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Knight of the week

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Sir John of Felsenbau:
Well, the Liechtenstine's had a history. I will be doing one on my favorite, Ulrich...whose name was stolen by Thacher in the movie: A knight's Tale. He was my kind of knight...excentric...wearing the clothes of Venus during one tournament circuit, and King Arthur during another tournament circuit. That's the kind of thing I would do. I wonder how many knight he beat in his lifetime?...since he also was never defeated in tournament, and in only one tournament, he beat 308 knights! He gives William Marshal a run for the money.

I guess if you're a carreer soldier, maybe dieing in the end would be right. But I fought in Vietnam, and am glad I came out of it alive...but then I wasn't a carreer soldier, although I joined and didn't get drafted.

Sir John

Sir John of Felsenbau:
I thought since I did one on Frankenstein...it was time to do one on another one of haloween favorites.

This weeks Knight of the week: "Ritter Vlad III Tepes" - Vlad III was the third son of Vlad II Dracul. [When you became a member of the Knights of the Dragon (a Hungarian Order) you could attach the title "Dracul" to your name.] Vlad III was often called "Dracul-la" or son of the dragon. Vlad III was born in 1328. Their home was Bran Castle, originally built by the Teuronic Knights in 1212. Vlad's line was descendant of the "Szekely" people,  a significant part of the Hungarian minority in Romania, and added their emblems: a crescent and a star to their arms. Vlad II became Voivode of what was then Wallachia in 1436. In that same year, at the age of 8, Vlad III was knighted into the Order of the Dragon. Vlad III was sent to the Ottoman court to be educated in languages and warfare. In 1447, Vlad II was murdered and the following year, Vlad III became Voivode. He became popular because he eliminated the nobles and replaced them with commoners.

In 1459 Pope Pius II called for a new Crusade, but his only  supporter was Vlad III.  The Turks then invaded Wallachia, but Vlad III defeated them, crossed over into their land, devistating it in response to their invasion.  The Sultan raised a new army and again attacked Wallachia, but again, Vlad III beat them. Vlad III was becoming popular with his people. Matthias Corvinus (I think I did one on him, or will be) feared Vlad's power, had him arrested and thrown in the dungeon, where he remained for 10 years. While in prison, the Turks again invaded Wallachia, but this time the Turks won. Matthias finally turned to Vlad, had him released from prison and let him run the military. But during a battle in 1476, he was killed and his body was decapitated and his head sent to the Sultan in Constantanople.

Vlad III earned the name "Tepes" (Impailer) for impaling the Turks on stakes. Romanian folklore paints Vlad III as a hero of the common man against the oppression of the nobles and he is remember as the prince (voivode) who defended his people from the Turks. He is viewed as the father of their country and has all but a halo of sainthood over his head.

Sir Patrick:

--- Quote ---has all but a halo of sainthood over his head.
--- End quote ---

Which is in Constantinople ;)

Sir James A:
Vlad III is actually a much more interesting character than "common" history tells us. Sir John, I'd like to expand on your info a bit, if I may.

It is thought he learned his brutal ways when he was young. As a child, Vlad was a hostage of the turks, along with one of his brothers; for 6 years. Stories of his captivity include a daily "start off the morning", in which all of the hostages were brought forward, and one was selected, tortured and executed quite gruesomely in front of everyone. They would announce "tomorrow may be your turn" before putting them to hard labor. While Vlad eventually was freed (escaped?), he never forgot or forgave the cruelty of the Turks, and sought to destroy as many as he could  in the worst ways possible. This fire would only be fueled by two more major upcoming events.

The majority of his victims were boyars (nobles) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyar), the class of people responsible for the conspired assassination of his father, and the death of one of his brothers. They killed his brother by burying him alive. He started off his rampage by hosting a feast for local royalty, including those he believed responsible for his father and brother's death. As they were in his land, and law meant little ... he had them all arrested. He enslaved some of them, and impaled the rest. Thus began his "crusade" against the hundreds of thousands he would later kill. It is said he learned that impaling was so greatly feared, he would use it as his primary offensive weapon.

We all hear the stories of his impalings, and I will spare the gory details of how much worse it was historically than they usually tell us - but there was "a method to the madness" in many ways. When he campaigned against the Turks in retaliation for their invasion, it is said that he rounded up as many enemies as he could, surrounded one of the cities, and created a wall of impalements encircling the entire city. Those still alive and in the city were so terrified they was little resistance and they were crushed. It is also said that the impalements he left in his wake caused reinforcing armies of the Turks to flee in terror. Since he impaled so many at a time, the higher ranked enemies (when he knew who they were) would be impaled on taller stakes, to separate them from the "common soldiers" and "highlight" his prize kills.

He is famous for being undiscriminating of men, women or children. It is thought that Vlad may have had "lady troubles" in early life. When he heard of unfaithful women in his domain, he would have them tortured and executed in absurdly vile ways which I will not even go into. He also abhorred laziness and dishonesty, which were commonly perceived traits of the royalty; when he heard of merchants defrauding the commoners, he had the merchants executed, and left them as examples to be "good, honest people" lest they meet his wrath. His "citizens" who were commoners thought him a true "champion of the people", and when he had the aforementioned feast and executed many of the local royalty, he put commoners in their place.

Years later, after his castle was overrun and he was defeated, his wife is said to have jumped to her death from the top of one of the towers; she is never seen or heard from again (at least in recorded history). Vlad managed to flee through a secret escape tunnel and attempted to gain support from the king and rebuild to continue to wage war; it was denied, and the king had him imprisoned for 12 years. It is said while he was imprisoned, he continue to impale victims on small shards of wood; mice, birds, bugs, and whatever other hapless creature happened to wander near or into his cell. He was eventually released in 1476. He attempted to regain power after his release, and as Sir John said, he died in that battle against the Turks, having a small army of a few thousand.

Interestingly enough, Vlad's remains were taken two places. The victorious Turks took his head, but the people of Wallachia took his body. He was buried at Snagov monastery, in an almost saint-like manner; indoors, in a vault built into the floor, in front of a small room with an altar. Or so said the legend ... because when his body was later exhumed from there, the bones were identified as horse bones! Where his actual body is, and why, is a mystery.

Sir Wolf:
blah blah i vant to bite your neck!

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