Vlad III: The REAL Dracula

They can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code hothistory at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/hothistory Hi Divas! Welcome back to the SPOOOOKY episode of Hot History, where we cover the man, the myth, the legend behind Count Dracula himself .... Vlad III of Wallachia. With a bloodlust to rival Edward Cullen and a small Eastern European state to keep safe from the powers that be, this Wallachian prince etched his name in the history books in both ink (and if you believe) .... in blood! Learn more about the IRL Dracula by listening along this Halloween season and make sure to stay safe out there! Shout out to our incredible researcher Charlotte Wilkes and editor Jamie Rose for pulling this together. If you're wanting more Hot History content you can follow along on Instagram @thehothistorypod and @hothistoryclub, on TikTok @hot.history, on Substack @hothistoryclub and of course, right here! 'Til next week, Ainslie x

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ainslie Harvey?

  Hi my divas. Just jumping in here before we get into the history and the spookiness today to tell you a stat that blew my mind the other day. Did you know that men are statistically more likely to subscribe to their favourite podcasters slash YouTubers than women? Something I simply like cannot deal with, okay? The balance of the universe needs to be readjusted. We will not let the men beat us in both subscriber numbers and the historical record. So let's all do our part to nudge a needle on both and hit that subscribe or follow button. And if you liked this episode of Hot History or our content more broadly, if you can go ahead and leave a review or share us, it would mean the world to me.

• 0:41Ainslie Harvey?

  Honestly, every single one of you make these episodes possible, so thank you so much for your support. But enough chatter, guys. Roll the whimsical medieval tune.

• 1:05Ainslie Harvey?

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to continue the spooky season FIFA by chatting today about the man who inspired myth and ultimately became legend. The one, the only Count Dracula himself, Vlad the Impaler. Now, a couple of things, guys. First, which I'm back from Switzerland. It was the most amazing trip. I hope you guys loved our History of Dragons episode. It was so fun to be able to film up in the Alps, albeit incredibly cold.

• 1:45Ainslie Harvey?

  And I'm really excited to do more of these kind of like live, on-location, boots-on-the-ground kind of videos and trips because they're so amazing. I am gonna post a full vlog of the full trip for you guys in the coming weeks, so you can see everything we got up to. And then second thing for today, divas, I want to point out, I am full method. I mean, I feel like I'm always kind of trying to method, but I'm full method dressing for you guys. I've got my angry knights fighting and one of them, I don't know if you can see this close, one of them is being impaled. Okay, so I'm really thinking about, you know, embodying for like at least the next hour anyway, I don't want to embody full-blown.

• 2:27Ainslie Harvey?

  Vlad III, who is, like I said, kind of our subject and focus for today. It is Halloween, we are leaning into this spooky season. I've got my spooky glass pumpkin and I'm really excited to continue this series with you guys. And I want to be clear on something from the top here, alright? Without Vlad III of Wallachia, this is the man we're talking about, without him, there is no Dracula. And without Dracula, the vampire full stop would be seen as a largely subpar scary bedtime story nannies tell their naughty children, okay? So let's get into it today, guys, after a short word from today's sponsor. Now, the hot historians, like me, love leaning into the spooky spirit, whether it's the history of witches or the tales of the IRL Dracula.

• 3:11Ainslie Harvey?

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• 3:54Ainslie Harvey?

  From books to clothes to electronics to Swedish candy, I am always checking out online. And because I love me a sale, like the next gal, I'm always signing up for discount codes and offers which then clog up my inbox even after I've unsubscribed. And that's because my data is being sold to data brokers and my phone is then being blown up by spam calls and genuine threats and breaches. So to combat this, I use Incogni's Unlimited Plan, which has an exposure scanner and risk assessment tool that works to identify my data online and helps remove it from the internet. Literally, guys, like Dracula himself vanishing into the night, okay?

• 4:36Ainslie Harvey?

  All while giving me actionable ways to take control of my privacy with an updated report on the progress every 30 days and 24/7 live phone support for unlimited users. So kind of like knights kind of guarding the castle that is my online data, which I love. It's also super easy to use, guys, and just gives you that peace of mind so you can continue to shop online, own your inbox and have protection from genuine online threats. So if you would like to try Incogni for yourself, the team have given me a code to pass on to you for 60% off, which you can claim by heading to incogni.com/hothistory and using the code HOTHISTORY, which is also linked in the show notes. So beef up your protection online today with Incogni.

