Debunking Vlad the Impaler. The Real Vlad III.

[@AlmightyRawks]

Myth vs History as a series? Yes please! Loved seeing your enthusiasm about the topic and learning about Vlad III's history. Thank you for your in-depth research!

[@astreaward6651]

OOOOH, YES! I'd love for you to go this route with Elizabeth Bathory.

[@oliviawilliams6204]

I was thinking the same. I have read some theories that she was framed.

[@SafetySpooon]

@@oliviawilliams6204 There's a videoon KZbin to this effectalready

[@DrustZapat]

I have a lot of respect for someone with the integrity to debunk their own work. Thanks for being such a great example for everyone to live up to.

[@SmallSpaceCorgi]

Thank you for this video! I did my doctorate in central/eastern Europe, and I've always sighed in despair over how western historians and authors have portrayed the region. And Vlad III is a fascinating figure even apart from the German and Hungarian versions of his life. The historical Vlad deserves a novel and/or a streaming series all his own. Of course, as you noted-- explaining Hungary-Wallachia-Transylvania-the Ottomans in the 15th century becomes brain-meltingly complicated no matter how you try to simplify things.

[@annafirnen4815]

Unfortunately the lack of English translations of works about history of Eastern Europe stems from the fact the Western Europe never gave a dime about this part of the world plus they had a lot of prejudice (even till this day). Which is a shame because I'm sure there's a lot of curious people like you who have hard time exploring our rich and tumultous history. Nonetheless I applaud you for trying and researching ❤.

[@Yandarval]

There is also the Catch-22 of "historically", the languages spoken and written down in Central and Eeastern Europe were mainly confined to those areas. Unlike Latin, French and later English, which spread more widely for various reasons. The languages in question, are less likely to be translated into a more common language during the era in question. So today, we have documents written in an old form of languages that were not widespread. The numbers of people you can read these documents are small, if the drift in language, compared to more modern versions is large. Then the few modern translators who can read the old forms and translate to modern, also need to be able to translate it into yet a third modern language. Compare English. Early modern English is still readable to a modern person. Middle and Old English is gibberish. The sea trade and constant warefare has a lot to do with the neglect of Western Europe to the rest. It also worked the other way as well. Spain, France, Portugal, Netherlands and the English were always at each other throats. So a lot o fkeeping an eye on local pressures keeping people focuses on local events and threats. Bohemia knew almost nothing about England, when Anne of Luxembourg was sent off to be queen of England in the 1380s. It was so far away and a sixth rate country, at best. When compared to the seat of the Holy Roman Empire in Bohemia.

[@johnmanole4779]

Corpus Draculianum is a youtube channel created by German and romanian historians. They have English subtitles!!!

[@CrazyKungfuGirl]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who realized how much time, energy, and resources it would take to impale that many people...

[@h.m.6228]

Interesting clip about the history of a less known part of Europe. They could do great movies about that period, without any embelishment. In Romania we're never taught in schools of Vlad, as being "the third". He is always known as Vlad Tepes (tsepesh). That's because in the Middle Ages, Romanian princes were not called using numerals, but typically using epithets (ex. the great, the brave, the elder, the impaler, the good, the shepherd, the bad...).

[@bentramer682]

@h.m.6228 I am very interested in doing a biopic about Vlad The Impailer. It would be a great opportunity to make it historically accurate and genuinely horrific. There's a massive opportunity for great sets and costumes and amazing real live locations. A movie about this could have so much more style than contemporary biopics.

[@lindseyb2777]

Begging royal/noble families to use more than three names. There’s so many Vlads and Dans and Vladislavs. And then there’s Mike

[@upyr1]

Micheal the Brave - (Mihai Viteazul) held the crowns of Wallachia and Moldova

[@latronqui]

And even a Ladislav!!

[@SarastistheSerpent]

Ancient Egyptians in the 20th Dynasty naming all their Kings Ramesses: 👀

[@justsomecreatureofthisearth]

The feeling I had when I first read about the wars of the roses. I kid you not, I counted and, in a 3+ decade situation, all, *all* the major ppl involved, male+female together, had 7 names between them.

