The Haunting of Borley Rectory.

The uncanny experiences at Borley Rectory, Essex, can be dated through the British press to 1929 and a series of articles published in the Daily Mirror.

Daily Mirror - Monday 10th June 1929;

"Ghost Visits To A Rectory.

Tales of a Headless Coachman and a Lonely Nun.

The Elopers.

Mysterious Happenings on Site of Old Monastery.

Ghostly figures of a headless coachman and a nun, an old time coach drawn by two bay horses, which appears and vanishes mysteriously, and dragging footsteps in empty rooms. All these ingredients of a first class ghost story are awaiting investigation by psychic experts near Long Melford, Suffolk.

The scene of the ghostly visitations is the rectory at Borley, a few miles from Long Melford. It is a building erected on the part of the site of a great monastery which, in the middle ages, was the scene of a gruesome tragedy.

Borley Church

The present rector, the Rev. G. E. Smith, and his wife, made the rectory their residence in the face of warnings by previous occupiers. Since their arrival they have been puzzled and startled by a series of peculiar happenings which cannot be explained and which confirm the rumours they heard before moving in.

The first untoward happening was the sound of slow, dragging footsteps across the floor of an unoccupied room. Then one night Mr Smith, armed with a hockey stick, sat in the room and waited for the noise. Once again it came - the sound of feet in some kind of slippers treading on the bare boards.

Mr Smith lashed out with his stick at the spot where the footsteps seemed to be, but the stick whistled through the empty air, and the steps continued across the room.

Then a servant girl, brought from London, suddenly gave notice after two days' work, declaring emphatically that she had seen a nun walking in the wood at the back of the house.

Finally comes the remarkable story of an old fashioned coach, seen twice on the lawn by a servant, which remained in sight long enough for the girl to distinguish the brown colour of the horses.

Headless Coachman.

The same servant also declares that she has seen the nun leaning over the gate near the house. The villagers dread the neighbourhood of the rectory after dark, and will not pass it.

Peculiarly enough, all these 'visitations' coincide with the details of a tragedy which, according to legend, occurred at the monastery which once stood on this spot.

A groom at the monastery fell in love with a nun at the nearby convent runs the legend, and they used to hold clandestine meetings in the wood on to which the rectory now backs. Then one day they arranged to elope, and another groom had a coach waiting in the road outside the wood, so that they could escape. 

From this point the legend varies. Some say that the nun and her lover quarreled, and that he strangled her in the wood, and was caught and beheaded, with the other groom, for his villainy. The other version is that all three were caught in the act by the monks, and that the two grooms were beheaded, and the nun buried alive in the walls of the monastery.

The previous rector at Borley, now dead, often spoke of the remarkable experience he had one night, when, walking along the road outside the rectory, he heard the clatter of hoofs. Looking around, he saw to his horror an old fashioned coach lumbering along the road, driven by two headless men."

Bizarre stuff indeed, the next day another thrilling installment.

Daily Mirror - Tuesday 11th June 1929;

"Mystery light in Haunted Wood.

Rector Joins in Quest for Rectory 'Ghosts.'

Eerie Vigil.

Rev. G. E. Smith

'Ghost laying,' to amateurs, is a nerve wracking business. With a Daily Mirror photographer, I have just completed a vigil of several hours in the 'haunted' wood at the back of Borley Rectory, a few miles from Long Melford.

This wood, and the whole neighbourhood of the rectory, is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a groom and a nun who attempted to elope one night several hundred years ago but were apparently caught in the act.

Although we saw only one of the manifestations which have, according to the residents, occurred frequently in recent years, this by itself was peculiar enough.

The Rector Volunteers.

It was the appearance of a mysterious light in a disused wing of the building - an appearance which simply cannot be explained , because on investigation of the deserted wing it was ascertained that there was no light inside - although the watchers outside could still see it shining through the window!

When we saw the mysterious light shining through the trees we suggested that somebody should go into the empty wing and place a light in another window, for the sake of comparison. 'You go,' we said to each other, and finally the Rev. G. E Smith, the rector, who does not believe in ghosts, volunteered to do it.

Sure enough, the second light appeared and was visible next to the other, although, on approaching close to the building, this disappeared, while the rectors lamp still burned. Then we left alone to probe the mysteries of the haunted wood.

The 'Apparition.'

Queer rustling noises, the sighing of the wind in the trees, the swish of disturbed dead leaves, all worked on our frayed nerves.

Then we had a terrible shock. Staring at a clump of trees, I distinctly saw a white figure flitting about in the gloom. Seizing my companion's arm, and wondering whether I should run forward or back, I stared at the apparition while the photographer frantically attempted to focus his camera, let off a flashlight, throw off any detaining hand, and erect his tripod all at once.

He failed miserably, but by the time he had disentangled from the legs of his tripod, and picked up scattered pieces of camera, I had seen the joke. For the 'apparition' was the rectory maid, coming to ask us if we would take coffee.

Then, when the maid had gone, stillness again, until, after having examined numerous tree stumps, which looked, at a distance, rather like nuns, we decided to abandon the vigil."

In the next installment, the news correspondent brings in the expert. 

Daily Mirror - Wednesday 12th June 1929;

Haunted Room in a Rectory.

Laying The 'Ghost.'

Psychic Expert to Investigate a Suffolk Mystery.

"One of the leading British psychological experts is to investigate the mystery of the 'ghost' of Borley Rectory, Suffolk.

Harry Price and Friend

In an effort to lay the ghost by the heels, and either prove or disprove its existence, Mr Harry Price, honorary director of the National Laboratory of Psychic Research, is to conduct the investigation. Mr Price is famous in this country and in America for his research work and his exposures of exhibitions of psychic 'phenomena.'

Striking confirmation of the weird experiences of the present and past occupants of the rectory is forthcoming from Mrs E. Myford, of Newport, Essex. In a letter to the Daily Mirror Mrs Myford reveals that forty three years ago, when she was a maid at the rectory, similar phenomena were quite openly discussed in the rectory and neighbourhood.

