Vlad The Impaler
This documentary examines the bloody career of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th-century prince of Wallachia who took no prisoners in his resistance to the spread of the Ottoman Empire. Known as Dracula, he learned the arts of war as a hostage of the Turks, but asserted his independence by working his own disloyal nobles to death and repelling a Turkish invasion by filling the battlefield with 23,000 impaled corpses.
When he came to power, Vlad immediately had all the assembled nobles arrested. The older boyars and their families were immediately impaled. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were marched north from Târgovi?te to the ruins of Poienari Castle in the mountains above the Arge? River.
Vlad was determined to rebuild this ancient fortress as his own stronghold and refuge. The enslaved boyars and their families were forced to labor for months, rebuilding the old castle with materials from another nearby ruin. According to tradition, they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few of the old gentry survived the ordeal of building Vlad’s castle. This documentary is a must for those that like to separate fact from myth.
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December 8th, 2009 at 02:15
ok…i live in romania,in transilvania actually and i must state that this documentary made Vlad Dracula look all bad…of course he made some bad things but what it is said in this documentary is exagerated,in romania he is considered a national hero,and he has a lot of statues and his picture even in churches… he was the one who kept the turks out of the rest of europe.
January 12th, 2010 at 21:52
You are right !
February 2nd, 2010 at 15:42
i wonder how can you tell this “is a must for those that like to separate fact from myth” when you start with two old guys from nowhere near Romania, and all they told you is that he inspired a horror story that was real, and that he did have power of life and death over his subjects…didn’t all kings had that power in medeival times, or excuse our people for not having the “prima nocte” rule like you did in your country.he was just one cruel ruler, but with the ones who were criminals.the legend says that you could leave in the middle of the road a bag with gold and no one would think about taking it…so look more for your documentarys..this is NOT a top one.
February 5th, 2010 at 16:21
Can you recommend a better doc please? This doc tells the story most of us are familiar with….