[@borjaslamic]

@@lindseyb2777 Vlad and Vladislav both derive their origin from the Slavic word for rule - Vladati (this is the slovene version, slight variations apply). And why wouldn't you want your heir to be named ruler, nominative determinism i'd say.

[@Naebody99]

Wow. So interesting I'm not even sure what to say. I guess "the impaler" is such efficient, visceral shorthand that it cuts through all the complexity, right through the core of what we fear other people might be. Please never stop. This was incredible. Genuinely.

[@robertpetre9378]

The same could be said for Elizabeth Báthory in her lifetime she was completely character assassinated by people who basically wanted her property so they made up some really malicious rumours about her doing terrible things to her maid servants which to be honest we’re not necessarily true and completely blown out of proportion.

[@adrianwebster6923]

the allegations of character assassination and motivations to seize her are assumptions without sufficent proof. In other words there's about as much/little hard evidence here as there is for the legend.

[@robertpetre9378]

@@adrianwebster6923 there’s a lot more proof for people trying to steal her land then for her committing crimes that she was alleged to.

[@robertmkorte]

A wee bit of thanks for all your interesting and fun videos. 💛

[@CinziaDuBois]

That's really generous of you, Robert, thank you

[@ALEXA_beep]

"where's the source? where's the source?" love that. I always ask that myself when researching anything in that part of the world. Archaeologists and historians in Romania often put their historical theories with words like "perhaps, maybe, possibly...etc" because they have very very very few actual sources.

[@Eric.Taylor.1962]

I love these types of videos. Very informative and fun.

[@mil_enrama]

I love this, give us the spooky stories but also explain how they are all bunk. We care about facts here!

[@torioffline]

another debunking video!! these are some of my favorites on your channel, i can’t wait 💗

[@CrisSelene]

I applaud you for doing this. Lots of people make videos about Vlad the Impaler for the spooky factor, as you called it, which brings views. But even though they may know or find out that they are wrong about aspects of his life, they don't correct themselves. That really bothers me since he is an important historical figure in my country.

[@andrayellowpenguin]

Great job. I'm glad to see a debunking. People very rarely look for sources. And there's also a problem with finding sources since with all the constant waring a lot of documents were destroyed. Unfortunately a lot of the documents that got to the west and were considered true by western historians were actually propaganda from Hungary. All these people were intermarried and there were a lot of plays for thrones and annexations etc. Hungary had a vested interest in the Romanian countries not uniting, and there was also the succession to the Hungarian throne in all this intermarrying. Think early England and France, war of the roses or the 100 year war... The situations were similar

[@LadyValkyri]

Great job! I cannot imagine how difficult the research and script were for these two episodes. Clap Clap! Hugs

[@lesliemoiseauthor]

😮. I always learn something from your videos. 🤯. I appreciate your honest attempts to do a deep dive.

[@AnArcanespiritOfficial]

You did an excellent job. Thank You ❤

[@maryrath9062]

Thank you for the follow up video! I had a Romanian friend, also named Vlad, and he explained that Vlad III is seen as a hero in Romania.

[@thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

Thank you for this amazing video it is obvious that you put a lot of work into it. You went out of your comfort zone to help spred history of this beautiful area. I lived in Romania for two years teaching English in North Transylvania and Romania is a beautiful country and I hope to vist again in the future.

[@juanramirez-wk8ty]

There are actually a number of very well researched and detailed books on Vlad the Impaler Dracula by Raymond T McNally and Radu Florescu that delve quite extensively into the the history of the period and politics in the time and place of his life and how his legend came into being as well as how it relates to and became associated with the fictional vampire mythology in the west. I highly recommend them as I believe it was the research and publication of these authors books in the early 1970's that was among the first prominent works to bring these associations to mainstream attention.

[@rosepurdy6301]

You are a breath of fresh air, lady ❤

[@davidsoule8401]

This was great, and think you did a wonderful job. And as you are basically a history reporter in this platform, you have nothing to be ashamed about if you find sources in your own language hard to come by if they just aren't there. Keep up the great work!

