"Gedicht Ueber Den Woiwoden Wlad Drakul" is a work of propaganda by the German Meistersinger Michael Beheim. Written and performed during Vlad Dracula's lifetime, it was a great success, everyone wanted to hear of the dreadful deeds performed by the infamous Dracula. This epic song would be the blueprint for the later pamphlet Dracole Waida, printed in Nuremberg in 1488.
In the text Beheim uses several spellings of "Dracula", these include Trakle, Tracol, Dracol and Drakul, I have used Drakul throughout.
A Poem About Voivode Vlad Drakul - Michael Beheim 1463.
Of a tyrant named Drakul,
voivode of Wallachia.
The very greatest tyrant
that I have ever known
upon all this earth,
Under the wide heavens,
Since the world was new,
there can never be one worse:
of him now I will recite.
He was called Drakul Waida,
and Wallachia stood under his rule.
His father also was a lord of the land,
a mighty voivode and stern,
and carried out his rule with tyranny,
also with wickedness and misdeed,
therefore his head was cut off so that
his power was broken.
A lord there was, his father,
King Matthias of Hungary, lord,—
János Hunyadi, so he was called,—
governor of Hungary.
He had this voivode put to death,
the same son, whose name was
Drakul, and his brother with him (Radu).
They had sworn oaths to him, then they
had pledged with unanimous voice;
they had promised and sworn, that they
would give themselves to the Christian faith
and would protect and uphold it.
The year that one writes and counts
from Christ our Lord’s birth
fourteen hundred years and fifty-six thereafter,
when the same Drakul was chosen and exalted
as ruler and lord of the entire land of Wallachia
therefore, therein to sow and pervert.
And as he went into that land all the wickedness,
vice, and shame, as anyone may well reckon:
First of all he had Lassla the lord killed
with his own noble kin.
The same Lassla, who was also once
lord in Wallachia —
Drakul came upon him treacherously
with disgrace, shame, and suffering.
After this he left scarcely
an area or even a whole district unburned.
He laid waste and devastated;
these were villages and also market towns,
of which I will name some: Târgșor was one,
another was Neudorf, as it was called,
the third was Haliczmarket, which was known
as the general market of the land.
And he completely burned Peckendorf in the
land of Wurzen, with men and also with women.
And of all the people, great and small,
whoever was found therein, he left none alive;
What he did not burn, he had cut down and
thus he carried away with him children, women, and men.
He went into Wallachia and had them all in a row
impaled and also murdered.
Little children he newly
had from their mothers torn away
and cruelly impaled. He never held peace again;
and cruelly impaled. He never held peace again;
many of his men-at-arms and serfs were impaled.
Oh! many young boys from various regions
and lands were sent to him in Wallachia,
that they should see it and learn the
Wallachian language;
Drakul had them thrown into a barn.
There were four hundred or more of them,
to whom he had killed, this raging brute.
He had them all burned and said: “I will not allow
that they gain knowledge, or even recognise my land.”
He carried out his reign of horror,
families impaled altogether and entirely torn apart,
cut and hewn from the body, old and young,
great and small, men and women, to the greatest number:
Brother and sister, or child, nephew and niece,
Brother and sister, or child, nephew and niece,
whoever they were — that was a great slaughter.
He also had some of his people buried naked
and alive in the earth as a mockery.
And after that he had them
shot at with sharp arrows —
that is true and not a myth!
In the moment they were struck they gave
that is true and not a myth!
In the moment they were struck they gave
up their lives; many were roasted and skinned .
He captured their lord, called Dan,
and afterwards had him pray with his priesthood.
When he had accomplished his will,
and Dan, as he then thought,
had considered the evil and his disgrace,
he had a grave made for him and had Dan led
had considered the evil and his disgrace,
he had a grave made for him and had Dan led
to the grave and there he cut his head off;
he committed many wicked deeds.
Envoys were sent to him from Hungary
and from Saxony and also from the Sibiu region.
In the number of five hundred he kept them
for five weeks, so they could wonder if the wicked
man would impale or strangle.
They were in great fear, for he had the stakes made
in the inn before the gate of the fortress.
He also kept them long in his prison and constraint;
because he suspected that he would be betrayed by them,
then one night he rose and hastened away from there.
With all his might; early in the morning, there to
Wurzenland, I know, then came the wicked one.
.
he then overran, he had them all burned,
and for that he was driven and angry;
he also had them burned altogether —
monasteries, churches, and houses:
children, women, and men
he had them all done to death that day;
children, women, and men
he had them all done to death that day;
none came away alive.