'Much of my youth was spent in Borely and district, with my grandparents,' writes Mrs Myford, 'and it was common talk that the rectory was haunted.' 

'Many people declared that they had seen figures walking at the bottom of the garden. I once worked at the rectory, forty three years ago, as an under nursemaid, but I only stayed there a month, because the place was so weird.'

Something In Slippers.

'The other servants told me my bedroom was haunted, but I took little notice of them because I knew two of the ladies of the house had been sleeping there before me. But when I had been there a fortnight something awakened me in the dead of night. Someone was walking down the passage towards the door of my room, and the sound they made suggested that the were wearing slippers.

As the head nurse always called me at six o'clock, I thought it must be she, but nobody entered the room, and I suddenly thought of the 'ghost.' The next morning I asked the other four maids if they had come to my room, and they all said they had not and tried to laugh me out of it.

Borley Rectory Drawing Room

But I was convinced that somebody or something in slippers had been along that corridor, and finally I became so nervous that I left. My grandparents would never let me pass the building after dark, and I would never venture into the garden or the wood at dusk.'"

The vigil of the Psychic Researcher.

Daily Mirror - Friday 14th June 1929;

Weird Night in 'Haunted House.'

Strange Rappings.

"There can no longer be any doubt that Borley Rectory is the scene of some remarkable incidents.

Last night Mr Harry Price, director of the National Laboratory for Psychical Research, his secretary, Miss Lucy Kaye, the Rev. G. E. Smith, rector of Borley, Mrs Smith and myself were witnesses to a series of remarkable happenings.

All these things occurred without assistance of any medium or any kind of apparatus, and Mr Price, who is a research expert not a spiritualist, expressed himself puzzled and astonished at the results. To give the phenomena a thorough test, however, he is arranging for a seance to be held in the rectory with the aid of a prominent London medium. 

The first remarkable happening was the dark figure I saw in the garden. We were standing in the summer house at dusk watching the lawn, when I saw the 'apparition' which so many claim to have seen, but owing to the deep shadows it was impossible for one to discern any definite shape or attire.

Sunday Sun (Newcastle) - Sunday 22nd December 1929 

Falling Glass.

But something certainly moved along the path on the other side of the lawn, and although I immediately ran across to investigate, it had vanished when I reached the spot. Then, as we strolled towards the rectory discussing the figure, there came a terrific crash, and a pane of glass from the roof of a porch hurtled to the ground.

We ran inside and upstairs to inspect the rooms immediately over the porch, but found nobody.

A few seconds later we were descending the stairs, Miss Kaye leading and Mr Price behind me, when something flew past my head, hit an iron stove in the hall, and shattered.

With our flashlamps we inspected the broken pieces and found them to be sections of a red vase which, with its companion, had been standing on the mantlepiece of what is known as the blue room and which we had just searched.

Mr Price was the only person behind me and he could not have thrown the vase at such an angle to pass my head and hit the stove below.

Raps On Mirror.

We sat on the stairs in darkness for a few minutes and just as I turned to Mr Price to ask him whether we had waited long enough something hit my head. This turned out to be a common mothball, and had dropped from apparently the same place as the vase.

I laughed at the idea of a spirit throwing mothballs about, but Mr Price said that such methods of attracting attention were not unfamiliar to investigators.

Finally came the most astonishing event of the night. From one o'clock until nearly four this morning all of us, including the rector and his wife, actually questioned the spirit or whatever it was and received at times the most emphatic answers.

A cake of soap on the washstand was lifted and thrown heavily onto a china jug standing on the floor with such force that the soap was deeply marked. All of us were at he other end of the room when this happened. Our questions which we asked out loud, were answered by raps apparently made on the back of a mirror in the room, and it must be remembered that no medium or spiritualist was present."

Daily Mirror - Saturday 15th June 1929;

Seance Held in Haunted House.

How Questions Were Asked and Answered.

"An informal seance at the 'haunted' Borley Rectory as a preliminary to an orthodox one with a medium produced astonishing results. This took place in the presence of the rector and his wife, Mr Price, Miss Lucy Kaye, and myself.

Mysterious replies to our questions were given by means of one, two or three raps on the back of a mirror in the room. Light in the room made no difference.

The replies came clearly and distinctly. At times we lit the lamp and sat around the mirror, with everybody in the room in full sight, but there was no hesitation about the answers.

Emphatic Yes.

The only unsatisfactory feature was our inability to get a complete message by spelling out the alphabet; the 'spirit' was either a bad scholar or was speaking in Hindustani.  Our first attempts were naturally to ascertain the identity of the rapper. We asked if it were the nun in the legend or one of the grooms, and a single rap denoting 'no' was the reply.

Rev. H. Bull

Then I suggested to Mr Price that he should ask whether it were the Rev. H. Bull, the late rector. I had hardly finished the name when three hurried taps came on the mirror, which meant an emphatic 'yes.'

The following dialogue then took place, sometimes with the lamp lit, sometimes in darkness; 

'Is it your footsteps one heard in this house?' - 'Yes.'

'Do you wish to worry or annoy anybody here?' - 'No.'

'Do you object to anybody now living in the house?' - 'No.'

Smoking During Seance.

'Do you merely wish to attract attention?' -'Yes.'

'Are you worried about something that you should have done when you were alive?' -'No.'

'If we had a medium here, do you think you could tell us what is the matter?' - 'Yes.'

Here followed a series of questions dealing with the late Mr Bull's private affairs, to which no answer at all was received. The whole proceeding was entirely informal, and we even smoked and chatted as if we were in the rectory drawing room instead of the  room that is supposed to be haunted.

The worst part about these 'manifestations', from the rectors point of view, is that Borley is fast becoming a showplace for the whole of Suffolk and Essex. Crowds of visitors arrive on foot and by motor car to see the alleged haunted house."

The Daily Mirror's last article on the subject of Borley Rectory came on the 17th June.

