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Two seemingly unconnected incidents occurred within weeks of one another in early 1967.
The first involved two 16-year-old convent girls who were walking home at night after having visited friends in Highgate Village. Their return journey took them down Swains Lane past the cemetery. When suddenly in front of them bodies appeared to be emerging from their tombs.
One of these schoolgirls later suffered nightly visitations and blood loss.
The second incident, some weeks later, involved an engaged couple who were walking down the same lane.
The female shrieked as she saw something hovering behind the gate's iron railings. Then her fiance saw it.
Its face bore an expression of absolute horror.
Soon others sighted the same phenomenon as it hovered along the path behind the gate where gravestones are visible either side until consumed in darkness. Before long people were talking in hushed tones about the rumoured haunting in local pubs.
Discovery was made of animal carcasses drained of blood. They had been so exsanguinated that a forensic sample could not be found. It was only a matter of time before a person was found in the cemetery in a pool of blood. This victim died of wounds to the throat. The police made every attempt to cover-up the vampiristic nature of the death.
Sean Manchester informed the public on 27 February 1970 that the cause was most probably a vampire. He appeared on television on 13 March 1970 and repeated his theory. Sean Manchester led the thirteen year investigation from beginning to end. In early 1974 he tracked the principle source of the contamination, known as the Highgate Vampire, to a neo-Gothic mansion on the Highgate borders. Here he employed the ancient and approved remedy (exorcism). No vampire has been sighted in or near Highgate Cemetery and its environs since that time.
According to Legend, Lilith was the first woman made by god, even before Eve. He made her from the earth, just as He had made Adam. Things were going peacefully enough in the garden of Eden, until Adam wanted to "lie" with her. Now, Lilith had eaten the fruits and upon doing so, it took away a veil from her eyes. She saw everything as it really was. And she has seen Adam with wild animals, and she had no desire to be with him, especially to be dominated by him, as she saw herself Adam's equal. Adam didn't understand this, and tried to force himself on her. With that, Lilith left the garden and ran to the Red Sea. God tried to get Lilith to go back to Adam who was lonely again, but she refused. He sent three angels, Sennoi, Sansanui, and Samanguluf after her, telling her that if she still refused to come back to Adam, He would kill one hundred of her children a day. When she heard this, she flew into a rage, and told the angels to tell God that she vowed to inflict harm on male infants until the eigth day of their births, and on females until the twentieth day of their birth. The angels made her promise that whenever she saw an amulet on the child bearing the names of the three angels, she would not inflict harm on them. After all this, God cursed Lilith. Lilith was originally in every myth considered a demoness. After her time in the Red Sea, she decided to travel back to the garden of Eden, and there she saw Eve, who instead of being made of the earth as Adam had been, was made of one of Adam's ribs. When Lilith saw Eve, she felt particularly sorry for her, because Eve was ignorant and didn't know the ways of Adam as he was. Lilith knew about the power of the "Fruit of Knowledge" so she decided to tempt Eve to eat it, so she too could be Adam's equal as well as Lilith. So Lilith turned herself into a snake-like creature and made her way up the tree and began to persuade Lilith to eat the fruit. Eve finally gave in and took a bite out of the apple, causing all the trouble that came afterwards! And I'm not going to go into all of that! It's too long, and you all basically know the story. Anyways, God damned Lilith again, and she has forever since been seen as a demon, vampire, whatever.
Some say the God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world, but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam --being already like a twenty-year-old man-- felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female creature in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: "Every creature but I has a proper mate!" and prayed God would remedy this injustice.
God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that he used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem.
Adam and Lilith never found peace together, for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent position he demanded. "Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal." Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.
Adam complained to God: "I have been deserted by my helpmeet." God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore 'lilim' at the rate of more than one hundred a day. "Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we will drown you!" Lilith asked: "How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It will be death to refuse!" they answered. "How can I die," Lilith asked again, "when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it." To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own.
Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed Job's sons. Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, and one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim.
One of the most current and popular myths involving the vampire origin is that of the Biblical character, Cain. Most are familiar with the biblical tale of the first murder ever committed, but for those who are not, here is the story.
Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain, a tiller of the ground, and Abel, a shepherd. Both brought offerings to God, Cain brought the fruits of the ground, and Abel, brought one of his flock as an offering. God approved of Abel?s offering, but not that of Cain?s. Cain became very angry at this. As he and Abel where in the field on day, Cain rose up and struck his brother repeatedly until he was dead. God asked Cain ?Where is your brother?? and Cain answered ?Am I my brothers keeper??. God asked Cain what he had done, that his brothers blood cried to him from the earth. For his punishment in slaying his brother, Cain was cursed, the ground would not produce anything for him any longer, a fugitive and vagabond he would be. Cain told God his punishment was more than he could bear, to always be hidden from the face of God and driven out from the face of the earth. Cain also told God his concern of being killed, but God set a mark upon Cain that if any should harm him, they would suffer punishment sevenfold. Cain then left into the land of Nod.
In myth, it is said that the curse that God had set upon Cain was to be cast into a world of darkness with a continuous craving for blood, and this curse has been passed from generation to generation, all the way up to the vampires of today. It is said that when Cain went into the world of darkness, that he became acquainted with Lilith, the first wife of Adam. She had given some of her blood to Cain, which awakened him to his ability. After wandering for years in the wild, he returned to being amongst the mortals where he built a city called Enoch. There, Cain created the second generation of vampires by turning three mortals, they in turn created a third generation of vampires in vast numbers, and Cain finally forbade the creation of vampires from thence on.
After some time, the city Cain had built was destroyed by a flood. Cain ended up abandoning the city and leaving all the generations of vampires behind to do what ever they wanted, but before he left, he reminded them of his command to not create any more vampires. The vampires completely rebelled against Cain?s command and made a 4th generation of vampires, who rose up against the elder vampires of the third generation, killing all but a very few.
Over the next 1000 years, At times, it was said that a person who claimed to be Cain appeared here and there. One of his most heightened appearances is known in a story in which he appeared amongst a band of gypsies and embracing a man by the name of Ravnos, after his father had been killed by other vampires. As time went on, Ravnos was introduced to Ennoia (Ennoia was the daughter of Lilith, and half sister of Cain.)Ravnos ended up turning Ennoia into a vampire. Ennoia later betrayed Ravnos and caused death to come upon Ravnos. Because of this, Cain cursed her. Ennoia later became known as the creator of the clan Gangrel. It is said that if Cain ever makes any appearances, it is done rather speedily.
No one belonging to the present day VTM, better known as the Camarilla, have made any accusations that they have seen Cain, nor have they stated that there is any truth to this VTM vampire myth of origin.
To begin with lets review a bit of bible history, for those of you who are not familiar with the story of Judas Iscariot. Judas betrayed Jesus christ to the chief priests and elders for 30 silver pieces, Judas then felt so horrible for what he had done when he found out that Jesus had been condemned, he attempted to return the silver pieces, but the chief priests and elders refused to accept them from him. Judas threw down the silver pieces in the temple, and departed, he then hung himself.
How Judas Became a Vampire:
Now there are many beliefs as to how exactly Judas becomes a vampire, the first belief and most common is that god cursed Judas and his family to walk the earth until the second coming of Jesus, and until that time he would thirst for the blood of jesus, which of course he could only receive through christians. Which is proof that perhaps this myth was propogated by the church.
The second belief is not as common, but goes along with the Last Supper, what many do not know is that during the last supper jesus was quite serious when he said to drink of his blood and eat of his flesh, in fact half of his disciples walked out on his because of this. There are quite a few people who belief Jesus himself was a vampire, thus it is easily believed that Jesus himself created Judas knowing he would betray him, and perhaps created Judas as a grand experiment.
The Folklore Involved in the Mythos:
It has been very common through vampire folklore to believe that those who commit suicide will become vampires themselves being that suicide is believed to damn your soul. This belief, most likely draws from the Judas mythos, as Judas hung himself in his guilt for betraying Jesus.
