The Foreign Ambassadors
There are at least two versions of this story in the literature. As with the story of the two monks, one version is common in the German pamphlets and views Dracula's actions unfavorably while the other version is common in eastern Europe and sees Dracula's actions in a much more favorable light. In both versions ambassadors of a foreign power visit Dracula's court at Tirgoviste. When granted an audience with the prince the envoys refused to remove their hats, as was the custom when in the presence of the prince in Wallachia. Angered at this sign of disrespect Dracula had the ambassadors' hats nailed to their heads so that they might never remove them.
In the version of the story common in the east, the envoys
are Turkish. When ushered into the presence of the prince, the Turks refused to
remove their Phrygian caps. When questioned they answered that it was not the
custom of their fathers to remove their hats. Dracula then ordered their hats
nailed to their heads with three nails so that they might never have to break
such an excellent tradition. The envoys were then sent back to the sultan. In
the east this was held to bee a courageous act of defiance in the face of the
power of the Ottoman sultan. It should also be noted that the nailing of hats to
the heads of those who displeased a monarch was not an unknown act in Eastern
Europe. Apparently the princes of Moscow when faced by unpleasant envoys
occasionally used this method.
Much of the information we have about Vlad III comes from pamphlets published in
Germany and Russia after his death. The German pamphlets appeared shortly after
Dracula's death and, at least initially, may have been politically inspired. At
that time Matthias Corvinus of Hungary was seeking to bolster his own reputation
in the Holy Roman Empire and may have intended the early pamphlets as
justification of his less than vigorous support of his vassal. The pamphlets
were also a form of mass entertainment in a society where the printing press was
just coming into widespread use. The German pamphlets painted Dracula as an
inhuman monster who terrorized the land and butchered innocents with sadistic
glee. The Russian pamphlets took a somewhat different view. The princes of
Moscow were at that time just beginning to build the basis of what would become
the autocracy of the czars. They were also having considerable trouble with
disloyal, often treasonous boyars. In Russia, Dracula was presented as a cruel
but fair prince whose actions were directed toward the greater good of his
people. Despite the differences in interpretation the pamphlets, regardless of
their land of origin, agree remarkably well as to specifics. The level of
agreement between the various pamphlets has led most historians to conclude that
at least the broad outlines of the events covered actually occurred.
There are several events that are common to all the pamphlets, regardless of their nation of origin. Many of these events are also found in the Romanian verbal tradition. Specific details may vary among the different versions of these anecdotes but the general course of events usually agrees to a remarkable extent. There are about nine anecdotes that are almost universal in the Dracula literature.