 Before we get into the video today, I just want to give a quick shout out to one of our sponsors, Gnostic TV. Gnostic TV is ancient wisdom reimagined. This is a Netflix for those who are spiritually curious and want a place to go where there is no censorship. I personally am doing a whole series on Gnostic TV called The Esoteric Explorer where I am providing exclusive content to Gnostic. Gnostic TV is a host to all sorts of different content creators, many of whom are your old favorites. If you would like to check out Gnostic TV, there is a link down in the description box below. In 2005, Elizabeth Kostava released her fictional novel The Historian. The Historian follows a professor and his 16-year-old daughter as they discover information about the ancient Order of the Dragon and the missing body of Vlad the Impaler. It is safe to say in our modern times that no one haunts us quite like Vlad the Impaler. And even though this novel was pure fiction, there is some truth to it. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. As always, such a very, very special, special thank you to all of our producers and our patrons on this channel without you guys. I truly would not be able to do what I do. Thank you so, so very much. If you would like to join our Patreon and our producer community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce. And today on Mystery Monday, we are going to be talking about the curse of Vlad Dracula. Vlad Dracula or Vlad III was born November-ish of 1431. He was the second legitimate son of Vlad II who ruled Wallachia from 1436 to 1447. Now Vlad III's father, Vlad II, was the illegitimate son of Mircea I. At this time of Wallachia, which is now modern-day Romania, there was a lot of land disputes between Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, which we're going to get to in a little bit. In the time of Vlad II, Vlad III's father, it was customary sometimes within European nations for there to be a hostage, like a civil hostage situation. Such was what happened to Vlad II. Vlad II's father, Mircea I, sent his son Vlad II, Vlad III's father. So grandpa sent dad to basically be kind of a hostage in the court of the king of Hungary, Hungary being a neighboring territory. And this was basically to show Wallachia's allegiance to the Hungarian court. Now understand that in these hostage situations, these boys or children that were kept basically as collateral were not treated as hostages. They were very much treated like guests and they were given educations and court values and stuff. So it wasn't like what you might think of as a hostage situation. It was more of a collateral that, hey, we have your child, so you better be loyal to us. And again, Mircea I handed over grandpa, handed over dad in order to show his loyalty to the kingdom of Hungary. But in this time, when Vlad II, Vlad III's father, was being held as collateral in the Hungarian court, he was exposed to a secret society and became an initiate into the secret society. This secret society was called the Order of the Dragon. Now it is said that the Order of the Dragon was a group that was created in the Eastern European area to help push back against the Turks or the Ottoman Empire who were coming in with their Islamic ways. Now, if you know me or if you're like me, I got some questions about that because I don't know if that's actually true. I don't know if anything they tell us is actually true. But nonetheless, that would have to be a story from another day. But this is how the important part of this is how the name Dracula came about. Vlad II then became Vlad Dracula, meaning that he carried the Order of the Dragon, which again, allegedly speaking, was this Christian society of Eastern European noblemen who were going to do whatever they could to push back against the Islamic Ottomans. Now in modern Romania, Draku means devil. So some people say this doesn't necessarily indicate the Order of the Dragon, but more the son of the devil. So at this point, Vlad II is now carrying basically the surname of Dracula, one that he will pass down to his children. Now, like many of the stories that we've covered as of late, there's going to be a lot of military warring going on throughout the entirety of this story. However, I am not going to go into great detail regarding the military strategy and details of the wars. If that is something that you are interested in, if military history is something that interests you, there are a lot of great podcasts out there that do go through in depth into the details between all the struggles, between all these Eastern European territory, as well as the struggles with the Ottoman Empire. For the purpose of this story, I'm just going to skim the surface of what was going on militarily to get to the point of this story, which is the curse of Vlad the Impaler. And the parts of the military history I'm going to cover are going to feed into the curse and then later the missing body of Vlad. So I hope that makes sense. Once again, if military history is something that you're really interested in, there's so many great historians and podcasts out there that can go into really great detail over everything that was happening at this time. Needless to say, at some point Mirce I, the ruler of Wallachia, did obviously pass away. And we know that Vlad II, the dad of Vlad III, was an illegitimate child of Mirce. So there was some stuff going on that eventually gave Vlad II the reigns of Wallachia. Now Vlad III was the second born child. Vlad II