Another belief is the belief that vampires have red hair, a belief quite common in the Mediteranian region where red hair was uncommon. Judas is believed to have been a red head, and thus it was believed his children would also have red hair. This was found then to be a common sign of a person who was or would become a vampire.
Perhaps the most common of the vampire mythos is the belief that a vampire can be destroyed by a stake, more precisely a stake of aspen wood. Aspen is the wood that it is believed the cross upon which Jesus died was made of, thus because Judas had ultimately caused Jesus' death he would be repelled by the item of his demise.
It is also believed that the mythos of a vampires repulsion by crucifixes and other holy items stems from the Judas mythos. Simply put, Judas felt great sadness for what he had done, and as such he was repelled by anything that reminded him of his great crime, and the atrocities which he committed.
The final folk belief about vampires that is attributed to the Judas Iscariot mythos is the belief that vampires are repelled by silver. It is believed that since Judas himself cast aside the silver which he had taken when he sold out jesus that he now had a repulsion to the substance and as such was repelled by it.
The specific quote from the bible is as such:
3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himsef. (Matthew 27:3-5)
In Conclusion:
This myth is very obscure, it is old, and not as popular as many other myths, but it gives answers to why a few of the folklore beliefs exist. During the modern day the image of the vampire has changed, from a predatory creature of the night, to a almost romantic figure of modern culture. Perhaps this is why many origin myths have survived while others died out, there is a great deal less involvement by the Church in our beliefs and as such many of the truely religous vampire beliefs have all but died out.
In reality, most vampire beliefs were created by the Church to keep people from robbing graves, roaming the streets at night, and to generally instill fear in a relatively ignorant populace. And it is quite safe to say that the majority of our populace is far from ignorant, and as such, through novels and books the image of the vampire has become romanticized and glamorized.
Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560 to a wealthy and prominent family. She was the daughter of Baron and Baroness George and Anna Bathory. She had many powerful relatives: a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary. Though frequently cited as Hungarian, Elizabeth is more likely to belong to the Slovak Republic (During this time, her land shifted hands between the armies of Europe.) Most of her adult life was spent at Castle Cachtice, near the intersection of Austria, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic. Bathory was born during a time of war between the Turks and Austria-Hungary armies. In 1571, her cousin Stephen (1575-86) became Prince of Transylvania and additionally assumed the throne of Poland. He was a very effective ruler, but his plans of uniting Europe against the Ottoman Empire were foiled by the invading armies of Ivan the Terrible.
Prince Steven Bathory of Transylvania participated in an expedition led by Vlad Dracula in Wallachia in 1546 to recover his throne .
At fourteen Elizabeth gave birth to an illegitimate child fathered by a peasant boy and conceived at the chateau for her intended mother-in-law, Countess Ursula Nadasdy. Elizabeth and Count Ferencz Nadasdy had been betrothed since she was eleven years old. Erzsebet married Count Ferencz Nadasady on May 8th, 1575 when Elizabeth was fifteen and Ferencz twenty-six. Elizabeth retained her own surname, while the Count changed his to Ferencz Bathory. She took over household affairs at Castle Sarvar, the Nadasdy family estate while Ferencz headed for the battlefields and began scoring victories against the Turks as early as 1578. He eventually earned the nickname "Black Knight of Hungary". He also lent the Hungarian Crown a great deal of money to finance the war against the Turks.
Elizabeth Bathory was a woman of exceptional beauty. Her long raven hair was contrasted with her milky complexion. Her amber eyes were almost catlike, her figure voluptuous. She was excessively vain and her narcissism drove her to new depths of perversion. The Countess would spend days in front of her large dark mirror she had designed herself. It was so comfortable that it even had supports on which to lean one's arms, so as to be able to stand for many hours in front of it without feeling tired.
Erzsebet gave birth to another three daughters, Anna in 1585, Orsika (Ursula), Kato (Katherina) and eventually one son, Paul in 1598.
While Ferencz was away on one of his military campaigns, the Countess began to visit her lesbian aunt, Countess Karla Bathory. Klara was a sort on nymphomaniac who also enjoyed killing people in the Roman way. Her four husbands died (the first two perished by her hand) and she was finally raped by an entire Turkish garnison before being stabbed to death.