• 5:21Ainslie Harvey?

  After all, guys, they can't harm you if they can't find you. And thank you so much to Incogni for making this episode of Hot History possible. Okay, guys, do we have our chalices and like our heavily starched collared shirts or knights being impaled shirts on? I certainly hope so, because we are diving into this story today by rewinding it all the way back to the town of Sigisara in 1431, where one Vlad III was born. Now, key things to know, okay, before like we even get to unpacking Vlad III's life, is one, the geography of the region he is from, and two, his father Vlad II, who plays an instrumental role in this story.

• 6:02Ainslie Harvey?

  So let's kind of set the scene here by talking about where this is all going down. Because some say Transylvania, others say Romania, and then there's this kind of, you know, Wallachia thrown in there too. So which is it? Well, to be honest, guys, it's actually all three, with Romania being the largest state, which is made up of other regions, including Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia. Or I think it's actually pronounced like Wallashia, but I watched that Lou Spenson sexy Dracula movie and he says Wallachia. So I'm going with Wallachia. All of which, guys, so these three are really important during the 15th century

• 6:44Ainslie Harvey?

  because they act as a central zone between major European and Eurasian empires, mainly the Kingdom of Hungary in the north and the Ottoman Empire in the south. Now, for the sake of our story today, Wallachia is the central region we're going to be discussing, which for some of you may be the first time you've ever heard of it. So what's the vibe here? Well, according to writer Alan Chantner, it's plagued by hot summers and freezing winters with strong winds and a ton of wild animals like bears, deer, wolves, right? All of whom roam the dense mountains and forests, which he's checking all of our spooky boxes. Chantner also says that Wallachia was founded by a man named Radu the Black, which, according to one tradition,

• 7:27Ainslie Harvey?

  happened when a few smaller Romanian political groups merged around 1290, laying the foundation of the region, which expanded and was formalized off the back of this kind of process in the early 14th century by a guy called Basserab the First. However, and this is a big however, okay, not just for this part, but kind of Vlad's wider story as well, is that medieval Wallachian history is pretty sketchy with the first real native literature, which just means kind of writing done by the people of that region themselves, not appearing until the early 16th century, which is a fair while after our story today. So just something to kind of keep in mind when we're looking at our sources.

• 8:07Ainslie Harvey?

  Now, we kind of hinted at this before, but these smaller regions around the time were independent states as part of larger empires. However, they were always being pushed around and tussled by the big dogs surrounding it. Think Ukraine by Russia, you know, or Taiwan with China. It's a similar situation here, except the aggressors were largely the Hungarian Empire and, which is going to become the most important for our story today, the Ottoman Empire, with some records saying that Wallachia was made a vassal state of the Ottomans in 1383. So basically, just to recap, we have these Romanian regions, including Wallachia, who were more or less tug-of-war between Hungary and the Ottomans, which constantly placed them in between a rock and a hard place.

• 8:51Ainslie Harvey?

  Something that turned out to be the general sentiment in Eastern Europe at this point, guys. With the Byzantine Empire slowing down, destabilising hundreds of years of geopolitics, which the Ottoman Turks wanted to take advantage of. So all in all, guys, just an incredibly precarious time to be alive, which requires a certain kind of ruler to steer through, which is when we get to Vlad II, otherwise known as Vlad Dracul. Now, he was the prince of Wallachia from 1436 to 1442, and then again from 1443 to 1447. And his goal, above all else, was to maintain independence from the Hungarians and the Ottomans,

• 9:35Ainslie Harvey?

  which he did at first by taking control with Hungarian support after serving as a quote-unquote hostage of swords in the court of Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary during his childhood. Which may leave you thinking guys, and probably rightfully so, you know, hostage, childhood, that has got to be a hell of a lot of pain and suffering and all things bad. But you'd actually be surprised, because Vlad II was treated relatively well by Sissmann, who educated the young boy to ensure his loyalty, as his father was, you know, very powerful. So a real play of the proverbial chessboard here, which paid off when Vlad married Princess

• 10:15Ainslie Harvey?