Harry Price

Daily Mirror - Monday 17th June 1929;

Shy Ghost of Borley Rectory.

Rowdy Visitors.

"Borley's ghost failed to rise to the occasion at the specially arranged seance in the now famous rectory. While apparently willing to demonstrate at an informal sitting, it flatley declined to exhibit itself before two mediums brought down specially from London.

Mr C. Glover Botham and Mr Harry Collard, the mediums, waited anxiously for some phenomena to occur, and sat sometimes in darkness and sometimes with the lamp lighted. The rectory continues to receive the unwelcome attentions of hundreds of curious people, and at night the headlights of their cars may be seen for miles around.

Rectors Appeal.

One 'enterprising' firm even ran a motorcoach to the rectory, inviting the public to 'come and see the Borley ghost', while cases of rowdyism were frequent, the noise at times being plainly heard inside the rectory.

'I have no intention of forsaking the rectory because of what has happened,' the Rev. G. E. Smith told me today, 'but may I appeal to people to be a little more considerate when they come here?'

In view of the fact that according to the answers received at the first informal 'seance', the 'spirit' was that of the Rev. H. Bull, the late rector of Borley, the following letter is interesting;-

'In 1922 I resided for some weeks at the rectory with the Rev. H. Bull,' writes Mr J. Harley of Nottingham Place W1 'and I distinctly recall him assuring me that on many occasions he had personal communications with spirits.

In his opinion the only way for a spirit if ignored, to get into touch with the living persons, was by means of manifestation causing some violent physical reaction, such as the breaking of glass or shattering of other and similar material elements.

The rector also declared that on his death, if he were discontented, he would adopt this method of communicating with the inhabitants of the rectory.'"

The Smiths and the Foysters relax in the garden.

The Smiths left Borley Rectory in the July of 1929 and the building was left empty for a while. Between 1930 to 1935 the Rev. Foyster and family moved in, they experienced a variety of poltergeist activity during their time there, all of their experiences were recorded and sent on to Harry Price.

Throughout the 1930's Borley Rectory was a magnet for all those interested in the supernatural. Between 1935 and 1937 the rectory was empty, Harry Price eventually took over a year long rental of the property in May 1937 to carry on his investigation.

Price took out an advertisement in The Times for "responsible persons of leisure and intelligence" to work shifts observing and recording and paranormal activity. More of the same occurred, a nun called Marianne was contacted through a seance session. Another spirit called Sunex Amures was contacted who gave a threatening response, the bones of a murder victim would be found, and apparently the rectory would be burnt down at 9 o'clock on the night of the 27th March 1938, it wasn't.

Fire!

On the 27th February 1939 Captain W. H. Gregson moved into the rectory, while unpacking boxes he had an accident.........

Nottingham Evening Post - Tuesday 28th February 1939.

Capt. W. H. Gregson

No Ghost This Time.

Most Haunted House On Fire.

"Borley Rectory, Sudbury, Suffolk, reputed to be 'the most haunted house in England,' was badly damaged by fire today.

An oil lamp was upset in the main hall, and before the fire brigade arrived the ground floor and upper storeys were involved. For the last 50 years there have been reports of strange happenings at the rectory. The figure of a nun passing through the rooms, strange lights in windows, and articles of furniture moving, have been frequently reported.

Because of these happenings it has been untenanted since 1930, and has only just been reopened. (Not so, as we have seen.) In 1927 the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation took over the house for several months, but never solved the mystery. (1937, and it was Laboratory of Psychic Research!)

Mr Harry Price, secretary of the council, afterwards stated 'as a scientist I can guarantee you a ghost.'"

The house was ruined, the roof had fallen in and the damage was beyond repair, in May 1939 a well attended psychic fete arranged by the London Ghost Club was held in the grounds, the event was covered by the BBC.

In September 1939 the second world war broke out and the public's attention was drawn away from ghostly manifestations. In 1943 two bones that were thought to be the remains of a young woman were found in the cellar and given a Christian burial, many thought they were the bones of a pig, in 1944 the rectory was demolished.

In 1946 Price would publish his findings in his book "The End Of Borley Rectory." On the 29th March 1948 Harry Price died, almost immediately doubters of his investigations surfaced, accusing him of faking his findings and embellishing his descriptions of paranormal activity. Books refuting the findings of Price have been published ever since.

But the legend of Borley Rectory was not finished. 

Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 26th August 1949.

The Vanishing Lady.

New Ghost Seen At Borley Rectory.

"Another ghost has been seen at Borley Rectory, by a clergyman waiting to conduct a funeral service. He said he had been waiting in the vestry and then went to the west door to look for the Rector.

As he walked towards the porch he saw the figure of a girl of about 20, with a black veil over her face. As he looked at her she vanished.

The Rev. A. C. Henning, Rector of Borley, said on Tuesday that hitherto this other clergyman had disbelieved stories that Borley was haunted. On the same day it was found that the key, kept hidden in the pupit, had been moved."

The site of Borley Rectory remains a peculiar place, whether it is the history embedded in our conscious or something a bit more unreal is one I'll leave to the individual reading this, for me, I visited the area many years ago and wasn't unhappy to leave, I wanted to explore the place as I'd read about it as a child in The World Of The Unknown; Ghosts, but there was an unwelcoming ambience, maybe it was just me, who knows.

Vlad The Impaler - The Reckoning 1462 - 1476.

The Trap.

November 1462. Having given the Ottoman army a thoroughly miserable time Vlad Dracula now found himself in the cold and devoid of a throne. He and his loyal troops were stationed at Oratia Castle at Rucar, there Vlad waited for King Matthias to reach Brasov, once there talks were stilted.

Brasov

Vlad suggested that Matthias give him some troops and with his own they would have enough to remove Radu from the Wallachian throne, Matthias agreed and gave him troops under the command of Jan Jiskra. They marched to Oratia where Dracula's men were preparing for the attack on Radu, when Dracula's men moved off on their long march south the trap was sprung. It had been the plan all along, separate Vlad from his men and arrest him.