At Kronstadt (Brasov) in the suburbs
the chapel is called Saint Jacob,
there Drakul had murder committed.
And completely burned down the
suburb and all the people he found,
men and women and the children, maids and old,
great and small, he gathered them all together
wherever he might find them.
One day, early in the morning he hurried with
these people to the hill above the church
and had them impaled all around the hill's
curve, lengthwise and sideways.
Hear of the wicked rogue's great cruelty:
so that he sat at his table and ate to his great joy.
He was very merry and in good spirits when he saw
the people's blood; he had the habit of washing his
hands in it; when he held his mealtime there he had fresh
amusement and good cheer; so they had to treat him
thus when one was at his table.
With poor people he had tortured them, so
that they cried aloud, that was his pleasure:
“Ah, hear what pleasant sport and wondrous friendship!”
thus spoke the wicked one.
The poor people were thrown down, they struck off at once
the fingers from the hands and also their other limbs;
He had some of the false knaves their ears, mouths,
and noses cut off, and had all their hair torn out.
Or he had them hung on a stake;
some were burned through the cheek.
Severe was the torment and punishment.
What a person could think of to torment a man,
some were burned through the cheek.
Severe was the torment and punishment.
What a person could think of to torment a man,
so that he cried out loudly and pitifully —
such pain there was of many kinds.
When one had long tortured people in such
pain and constraint, and in such torment,
that they could scarcely cry out anymore,
then he draws his sword and cuts, or strangles.
So weak and so exhausted that they hardly
twist and writhe — such were the children,
wives, and men, that he wished to have
amusement, joy, or pleasure.
He also burned the church of Saint
Bartholomew in Kronstadt, and had
the ornaments, monstrances, chalices, and vestments
brought to him — all that was to be found there.
He sent out one of his captains into a village
that he was to devastate and burn — hear of this
wicked unclean one: the village was called Seiding (Codlea);
Coming from this village the captain said:
“I gladly give you tribute, so I may bring news to you.
Lord, according to your affairs, when the inhabitants
are so weak, you are much too strong for them,
but when they are so strong, and also with war
much too strong."
Drakul took his hand and had him gruesomely eaten
and thus he perished. Because he had not done as asked,
therefore he had to die.
There were also merchants with their merchant company
in Wurzenland towards Tuna, towards Preissl,
as I suppose. There were six hundred of them, as I am told,
had them all eaten, and took their goods as well.
He also had in the same fashion a great kettle made
into which one could crawl. With two handles,
over it was made a lid, so that one could set the
kettle upon the fire and heat it very greatly.
The lid over the kettle was pierced, so that a
man’s head might just reach through it.
And then he had first a great fire made beneath it
and the kettle set over it. And water was poured in
and the people set to boil in it; also children
and women, he had them likewise cooked.
He also, as I truly heard tell, at Siebenbürgen in Kolmar,
there too he had people cut up like weeds;
maids, men and women, children, great and small,
young and old, he had them eaten as well
and all their bodies removed.
The wretch and tyrant inflicted all the pains that
one ever could conceive, which tyrants have ever devised.
No one has ever done so much
Herod, Diocletian, Nero, and all the others!
Many he had wounded and their wounds
rubbed with salt, many he had roasted in
black pitch — much torment was invented!
Many he had pierced and burned, many boiled,
many shamed, many hanged, many flayed,
many were ground on a slab of stone, many skinned to
the bone, many imprisoned in secret filth—
there they were confined.
Many were hanged with leprous skins, many he had hanged
by an iron chain. They were slashed in the eyes, nose,
and mouth and in their shameful parts.
These he had hanged and pelted with stones
until life departed from them; many people he had
their eyes bored out with augers
and nails driven through their ears—
the evil blood flowed!
There was neither safety nor protection;
many he had torn from their intestines,
which he had ripped out; also he had dogs trained
so that one might set them upon people to tear and
devour them; many he had broken on the wheel,
their limbs crushed, many he struck upon the brain
with clubs, maces, and flails.
Some he bound upon wild horses and let them run
along the road; some he bound to wagons
and let them run down the mountain,
where there was no stopping nor turning back until they
lost their heads. Some he cast out of windows,
others he thrust into guns and then had them shot out —
very many had to suffer!
And some he had thrown down from high towers,
also into deep waters and wells.
He cut off their feet and also their hands
and let them lie there until they began to die;
some he cut to pieces.