Elizabeth became acquainted with the art of inflicting pain and death, in the same time she was also developing an interest in Black Magic. Thorko, a servant in her castle, instructed her in the ways of witchcraft, at the same time encouraging her sadistic tendencies. Elizabeth wrote one day to Ferencz:
?Thorko has taught me a lovely new one. Catch a black hen and beat it to death with a white cane. Keep the blood and smear a little of it on your enemy. If you get no chance to smear it on his body, obtain one of his garments and smear it?. Her husband, when he was home, also took part in torturing the servants, giving her lessons from his own experience of torturing war prisoners.
Ferencz Nadasdy died on January 4th, 1604 (apparently of poisoning although his death was also ascribed to witchcraft). Erzsebet moved to Vienna only four weeks after his death, shocking the royal court. She also began to spend time at estates at Blindoc (Beckov) and Csejthe (Cachtice). According to the terms of Ferencz's will, Paul was placed under the guardianship of Imre Megyery. The witch, Anna Darvulia, began serving Erzsebet sometime during this year; with her arrival, the torture and killings escalated. Darvulia was exactly like the classical forest witch that appears in Children?s tales: very old, irascible, and always surrounded by black cats.
The Countess began to experience financial problems, as the Crown would not repay the debt owed to Ferencz. She was obliged to sell her castle at Theben and refuge into Csejthe Castle, a massive mountaintop fortress overlooking the village of Csejthe. There she began experimented in depravity with the help of Thorko, Ilona Joo (Elizabeth's former nurse), the witches Dorottya Szentes and Darvulia, and the dwarf major-domo Johannes Ujvary, who would soon become chief torturer. A mysterious woman dressed as man, referred to as "Stephan" (and probably a member of the Hapsburg royal family), used to often visit Erzsebet and join in the tortures.
With the help of this crew, Elizabeth captured servant girls at the castle, taking them to an underground room known as 'her Ladyship's torture chamber' and subjected them to the worst cruelties she could imagine. Under the pretext of punishing the girls for failing to perform certain trivial tasks, Elizabeth used branding irons, molten wax and knives to shed their blood. To the one who had stolen a coin she would repay with the same coin red-hot, which the girl had to hold tight in her hand. To the one who had talked during working hours, the Countess herself would sew her mouth shut, or otherwise would open her mouth and stretch it until the lips tore. Bathory beat her victims routinely and mutilated them as well. Reportedly she froze some in the snows of winter near Castle Csejthe, dumping ice water on them in freezing weather. Soon, the Countess began attacking her bound victims with her teeth, biting chunks of bloody flesh from their necks, cheeks and shoulders. Blood became more of an obsession with Elizabeth as she continued her tortures with razors, torches, and her own custom made silver pincers.
She even managed to bring into the castle the worst instruments of torture. A famous automaton known as the Iron Maiden and initially devised in Nuremberg was placed in the torture chamber. This clockwork doll was of the size and colour of a human creature. Naked, painted, covered in jewels, with blond hair that reached down to the ground, it had a mechanical device that allowed it to curve its lips into a smile, and to move its eyes. For the Maiden to spring into action it is necessary to touch some of the precious stones in its necklace.
Elizabeth would instruct a servant girl to fix the jewels on the Iron Maiden, and when a certain jewel was moved, the Maiden would grab the girl, spikes would come out of the breasts, and the girl would quickly bleed to death. Once the sacrifice is over another stone in the necklace is touched: the arms drop, the smile and the eyes fall shut, and the murderess becomes once again the Maiden, motionless in its coffin.
A cage, too short to stand in, but too narrow to sit in, was one of Elizabeth?s favorite toy. It was on a pulley, and had dozens of spikes jutting into the cage. The cage would be swung back and forth so that the girl inside would be torn to pieces on the spikes.
As Elizabeth aged and her beauty began to wane, she tried to conceal the decline through cosmetics and the most expensive of clothes. The story says that one day a servant girl accidentally pulled her hair while combing it and Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately though her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She thought she found the secret of eternal youth.
