The Life of Vlad Dracula
As M. Cazacu mentions in his book, Vlad Dracula was born between 1430 and 1436, most probably in Sighişoara (Schassburg, as the town was called in the XV-th century). The house that has now a plate saying this was where Dracula born was used at that time as mint. And is known that Vlad Dracul, his parent, was in charge with the mint, between 1431 – 1436. Therefore, we can accept that he lived in that house and consequently, that Vlad Tepes was born there. In 1442, Jean de Wavrin (uncle of the Burgundian knight Waleran de Wavrin that led an expedition against the Turks, on lower Danube) mention the only son of Vlad Dracul (Vlad being imprisoned by the Turks) as being about 13 - 14 years old. So Mircea, the first son of Vlad Dracul was born around 1428-1429, therefore Vlad couldn't have been born before 1429-1430.
Meantime, when Vlad Dracul took the throne of Wallachia, in 1437 he mentions his two sons; therefore we can suppose Vlad’s birth to be between 1430 and 1436. So, in his house next to the clock tower in Sighişoara.
Adolescence of Vlad III (Ţepeş) was not the most peaceful possible...
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7 comments:
Very interesting. I love this type of content.
It is very interesting, which raises another question.
Does Dracula/Dracul have decendants that live even to this day.
If you don't know maybe you could find out because, that would be a great addition to this Topic.
Hi Lord Vader,
thanks for commenting on this site and sorry, but I haven't seen your comment. Now I was cleaning up the comments and I noticed this one that was never approved. AFAIK, the granddaughter of Catherine Caradja, Princess Brianna Caradja, a very respectful and charming lady, claims to be descending of Vlad III.
I say "claims" not because I contest this or because I don't think she is, but just because I don't know how she managed to track back until XV-th century.
Yes, Vlad the Impaler Dracula has descendants in the XXI century! Brianna Caradja is his descendant according to the roots of her mother's family! The two sons of Stefan Brandes Latea are also the living descendants of Vlad the Impaler Dracula!
We have to know that 120 years later after Vlad's death, his grandsons founded in Southern Transylvania, the Draculesti of Sintesti family. However, after 1600, the family has been re-baptized Kretzulescu, becoming in the next centuries very representative for the Romanian society.http://www.sparkling-markets.com/VladDracula.html
I find it difficult to believe Catherine is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. No literature I've ever referenced states he or his brother Radu had any children. Where is the reference you are getting the information from? As Radu's comment states above, I am also puzzled as to how Catherine Caradja was able to track back to the XV-th century.
Just pointing this out!
Historically, Vlad III Dracula had at least two known and credible children, sons:
1) Mihnea (Mihai) 'the Angry', who (as adult) managed to obtain the throne and power in their Principality of Valachia. Mihnea had descendants, see further details among those who actually were in the 1500s rulers of Valachia, at least brief reigns.
2) another son, born of his last wife Justina, possibly posthumous son, seemingly namesake of his father, and known variedly as Vlad/Ladislau/Laszlo (basically variants of the same name. In 1493 this young Vlad was grown enough, to be the symbol in an attempt to change regime in their principality of Valachia, so the young Vlad's supporters tried to make Vlad the ruling prince of Valachia. This attempt failed,. Vlad retreated to Transilvania, where his mother Justina owned property. It is said that a few (usually orthodox) local noble families in Transilvania are descendants of this young Vlad.
However, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable enough information how possible persons were descended after the 1500s from either of these.
It is, of course, claimed that for example (a) the Archduchess Francesca, born a Bornemisa, and (b) the countess Claudine Redei, ancestress of the modern-age Teck princely family; are descendants of young Vlad, among other nobles of Transilvania.
And of descents from Mihnea, something is known through the 1500s, and it is somewhat plausible that plenty of Romanians would descend from such ones, so early residents of the country. However, specific traces of lineages seem to disappear, because most of the Valachian boier lineages are reliably recorded merely from about the late 1600s, and quite often merely males of those, not their wives or mothers in all cases.
In 1632 Valachia elected (after battles) a certain Matei of Brancoveni as its ruler. Matei took the byname Basaraba, to claim somehow a descent from ONE of branches of the ancient dynasty; not necessarily from the branch(es) descending from Vlad III Dracula. Matei left quite unclear which dynastical branch he claims to be descendant of. In other words, his claim possibly os hyperbola speak suitable for his situation as the new ruling prince, the position which he held not because of inheriting it, but because of being a leader of winner on battles. On the other hand, a boier and magnate in early 1600s, (= Matei), is almost certain to be descended somehow from someones in the old dynasty, someones who lived, say, two centuries earlier and ruled the country.
Matei died without own surviving progeny. However, his family members, say cousins, are his heirs and several of them managed to get the ruler position in later decades after Matei. Some of them also then used the dynastical name Basaraba. Basaraba of Brancoveni. Matei's relatives. And, it is usually descent lineages from these Basaraba of Brancoveni persons of the 1700s, which are grounds of their various (boier-level) descendants to claim descent from the Basaraba dynasty.
For example, Cretzulescu boier family has an early-1700s ancestress, born a Brancoveni, who was married to boier Cretzulescu and several branches of Cretzulestii descend from her.
Hint: any Cretzulescu will have a difficult time to try to present an unbroken, reliable, based-on-historical-documents descent of their said ancestress from specifically the ruler Vlad III Dracula.
Sjostrom
Thank you for the very detailed comment, Sjostrom!
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