[@andrayellowpenguin]

It always amuses me how shocked English people are at our history, when if you look at the Plantagenets and the Tudors and the history of England for a few hundred years after the Norman conquest it's pretty much the same family feuds we've had. 😅

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

People who get shocked at the Machiavellian maneuvering of people in the past obviously never paid attention in history class, regardless of time period or location.

[@DneilB007]

@@andrayellowpenguin Well, you have to remember that the Plantagenets were descended from the Devil-or at least from a devil-so they did have genetic reasons for their behaviours.

[@rudolphpyatt4833]

Thank you for this and your other work! It really is like being back in undergrad in the best possible way ("English" was one of my minors--as in literature from Homer to Shakespeare to Nabokov and Barthes). Thank you so much for all that you do.

[@steamvyrus6249]

I love your videos they are always so interesting

[@mikestone-w1q]

I think the format of doing one fun-to-tell video and one academically-sound video is a great idea. Both of them serve the subject, but they represent competing interests. Things that enhance one damage the other, but the pairing could do more than the sum of its parts. I'd also like to say it's a pleasure to see your intellectual honesty at work. You demand sources. You cite them and compliment the ones you find good. You talk about the quality and quantity of your evidence. You call out your personal opinions and speculation as such. And you do it all with the air of someone who's just demonstrating decent table manners in an age where national-level journalists rank somewhere below basic toilet training.

[@mecahhannah]

Awesome as always thanks ❤

[@winterburden]

Thanks for this fascinating video Cinzia!

[@Green4CloveR]

Analyzing history, legend, and a literary character is peak Lady of the Library!

[@MadMax-bq6pg]

M’Lady, this is the first time in my 63 years when I have heard something about dear old Vlad that wasn’t simply a re-sensationalisation of the mythology. THANK YOU!

[@JamieHaDov]

I don’t want to split hairs here but “balkan” isn’t a language. There are at least 30 languages spoken in the region with about 10 of them being “major” languages.

[@DavidMacDowellBlue]

As ever, interesting and precise with plenty of wit!

[@philosophyoftrucking]

I appreciate your academic integrity.

[@GilTheDragon]

This rocks.

[@ItMeSinamenRoll]

I love this video idea!

[@JohnDarwin7]

Outstanding...🌹

[@ashleyh6407]

Hard to say but easy to use 😂 love it!

[@meaninter03]

Also, pronunciation wise: Mircea ~ Meer-cha

[@ladydelahaye]

Excellent 🫶🥂

[@TheEdmond30]

Good Evening Cinzia.

[@arualblues_zero]

I had fun watching your horror version, and I absolutely loved this one! I'm totally game for a whole series like this.

[@SarastistheSerpent]

Amazing video as always Cinzia!

[@jacquelinemitchell7254]

Love this format… the spooky story then the debunking! It’s like two videos for the research of one. I would love to see more of the myth vs truth series like this! Great videos. 😊

[@sallyhazy]

I feel you. I'm trying to dig into the Borgia family and so many books have no sources on them!!!! They just say stuff and hope the reader take it at face value. it pissed me off so much

[@LionOfGondor]

Wallachia is actually pronounced with the hard Cs not the soft Cs

[@adrianwebster6923]

Another complicating factor is the role of nationalism and religious biases in the 20th and 21st century historiography of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Weeding through that can be a challenge.

[@jenniferroxy5956]

LOVE (love love love)the fiction vs reality in 2 videos idea !!!❤

[@madsgrams2069]

Romanian here. If anything, Stephen the Great was actually more cruel than him.

[@ashleymcgee3536]

11:47 this has been a great refresher and I think I’m going to re-read my library of historical works on Vlad III and the Balkans in the 1400s.

[@PassionateSpirit88]

Good studying, lady

[@SamByAllMeans]

Nice to see that personality shining!

[@cheshirewa1tz]

I was happy to see this video, I was watching the other one and thinking that the details of the impalements seemed anatomically and practically impossible.

[@marocat4749]

Yay more vlad and yay more eastern european politics. . Genuinly eastern european history is underrepresented, and really a mess with how many kingdoms do ally and fight against each other. Also does that play into eeastern european macabre myths haha. also what we would call now warcrimes and massacres, were used often enough, probably not the best as it makes you hated by people there forever , but still used to make examples. So it makes sense vlad would brag , if he did it or not or accusations be made to make someone hated, like it was done but also, heavy reason to extragate heavy. in any direction.

