The Golden One - Vlad Dracula – Two Reasons He Became a National Hero

Two reasons why Vlad Dracula is still a national hero in Romania, and why he was popular among the common Wallachian population of the day. 1. He brought order to a country in chaos, and stood up against a foreign aggressor and oppressor. 2. He put an end to the tribute to the Ottoman Empire.

00:00:00.000 Greetings Larringtons! I'm checking in from the Forest of Enlightenment. I want to share some

00:00:07.860 thoughts on Vlad Dracula. Now as most of you probably have seen already, I did post a longer

00:00:13.800 podcast episode about a man and his times, 1 hour 17 minutes, available first link in the description

00:00:19.920 box below. Now I want to give you two reasons why Vlad Dracula, despite his fearsome reputation,

00:00:28.760 he's still seen as a national hero in Romania and during his time he was a hero to the common

00:00:35.580 population of Wallachia. Now first and foremost, a technicality. You might have noticed that I

00:00:41.460 refer to him as Vlad Dracula, so the son of the dragon, instead of Vlad Tsepec, which means Vlad

00:00:47.960 the Impaler. Now I'm not saying that he was a good boy who didn't do anything wrong, he did impale a

00:00:53.340 lot of people, so I do believe that the name the Impaler is warranted, but in my humble opinion at

00:00:59.440 least, that there is more to his character and to his life than impaling people, and I want to highlight

00:01:05.820 the heroic aspects of him instead of focusing on the negative sides, which is of course highlighted

00:01:13.660 if you name him Vlad Tsepec, the Impaler. So that's why I say Vlad Dracula instead. Now anyway, two reasons.

00:01:21.780 He was popular among the common population of Wallachia and later in Romania. Now, reason number one.

00:01:29.240 When Vlad came to power, Wallachia was a place of chaos, criminality and corruption. He put an end to it

00:01:36.560 in a brutal fashion, but he still put an end to it. He also put an end to the reign of terror of the

00:01:42.520 boyars, so the nobility class, and that of course endeared him to the common population who had been prey to

00:01:48.140 the boyars for a long time. So law and order for those who obeyed the law, not as fun for those who

00:01:56.100 didn't obey the law. So classical strong leader. Second reason was that he put an end to a certain

00:02:04.040 tribute to the Ottoman Empire. So the Ottoman Empire, they demanded tribute from their conquered territories

00:02:09.840 in the Balkans, a tribute of young boys who would become Janissaries, so the elite troops of the

00:02:16.160 Ottomans. Vlad said enough is enough, and you can imagine if you have families in Wallachia who no 0.90

00:02:23.440 longer need to send their young boys as slave soldiers to a foreign power, that will of course endear

00:02:31.200 him to the common population. This would eventually provoke a counter-reaction from the Ottomans,

00:02:37.680 along with some raiding on the part of Vlad, but that's a contributing factor, and his long struggle

00:02:44.160 against the Ottomans can also be seen as a reason why he's a national hero in Romania to this day,

00:02:50.560 and why he was common, and why he was popular among the Wallachians of the day. Then of course he had many

00:02:56.240 detractors back then as well, because again he was a brutal leader. But anyway, those are the two reasons

00:03:02.400 why he was popular and is popular today, that he brought law and order to a country in chaos,

00:03:09.600 and he stood up against a foreign aggressor and oppressor. So anyway, thank you for watching.

00:03:16.240 Check out all links in the description box below. If you want to hear more about Vlad, check out the latest podcast episode.

00:03:23.360 Now, EXO EXO BOOM!

The Golden One - March 20, 2022

Vlad Dracula – Two Reasons He Became a National Hero

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