this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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Vlad was a voivode, a military prince. Count was just a way to integrate himself with Victorian peerage when he came to take Harkers woman. But like I said, peerage is largely for second sons and feckless princes. Not castle owning vampires.
Centralized states that already razed any castles that could rebel from the monarch like Victorian England don't have vampires living in castles in the first place.
The vampire Bram Stoker wrote about is not based on Vlad III. The title of the book was going to be "Count Wampyr" up until just a few weeks before publication, when he came across stories about Vlad Tepes, and he made a few very minor changes at this late stage to incorporate details about Vlad, so talking about the fictional character Dracula in terms of the real-life Ottoman-Wallachian politics is not necessarily the best approach.
That said, talking about the real historical Vlad Tepes, where does the idea that Ottomans didn't view him as a noble come from? He was raised as a hostage in the Ottoman court, as the son of a recognised noble vassal. And after his father Vlad Dracul's death, he took the throne after the presumed death of Vladislav II, with the backing of the Ottomans. (But then Vladislav turned up alive and threw out Vlad Dracula.) Wallachia was on such a knife's edge between Hungary and the Ottomans that it flipped sides multiple times—and Vladislav and Dracula even each switched side themselves during this period. But he was definitely recognised as a noble, in at least the same way one nation would recognise their enemy's nobles.
The version shown in some movies, where he wanted to get with Mina and that's why he goes to England, doesn't concord with the book. In the book, Dracula's motivation for going after Mina and Lucy is much more ambiguous. Lucy first starts sleepwalking on 25 July (Mina writes about it 26 July), after the Demeter (carrying Dracula) entered the Bay of Biscay on 24 July, so it seems he has learnt about her by this time (possibly from Renfield, who is clearly working for Dracula by at least 5 June). But it's also possible the sleepwalking is coincidence, and that as Mina says in her 1 October diary entry, it's only because Lucy sleepwalks into the Whitby churchyard that Dracula gets a hold of her. It's not especially clear which is true.
But there doesn't seem to be much indication that he is going after Mina until much later. Possibly he only does it as revenge for the band of heroes taking out his containers of Transylvanian dirt, after Lucy has already died (he does mention "revenge" when the heroes encounter him on 3 October, but he's not exactly a reliable narrator). I believe the first sign of Dracula going after Mina is in Jonathan Harker's 5am 1 October diary entry.
I'm just shitposting about the legitimacy of lords of the marches vs other peerages. I don't actually believe anything I said or put deep consideration in it.
VOIVOOOD...?