had four sons, is what they believe, three of which were legitimate. The first son, Vlad III's oldest brother, was also a man named Mirce. He was named after his grandpa. So this was Mirce II, then became Vlad III and then came the younger brother, Radu. Now the fourth brother was not a legitimate son and never had the opportunity to take the reigns of power in Wallachia. So I'm just going to leave him to the side for now. It doesn't seem like he has a whole lot to do with this story, probably best for him that he has not a whole lot to do with this story. But nonetheless, there are three children involved. Now Wallachia kind of, again, is between the Hungarian Empire and the Turks. So they're kind of the tug of war. There's this great push back and forth between the rulers of Eastern Europe and again the Islamic forces coming in through the Ottoman Empire. So Wallachia is definitely a fault over piece of land. And again, because it was common practice in Eastern Europe for kings and queens of one territory to give their children as collateral to another territory to show loyal ties, Vlad II, Dad, decided to do the same thing with the Ottoman Empire. In fact, I think I'm just going to call Vlad II Dad for now so that we don't get confused between Vlad III, which is who the famous impaler is and his father, Vlad II. So Vlad II from here on out shall be called Dad. So Dad decides that he's going to take Vlad III and Radu, the younger son, to the Ottoman Empire. At this point, he is going to leave Vlad III and Radu as, again, collateral to the Sultan. At this time, he also takes a loan from the Sultan. So this is giving some sense of loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. And it's also for him to be able to pay back the debts that he borrowed from the Ottoman Empire. So I want to reiterate that for the Eastern Europeans, for Vlad III and his younger brother, Radu, this was not uncommon. This wasn't some traumatic thing that happened to them. This was very much a common practice. It had happened to Dad earlier with his father, with the Hungarian court. That's how he got initiated into the Order of the Dragon, all that kind of stuff. So Vlad and his little brother, Radu, were left at the Palace of the Sultan. That's where they spent a lot of their formative years. Now, before this, Vlad had been educated and trained as any noblemen, any prince, what if? He was trained in the art of being a knight in military combat. He was also given an education in reading and writing, politics, all that kind of stuff. And this education continued into the Sultan's court as well. Except for now, he was also given an opportunity to study the Quran, all that kind of stuff. Again, they were not held like they were hostages. There was no prisoners of war stuff going on. They were treated very well. They were treated as guests in the Ottoman Empire. Now, because Dad decided to send his younger two sons to the Ottoman Empire to be held as collateral to borrow money from the Sultan and to show loyalty to the Sultan, this caused problems with the Empire of Hungary. Because again, remember, Dad had been sent to Hungary as a small boy where he was indeed initiated into the Order of the Dragon, which supposedly was this God squad that was going to push back against the incoming Muslim forces. So because Dad had kind of turned his back on Hungary and instead had shown loyalty to the Ottoman Empire, Hungary struck back. While Dad was traveling back from dropping off Vlad and Radu with the Sultan, the Emperor, the King of Hungary had replaced Dad with his cousin as the ruler of Wallachia. And we're not even going to get into his name because they all pretty much got the same fucking name. I just want to deliver a basic understanding of the tension and the trauma and the drama and the pettiness going on that leads up to the crux of this story, which is the curse. So we got cousin who's now sitting on the throne because Dad decided to have an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. Dad comes back and is like, what's going on? The King of Hungary has now placed my fucking cousin on the throne, but I'm the King of Wallachia. So we have some problems. Now, remember the oldest son, Merca, who is named after Granddad is with Dad because the oldest son is going to eventually inherit the throne. Now, it is important to note who the big ring gleaner of this kind of takeover from Hungary is. It's a man named Hunyadi and Hunyadi is going to actually kind of be a little two-faced throughout. He's kind of going to weave in and out of this story. But Hunyadi, nonetheless, is like a governor regent of Hungary and he is kind of the one that really steps in for the King and says, no, no, no, this guy is turning our back is back on us. So we're going to put his cousin on the throne and then Hunyadi because there is actually there's anger, right? Like like Dad and an oldest brother, Merca are like pissed because their dynasty is taken from them. They're going to declare war on Hunyadi. Meanwhile, Vlad and Radu, the younger boys are still hanging out in the Sultan's palace, learning the Quran. Pension is so bad between Hunyadi and Dad and the oldest son that the oldest son, Merca, is eventually taken, held captive by Hunyadi. And not only is he held captive, but he has his eyes taken out by hot red pokers and then buried alive until he died. So this was an excruciating form of torture and form of death. Well, of course, Dad is super pissed because his oldest son, his child has now been