A Stone Relief of Jan Jiskra

His arrest by Jan Jiskra, a mercenary and former Hussite leader, had come as a shock, and being taken as a prisoner to Brasov was just humiliating.

The Papal States were incensed and other European countries, who were worried about the rise of the Ottoman empire, were at a loss as to why there had been no crusade. Most of these countries were feuding amongst themselves anyway, or were having disputes with their own citizens, hardly a united front by any means.

The reasons for his arrest were not forthcoming, three forged letters, known as the Rothel letters, had been presented as coming from Dracula. They were addressed to Sultan Mehmed II, Mahmud Pasha, and Stephen The Great, and promising to give Transylvania to the Ottomans if he was put back on the Wallachian throne instead of his brother Radu. But apart from this flimsy excuse there was nothing, even King Matthias's court historian Antonio Bonfini could not clarify this act.

Oratia Castle

Once behind the walls of Brasov the hated Impaler was handed over to a Hungarian bodyguard, King Matthias wanted his prize alive and well.

Incarceration. 

Dracula did not stay long at Brasov, the Hungarians took him to a fortress named Alba Lulia, then on to Cluj, Oradea, over the border into Hungary at Debrecen, and on to Buda just in time for Christmas. Once he was out of the sight of the Transylvanian Germans his confinement became far more comfortable, but at first he was incarcerated at Vac

Few official records exist for Vlad's time as a prisoner, and like much of Dracula's story there are several legends. According to the Russian Ambassador Fedor Kuritsyn he was initially held in the prison at Vac, north of Budapest. Here Dracula's odd behaviour was chronicled by Kuritsyn;

"It is said of him that even while in jail he could not cure himself of the evil habit of catching mice and having birds bought at the marketplace, so that he could punish them by impalement. He cut off the heads of some of the birds; others he stripped of their feathers and let loose."

By way of confirmation of this story the Bishop Of Erlau, Gabriele Rangoni wrote several years later;

"Unable to forget his wickedness, he caught mice and, cutting them into pieces, stuck them on small pieces of wood, just as he had stuck men on stakes."

Visegrad in the 15th Century

His imprisonment doesn't seem to have lasted very long as he was soon in Visegrad, this is where King Matthias Corvinus had his sprawling summer palace, and it was here that Vlad Dracula was kept on house arrest for the rest of his confinement.

King Matthias would entertain many guests and greet many envoys at Visegrad, dignitaries from the crowned heads of Europe and Asia would visit and be greeted by Matthias and Vlad. Delegates from the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II were especially nervous when in the presence of Kaziklu Bey, the Impaler Lord. Vlad had become a living legend, King Matthias's demon that he could let loose at any time of his choosing.

In 1463 King Matthias was finally crowned with the crown of St. Stephen of Hungary, he had bought it from Frederick III for 80,000 gold crowns, how much of this was Papal money given for an anti Ottoman crusade is not specified. The festivities were magnificent, sat in the most prominent seats reserved for the nobility was Vlad Dracula, soon after in 1464 the crusading Pope Pius II died, he was a bitterly disappointed man as none of the Christian states had taken up the mantle, except one, and he was a prisoner. The incoming Pope Paul II openly chastised Matthias Corvinus for using the money given for a crusade to buy a hat.

Meanwhile in Wallachia Viovode Radu was under pressure from the Moldavians, in 1465 they attacked the fortress of Chilia, back in 1462 they had been repulsed but this time Stephen The Great was triumphant.

This would cause great resentment from the Hungarian court, so much so that by 1467 the Moldavians and Hungarians were at war. In that December at the battle of Baia Stephen would again be victorious, although his army was smaller the losses on both side were heavy, it was by the skin of his teeth that King Matthias, although severely wounded, was able to escape, a Moldavian cavalry commander called Isaia failed to attack, for this he was executed. The rear guard commanded by Stephen Bathory killed many Moldavians and captured 14 of their battle flags, for this the Hungarians also claimed victory.

In 1468 Stephen The Great raided into Transylvania, and in 1469 a peace treaty was negotiated.

In 1470 hostilities broke out between Viovode Stephen and Viovode Radu, Radu was never known for his battlefield prowess, unlike his brother Vlad. Radu began by raiding into Moldavia with his Ottoman infused army, Stephen raided back, all quite low key until 1473 when Stephen launched a campaign to remove Radu.

At the battle of Vodnu, west of Bucharest Radu's army with Ottoman help was routed by the Moldavians, Radu fled to Bucharest, within days Bucharest fell and Radu ran again. With total victory at hand Stephen placed Basarab Laiota on the throne of Wallachia.

Release.

The Ambras Portrait, Painted at This Time In Pest.

Back in Hungary Vlad had been enjoying himself, being quite the celebrity he had had his portrait painted, he moved from Visegrad to Pest and lived the life of a prince. His relations with King Matthias improved dramatically when Vlad married Ilona Szilagyi, daughter of Michael Szilagyi, Matthias's cousin and Vlad's old ally against the Transylvanian Germans. It is suggested that Vlad also converted form Eastern Orthodox to Roman Catholicism, but this is not proven. 

One story about his life in Pest sees the old Vlad coming to the fore, according to Kuritsyn;

"A criminal had sought refuge in Dracula's courtyard. Officials of the King, chasing him, came into Dracula's courtyard in search of the escapee. But Dracula reacted to this intrusion into his private domain with sword in hand. 

He cut off the head of the chief officer who was holding the criminal and let the criminal go free. His men fled in terror and complained to a judge, informing him what had happened. This judge and his men went to the Hungarian King to lodge a complaint against Dracula. 

The King then sent a messenger to Dracula, who was told to ask the Wallachian 'Why have you committed such a crime?' 

King Matthias Corvinus

And Dracula replied, 'I did not commit any crime. It is the police official who committed suicide. Anyone will perish in this way, should he, like a thief, invade the house of a great ruler such as myself. If this man had come to me first and had explained the situation to me, and if the criminal had then been found in my own home, I myself would have delivered the criminal over to him and would have pardoned him.' 