[@justsomecreatureofthisearth]

Excellent, thank you for going down the rabbit hole of scarce resources. It's so refreshing to have an objective docu about Vlad, the vast majority only contain mostly myths without mentioning they are myths. Seriously, I can't emphasise kudos enough. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Another good video about him here on yt is the Dan Davis History one (search for it cause I had problems in the past w sharing links in comments). I saw your first video about Vlad from around Halloween and I was so disappointed, it had all the same bs like the cheap sensationalised "documentaries" I've seen throughout the years even on so called respectable history channels. Knowing the usual quality of your videos, I thought there would be a disclaimer at the end, hey, these are things written by ppl who had the interest to ruin his reputation or downright myths; when there wasn't, I initially disliked the video, later I went back and undid it, left it on neutral. I'm still not gonna leave a like on that, I'm sorry but there's too many w that kind of info, they're drowning out the actually researched ones, like this one. At this point idk if it's even worth fighting for his reputation. Probably the best thing is to try to drastically and completely split the character in 2: Dracula/fictional Impaler = the myth and Vlad III/Vlad the Impaler (bc he's called Vlad Ţepeş = approx "impaler" in Romanian) = the historical figure.

[@jesseh.5223]

Thank you!

[@MisterMisanthropeEsquire]

Wow, she really comes up with some fascinating stuff.

[@dondpwjuan11]

Your voice is beautiful makes me relax.

[@jessicastein5155]

Thank you for this video! It was a really interesting companion to your earlier one. One thing I was kind of expecting you to debunk is the claim that Dracula (the vampire in the Bram Stoker novel) is based on Vlad the Impaler. I thought that was a matter of debate. I don't think anyone debates that's where he got the name, but all the claims that Vlad Tepes is the "real" Dracula that inspired the character may be overstated. The argument against it is the lack of information in Stoker's notes. We know he changed the name (originally it was going to be "Wampyr") but from the timeline in the notes it seems the character was mostly worked out, apart from his name, by the time Stoker came across the name Dracula in "An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia" by William Wilkinson, which he was reading to learn about the history of the region. (Don't trust me too much on this though - this is my vague memory from one undergrad elective course called A Cultural History of Vampires in Film and Literature - so I'm not remotely an expert.)

[@robertpetre9378]

I always feel like when it comes to people like Vlad Tepes the 3rd what we know about him is very selective because history is written by the victors but also those who could write. So much of historians accounts have to be taken with a pinch salt because a lot of it is almost like political spin and is very biased.

[@stella_moi]

love this 🌒

[@Elvertaw]

OMG!!! Thank you!!! This put the whole Vlad thing into perspective. I wonder though how impailment was conceived as a punishment. Any thought on making a video about methods of jurisprudence death?

[@OVIDIUS.P]

Thank you for this great video. I'm glad ypu aproached it this way. Many sources are opponents or political adversarys same as ever, even as far as Ancient Rome or acient Grece. Slander, insult or even attempts as in Vlad tbe III or Draculea/Dracula case to turn him into a monster or a demon was common practice. For example even Gaius Julius Caesar's opponents wrote alot about him or what he was doing but some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt because it could be just that propaganda. Or in Vlad the III's case(the one supposely wirtten by him) it could be just an attempt to gatter more support to strenghten his rule. Same as the priests in England(IX or X century AD if i'm not mistaking) that supposely found the grave of King Arthur and Queen Gueneviere, I think it was just a hox to attract pilrgrims and indirectly more money to that specific chruch. People lie for varios reasons so I wouldn't be surprised if he did with the number of victims but I'm sure that nickname didn't come from thin air😂. It is an oddly speciffic number, but as you said it would have been almost impossible with the number of soldiers he had and the technology at that time.

[@DominicBerry-d5h]

"He didn't mean any actual harm by impaling them. He had a good heart. He was misunderstood".

[@trollunderbridge2292]

One point that I should clarify on. Before he had all the poor and homeless killed, he supposedly offered them land and homes so they could be productive members of society, but none of them accepted his offer.