  Kneiza in 1425, leading Sissmann to elect him as Vovoid of Wallachia, which basically just means like ruler or prince, while also inducting him into the Order of the Dragon, which absolutely sounds like some kind of epic Game of Thrones thing, which, you know, I would love to be a part of, and also ties back to last week's episode on the dragons, but it's neither of those things. It was instead this kind of chivalric order to defend Roman Catholicism against heresy and Turkish invasions, which is important guys, because in doing so Vlad II picks a side against the Turks and can now also add Dracul, aka

• 10:55Ainslie Harvey?

  dragon in Old Romanian, to the end of his name. So, in simple terms here, Sissmann wants to shore up Hungarian dominancy and places what he thinks is a pawn onto the Wallachian throne to do so, who he also gives a special religious honour to drive the point home, as, like I said, the Ottomans were Muslims, so if Vlad ever failed on the alliance to Hungary from a political point of view, he'd uphold it on religious grounds. But did this work? Well, yes, for Vlad would never betray Sissmann while he drew breath, but the problem is, he died one year into Vlad's rule, so he decides to then use this opportunity to really break almost all of the promises that he's made and form a new

• 11:40Ainslie Harvey?

  alliance with the Turks, which many historians have deliberated the reason for, with some saying it was an ideological move and others a political one, which I think makes the most sense here, as Vlad probably sensed a weakening in the stability of Hungary after Sissmann's death. Either way though, he switches sides, okay? So much so, that Vlad II personally joined the Turks in pillaging Transylvania, but it only lasted a few years, for in early 1440, he shifts allegiances again, this time to the anti-ottoman Mr. Hanyadi, the governor of Transylvania, an act which saw Vlad forcibly taken to the Ottoman court with his two younger

• 12:22Ainslie Harvey?

  sons Vlad and Rudar, to explain himself, while his eldest son Mercha ruled in his place. Eventually guys, he was freed, but fell out again with the Hungarians and rejoined the Turks in 1446, which, as you can imagine, is just like pissing everyone off at this point. This guy's flip flopping all over the place. It also means no one can trust him. So, an organised attack was launched against him, leading to his and his eldest son's death in 1447, which created a good old fashioned power vacuum, one that would be filled by a man more brutal than any of these predecessors could have imagined, Vlad the Impaler. Guys, I'm so excited, alright? So let's dive back in to where we

• 13:07Ainslie Harvey?

  were with Vlad III, okay? Who FYI, I'm just gonna call him Vlad from here on out, but it is Vlad III that we're talking about, who is born in 1431 to his father, who we know about, and his mother, Princess Knyazna. As the second born son, the plans for Vlad's life were laid before him from an incredibly young age, okay? It was decided, this man was going to become a knight. And as such, he began an apprenticeship in his early boyhood, learning the skills necessary for fencing, jousting, archery and court etiquette, according to P.S. Ramsey. But it wasn't all swords and bows, my divas, okay? For little Vlad also participated in ballgames, acrobatics and puppet theatres, according to writer

• 13:51Ainslie Harvey?

  David Carroll. So, one would kind of think, looking at this, and then we've looked at some pretty terrible childhoods on this show, but one would think with a mix of skill and discipline and a dash of fun and free time, Vlad would turn out relatively well balanced. But, you would be incredibly wrong in that assumption, okay? Cause firstly, this is really weird. There was a belief at the time that princes and knights, especially those of these kind of smaller nations ripe for empirical picking, had to be of a certain fierce character, right? They had to be strong. And as such, Vlad was exposed almost from

• 14:31Ainslie Harvey?

  birth to massive, massive storms, to kind of build his kind of, you know, resolve and strengthen, I guess, like, connect to these, these booming noises of thunder and lightning, according to Carroll, who also claims he developed a twisted curiosity in death, watching condemned criminals being hanged from his bedroom window. So, a rather interesting, um, you know, a couple of choices in terms of childrearing here, especially boys, again, this belief in like sending them out to storms, like, it's very Spartan. Um, and all in all, at this point, I would say that Vlad is giving the evil kid from Toy Story one, okay? Something

• 15:16Ainslie Harvey?

  which really shouldn't need any extra levelling up on, but Vlad is no ordinary impaler. And standing out in storms and watching executions was only the beginning of his villain origin story, for Vlad and his younger brother were actually held under house arrest by the Ottomans. That's right guys, remember, his dad is kind of, you know, switching up sides all the time, he's summoned to the Ottoman court. Well, after he was executed, his two sons were still there, which would ultimately be the last time they ever saw their father, who was killed the following year. So, what now? Right? Like, what does the Ottoman Sultan, whose name was Murad II by the way, do with these two princes of a minor meddling region?

