Vlad Dracula – Two Reasons He Became a National Hero
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Summary
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.
Transcript
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Greetings Larringtons! I'm checking in from the Forest of Enlightenment. I want to share some
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thoughts on Vlad Dracula. Now as most of you probably have seen already, I did post a longer
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podcast episode about a man and his times, 1 hour 17 minutes, available first link in the description
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box below. Now I want to give you two reasons why Vlad Dracula, despite his fearsome reputation,
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he's still seen as a national hero in Romania and during his time he was a hero to the common
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population of Wallachia. Now first and foremost, a technicality. You might have noticed that I
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refer to him as Vlad Dracula, so the son of the dragon, instead of Vlad Tsepec, which means Vlad
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the Impaler. Now I'm not saying that he was a good boy who didn't do anything wrong, he did impale a
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lot of people, so I do believe that the name the Impaler is warranted, but in my humble opinion at
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least, that there is more to his character and to his life than impaling people, and I want to highlight
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the heroic aspects of him instead of focusing on the negative sides, which is of course highlighted
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if you name him Vlad Tsepec, the Impaler. So that's why I say Vlad Dracula instead. Now anyway, two reasons.
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He was popular among the common population of Wallachia and later in Romania. Now, reason number one.
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When Vlad came to power, Wallachia was a place of chaos, criminality and corruption. He put an end to it
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in a brutal fashion, but he still put an end to it. He also put an end to the reign of terror of the
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boyars, so the nobility class, and that of course endeared him to the common population who had been prey to
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the boyars for a long time. So law and order for those who obeyed the law, not as fun for those who
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didn't obey the law. So classical strong leader. Second reason was that he put an end to a certain
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tribute to the Ottoman Empire. So the Ottoman Empire, they demanded tribute from their conquered territories
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in the Balkans, a tribute of young boys who would become Janissaries, so the elite troops of the
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Ottomans. Vlad said enough is enough, and you can imagine if you have families in Wallachia who no
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longer need to send their young boys as slave soldiers to a foreign power, that will of course endear
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him to the common population. This would eventually provoke a counter-reaction from the Ottomans,
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along with some raiding on the part of Vlad, but that's a contributing factor, and his long struggle
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against the Ottomans can also be seen as a reason why he's a national hero in Romania to this day,
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and why he was common, and why he was popular among the Wallachians of the day. Then of course he had many
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detractors back then as well, because again he was a brutal leader. But anyway, those are the two reasons
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why he was popular and is popular today, that he brought law and order to a country in chaos,
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and he stood up against a foreign aggressor and oppressor. So anyway, thank you for watching.
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Check out all links in the description box below. If you want to hear more about Vlad, check out the latest podcast episode.