executed in the most brutal way by Hunyadi that he charges Hunyadi and is also captured and executed. And accounts of how he was executed definitely vary. Some of the accounts say that he was beheaded and some say that he was burned alive. Nonetheless, the son and the dad are now gone. And so technically speaking, once the oldest son and the father are gone, Vlad III, who's down in the Ottoman Empire, reading the Quran, is technically now the heir, the ruler of Wallachia. Well, at this point, Vlad and Radu don't know that this has gone on, right? Because this is not the age of, this is the 1400s. There's no telephones. There's no email. It takes a while to get messages. But because Dad and older brother are gone, Hunyadi from Hungary can keep cousin on the throne. Now, while Vlad and Radu are down at the Sultan's house, hanging out with the Sultan, learning the Quran, Vlad is more of the complicated child. In fact, it is stated that Vlad does push back a lot from the teachings of the Ottoman Empire. But nonetheless, the Sultan and his family did truly love Vlad. I think they kind of saw his temperament, his resistance to their teachings as adorable. But Radu, the younger of the brothers, who was often called Radu the Handsome, very much took to the ways of the Ottoman Empire. He very much found himself becoming more and more enchanted by the Islamic faith. It eventually did convert to Islam. It is also stated and rumored that Radu probably was involved in a love affair, a homosexual love affair with the Sultan's son and heir to the Ottoman Empire. Remember that because that's going to come in handy later on in this story. Now, all this time before they even know that their father and their brother are dead and their cousin is ruling Wallachia, Vlad not only is pushing back against the Ottoman Empire and the Sultan, but he's also very annoyed by his brother, Radu. He thinks his brother is being super ridiculous and is like kind of betraying this order of the dragon, this Dracula family, because all the boys did carry the surname of Dracula because their father had been initiated into this order that was supposed to pledge to protect Eastern Europe from the Muslims. So the fact that Radu was so easily slipping into to this this cut these customs in this culture to the point where he was slowly changing his religion really annoyed Vlad. And I think to just the fact that they were siblings, no one pisses you off more than your sibling, right? And just a I could just see it now, no matter what age we're in, no matter what timeline we're in, I could just see them like flicking each other and being pissed at each other because they're brothers. And then the word came the message came that dad and older brother were now dead and cousin is now the ruler of Wallachia. Well, that was a bit too much like that was the straw that broke the camel's back for Vlad at this point because his father is dead, there is no need for the boys to stay as collateral with the Ottoman Empire. So Vlad decides that he is going to go into Wallachia at 17 years old to claim back his dynasty. The Ottoman Empire does provide Vlad with an army with with men with forces in order for him to go on this journey but Radu on the other hand, his little brother, decides that he is going to stay. One thing we know that is clear about this time in Vlad's life is that he sees both hungry and the Ottoman Empire as his enemy and not a hundred percent clear on why he sees the Ottoman Empire as his enemy because again he was treated relatively well by by the sultan and by his court. They were treated as guests and again this was not this was very common practice in Eastern Europe. So it kind of rings to me that he might have been a little pissed that his brother was kind of turning his back on Vlad and their heritage in order to hang out in the sultan's court. It could have been because his brother maybe was gay. I don't know. It kind of seems like in a lot of ways that there was like more personal tension and pettiness within himself. Like it wasn't necessarily a political grudge that he had against the Ottomans because his father had really set it up where they could be in good relationship with the Ottoman Empire. So hopefully the Ottoman Empire wouldn't try to take Wallachia but nonetheless Vlad III. The star of this story now has an agenda of Vendetta against hungry which again we can understand why he would have an agenda against hungry because hungry killed his father and his brother but I'm not quite sure why he hasn't a Vendetta against the Ottoman Empire but that it is what it is. So let's start from the beginning. Hungry got mad at dad at Vlad's father because Vlad fought last they saw Vlad's father as betraying Hungry for making a deal with the Ottomans and then once dad was executed by Hungry for making the deal with the Ottomans. Vlad now comes in to claim back the throne and now he's got a Vendetta against both territories. I hope you're following me here. There's just a lot of anger. There's a lot of pettiness a lot of family drama because you know these guys are all like interrelated at the core. They're all like cousins of each other. So it's one big family fucking drama and as I've said many times before if I had to live during these times I would hope to be a peasant because at least the peasants don't have to deal with this malarkey but there's just a lot it's a freaking soap opera. There's so much going on but nonetheless Vlad storms into Malacca with his troops from the Ottoman Empire. So the