He took nursing infants,
half a year old or more, whom the mothers
were adorning at their breasts, and also they
had lovingly laid their arms about them, their little
children around their mother had clung;
these he had thus impaled, mother and child in
the swaddling clothes …
The women he had their breasts cut off,
and the small nursing children had their heads
thrust through there. And he had them impaled
together; from the mothers he took their
little children, which he had roasted,
and gave them to eat; then he cut off their
breasts and had these also roasted;
the women had to eat them.
Afterwards he had them impaled at once;
some he crushed with pounding blows,
some he had pressed to death.
And all kinds of people came to him,
man, woman, child, old, young, great and small,
he had them all impaled: hands and feet they
were tortured with scythe and tongs, and in
addition freshly flayed and skinned.
He said: “Yes, how painfully grass blades are torn up,” —
he had their hands and feet eaten as well, unceasingly!
These were, as I have also heard tell, all kinds of people
and also Christians, Saracens, Wallachians,
Jews, heathens, gypsies also.
But what did he do next about these:
He had a gypsy arrested, for stealing;
there came the others of his companions,
and the gypsies gave a tract for the prisoner.
Drakul said: “That will not do, he shall hang,
he is in this land, against it no one should strive.”
They said: “Lord, you have erred; it is not our custom
to execute someone, nor do we despise anyone.
When we have sealed letters from the Roman
emperors in many places, that we should not
be hanged."
Now observe what Drakul did: he did not
believe a word, but heard their strange complaints —
this gypsy he had boiled in a great kettle;
the other gypsies he summoned —
all together they came there, —
and were forced to eat.
Now listen what more happened: a more honest and
pious man came to him. He found him
at the place where he had been impaling;
he went under them and looked as was his custom.
There were many and various people;
their number was like a great forest, many a man hung there.
This same man spoke to Drakul about why
he went thus under this stench. Drakul had the man set
upon a spit and roasted over a fire,
he thanked him for his lesson.
He had him roasted very high, so that the
stench and smoke might not greatly disgust him!
Ah, what a shame and disgrace came to this Drakul,
and rightly befell him: for he did not refrain,
people said he had done wrong, that he had taken
from other men with injustice.
Drakul then led a priest out and invited him to his palace,
where he invited him to eat. And when they had risen
from the table, he ordered a terrible and hideous
man to be brought in there to eat. And the priest thought he
understood what this Drakul meant, and took his meal
with the ladle in his hand. The Drakul said: “Now tell me
what you think of this, you who do not refrain.”
The priest said: “Yes, that is my custom in such meals.”
The Drakul said: “Why then do you take my morsel
that I have broken for you here? It will do you no good!”
He had him seized and impaled, and the rogue
also in the same hour.
His country’s lords all together, and the best in his land,
came to his house as well. That time it was
accomplished splendidly; then he began among the
lords, and the eldest among them asked:
“How many did he think were bold and noble
in this land?” He answered the same question
splendidly, as many as he thought were pagans
in his mind; and likewise he asked all others,
old and young, each in turn; he asked them the
same further question, these lords among themselves:
“How many of such a lord did they think there
were in the land?”
They all answered together; each one who knew
the matter, one thought thirty, another twenty;
but none thought the answer was seven.
Thus this questioning was completed,
as I have now sung.
The Drakul said: “Tell me, how does one
keep a firm rule, so that bold and noble lords
may exist in your land? There must be justice
against the wickedness of your evildoers.”
He captured them all, young and old, and
had them impaled by force.
They were certainly five hundred.
Drakul had a wanton wife, who pretended
she was pregnant with a child.
Drakul had her examined by another woman
she was shown into the hall in this manner;
Drakul had the same wife slit open entirely,
and her body torn out from shame in his presence,
and said he wished to see her fruit and that she
should suffer thus because of her state.
This was said of him, it was written fourteen
hundred and sixty years, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day.
The Drakul had them all seized at once by the neck,
and all Wallachians, young and old, the great and the small.
He divided them equally there at home; he had a
wide enclosure outside the capital.
Whoever could comprehend what was done there
would consider it dreadful; and it happened there —
On sharp stakes, forked and hooked,
one saw them heaped up, and all were cruelly
killed with knives, swords, sabres.
Although he did not kill some that time, he had them
taken along with him and cruelly had them impaled.
And he burned out all the villages with goods and
all their possessions — you should know this for certain.
The number of people he counted, as was made
known to us, was far more than thirty thousand,
both young and old!