• 16:02Ainslie Harvey?

  Well, similar with Vlad II and King Sissmann that we spoke about earlier, the boys started out pretty friendly with the Ottomans, who tutored them in science, philosophy and the arts, as well as trained them to become skilled horsemen and warriors, which again, sounds okay. But unlike with Sissmann, the foray into the Ottoman court may have also included torturing and improper imprisonment, which according to some scholars is where Vlad was first exposed to impaling. This, given his later title, would be an important lesson, but was actually secondary to what would define his rule and his life, the weaponisation of terror. For it was amongst the Turks that writer Robert Wild says Vlad experienced,

• 16:45Ainslie Harvey?

  understood and immersed himself in their new ideas and their effective ways to torture victims. Now, as we know, okay, the situation with the Ottomans, the Hungarians and Vlad II all went downhill, and when the Hungarians killed him and his eldest son, this left young Vlad and his brother fatherless, in the middle of an incredibly turbulent political situation and in the hands of people who were not very friendly at this point. So how does Vlad go from boyhood prisoner to the great impaler? Well, at first Vlad II was replaced by a man named Vadislav II, a pro Hungarian ruler, who they hoped would

• 17:28Ainslie Harvey?

  truly be on their side and not kind of, you know, flip up all the time, which I think is a fair wish. This, as you can imagine, did not sit well with the Ottomans or Vlad, who had been taken away as a token prisoner and replaced by this random guy. So, after four years, he is released by the Ottomans and begins his journey back home to reclaim his position, which according to National Geographic is pretty sketchy on details as to how this kind of release was negotiated and what path he took to get home. But we do know, it began in 1447, which is the point that Vlad the curious and menacing child

• 18:07Ainslie Harvey?

  becomes the bloodthirsty tyrant in search for power and revenge, which we're gonna unpack after a word from today's sponsor. Okay guys, so Vlad has been taken captive and forced from his position in a world he largely doesn't understand, which is exactly what happens with your data online, okay? From online databases used by hackers to contact information used by marketers, when it comes to the online world and your information, it's a dangerous one, which is where Incogni comes in. Their Unlimited Plan is one of the best tools in your arsenal to protect yourself guys, with an exposure scanner and risk assessment tool that works to identify your data online and helps remove it from the internet. It

• 18:52Ainslie Harvey?

  has been such a game changer, honestly, in the way that I look at the online world and privacy more broadly, and it is really so easy to use, with both the dashboard and the 30 day reports, making it faster than ever to be safe online. If you'd like to take advantage of this incredible 60% offer from Incogni, then head to incogni.com/hothistory and enter the code HOTHISTORY, which is also linked in the show notes. After all, they can't harm you if they can't find you. And thank you so much to Incogni for making this episode of Hot History possible. Alright, so Vlad is on the road home, which turns out to be pretty good timing, because Vádislav II, the current Wallachian ruler,

• 19:34Ainslie Harvey?

  is away fighting the Ottomans at the Second Battle of Kosovo alongside John Hunyadi, the Hungarian governor we mentioned before. So, Wallachia and Hungary are buddy-buddy, and they are busy-busy, which allows 16-year-old Vlad to basically just take over, ruling illegitimately as the void of Wallachia for a few months when he's merely a teen, which, like I know we said that this guy has some serious screws loose upstairs, but you do have to admit, he's also got some pretty massive balls to attempt such a feat, but it doesn't last long. And when Vádislav II comes back with his army, Vlad is forced to flee, initially heading back to Ottoman lands, thinking the enemy of my enemy is my friend,

• 20:18Ainslie Harvey?

  but changed his mind and instead went between Moldavia and Hungary for the next couple of years, basically bumming around like a lost little lamb who we know very little about during this period. What we do know, though, is what's happening everywhere else. So let's do a quick check-in with our power brokers, starting with Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who won the Battle of Kosovo and died in 1451, with his son Mehmed II becoming the new Ottoman ruler, which is bad news for Vlad, guys. For under Mehmed, the Ottomans captured Constantinople, which officially ends the failing Byzantine Empire and establishes the Turks as the might in the region.