Ottoman Empire is supporting him even though he's mad at them to take back his throne and it does work temporarily. This is now 1448 again. Vlad is about 17 years old. He imposes his cousin so doesn't kill his cousin not yet anyway. He just imposes him takes the throne back and then we see the first of what would become what Vlad the impaler was known for and that is impaling his enemies at this point he knew that the noblemen of Malacca had a lot to do with snitching to the Hungarian court that got his father taken off the throne and his cousin put on which then led to his father's death. So he decides once he's now taken the throne back to invite all the noblemen to the castle for a dinner. Now people might say weren't they suspicious because these were the noblemen as they say that were directly or Vlad felt like we're directly responsible and I to that I say no they probably weren't suspicious because noblemen and all over Europe Eastern Europe Western Europe noblemen were constantly coming in and out of court which is the court is the castle right there constantly in with the king. So this is nothing that's that's unusual. So they come into the castle to have this dinner with with Vlad the third who's now the new ruler of Malacca and this is where we see are allegedly we see the first signs of Vlad impaling people he takes all the noblemen and he impales them if you don't know what that means they take like a spike and stick it up through your middle bit all the way up through your head apparently it takes like three days sometimes to die of impalement now Vlad did learn this technique from the Ottomans this was not a technique that was typically done in any anywhere in Europe in Europe people mostly were like beheaded or burned at the stake but impaling was specifically something that was done by the Turks in the Ottoman Empire so we know that this was a trait that he picked up from the Turks but for the Eastern Europeans people of Wallachia for the people of Hungary this was this was horrific because this was definitely not something people were used to seeing and he he scattered his impaled noblemen kind of around Wallachia as a warning for all the other people in places of power like don't cross me because I will impale you this is also kind of a warning to the people of Hungary because again Vlad has a vendetta he is coming after those who destroyed his family eventually Vlad gets kind of ousted he has to go into exile because what the fuck like you're impaling people now so he gets moved she goes into exile in a country a territory called Moldavia Moldavia is ruled by Vlad's uncle I'm telling you guys like they're all cousins right they all know each other family and so for a few years he's in Moldavia with uncle and with his cousin his cousin is a man named Stephen and Vlad and Stephen become very close comrades right they end up helping each other out a lot because what's going to happen you see as uncle Vlad's uncle is also going to be executed and removed from the throne of Moldavia so both cousin Stephen and Vlad now have to run for their lives together and as they run back into the Wallachia territory they get help from none other than the man who is instrumental and having Vlad's dad an older brother killed at this point Pugnati the governor of Hungary needs Vlad he recognizes that he needs Vlad because the Ottoman Empire is definitely gaining momentum to start to make their way into Eastern Europe and because Vlad has a relationship with the Ottoman Empire Pugnati believes that he can use Vlad as a way to kind of negotiate a truce with the Ottomans now Pugnati is I don't think he quite understands that Vlad is not a fan of the Ottoman Empire but there is connections right he grew up there in captivity there and his brother is still there meanwhile Vlad's cousin is still in the throne in Wallachia but he's Vlad himself and his cousin his other cousin Stephen the good cousin well I guess kind of good cousin Vlad's good cousin because the cousin who's on Vlad's good side are working with Pugnati to try to push back against the Ottomans but the other cousin the bad cousin is still on the throne of Wallachia does this make sense to you guys it's crazy and you thought your family had problems can you imagine a Thanksgiving with this family on May 9th of 1453 there was a shot heard around the world and I kind of mean this literally and figuratively because at this time gunpowder is being used and kind of experimented with which Vlad will get into playing with gunfire but nonetheless on this state the new Sultan so the the Sultan's son who grew up with Vlad and Radu Radu's lover so Vlad's pseudo brother-in-law takes over Constantinople and up to this point Constantinople had been a stronghold for Eastern European for the Christian world but once they take over Constantinople all bets are off this was a huge loss for the Eastern Europe now the the many cathedrals in Constantinople that were quote unquote Christian are now turned into Islamic Mosque we see this battle still today and that's part of the world and to make matters worse Constantinople became at that point kind of the capital city for now the Turks this was a huge huge threat to Eastern Europe but Vlad for all Vlad's faults for all the psychotic stuff that Vlad ends up doing you know the serial killer in him he is scrappy like he's scrappy he's quick he's obviously a very intelligent lad and he he gets himself out of some jams I gotta give him that like the dude really knew how to like in very