When the King was told about this, he began to laugh and marvel at the candor of his new relative."

With Viovode Basarab Laiota on the Wallachian throne a problem had arisen, even though it was Stephen of Moldavia that had put him there Laiota's loyalty was very much with Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. King Matthias now recognised Vlad Dracula as the rightful Voivode of Wallachia, it was 1474 and the Ottoman army had it's sights once again on Europe.

Voivode.

In January 1475 news reached Vlad that his brother Radu was dead, that June Vlad was in Sibiu, Transylvania with his wife and children, maybe it was a little soon for safety sake as Vlad was back in Pest by mid September. Relations between Vlad and Brasov were still very bad, and Brasov's relations with Laiota's pro Ottoman Wallachia was very tense. 

The Ottoman army was pressing Stephen of Moldavia , but he had taken a leaf out of Vlad's book, the Ottomans found poisoned wells, burned crops, no population and constant hit and run raids.

Thinking they had brought the Moldavian army to battle they would get into battle array, the Moldavian army would just faded away in front of the Ottomans, tired and weary they would get back on the march only to be hit again and again from hidden Modavian positions.

Finally the Ottomans reached the village of Vaslui, it was not burnt, it had heaps of provisions, it was just across the river Barlad and ready for attacking.

The Ottomans made ready to cross the only bridge through a freezing fog, as they crossed the Moldavians open up with arrows and cannon, as the Ottoman cavalry were crossing the bridge collapsed, it is a tribute to the skill and bravery of the Ottoman army that they did get across, form up and attack the Moladvians.

The Battle of Vaslui

The Moldavian army withdrew further down the valley, either side the hills rose up, the valley was quite marshy and not suited to cavalry. More and more men crossed the river and battled down the valley. Stephen's trap was about to spring, as the Ottomans were busy in the valley his main force thundered down the flanking hills cutting the Ottoman van off completely. This broke the Ottomans who turned and fled, a general rout ensued, the Wallachians under the command of Basarab Laiota deserted their Ottoman comrades and went home. This defeat was huge, the Ottomans lost approximately 45,000 men.

The Ottomans were harried all the way to Wallachia, there Basarab Laiota's treachery knew no bounds as he ordered his men to attack the Ottoman stragglers, Laiota now threw in his lot with the Moldavians and Hungarians. 

Stephen of Moldavia immediately wrote to King Matthias asking for Vlad to replace Laiota as the latter had proved unreliable, Matthias agreed making Dracula a Lieutenant in the Black army. But matthias had other plans for the Impaler, he wanted to blunt the Ottoman incursions into Bosnia.

Voivode Basarab Laiota

By some miracle King Matthias managed to get Papal funding for his "crusade", at the head of a 5,000 strong army Vlad Dracula and his lieutenant Gregorevi headed for Srebrenica. 

During their monthly market Vlad's men entered the city dressed as Turks, the attack was swift and deadly, soon the city was in flames and the Ottoman garrison were all impaled, according to Gabriele Rangoni;

"He tore the limbs off the Turkish prisoners and placed their parts on stakes, displaying the private parts of his victims, so that when the Turks see this they will run away in fear."

In Wallachia Basarab Laiota was once again the Sultans man, adding 10,000 troops to the Ottoman 150,000, along with approximately 30,000 Tartars that began attacking Moldavia form the east. The Tartars were decimated, the Ottoman army captured the Danube basin and were brought to battle by the 20,000 strong Moldavians at Valea Alba, this very one sided affair ended with horrible casualties on both sides, but the Ottomans won the day, Stephen fled to Poland to build another army.

The Ottoman invasion of Moldavia soon faded out, Mehmed had had his revenge. Matthias had seen Laiota's treachery and now decided it was time he was gone, Vlad Dracula was now in ascendancy.

Stephen Bathory

November 1476. Assembled near Brasov, Transylvania, was an army of 25,000 men under the command of Stephen Bathory, Vlad's army of Hungarians, Transylvanians, Wallachians and Serbs were poised to attack. The Brasovians had forgiven Dracula for his wars and atrocities of 1458 - 1460 after being promised extensive trading rights and commercial concessions.

Laiota's army was of some 18,000 mainly Ottomans and a few boyars and their men, the confrontation occurred near the town of Rucar, Dracula was successful but the battle was costly with around 10,000 casualties on both sides.

At the same time Stephen and his revitalised Moldavians drove out the Ottomans from the north east of Wallachia, it didn't take long for Dracula's forces to drive out any resistance and by the 8th November he was back in his capital at Targoviste. Once Stephen arrived there a pledge to begin the great crusade against the Turks was made by Vlad Dracula, Stephen of Moldavia and Stephen Bathory.

Stephen The Great

The combined forces now swept down to Bucharest, all the boyars joined the victorious army, they entered Bucharest on the 16th November and Vlad was made Voivode on the 26th. All the crowned heads of Europe turned in his direction, it looked like the great crusade would happen.

At the beginning of December Basarab Laiota was back challenging the throne of Wallachia, with an army made up of mainly Ottomans including the famous Janissaries, in a small engagement north east of Bucharest, Vlad Dracula was killed.

According to legend the engagement was near the Witches Pond in the Boldu Creteasca forest, although the events are clouded now by both history and myth. Whether by ambush, accident, or treachery who knows, the headless and mangled corpse of the Viovode was found, it is said, by monks from Snagov, who took his body to be interred in that famous monastery to which he had been a generous patron.

Legend has it that his head was taken to Constantinople to prove the dreaded Impaler was really dead, once there it was placed on a spike for all to see. There is no evidence for this or anything else in the death of Dracula, in Romania to this day Vlad Dracula is a national hero.

Snagov Monastery

The Author at Snagov Monastery

Vlad The Impaler and The Ottoman Invasion 1462.