[@jasminush]

I find it so funny that people still believe what we are thought in history class about Vlad.😅 Even if it was blown out of proportions I guess giving the coruption in Romania, we will always have the saying "where are you, Impaler Lord?" (Roughtly translated). Thank you, LOTL! It was also so fun to hear the romanian names in a different language, i really don't understand the fuss with the pronunciation, it's fun and nice to hear it from an english speaker. Or any other. It's the interest that counts😊

[@RigelDeneb172]

Humans! We've been credulous for a long long time. I'm glad I have seen this video.

[@Abuamina001]

Kudos.

[@volcatronic7157]

As a Romanian, I gotta say, back then we reaaaaally had a shortage of names :D

[@onkelkonkel5]

IIRC, the first time Vlad was DIRECTLY connected to Dracula, i.e. beeing the one and same person, was in the 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. The name for Dracula was just an inspiration because it sounded imposing and had a link to an allegedly vicious man. They are as much connected to each other as Freddy Kreuger is to financial mogul Ivar Kreuger.

[@WolfieDawn]

😮 so...theres a chance it could have just been all a legend?! Woah. Just. Woah. Also crazy we learned so much about him and yet...maybe he just impaled like 3 really important people or made such a shiw of it everyone just called him the Impaler? Gosh crazy to think he wasnt even really that kind of guy. I also always did find it hilarious that Dracula was repeled by the Christian Cross because Vlad the Impaler worked to spread Christianity 😂

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

"King Dan, King Dan, you ain't got no head, King Dan."

[@janinebean4276]

Lmao Dan the Second is SO funny, is Steve the Third next? 😂 Dave the Conqueror?

[@braddaulton3976]

Very simple story

[@trukxelf]

the technical aspects of longitudinal impalement hills yeah!!

[@TorvusVae]

Personally, I think the forest of the impaled story has to have some truth to it. The number obviously cannot be as high as twenty thousand, but even two thousand would be a massive horrific spectacle that would have been completely within Vlad's logistical ability to carry out.

[@sirlancealittles]

Poor Vlad 😢

[@Kalikrates_the_witch_1]

Excellent as always Cinzia!

[@Tareltonlives]

I always felt sorry for Vlad Dracula- he tried to maintain independence between the Hungarian and Turkish empires,, tried to maintain a unified, functional Wallachia, and ultimately he simply couldn't, no matter how creative and ruthless he was (we see a lot of the same actions in other Medieval kingdoms)

[@clasdauskas]

Could the discrepancy in dates for the 23,000 impalements be a Julian vsGregorian date issue?

[@bugsby4663]

What a wonderful video. This makes Game of Thrones look like a child's ABC song. I don;t wish to break your brain any further as I'm sure this has already hurt it, but would it be possible for you to do a history of medieval Central Asia. particularly the Turkic peoples and their history prior to the Ottoman empire?

[@hilariousname6826]

So when did he get the epithet "the Impaler" - during his lifetime or after?

[@lgkf1126]

Shout out to the Lady of the Library and anybody who makes a video that involves Easter European History and geaographical Politics, cause if History was Physics, Eastern European History would probably be Quantum Mechanics 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 because taht part of History and Politics is, as youbsaybin German, a tough nut

[@SafetySpooon]

It's not pronounced like the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia; it's "MEER-chey"

[@ashleymcgee3536]

Honestly this video is why I didn’t watch your first one. I would have wanted a Vlad III video, not a “Dracula” video because Dracula is just a bastardization of “Drakulya” which means “Son Of The Dragon”, referring of course to Vlad II, who preceded his son’s fight against Hungarian tyranny and Ottoman occupation. I love the history of Vlad III and it is so much more fascinating than the vampire myths, but if you ever want to get into some fun cross over, I recommend the first ever Subspecies film from Full Moon Pictures, as Ted Nicolau et all were some of the first filmmakers allowed into Romania after the fall of Ceaușescu and Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula novels (very much of their time in terms of treatment of women, but wow he gave Vlad such a voice!).

