The Last Days of Vlad the Impaler

By José Caballero

A theatre play that analyzes the events that led the man who was the last defensive bastion of Christianity to his death: a continuous succession of envies, palace intrigues, and betrayals that led the world to a crossroad. Although it can be read like a novel, its ultimate aim is to be performed and, as in every good play, we can imagine the world it represents; almost a historical novel, but also something else.

• Language: English
• Publisher: José Caballero
• Release date: Jul 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536560800

Book preview

The Last Days of Vlad the Impaler

José Caballero

Published by José Caballero, 2016.

The last days of

Vlad the Impaler

© José Caballero Albertos, 2015

© Paco Arellano, (Introduction), 2015

© La biblioteca del laberinto, S. L., 2015

Joaquín Turina, 4. 28770 Colmenar Viejo (Madrid). Tel. [phone]

correo electrónico: [e-mail]

www.labibliotecadellaberinto.es

José Caballero Albertos

The last days of

Vlad the Impaler

La biblioteca del laberinto, S. L. Delirio, Ciencia-Ficción

Dedicated to my parents, and my sister Emma.

My life with you was an adventure that I wouldn´t have wanted to miss for anything…

Index

Presentation

By

Francisco Arellano

acknowledgments

Vlad Tepes

Introduction

Characters

Prologe

First Act

Second Act

Third Act

Fourth Act

Fifth Act

Presentation

When in 1897 the Irish novelist Bram Stoker saw his

novel, Dracula, published, I doubt he realized the wave of terror he was about to spill over the world. The novel Dracula narrated the adventures of Count Dracula chasing his beloved after crossing, as stated in the novel, oceans of love to find her finally in London. The figure of Dracula we see in the novel does not have much to do with the figure of Vlad the Impaler, the scourge ofinfidels at the end of a brutal and wild Middle Age in which the Turkish Empire is knocking at the doors of a  defenseless but not unaware Europe.

     Dracula, the true historical Dracula, was a great noble man

of that medieval Europe and, as José Caballero tells us in his work, a man chased and tormented by his enemies, himself and his destiny.

     The image we have of this real character (this is something we must keep in mind when we read this work or if we are lucky, when we see it represented on stage) is the prevailing one here above the many incarnations that have stimulated imagination of a large audience. We meet here the historical Vlad Tepes, the one who wandered around amongst the courts of his time as a prisoner, hostage, as lord of Wallachia. We contemplate his deeds and his rebellions, we witness the betrayals that led to his downfall.

     The research effort that this work entails is evident in the care and detail with which the author deals with the various characters (all of them based on reality), describing in detail their relationship to the main character of this historical drama.

     If Bram Stoker based his famous work on well-known texts on his time, José Caballero has conducted his own investigations traveling to places where the plot unfolds and collecting data everywhere, which lends his drama a character not often seen in this type of work. His work is a daring and risky venture, but the author knows how to acquit himself well at all times, presenting the various acts so that they form an entity beyond all doubt.

     Anyway, Caballero has been unable to forget the Stoker creature: as a ghost of the future, the Dracula of the novel interferes in the affairs of the past, giving his point of view on what is happening in the fifteenth century and helping readers (viewers) to understand, even further, the intricacies of an immortal story.

     The author's presentation says more than I could ever say, so I'd rather leave him the task of presenting his work and his characters, being these lines just a short tribute to a drama

theater that left me fascinated since I first read it a couple of years ago, and furthermore, after rereading it in its final form, my enthusiasm for it has only increased.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Paco Arellano

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks to Paco Arellano, his wife Amparo and the staff of La Biblioteca del Laberinto for their faith and interest in this project.

   To my friend Begoña García González-Gordon, great writer, for her great ideas, valuable advice and for her continued support.

   To my friend Vasile Lupasc, Romanian writer specialized in Vlad Tepes, for continually encouraging me to write this work, clarifying the doubts that arose, and his determination to perform it sometime in Targoviste, the former capital of Wallachia.

   To my friend Candace Dean, English language graduate from Southern Illinois University, whom I met in Prague on a slow train to Dresden, and who edited the entire English translation.

   To my friend Nieves Killefer, English – Spanish interpreter in Washington D.C., for performing the final revision of the entire translation.

   To my friends Auxiliadora Jaén and Gehan Wijesinha, for their help with the English translation.

   To my friend Mar Andrade, secretary of the Spanish ambassador in Bucharest, for her magnificent role as hostess in Vlach lands.

   To my wise and disappeared friend Manuel Ledesma Jimeno, for his support, and to his wife, Luz de la Riva Romero de Aragón, who gave her consent for me to include one of her ancestors in the play.

   To my cousin Inmaculada Cáliz González, for her beautiful contributions.

   To my brother-in-law Nacho Frades Ruiz de Sola, for his technical help.

   To Issam El Kammouni Chakir, for his help in aspects of the work related to Islam.

   To my father, for all his beautiful contribution to the first act.

   And to my wife, Meme, for everything, not to mention that she had to travel around Transylvania by train with our son Pepe and me in a very hot August of 2010.

The author

Vlad Tepes

Introduction

Vladislaus Basarab III, better known as Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) Draculea (son of Dracul), was born in Sighişoara, Transylvania at the end of 1431. He was the second son of Vlad II Dracul, voivode (or colloquially, ‘prince’) of Wallachia who was known as Dracul because he had been dubbed a knight of the Order of the Dragon, by King Sigismund I of Luxembourg, an order that had been created in 1418 to fight against the Ottoman Empire.

The fact that Dracul in Romanian meant devil subsequently created problems for the Draculesti family.

Vlad Tepes’ mother was Cneajna of Moldova, and to provide some background about her, she was the daughter of the Voivode of Moldova Alexander I the Good One, and the sister of Bogdan II, Voivode of Moldova, and therefore, aunt of Bogdan’s famous son, the Voivode Stephen III of Moldova (who was also known as Stephen the Great or Estefan cel Mare in Romanian).

Vlad Tepes’ paternal grandfather was the Voivode of Wallachia, Mircea I the Elder (Mircea cel Batran in Romanian), who was responsible for the largest expansion of Wallachia in medieval times.

The term voivode means sovereign prince, though tributary of the Ottoman Empire. Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldova were, in practice, vassal states of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The marriage of Vlad II Dracul and Cneajna of Moldova produced Vlad Tepes and his older brother, Mircea. His second marriage to Eupraxia Vasilissa Musatini produced Radu and Vlad Calugarul (the Monk).

One of the saddest moments in the life of the then Voivode of Wallachia, Vlad II Dracul, was when he was forced to send his young children Vlad and Radu as hostages, to the court of Murad II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

They remained for years in various Turkish