Voivode Vlad III Dracula

Introduction.

Following Dracula's audacious and vicious attack south of the Danube in the winter of 1461 to 1462 a swift and deadly response form the Ottoman empire was inevitable.

According to the Byzantine Greek historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles, who wrote an eyewitness account,  Sultan Mehmed II had assembled a force of approximately 150,000 (although more likely to be approximately 80,000 to 100,000) men to march north on Wallachia. The only Ottoman army of this size in recent memory had been the one assembled to lay siege to Constantinople in 1453. The size of this army suggests that Mehmed was not taking any chances, regime change was coming and the Sultan's favourite, Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome would be Voivode at Targoviste.

Sultan Mehmed II

The plan was to land a force at Braila, situated on the Danube, this was the principal port of Wallachia. The main army would cross the Danube near Giurgiu and press home the attack on Targoviste, skirting the Transylvanian border the army would head east to Braila. Terminating Vlad Dracula as quickly as possible and securing Radu as Voivode. Hopefully not entering Transylvania would stop any Hungarian aggression and a huge Ottoman army moving east would negate any Moldavian interference.

On the Wallachian side Dracula's army numbered between 20,000 and 30,000, a mixture of peasant levies, conscripts, mercenaries, the retinues of loyal Boyars and a small standing army of professional soldiers. They did possess a small amount of firepower, handguns and small culverins, nothing like the bombards and siege guns the Ottomans were dragging north.

A chronicler serving under Vlad II Dracul (Dracula's father) stated that Sultan Murad II (Mehmed II father) went hunting with more retainers than Vlad had in his army, this could easily be said of the 1462 invasion. To oppose the Ottomans in a set piece battle would be suicide, Dracula had to plan a different campaign and hope for Hungarian intervention, the pressure was not only on Vlad, it was also weighing on King Matthias Corvinus.

Reaping The Whirlwind.

The war began late in May, an Ottoman fleet sailed up the Danube and successfully attacked Braila, holding that town for future needs.

Meanwhile to the south west the Ottoman army was nearing the Danube, Dracula's men had destroyed many of the crossing places and Giurgiu was in Wallachian hands. 

The crossing was made at Nikopol on the 4th June, local boatmen who were no friends of Dracula attempted to ferry Ottoman troops to the far bank, the Wallachians fired into the oncoming host repulsing them with heavy casualties. The second attempt was done at night and a landing was forced, the fighting was brutal, the Ottomans even dug trenches to counter the Wallachian cavalry, but eventually Ottoman fire support came into play and the Wallachians were soon forced to withdraw under a barrage of arrows and cannon shot.

The Ruins of Turnu Fortress

A bridgehead was soon established and Turnu castle taken, the castle had been built in 1417 by Mircea The Old (Dracula's grandfather) but had soon fallen into Turkish hands, they in turn had lost it during the battle of Nikopol in the winter campaign of 1461 to 1462.

With the Ottomans on Wallachian soil the tactics had to change, Sultan Mehmed wanted to drive straight for the capital Targoviste, a journey of 173km (approx 107.5 miles) across bad roads and forest, although remarkably flat terrain it would still be a trial of stamina to get a huge amount of armoured men and the artillery train through. Also it was June and the temperature was rising.

The citadel of Bucharest came under attack as the invaders drove north, quite a new fortification, it is first mentioned in documents from 1459 and it was mentioned to be a residence of Vlad Dracula. The Ottomans failed to take Bucharest, they also failed in their attempt to take the island fortress at Snagov, the main prize was always Targoviste, nothing else really mattered. 

For Mehmed and his men this was turning into a living nightmare, the guerrilla tactics of Dracula were terrifying. Hit and run skirmishes were becoming more brazen, the Ottomans did not know from where the next attack would come.

Every village and hamlet was deserted, the wells poisoned with animal carcasses, crops were burned and livestock driven off, nothing was left for the invaders. 

People suffering with tuberculosis, leprosy and bubonic plague were inserted into the Ottoman camps, an early version of germ warfare that was partially successful as bubonic plague did spread within their ranks.

Water became a premium in the scorching heat, and at night the inhospitable landscape belonged to Dracula.

On the road to Targoviste evidence of Dracula's favourite pastime dotted the landscape, impaled Turkish captives or their sympathisers reminded the Ottomans of the awful fate of failure in this campaign, could it possibly get any worse. A Wallachian soldier captured by the Turks was at first bribed to give information, then tortured, he gave nothing away, Sultan Mehmed then said to the soldier "If your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world."

For Dracula the campaign wasn't going very well, desertions were commonplace and he was losing ground fast. Even though he was picking them off there was just too many, he needed to think of something spectacular, something to shake the Ottoman morale and have them scurrying back over the Danube. Word had it that the Hungarians were finally on the move after pleadings from the Venetian ambassador, the Black Army was coming, but would they be in time.

Night Attack.

The battle with torches by Theodor Aman (1891)

On the night of the 17th June Dracula executed one of the most incredible attacks of his reign, an assault on the Ottoman camp with the intention of killing Sultan Mehmed II.

Vlad did his own reconnoiter within the camp, dressed as an Ottoman he walked around observing where the different parts of the army were, and also where the tent of the Sultan was.

That night "three hours after sunset" torches were lit and bugles sounded as 7,000 to 10,000 horsemen thundered towards the camp. 

There were several attacks from various directions, however, a second wave failed to materialise, a Boyar called Gales fled into the night taking with him all hope of an Ottoman rout.

The Sultan was not killed, the Ottomans did not run, but they were shaken to the core.

According to an Ottoman Janissary called Konstantin Mihailovic, a veteran of the battle who wrote of his experience that night;

"Although the Romanian Prince had a small army, we always advanced with great caution and fear and spent nights sleeping in ditches. But even in this manner we were not safe; for during one night the Romanians struck at us. They massacred horses, camels, and several thousand Turks. When the Turks had retreated in the face of the enemy, we (the Janissaries) repelled the enemy and killed them. But the Sultan had incurred great losses."