As the year was recorded there: fourteen hundred sixty-two,
then the Drakul came into the great land of the Turks, where
he slew many of them, as we have heard,
well five and twenty thousand Christians and heathens
of every kind; there was such misery and outcry
that it would have horrified anyone.
Among them were the most beautiful women
ever seen by any man; they were spared
by his courtiers, who begged the Drakul
that he would not have them murdered
but give them to them as wives.
Drakul would not grant this: he had the
women and the courtiers cut down like grass.
Drakul owed taxes to the Turkish emperor,
who for that reason sent his embassy to him.
Certain nobles and Turks who came to the
Drakul there demanded from him
their lord’s overdue tribute.
The Drakul said: “I will myself personally repay
the tribute, that seems to me the right course.”
When the Turks learned that he himself intended
to go to the emperor, they all rejoiced at it. —
But the Drakul had them seized and dragged
after him, as I have heard, subjected to
torture with torment, and dealt with
them altogether; the Turkish scribes he had
their noses and mouths cut off and sent them
thus back home.
The whole region round about, which was called
Bulgaria, was entirely burned.
The people whom he killed there have been reckoned
and estimated and recorded: well five and twenty
thousand, besides those who in the fire
perished horribly and cruelly were consumed.
A region and an entire land, called Fugraci by name,
he had wholly murdered; old and young, as well as
men and women, he had them all slain
and impaled upon stakes.
People from Transylvania saw in Wallachia
men whom he in a single row had caused to be
men whom he in a single row had caused to be
impaled and strangled, they hung there without number
on stakes, like a great forest, so that it was
beyond measure.
Some he disgraced, boiled, roasted, and destroyed;
some he had drowned, stoned, and put to various
other kinds of death. — Now hear how it went on:
he had some of his counsellors, to whom he had
most entrusted his secret affairs.
They helped him conceal his best goods and
possessions at that time; then he himself
beheaded them, so that they would not
betray or reveal the same treasure in hall
or vault where it was hidden.
He committed many worse evil deeds;
the tyrant and villain was so base that one had
much to fear. He had some of his countrymen
beheaded; their heads he took for himself and had crabs
caught with them; afterwards the villain sent
out and invited their friends to eat at his house.
One hears of great shame and wicked deeds
that this villain and tyrant and evil
monster committed —of which I will now sing:
Those same heads the false knave gave to these
people to eat and said: “You have bitten and eaten what
you yourselves found.”
When he had made this known, he afterwards had
them impaled. —
He also in his land saw a peasant working
in a short coat and said:
“Now tell me openly, Have you a wife?"
He said: "Sir, yes."
He said: "Bring her here to me."
She was brought to him.
This Drakul said to her:
“Now tell me, what is your work?”
She said: "Lord, now hear: I cook, spin, wash, and bake."
At once he had her impaled because she had
clothed her husband so poorly.
That they could not put a long shirt or coat on him
one could well see; — He gave him another woman and said:
“That is in shame with this short coat; you will put on a longer one,
or I will have you impaled — there would not be
any pain here.”
The monk Saint Bernardinus, who went barefoot,
saw him coming to him. The alms he
had gathered he put into his coat. The Drakul began
to speak: “How is your life so poor?”
They said: “Lord, the eternal rich one will reward
us for it.” Then he said to the two brothers:
“Would you like to be there soon?”
They said: “Lord, yes, if we deserved it, if it is our Lord's will.”
He said: “I will help you, so that you may reach heaven.”
He had them quickly given food and said: “I have
done my favour by you.”
The good two brothers had a donkey led there
into the Drakul’s court. As they were there and ate
and bread was brought to them, they were asked to follow him.
The donkey ran into the castle and made a great outcry.
The Drakul said: “It is right that it be great with
such a sound.” His servants said: “These two monks
leave a donkey standing there, he makes such noise.”
He said: “You also gladly pray to heaven for his soul;
I must also help him. So that he may be with you.”
Drakul had the donkey brought in and impaled
with his brothers.
The Drakul rode into Wallachia, he came from Sirevi,
where he had also murdered.
Near Sirevi there was a monastery, called Gorrion,
that was burned down.
There were three brothers in it, living in the same cloister,
who went about with alms bags — they were called at that time:
they gathered alms in the villages; they came together home.
Now hear the name of this false man: this guardian was
called Brother Hans, Brother Michel the other,
Brother Jacob the third.