[@jessmith7324]

European history is a convulted mess after the romans lol

[@almitrahopkins1873]

Vlad III and his burning the homeless, poor and disabled was probably a slanderous fiction. You have to remember that those were protected people according to the Catholic doctrine and burning alive was a horrific punishment reserved for grievous crimes. If you wanted a Pope turned against someone, that story is a good way to do it, because it treats the people that are supposed to receive charity the same way you would an arsonist or a witch. Similarly, the story of nailing the envoys’ turbans to their heads is the sort of slander you would use to keep others from sending an envoy to Vlad. If you were a Hungarian king and you didn’t want the Pope to send someone to talk to Vlad directly, that is the sort of story you would want circulating.

[@marklaurenzi1609]

Vlad III killed Vlad III, which upset Jaroslav and his brother Jaroslawo. So, they asked the Hapsburg leaders, Franz Ferdinand for help. This was stopped by Franz Ferdinand Joseph, and seconded by Ferdiand Franz the VIII to take Franz Joseph Ferdinand's troops to help Jaroslaw II, no relation to anyone, to help Mehmet the Indomnidable kill Vlad III, Vlad's cousin Vlad II, and Radu, the former half brother of Prince Michael of Hungary, and their pets Needlepants the donkey and Gladys, the groovy mule.

[@raluthesoftboy]

I love your video! Just want to point out the way you're pronouncing some of these Romanian names is so wrong that it's honestly a bit distracting to follow, as a Romanian. I understand that some of these names are difficult to pronounce for an English speaker, but I would appreciate it a lot more if you'd try to put in a bit more effort. Google translate gives you a pretty good pronunciation of these names. Lots of love!

[@braydonthegreat5099]

Romanian moment

[@eaglenoimoto]

Native English speakers, especially British people, tend to pronounce a lot of historical and place names in their own ways, not following any pronunciation rules, just like in English. I managed to study a history heavy degree in the UK and only years after I realised who they meant when they said Charlemagne, for example 😂 (my native language is German and I spoke both English and French fluently at that point 😂😂😂). Don’t take it as disrespect towards Romania, they do the best they can based on a mother tongue that’s a mess of tones and pronunciation without any helpful spelling marks.

[@gnostic268]

English speakers often have trouble pronouncing foreign words which is so strange because half of the vocabulary is made up of loan words from other languages and the words Shakespeare made up himself. One Native tribe: the Tsalagi, which was pronounced phonetically Shah-lah-ghzee somehow became Cherokee by English and American colonials. Same with other tribes whose names became Connecticut and Massachusetts along with many other Native words that were changed by English speakers to more familiar sounds they could easily pronounce.

[@OliNoel]

I don't think it's a lack of effort; she's dyslexic and that adds an extra challenge to pronouncing unfamiliar words/names

[@dondpwjuan11]

Usually these stories are written a couple of hundred years after the fact look at the bible or the Iceland sagas.

[@meaninter03]

What language is Balkan?

[@aliciatucker3713]

Thank u for pointing out the political propaganda created to blacken his name. I believe that he was a strong willed man that metaphorically and physically was between a rock and a hard place on so many levels something had to give. I think that he did massacre the villagers as a message to everyone from Mehmet to the Pope, John Hunnati to the peasant that he was tired of everyones shenanigans. If people need a villian, his brother Radu is far more apt!

[@invisibleray6987]

Posh bird

[@RamBeloeZlato]

Cinzia... Vladimir is legit, but a person in his 90 name Hatziparaskos In Cretan with not caring for like no thanks mate. There's no fudge there explain much?

[@dondpwjuan11]

I love your energy, but your editing leaves a lot to be desired chop suey is not good gives me anxiety.

[@dingokidneys]

There was a Romanian film made in 1979 called Vlad Tepes (Vlad Tsepesh or Vlad the Impaler) which was a favorite of Nicolae Ceausescu that I saw on TV in the late 1990's. It portrayed Vlad III as much more of a hero of the people and less a blood drinking monster. They didn't shrink away from a bit of impalement but, as you say, that form of punishment was not actually a novelty at the time. It was probably as much propaganda as the original stories published to defame him but it was an interesting thing to see. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_%C8%9Aepe%C8%99_(film)