clever ways get himself out of like these jams and so while the threat of the Turks are imposing themselves on Eastern Europe Vlad kind of strikes up this this deal with Munyati he talks other territories into going to battle with Hungary with Munyati to push back against the Turks so they're like distracted doing that while Vlad stays behind and goes head to head with his cousin the bad cousin who's on the throne of Wallachia and there is a huge story around this apparently Vlad like challenges his cousin bad come into like hand to hand combat and he kills him and so now Vlad is the undisputed ruler of Wallachia at this point his good cousin cousin Steven also now becomes the ruler of Moldova which they end up having each other's back throughout this whole or deal of their lives really supporting each other and in some really fucked up world I think it's kind of cool that he at least had one family member that was totally behind him and never betrayed him that's not saying much they do believe that Vlad was a total psychopath I think a lot of them were again he will end up becoming one of the world's worst serial killers that ever existed but nonetheless at this point where we are in the story this is his second reign he is now the undisputed ruler of Wallachia and he really starts to amp up his Vladness his Dracula-ness at this point he starts to fortify walls all over Wallachia to keep the Ottomans totally out and he really amps up his method of torture of impalement now before it had just been a punishment for the nobles for what he considered to be treason for returning his father and brother you know overthrowing them basically off the throne and then as a result of having them killed and so he felt like that was justified form of treason during his first reign but now he's basically it seems like he's basically starting to impale people who just piss him off he starts at first again seizing land from the remaining nobles who betrayed his father and he gave the land to some of his allies he impales of course the nobles he puts the bodies around the territory to warn people he also impaled women and children he also had people eating alive it is said that he would cook body parts in front of people so if your dad is impaled he would like have a body part cut off and cooked and he would eat it in front of you he also would take out his aggression a lot on women he was very weird about sexuality and it was believed that a woman had not been chased had not remained a virgin until her wedding day he would impale women alive with a hot iron spike and he would cut off their breasts or something on their body and cook it enforce the lover who did the deed with the woman to eat it in front of her while she was dying this man is fucking crazy like I mean now many people will say some of these more extreme stories were rumors and exaggerations it could have been a rumor created by the Hungarian court or other courts to basically propaganda to kind of sell the story that Vlad was just this maniac it could have been propaganda created by Vlad himself to make him scary to his enemies but I'm kind of on more of the side that that where there's smoke there's fire and if these stories have been around for such a long time and we do know for sure that he was into really extreme forms of punishment that they're probably true they're that these are not these are I'm guessing these are not propaganda this is not fake news I'm definitely true others that are like me and believe this is true a lot of them are say a lot that that his we're uncertain his his wrath of terror definitely there's a lot of uncertainty we don't know how far his wrath of terror actually went to some people of this area to this day he is considered to be one of the most disgusting human beings ever fought walk the face of the earth to others though he is considered to be a national hero because he really fought to take back the land for for the people of this area which I don't know you know I'm not from that area so I really can't speak on that but doesn't doesn't seem like Vlad was super interested in the people it seemed like he was more interested in the power and himself this seems very much like narcissism in psychopathy that was probably triggered by his parent his dad's death and his brother's death but got out of hand so I don't know Wallachia Romania I I don't know man I don't know if you really cared about your ancestors who were peasants I think he was more in this for himself meanwhile the Sultan of the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Radu his little brother's lover Vlad's pseudo brother-in-law decides that Wallachia is now a part of the Ottoman Empire he makes this decision without even invading he just goes knock knock here we are now you're part of us he does this by saying since sending men to the court of Vlad and demanding payment like like taxes for the Ottoman Empire and at first Vlad is like well if you're going to come into my court aren't you going to take your turbines off while you greet me and the men are like no we're not taking our turbines off so Vlad decides that because they will not take their turbines off to greet him properly he gets his men his cronies to drill nails in their head so they can't get the turbines off or that Vlad of course impales them and then Vlad decides you know what I haven't seen that Sultan since we were youngsters together and you know I haven't seen my brother in a while so I think I'm going to take a nice little trip down to