The Drakul called for Michel and said: “Monk, come to me
quickly and avoid me not.” Brother Michel came to him;
the Drakul asked him more and said whether he yet
trusted and thought that he would receive mercy
when he came to heaven, as had the people he had killed,
whom he had diligently brought into God's care.
Brother Michel answered; that he was made holy and
brought people into heaven, of that he had no doubt at all.
He was the holiest man of all that had ever been born
among men, there would be none like him.
Brother Michel said: “Lord, you may well come to grace,
when God has favoured many, to whom his grace
is never far away.”
And Brother Hans, the guardian, was also quickly called to him
and said: “Lord monk, now tell me, how do you think
it will turn out for me?"
Brother Hans answered; “Wait, and your number will end,
since you, wicked tyrant, have forgotten and squandered
so many innocent people. “Unless the devil be your kin, you are
entirely damned, accursed down to the ashes. I know well
that I must die because of you and because of the sweet
children whose throats you have cut; therefore I now rejoice
that I am going to my Lord.”
The Drakul said: “Speak enough; you shall not
overreach yourself. When it comes to your peace.”
The brother said: “You evil rogue, you murderer without mercy, you murderer without pity, you plunderer and
tyrant, you wasteful tyrant, how you torment the poor.
“What have these pregnant women done to you,
that you have had them eat? What have the little children
done to you, what have you done to their bodies?”
“Though he be but three days old, yet he turns full well
within three hours; what thou leavest uneaten,
none remains who would not do and who is not
turned into blood, that we may know well!"
"What sayest thou of one who therefore loses many his life,
whom thou innocently hast shed, his tender blood so pure!
Me much it has angered, murderous hate— what thou hast
done in thy reckoning, that should now be paid to me.”
The Drakul spoke: “That will I say and judge thee sharply,
whenever one would accuse thee. That he who began
the thing may not just cut the cover that has grown;
but also the root to the ground."
"When once the roots stand, at year, then must it again
grow upward unceasingly. These little ones who are
there will soon avenge their father. Nay, I will speak it
openly — if the roots were not there, they would easily
understand, thy father, as I reckon.”
The brother spoke: “Fierce and angry one, thinkest thou to
live eternally and ever without end?
Now behold him who has done innocent bloodshed,
whose body thou hast caused to perish — before God
in heaven shall it all cry out in smoke;
thou blind fool and senseless one —
thy deeds are detestable!”
The Drakul took the monk at his side; he himself
impaled him, but not like the others.
The others had a stake driven into their backs,
this time he wandered around the impaling.
A stake or spear he drove into the monks head,
his head down and his feet turned upside down.
He impaled them before that;
many a poor monk was terrified, many fled.
The pious rose up — Brother Jacob, whom I have
named, who left in the wagon.
In Styria in that land he came to Neustadt,
to our lord the emperor’s court, and to a monastery.
There I myself, Michael Beheim,
came to this brother; he told me much evil
which the Drakul had begun, which I have
composed in verse from this narrative.
Yet more of his wickedness and perverted ways,
of his cruelty, there is so much more than can be
told of him. Well three hundred gypsies came to the
Drakul’s land — now hear what was done to them:
The Drakul in Wallachia took out the three best
and had them roasted.
And the others, the gypsies, told to eat them all,
as many as were in that company, great and small alike.
The Drakul spoke: “Thus you must now each eat the other,
from the least unto the greatest, unless you wish to do my
will and march against the Turks.
Then they spoke: “Merciful lord, this counsel is not for us —
thy will we will accomplish.” So he rode with them and
with their horses clad in cowhide, he had them all ride forth;
the Turks advanced against them when they came together.
As the horses of these heathen heard the cry
and saw the gypsies — horses and men alike —
they shuddered and fled before them; the Turks came upon them
and could not rise.
Against one water they hastened at once, and the gypsies lay low;
deep into the water’s ditch — the heathen all drowned.
When the horses bore them so the heathen all alike
sank in the water.
Many sick, blind, crippled, lame, petty and poor —
all that was there — he had them all taken to a barn,
since the meal had been made. After, he had them all burned;
and said: “This folk shall no longer be.”
There were six hundred or more; not one came away alive!
Truly, Wallachia is known to me, in embassy I have
often gone there; I have gone there for this and that.
He also had many stripped naked,
as I have heard tell, and under their hats
he had them pricked with needles and beaten,
so that he did not pray, as the Wallach still does.
The Drakul asked them more what kind of disposition and
opinion they had, that they should suffer such things.
They also had to endure it, and let the pricking stand.