Following the witch's instructions, Elizabeth had her evil henchmen kidnap beautiful young virgins, slash them with knives and collect their blood in a large vat. Then the Countess proceeded to bath in the virgin's blood. When she emerged from the blood she had seemingly regained her youth and radiance.
Elizabeth's minions procured more virgins from the neighboring villages on the pretext of hiring them as servants. As the body count grew, Bathory's servants dumped the corpses outside the castle. When local peasants found the dead bodies, drained of blood, rumors quickly spread that vampires inhabited the old fortress.
When Darvulia died or disappeared, Elizabeth almost fifty found herself aging even more, complained to her new witch about the uselessness of the blood baths. In fact, more than complain, she threatened to kill her if she did not stop at once the encroaching and execrable signs of old age. The sorceress named Erzsi Majorova argued that Darvulia's method had not worked because plebeian blood had been used. She assured that changing the colour of the blood, using blue blood instead of red, would ensure the fast retreat of old age. She managed to attract twenty-five impoverished noblewomen in 1909 who in exchange for happy company, would receive lessons in fine manners and learn how to behave exquisitely in society. A fortnight later, only two were left. Erzsebet accused one of them of killing others for jewelry and then committing suicide. But even though Elizabeth tortured young noblewomen and accompanied the blood baths with witchcraft rites, she could not retrieve her lost youth. For over a decade she perpetrated her acts of vampirism, mutilating and bleeding dry 650 maidens.
Reverend Andras Berthoni, a Lutheran pastor of Csejthe, realized the truth when Elizabeth commanded him to bury secretly the bloodless corpses. He set down his suspicions regarding Elizabeth in a note before he died. The Countess was becoming so notorious that her crimes could no longer be concealed. The Bathory family secretly decided to spirit the Countess off to a convent for the rest of her days, but before this could be accomplished, Megyery deposed a formal complaint against her before the Hungarian Parliament. Inquiry into Erzsebet's crimes began late in the year by the Lord Palatine, Count Gyorgy Thurzo, and one of the members of the Bathory family who had planned to have her retired to a convent.
Prime Minister Thurzo of Hungary who was a cousin of the Countess stormed the castle with soldiers to arrest the Countess and her associates on December 30th. At the head of a contingent of armed men, Thurzo arrived unannounced at the castle. In the cellar, cluttered with the remains of the previous night's bloody ceremony, he found a beautiful mangled corpse and two young girls who lay dying. But that was not all. He smelt the smell of the dead; he saw the walls splattered with blood; he saw the Iron Maiden, the cage, the instruments of torture, bowls of dried blood, the cells - and in one of them a group of girls who were waiting their turn to die and who told him that after many days of fasting they had been served roast flesh that had once belonged to the bodies of their companions.
The Countess, without denying Thurzo's accusations, declared that these acts were all within her rights as a noble woman of ancient lineage. To which the Count Palatine replied: 'Countess, I condemn you to life imprisonment within your castle walls.'
For political reason, Elizabeth never attended her trial. Her powerful family managed to convince King Matthias II of Hungary to indefinitely delay the sentence against probably the extinction of the debt the Crown owed her. She remained confined in her castle while she and her sadistic accomplices were tried for their crimes. Elizabeth was tried purely on a criminal basis, while her cohorts were charged with vampirism, witchcraft and practicing pagan rituals. All of the torturers were beheaded, except for Ilona Joo and Dorottya Szentes, whose fingers were pulled off before they were burned alive. The Countess was found to be criminally insane and was walled up within a room of Csejthe Castle. Stonemasons were brought to Castle Csejthe to wall up the windows and doors of the bedchamber with the Countess inside. They only left a small hole through which food could be passed. When everything was ready, four gallows were erected on the four corners of the castle to indicate that within those walls lived a creature condemned to death.
In this way she lived for three years, almost wasting away with cold and hunger without showing the slightest sign of repentance. Countess Bathory writes her last will and testament on July 31st 1614. Later in the year, she was found face-down on the floor, dead, by one of her guards. The date is reported as either August 14th or the 21st. The local folklore says that she is one of the legendary ghosts that still haunt certain areas in the Carpathians.