the Ottoman Empire and just be like what's up homie like why are you why are you saying maland or land like that's not cool like no it's maland so that's what he does Vlad goes to the Ottoman Empire as Vlad gets into the Ottoman territory he decides that he is going to make a really grand entrance and so he gets his new toy this new toy called gunpowder and decides to start blowing shit up for about 500 miles into the Ottoman Empire Vlad goes on a killing spree into villages killing men women and children even in those days to go in and kill women and children was like you were like that was like not honorable and that's kind of nice to know that at least in those days when there were more barbaric means of attack at least in most cases women and children were off limits but not to Vlad no one was off limits to Vlad at this point the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Vlad's old buddy from childhood and his brother's lover decides that you know what I don't think Vlad should be on the throne of Wallachia claiming Wallachia is mine but I'm going to put Radu my lover Radu Vlad's little brother on the throne I think Radu should be on the throne because at least my lover will help me join forces and take Wallachia as mine so the Sultan plans with his men to go up the Danube River to the part of the Danube that was owned by Wallachian that's where they were going to enter the country and this was in May of 1462 now the Sultan did eventually get to Vlad's castle remember how I said earlier that Vlad was scrappy this is another instance of him being scrappy Vlad and his people at the court his wife his children his servants everybody that works for him are kind of held up in this castle and it became apparent that the Sultan was going to try to starve Vlad out Vlad was way outnumbered I mean this is the fucking Ottoman Empire a part of me is kind of shocked at the audacity that Vlad had to try to take down the Ottoman Empire but nonetheless I'm not going to disparage him for his courage in trying to do that but he was outnumbered by a lot like this is an empire right and so Vlad comes up with a plan Vlad dresses up in clothes that make him look like part of the Ottoman Empire of course he knows how they dress right he grew up at the Sultan's palace and so he dresses like these men and he sneaks out into their camps and he tells a bunch of men like hey it's going to be chaotic tonight and the Sultan wants you to stay in your tent so if you hear chaos happening outside just stay in your tent we don't want to avoid confusion it's part of the plan blah blah blah so then Vlad goes back into the castle gets his man his goal is to get to the tent where the Sultan is so he can stab the Sultan in the heart and that will scare off all the Ottoman Empire and then boom he's in the territory again well the men attack they go in it's a surprise attack because all these other Ottoman dudes these Turks are like sitting in their tent because that's what they're supposed to do while meanwhile they're being slaughtered by Vlad's people well unfortunately Vlad does not find the Sultan the Sultan was in a completely different camp so at this point Vlad rightly so panics he's got to move because there's no way that he's going to be able to now take on the Sultan and when Vlad's wife at this point is so desperate as to what's going on that she jumps out of the castle to her death so now there's another body another person of someone Vlad loves that he now blames on somebody else and so that's just another tick to his vendetta against these people Vlad and his men sneak out of the castle and so the Ottomans get to the area beyond the castle they find it to be desolate as they start moving deeper into the next town with the desolation they come upon a forest and this is a forest of impaled people that in one last failed ditch effort are supposed to try to scare off the Sultan and the Ottomans meanwhile we have to remember that the Ottoman of Vlad learned impalement from the Ottomans I mean they know this they're not they're used to seeing this Vlad eventually makes his way into Hungary where he's hoping he can strengthen his alliance with the Hungarians against the Ottomans since Vlad has now deserted Wallachia the Sultan goes oh okay well Radu now you're the king so Radu is now sitting on the throne of Wallachia and in 1462 with Vlad in Hungary he is now taken captive Vlad came to Hungary for help his brothers on the throne for all intents and purposes the Ottoman Empire now have Wallachia and he goes into Hungary and he's like yo I need to like get my alliance with you guys because I'm in trouble and Matthias Corvinus decides instead of giving him sanctuary or helping him take his country back from the Ottomans which everyone in Eastern Europe is scared of the Ottomans he decides he's going to take Vlad prisoner now historians still don't quite understand why old Matthias did this it's still not clear they do know that Matthias was trying to become the Holy Roman Emperor at the time and they do believe that this was kind of like a political move for Matthias which is still really confusing because the whole point of the Holy Roman Emperor and like this whole time when we had the crusades now we're out of the crusades but another crusade is going to start soon it's all about like protecting Christendom from the Muslims so you would think that if Vlad was as awful as Vlad was that if he was coming in and being like I need your help against the Muslims then Matthias wanting to be