They said: “It is not our custom against the emperor to do this;
we shall never again enter into any dealings.”
The Drakul said: “Your custom will I cause not to be broken
and bent." They thanked him greatly and very highly
and said: “Most gracious lord, with all good intent
we will serve you always. Whether you show us grace,
your praise will be lauded by us; of you we shall never waver.”
The wrathful and cruel tyrant murdered one of them, and seized
good strong nails of iron, and drove them about and about,
as is believed, the little hats onto the head,
so that they might not depart.
Or you may call it impalement: so he practices it —
in such a manner he lives at all times!
His wickedness, which he devised and accomplished over
many people, was so great and so much that I can scarcely
fathom it; therefore I let it stand and leave it be.
Whoever can poetically compose his wickedness,
who was his sinister counsellor, he carried out his rule
and state with the most dreadful practices.
One might still find on earth those he held in great esteem
those who had come before him: from Hungary or
from Serbia, from the Turks or the Tatars,
they were all received.
As his courtly ceremony would have it: whoever he sought
when he wished, his government was unheard of,
for it was full of wicked example!
His servants and courtiers were likewise unfaithful and
false on all sides. No one at any time stood by another,
nor could anyone trust another; no community were they.
When he sat in full court and many were assembled,
a whole people from many lands were ready for him in battle.
Therefore one cannot properly reflect upon such a mind,
unless one lives in such adversity. His laughter and mockery
he did not long keep here; he was not always of the same mind.
Discord and strife, as I have already sung to you,
he began greatly against God and against the right.
When he, as I have sung before, had done such things
to the Turks, he waited very much in anxious impatience
for the Drakul with hostility; his thoughts he directed thus:
how he might reckon with him; he wrote and sent into his lands
and made the same known to many bold heathens.
When the Drakul learned that these Turks so fiercely
intended to march against him, indeed with great power,
so that he might well consider that he could not withstand,
for such great force he had little resistance,
the Turk would take him in hand and drive him away.
“I will try whether it may be that I might gain protection,”
so thought the tyrant. He immediately sent a message
to the same heathen, to this Turkish emperor.
Read and say to me more: that he name him in honour
and forgive him such deeds, ill-treatment and harm.
What he had done against him, that he would act no more
thus against him and set aside all anger;
King Matthias of Hungary and also his best counsel, he would
compel and overthrow, and deliver them into his hands.
The Turk answered him again: if he did that which he had named,
he would be entirely free of all guilt.
Drakul sought to have the letter sealed securely and
also wrote in addition, the Turk would be pleased with it.
For in it was written such pestilence that, if he had no
greater grievance, he would find enough in it.
Drakul had such matters alleged against him falsely,
as if he had sent the pestilence within —
as though it concerned only himself.
No longer did he remain thus idle; the King of Hungary
sent him word that he should go against the Turks.
To help them he came quickly and boldly,
for no one in that land so gladly wished to
come to his aid.
He would call on no one else on earth except his
servants and his many men, he served them and was
also their defender. That he did not wish to
remain there long, yet the Hungarian king
would not part Wallachia from the Hungarian crown.
The King of Hungary prepared himself with greater
power than ever before, and he set out from there.
And he departed from the city of Ofen with his army
the next path toward Transylvania, and to Kronstadt;
with him were many counts.
Rich lords, knights and servants — there was a great host
gathered at that place. And Drakul also came there
and made many of his company remain there.
Nine weeks or more they were together, during which
time the king learned of the grievous slanders
and murderous treachery that had been done there
in Turkey against both of them.
The King of Hungary acted as though he knowingly
had dealt in such matters. With Drakul King Matthias
made a decision: they should march against
this Turk without delay, first through Wallachia,
then afterwards into Turkey, against the wicked heathen.
They marched on from there with such skill that one could not
find fault in their conduct. They marched quickly
from the city that is now called in the Wallachian land —
it was six miles long.
Drakul thought he was at home there, for they were
now under him in a castle called Kungstein.
There Drakul was seized by one of the king’s men,
whose name was well known: Lord Ion Lagra (Jan Jiskra)
he was called; he was the first to lay hands
on Drakul and put him under guard
and opposed the bold man.
In Wallachia, his own land, he was taken
and imprisoned — thus was it ordained.
When he had escorted the king and also brought
him safely out beyond his land’s borders,
he turned again into Hungary, to the king,
and reported what had happened there.
There he was seized at once.
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| A Sample of Michael Beheim's Handwritten Poetry. |
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