Elizebeth Bathory's story demonstrates how the myth of vampirism can be supported by the misinterpretation of the true-life actions of a deranged criminal and feed the ignorance of believers.
Source about Elizabeth
~*~*~Vlad the Impaler~*~*~
Vlad the Impaler was a historical figure upon whom Bram Stoker partially built the title character of his novel Dracula.
The name Dracula was applied to Vlad during his lifetime. It was derived from drac, a Romanian word that can be interpreted variously as "devil" or "dragon." Vlad's father had joined the Order of the Dragon, a Christian brotherhood dedicated to fighting the Turks, in 1431, shortly after Vlad's birth. The oath of the order require, among other things, wearing the order's insignia at all times. The name Dracula means son of Dracul or son of the dragon or devil.
The actual birth date of Vlad, later called Vlad the Impaler, is unknown, but was probably late in 1430. He was born in Schassburg (aka Sighisoara), a town in Transylvania. Soon after his birth, his father was invested with the insignia of the Order of Dragon.
In 1451, while he was at Suceava, the Moldavian capital, the ruler was assassinated. For whatever reasons, Vlad then went to Transylvania and placed himself at the mercy of Hunyadi, the very person who had ordered his father's assassination.
Hunyadi died of the plague at Belgrade on August 11, 1456. Immediately after that event, Vlad left Transylvania for Wallachia. He defeated Vladislave II and on August 20 caught up with the fleeing prince and killed him. Vlad then began his six-year reign, during which his reputation was established. In September he took both a formal oath to Hungarian King Ladislaus V and, a few days later, an oath of vassalage to the Turkish sultan.
Vlad committed his first major act of revenge. On Easter Sunday, after a day of feasting, he arrested the boyer families, whom he held responsible for the death of his father and brother.
Vlad's brutal manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished earned him the nickname "Tepes" or "the Impaler," the common name by which he is known today. He not only used the stake against the boyers, whom he was trying to bring into subservience, he also terrorized the churches, both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic, each of which had strength in his territory.
Vlad also used terrorist tactics against his foreign enemies. When he thought that merchants from Transylvania had ignored his trade laws, he led raids across the border in 1457 and again in 1459 and 1460 and used impalement to impose his will. During the latter incursion he looted the Church of Saint Bartholemew, burned a section of Brasov, and impaled numerous people. That raid was later pictured in anti-Dracula prints showing him dining among the impaled bodies.
During his reign, Vlad moved to the villiage of Bucharest and built it into an important fortified city with strong outter walls. Seeing the mountains as protective bulwarks, Vlad built his castle in the foothills of the Transylvania Alps. Later, feeling more secure and wishing to take control of the potentially wealthy plans to the south, he built up Bucharest.
At Castle Dracula he was faced with overwhelming odds, his army having melted away. He chose to survive by escaping through a secret tunnel and then over the Carpathians into Transylvania. His wife (or mistress), according to local legend, committed suicide before the Turks overran the castle. In Transylvania he presented himself to the new king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, who arrested him.
Vlad was imprisoned at the Hungarian captial at Visegr?d, although it seems he lived under somewhat comfortable conditions after 1466. By 1475 events had shifted to the point that he emerged as the best candidate to retake the Wallachian throne. In the summer of 1475 he was again recognized as the prince of Wallachia. Soon thereafter he moved with an army to fight in Serbia, and upon his return he took up the battle against the Turks with the king of Moldavia. He was never secure on his throne. Many Wallachians allied themselves with the Turks against him. Hiis end came at the hand of an assassin at some point toward the end of December 1476 or early January 1477.
The actual location of Vlad's burial site is unknown, but a likely spot is the church at the Snagov monastery, an isolated rural monastery built on an island. Excavations there have proved inconclusive. A tomb near the altar thought by many to be Vlad's resting place was empty when opened in early 1930s. A second tomb near the door, however, contained a body richly garbed and buried with a crown.
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