

Mircea II ascended to the throne in 1442, as Vlad Dracul was in the Ottoman court negotiating for support from the Ottomans in an effort to better defend his rule against the John Hunyadi, the voivode of Transylvania. Following the battle of Szentendre in 1442, Hunyadi forcefully entered Wallachia and forced Dracul to submit.^[2] In 1443, Mircea II was ousted from the throne by an invading army led by Hunyadi, and was forced to flee. Hunyadi placed Basarab II, son to Dan II, on the throne. However, Basarab II held the throne for only a short time, losing it within a year to Vlad Dracul, supported by armies of the Ottoman Empire. Vlad Dracul had made a treaty with the Ottomans insuring that he would give them annual tribute, as well as sending Wallachian boys to them yearly to be trained for service in their armies. He also had left his two sons, Vlad Tepes and Radu the Handsome as captives.

Mircea II supported his father, but did not support his politics with the Ottoman Empire. Mircea II led Wallachian forces in a successful campaign against the Ottomans with the full knowledge of his father, but with no support or opposition from him. An able military commander, Mircea II successfully recaptured the fortress of Giurgiu in 1445. However, in yet another treaty with the Ottomans, his father allowed the Ottomans to again have control of the fortress in an effort to retain their support of his having the throne, and in an effort to keep his two captive sons safe.

In 1444, the new King of Hungary, Ulaszlo I (also King of Poland as Władysław III Warneńczyk), launched the Varna campaign against the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Hunyadi, in an effort to drive the Turks out of Europe. Hunyadi demanded that Vlad II fulfill his oath as a member of the Order of the Dragon and a vassal of Hungary: Vlad was commanded to join the campaign but declined.

Pope Eugene IV absolved Dracul of his promise, but demanded that he send his son Mircea II instead (it is likely that Vlad II had originally denied the request in an effort to prevent his sons from being convoked). The Christian army was destroyed in the Battle of Varna; Hunyadi escaped the scene, and was blamed by many, including Mircea II and his father, for the debacle. This marked the start of hostilities between Hunyadi on one side and Vlad Dracul and his eldest son on the other.

Death

Tensions with Hunyadi continued to increase, the latter calling Dracul a "fickle ally", secretly in league with the Ottoman empire. This dissent led to a Boyar revolt in November 1447, and Dracul fled to Tîrgovişte with his son Mircea, where they gathered the few faithful Boyars and prepared to defend themselves.

Mircea was soon captured, tortured and buried alive. Dracul escaped the city, hoping to reach Turkish allies near the Danube river, but he was captured in the marshland near the village of Bâlteni, near Bucharest. There, he was executed.^[1]

Dracul's remains were reportedly buried in a small wooden chapel at the site of the present-day monastery of Dealul, close to Tîrgovişte. Today, the whereabouts of his remains are unknown.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Florescu, Radu R.; Raymond McNally (1989). Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.. 
2. ^ Bryce, Viscount James (1907). The World's History: South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. London: William Heinemann. http://books.google.com/books?id=FEHTAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 2011-02-09. 

External links

• Vlad II's rather reliable genealogy
• Vlad II's somewhat debated pedigree etc - e.g., his descent from Mongol warlords is not a confirmed historical fact
• Wallachian History
• Wallachian Rulers

Regnal titles
Preceded by Alexandru I Aldea	Prince of Wallachia 1436–1442	Succeeded by Mircea II
Preceded by Basarab II	Prince of Wallachia 1443–1447	Succeeded by Vladislav II

Persondata
Name	Vlad 02
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1390
Place of birth	Wallachia, (Romania)
Date of death	1447
Place of death	Bălţeni, Wallachia