WI: Vlad Tepes "Dracula" King of Hungary

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
In the mess after the Battle of Varna a group of Hungarian magnates support the sweet, cuddly dragonling for the Crown of Saint Stefan. Maybe they hate Hunyadi Janos?
Besides "impalings will continue until loyalty improves" what does the union of Hungary and Vallachia entail for the world? Can the Dragonborn capture Constantinople?
 

RyuDrago

TruthfulPanda said:
In the mess after the Battle of Varna a group of Hungarian magnates support the sweet, cuddly dragonling for the Crown of Saint Stefan. Maybe they hate Hunyadi Janos?
Besides "impalings will continue until loyalty improves" what does the union of Hungary and Vallachia entail for the world? Can the Dragonborn capture Constantinople?
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Unless that Vlad would convert to Catholicism, no way. Plus from Varna to Mohacs Hungary was a constant mess so it may not be a good move for him to entangle into Hungarian squabbles.
 

Halagaz

Vlad's religion is not an insurmountable problem. Remember, in 1439 the Council of Florence created a formal union between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. While many Orthodox and some Catholics did not recognize this act, the two churches were still technically united.
In fact, there was a recent precedent: in 1439, some Hungarian magnates supported an Orthodox lord (Lazar Brankovic of Serbia) as a major candidate for the Hungarian throne. So Vlad's candidacy has a chance.

...aand if push comes to shove, he can always convert to Catholicism. After all, he converted in OTL.

Now, there is a small problem...at the time of the Battle of Varna, Vlad was being held hostage at the Turkish court. And he was 14. They can't elect him until 1448, at the very earliest. IMO the most likely date to get Vlad on the throne would be in 1457, after the death of Ladislaus the Posthumous.

After that...rows of stakes? Maybe not. Vlad's reputation is pretty distorted and the facts unclear. Though he was certainly a piece of work.
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Shame on me for not checking all the pertinent dates :(
So, it'd be 1457 - the Boy Wonder would be 27?
Would his charismatic "Where there's a whip there's a way!" leadership lead Hungary to a new Golden Age?

As to distorted reputation - look no further than Bathory Erzsebeth - an innocent girl vilified by relatives (bathing in blood - really?) as to cheat her out of her inheritance ... so it is possible that Vlad Dracula was not Evil! but just misunderstood - and he had a trauamatic childhood too!
 

alexmilman

TruthfulPanda said:
Shame on me for not checking all the pertinent dates :(
So, it'd be 1457 - the Boy Wonder would be 27?
Would his charismatic "Where there's a whip there's a way!" leadership lead Hungary to a new Golden Age?

As to distorted reputation - look no further than Bathory Erzsebeth - an innocent girl vilified by relatives (bathing in blood - really?) as to cheat her out of her inheritance ... so it is possible that Vlad Dracula was not Evil! but just misunderstood - and he had a trauamatic childhood too!
Click to expand...

Well, the governing methods of the XV century had been noticeably different from the modern ones and impaling was a common punishment in the area. As I understand, the main complaint was that he applied it to the aristocratic opposition (which also was not a group pre-reincarnation of Mother Theresa). Then, he presumably impaled couple thousand Turkish POWs but I read an explanation that this detachment had been sent to capture him at the pretext of the peace talks. But he presumably put the commanders on the higher stakes and a stake for the top commander was gilded so, while dealing with them harshly, he demonstrated respect to their social status, which was seemingly appreciated by the Sultan. :p
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Two hundred years later Peter the Great, the Progressive, the Moderniser, the Usher of Enlightment, impaled more people than Vlad ...
 

Kaze

Banned
The easy way is Vlad's Second Wife.
Vlad's First wife - threw herself from the tower. (my theory is she was thrown - but let us not go there)
Vlad's Second wife Justina Szilágyi de Horogszeg was the Cousin of the Matthais Corvinus, King of Hungry. Vlad did briefly become Catholic in order to marry her, then as soon as he was back in Wallachia converted back to Orthadoxy.
So if *an unfortunate accident* happened to the King of Hungry - in theory, Vlad could press a claim to the Hungarian throne (that IF he was not busy killing Turks or trying to maintain his own throne). Let us say he is not busy killing Turks and maintains his hold on Wallachia is strong, he could press the claim to the Hungarian through vis-a-vie his wife - the Hungarian people look at him seeing him as a Crusader against the Turks proclaim him king. There you go - Vlad, King of Hungry and Prince of Wallachia.
 

alexmilman

TruthfulPanda said:
Two hundred years later Peter the Great, the Progressive, the Moderniser, the Usher of Enlightment, impaled more people than Vlad ...
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Not necessarily impaled but definitely much more executed: in Russia, impaling was not a very popular type of execution reserved for the serious offenders but there were quite a few unpleasant options from breaking on the wheel and quartering to a mere hanging.
 

alexmilman

TruthfulPanda said:
True.
Yet in the "unpleasant options" stakes Peter wins hands down ...
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He had a much greater country to rule and did not spend a big part of his time in a captivity so, of course, he is a winner. :mad:

Of course, direct executions were just a part of his "score": by various estimates total loss of the population due to his "reforms" and other activities was somewhere between 20 and 25%.
 
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