Sultan Mehmed II

The Janissaries pursued the Wallachians and killed many, the attack was over by four the next morning. That day the Ottomans broke camp gathered their shattered nerves and marched on to Targoviste.

The Forest of the Impaled.

When the Ottomans finally reached the city of Targoviste on the 21st June they found it deserted with the gates wide open. But, Dracula had left them a little surprise, there were the rotting cadavers of 20,000 impaled people. 

On the highest stake, still in his now tattered fine clothing was Hamza Bey, Mehmed's friend and chief envoy who had been captured by Dracula just before his Bulgarian invasion. 

Such a high ranking execution may have been in revenge for the execution by the Ottomans of Michael Szilagyi, Vlad's friend and ally in the wars with the German Transylvanians. Szilagyi had been captured in Serbia in 1460, his men slaughtered and Szilagyi taken to Constantinople and sawn in half.

So large was this execution site that the Ottoman army marched for half an hour through rows and rows of stinking corpses.

Chalkokondyles mentions the Sultans response to this horror;

"The Sultan's army entered into the area of the impalements.....There were large stakes there on which, as it was said, about twenty thousand men, women, and children had been spitted, quite a sight for the Turks and the Sultan himself.

The Sultan was seized with amazement and said that it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who has done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and it's people. And he said that a man who has done such things was worth much.

The rest of the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes. There were infants too afixed to their mothers on the stakes, and birds had made nests in their entrails."

That night, his nerves at breaking point, the Sultan ordered a camp made, with a very deep trench dug around it. The next day the Turks broke camp and began the long march to Braila, but Vlad had already moved to the east as any hopes that Stephen the Great of Moldavia would be coming to Dracula's aid were dashed, he had laid siege to the Wallachian fortress of Chilia, a fortress on the Danube east of Braila.

Chilia Fortress

Stephen the Great was acting in his own interests, had Chilia fallen to the Ottomans it would have been disastrous for Moldavia, as it happened the Wallachians defeated the Moldavians, Stephen the Great was even wounded in the foot by a piece of shrapnel, he left before Vlad arrived.

Vlad had left 6,000 men hidden in the forests to harass any unwary Ottoman forces, as the army moved out from Targoviste the rearguard was attacked and severely beaten but reinforcements arrived and drove off the Wallachians who lost approximately 2,000 men.

After his victory over the Moldavians Vlad turned his army of 7,000 around and marched west back towards Targoviste. It was on this march that the two armies met at Buzau, the Wallachians attacked the worn out Ottomans but were repulsed with heavy casualties. 

The Ottomans carried on as planned and reached Braila on the 29th June, the town was torched, locals were rounded up as slaves, livestock was taken and the Ottomans left Wallachia. They reached Adrianople on the 11th July and had a great victory celebration on the 12th.

Aftermath.

Radu the Handsome

Mehmed II had left a sizeable Ottoman force with Radu The Handsome at Buzau, many boyars were now flocking to his standard as the prospect of another Ottoman invasion was unthinkable.

Even though Vlad had given the Ottomans a bloody nose he was losing control of what was left of his army.

So much for the Papal crusade, all that money poured into the Hungarian coffers was for nothing, after the slowest march in military history the Hungarians had barely moved through Transylvania.

As the new Viovode Radu now took up the anti Vlad banner and began to route out his supporters, Vlad's megre forces managed to defeat Radu twice at this time but the game was up.

View of Arges River From Poenari

Dracula, on the run in the Carpathian mountains is the stuff of legend, in one story it is said that his men tricked the Ottomans by shoeing their horses backwards, making them look in the wrong direction.

The fortress of Poenari is also mentioned during the search for Dracula, Radu's men laid siege to the castle and spread the rumour of Vlad's death, some say an arrow was shot through the window with a message tied to it, but that really is quite far fetched! Vlad's wife in a fit of grief threw herself off the battlements into the river Arges below.

In another legend Poenari is besieged and Vlad uses a secret route through the mountains to escape to the town of Arefu, where he is assisted to safety by the locals.

Poenari Castle

Colourful as these stories are the truth of the matter is that Radu was on the throne and Vlad was a fugitive.

Vlad entered Transylvania in the hope of joining forces with the Hungarians, unfortunately for him the Burghers of Brasov had recognised Radu as Viovode, in return Radu had payed 15,000 ducats in compensation for his brothers war. Vlad was arrested by King Matthias's men near Rucar, where he had executed Dan III two years before.

Matthias Corvinus with his Black Army

His arrest caused outrage in the Papal States, Matthias Corvinus needed a watertight excuse for locking up such a crusader, so three letters were forged. The letters were allegedly written by Vlad to Sultan Mehmed II, Mahmud Pasha, and Stephen The Great stating that he would join forces with the Ottomans and give them Transylvania if they put him back on the throne.

This was obviously nonsense, but it did the trick, Vlad Dracula was about to enter a confinement at the Hungarian court that would last for thirteen years.

Vlad The Impaler and the Bulgarian War 1461 - 1462.

Introduction.

It is 1461. With his northern border with Transylvania now secure, and the trade war with Brasov over, Vlad Dracula turned his attention to the Ottoman question. What would a war with the Sultan look like, how could a small principality like Wallachia take on the giant Turkish war machine with any chance of success.

Vlad III Dracula

Vlad and his brother Radu had grown up in the court of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II. They had been handed over by their father Vlad Dracul as hostages to make sure he stayed loyal to the Sultan. 

Both boys knew Murad's son Mehmed, they played, trained and were educated together. It was Mehmed as Sultan who put Vlad on the throne of Wallachia after the murders of his father and older brother Micrea in 1448.

 Even though this reign only lasted a couple of months he was only in this position due to his friendship with Mehmed.

Because of this time he spent with the Ottomans, and in particular Mehmed II, he knew how they thought and also how they fought. 