the Holy Roman Empire would have been like sure dude seeing this as like a sign from God to like go against the Muslims it's just very confusing and I'm very glad that many historians I listened to researching for this episode basically said I don't know why he did this this makes no sense to us whatsoever as to why he took in prisoner but nonetheless he did Vlad was kept a prisoner for Matthias and hungry for about 14 years now the positive like silver lining of this situation is Vlad did find himself a second wife but then eventually old cousin Steven whose ruler of Moldavia comes over and kind of gets Vlad out like dude we're going home this is stupid Matthias like let him go we don't know what you're doing and so he goes with his cousin Steven like Vlad is back baby so Vlad picks up this like ragtag army because he hasn't been in Wallachia for 14 years his brother Radu was put on the throne so it's the same family on the throne but by this time Radu had actually passed away so another bozo is sitting on the throne now and so Vlad with his ragtag army comes marching back into Wallachia to take back what is his the bozo who is now sitting on the throne of Wallachia sees Vlad and his ragtag army coming in and he basically shat his pants and ran away and so it was probably one of the easiest takeovers of Vlad had ever had in his life and I know I don't blame him like if I saw Vlad being paler coming for me I would probably show my pants and run away too the third reign of Vlad Wallachia has basically been used and abused not just by Vlad but by the Ottomans by the Hungarians by all this war again you have hungry in the Ottomans you have this tug-of-war going on with Wallachia right in the center there's no more resources Vlad basically has no real army he's basically shit out of luck at this time and this is when the legend of the curse of Vlad Dracula is said to have been created there apparently is a document that Vlad signed stating his intention to curse these people the people that he felt like had betrayed him because he knew at this point his days were numbered he knew the Ottoman Empire would eventually be coming back into Wallachia and back to try to take over and there was no way that Vlad was going to be able to stand up against the Sultan at this point he had lost both his brothers his father his wife and more importantly his dynasty he signed a document to bring a curse against his enemies and he assured them that he would return after death to exact that promise and that curse two months later the Sultan invaded Wallachia Vlad Dracula Vlad the Impaler Vlad the Third whatever you want to call him was killed it is said that he was beheaded and that his head was sent back to the Ottoman Empire drenched in honey to be adored by the Turks as a prize for him finally being conquered his body however was buried in a nearby monastery but in recent history his tomb was exhumed and there was nothing in it many people believe to this day that Vlad the Impaler Vlad Dracula who had such a blood lust who was of the order of the dragon the son of the devil never truly died that he was a vampire in himself and he was able to keep everlasting life and to keep his reign of terror going against those that he felt had wronged him but sometimes I suspect there's another option as to why his body is gone as we know from all of our recent studies of these bodies that have gone missing we know that in the dark occult they like to take body parts of people that they feel like were enigmas people that had a certain je ne sais quoi about them a magic to them whether that magic was for good or for bad and they take part of their bodies and use an essence of the body in rituals in order to harness the energy of that person could it be that the rest of Vlad's body was taken by people who practice in the dark arts possibly but I do think it's interesting to note that the English royal family who sits on the throne right now are descendants of Vlad the Impaler and some of the stories some of the rumors that we have heard about them are very very similar to the stories we've heard about Vlad. Alright you guys let me know your thoughts and your opinions down in the comment section below what are your white I mean y'all his body is gone like is he a vampire like is he turning into bats and flying around and drinking blood and his body being used at this moment for certain types of witchcraft and occult practices I don't know all we know is his body is gone no one knows where his body is the tomb is there the body is not the body is not there so let me know what you think also please join us if you can over on Aquarius Rising Africa this morning at 9am eastern time we're going to be discussing this again live I always put this up an hour or two before I go on with Aquarius Rising Africa give you time to like hear the story and do a quick little research for yourself so that you can join in in the conversation because again it's not just going to be me it's going to be Shanti and Mornay up there on the screen and of course we have the live chat going so you guys can contribute to this story as well you know it's like knowledge is power knowledge protects the more we look at this the more we understand that these things happen for whatever reason we can be better prepared to protect ourselves from the more nefarious side of this world but beyond that you guys I hope you're having a wonderful day I hope you're gearing up for the Christmas season and I will talk to you all soon bye everybody