It was obvious that Vlad did not enjoy his six years with the Turks, he finally gained the throne properly in 1456 with Hungarian support. In 1460 a treaty was drawn up with the Turks restricting their entry into Wallachia, and any Wallachian adopting Islam would have to revert to Christianity when crossing back over the border, he had already stopped the yearly tribute payment to the Sultan in 1458. 

Sultan Mehmed II

This frustrated Mehmed, he ordered Vlad to come to Constantinople and pay homage to him, Vlad refused saying that his throne was at risk if he was to stay away from it for any length of time.

Part of the 1460 treaty was for the Turkish envoy to travel north from Giurgiu to Târgoviște to receive the tribute, when, in 1461, the tribute was still not forthcoming three envoys were sent to Dracula's court. 

While these envoys were in Vlad's presence he asked why they did him the dishonour of not removing their turbans, they remarked that they could only bare their heads in front of God, this, of course he knew all too well. 

Flying into a rage he executed his plan, the envoys were seized and their turbans were nailed to their heads, the message to Mehmed was loud and clear. 

Invasion.

Over the winter relations soured even further, Sultan Mehmed II sent his chief envoy Admiral Hamza Bey and Byzantine Turkophile Thomas Katabolenos with approximately 1,500 soldiers to Giurgiu on the Danube. Giurgiu was a border fortress built by Vlad's grandfather Mircea Cel Batran (The Old), it had been conquered by the Ottomans in 1419.

The Unfortunate Turkish Envoys.

Hamza Bey's mission was, on the face of it, a diplomatic entreaty to persuade Vlad to pay homage to Mehmed and smooth over their differences, in reality their mission was to capture the Impaler and take him to Constantinople in chains. Vlad found out their true purpose and came up with a plan that would shake the Ottoman empire to its core.

A meeting was arranged between Dracula and the Turkish envoy near Giurgiu, knowing this to be an ambush Dracula turned the tables, the Turkish force was decimated in a surprise attack, Hamza Bey and Thomas Katabolenos were captured along with many soldiers.

Chindia Tower, Targoviste.

They were taken as prisoners to Targoviste, there they were all impaled, Hamza Bey was impaled on a taller stake as became his exalted position as chief envoy. Meanwhile Vlad and his men had taken the uniforms and clothes of the Ottoman soldiers and rode for Giurgiu.

At the gates Vlad used his experience at the Ottoman court to trick the guards into thinking they were talking to an Ottoman officer and his men returning from the Hamza Bey expedition, they opened the gates and the garrison was slaughtered in a short sharp battle.

Through the January and February of 1462 in the freezing cold temperatures on both sides of the Danube Vlad's army went on the rampage. The fortress at Turnu fell just like Giurgiu, it had been in Ottoman hands since 1417. Splitting into smaller groups of raiders they spread terror across approximately 800 kilometres of Ottoman held territory. 

Singling out Ottoman settlements and garrisons the army laid waist to town after town, burning, mutilating and impaling all they could capture and recording their gruesome death tolls to specially appointed officials.

They raided the southern bank of the Danube from Giurgiu to Nicopolis, and laid siege to the fortress of Zishtova. They destroyed potential crossing points for any Ottoman army in pursuit, many Christian Bulgarians were given sanctuary in Wallachia while all Ottoman sympathisers and soldiers were impaled.

Soon the Wallachian army was back on home ground and preparations were made for the inevitable Ottoman attack. Vlad Dracula was very satisfied with his campaign, he had struck a blow for Christianity against the dreaded Ottomans, surely this must show the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and the Kings and Emperors of Europe that the long awaited and Papal financed crusade had finally begun.

King Matthias Corvinus

A letter sent to King Matthias from Dracula, dated the 11th February 1462 states;

"At Giurgiu the Turks opened the gates at the shouts from our men, thinking that only their men would get inside, but ours, mixing together with them, entered and conquered the fortress, which we burned down. 

..... and we killed the men and women, old and young, who lived from Oblucita to Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, to Rahova, which is near Chilia, down to the villages of Samovit and Ghigen, 23,884 Turks and Bulgarians in all, not including those who were burned in their houses and those whose heads were not presented to our officials."

Next Dracula lists the death toll for each place visited by his Wallachian host;

"First, in the places called Oblucita and Novoselo there were killed 1,350 and 6,840 at Darstor, Cartal and Dridopotrom; likewise, 343 at Orsova and 840 were killed at Vectrem; 630 were killed at Turtucaia; likewise, 210 were killed at Marotin; 6,414 were killed at Giurgiu on both sides of the river, and the fortress taken.

An Artists Impression Of Guirgui

The commander of the fortress was killed and Hamza Beg was captured, the commander of Nicopolis was captured and beheaded and most of the Turks there were killed with him.

Likewise, 384 were killed at Turnu, Batin and Novigrad; at Shistov and in two other villages near it 410 were killed, the crossing point at Nicopolis was burned and completely destroyed, the same at Samnovit; and at Ghighen 1,138 were killed; at Rahova 1,460 were killed, and the crossing point destroyed.

All the above places where there were crossing points, they were burned and destroyed, the people, men, women, and children, and babies were killed, and in all these places nothing remained. And in the above are included only those whose heads or signs were brought to our officials who were everywhere, but those who were not presented to them, or who were burned in their houses, could not be counted, because there were so many."

Sultan Mehmed II the conqueror of Constantinople in 1453 had set his eye on an invasion of Italy, the Papal States had grave concerns and by 1462 they were convinced an invasion was imminent. Money was pouring into the war coffers of King Matthias II, the black army of Hungary was one of the most up to date forces in the world at that time. 

Now that the Sultan had been distracted by Vlad Dracula the Italians could breathe a little easier, this would be the optimum time for a crusade, Dracula was depending on it, the Ottoman war machine now had its sights on Wallachia.

Postscript.

In 2019 an archeological dig at Zishtova Fortress in Svishtov, Bulgaria uncovered several cannon balls dated to the siege in 1462, these balls were fired from small culverine cannons that typically saw service in the 15th century.