• 21:00Ainslie Harvey?

  Then we have John Hunyadi, the Hungarian governor, who is trying to fight off Mehmed in 1456, which, they surprisingly, no offence to the Hungarians listening, win. So it's won apiece for the Ottomans and the Hungarians, both making incredibly important moves on the chessboard of medieval Eastern Europe. But, in all the chaos, which is kind of understandable, the relationship between John Hunyadi and Vádislav II, the guy on the Wallachian throne, breaks down, which is music to our Vlad's ears, who approaches Hunyadi for support, which he grants, giving Vlad both money and military might, which is all a bit wild considering that he was actually involved in Vlad's father's death.

• 21:44Ainslie Harvey?

  But, anyway. This changed the tides of politics in our guys' favour. And when John Hunyadi dies of the plague, Vlad sees this as an opportunity to strike by marching into Wallachia with his army and pretty easily beating Vádislav in hand-to-hand combat. Then, to really, you know, drive the point home here, Vlad ordered a purge of boyars who were loyal to the former ruler and plundered surrounding villages who resisted. So, he is really put in the work here, okay? And earned himself, in a totally, like, absolutely barbaric way for sure, a seat back on the Wallachian throne. So what does he do now? Right? What does this now 25-year-old guy with a penchant for death

• 22:29Ainslie Harvey?

  and little state experience, thanks to his father's murder, do now that he's gotten the thing he's been fighting for? Well, a lot, but not for a very long time. In fact, as infamous and legendary as Vlad the Impaler is, he only ruled for about six years, starting in 1456, where Vlad finds himself in charge of a principality plagued by political instability, powerful aristocratic families who are constantly battling him, and an ongoing threat of invasion, which meant his first year was largely dedicated to consolidating his authority and strengthening his position between the Ottomans and the Hungarians. Now, to tackle the first of these issues,

• 23:12Ainslie Harvey?

  he really had to deal with the rest of the boyars that were left alive after his initial taking of power, which he did, according to later reports, in one foul swoop by inviting hundreds of Wallachia's most important boyars to an Easter banquet, where he had them arrested or killed. So, on the home front, guys, he is as paranoid as Ivan the Terrible and as brutal as Joseph Stalin. Although, I will note that the Easter feast can't be confidently dated to 1456, with some accounts saying it was in the first year of his rule and others saying it was slightly later. But still, the fact remains. Vlad was cleaning house, and the Easter banquet was just the first,

• 23:56Ainslie Harvey?

  as he and his most loyal men launched frequent and unannounced purges on those suspected of treason. As for foreign policy, one would assume Vlad would kind of, you know, play a bit of a neutral game for a while, given he'd been taken captive as a child by the Ottomans and then betrayed and realigned with the Hungarians before winning his nation back. But you'd be wrong. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, was neutral about this man, guys, who decided to pick the lesser evil in his eyes and ally with the Ottomans, despite the fact that John Hunyadi and Hungary helped him win against Vádislav. But we've got to be honest, guys. Battle victories talk, okay?

• 24:39Ainslie Harvey?

  And the defeat of the Byzantines made the Ottomans the stronger choice for Vlad, who paid an annual tribute of 10,000 gold to cats for support, which brings us up to 1457, where Vlad's foreign policy became less focused on the big players of Eastern Europe and rather on one of his smaller neighbour states, Moldavia, where its would-be prince, a man named Stefan the Great, was trying to take back his throne. Being cast into exile during this time, Stefan needed proper military force to exact his revenge, something which Vlad, himself having endured an almost identical fate, was painfully familiar with.

• 25:18Ainslie Harvey?

  So, this tortured white boy with daddy issues decided to band together with the other tortured white boy with daddy issues and provided the military aid for Stefan to take back Moldavia, which actually showed Vlad's skills in diplomacy, something which is largely overlooked by, you know, all of the general impaling he does, which we will get to in a minute. This move was also incredibly important in the region's near future, as Stefan would go on to not only have a prosperous rule, but a long one, reigning as prince until 1504, providing insight into this period of Vlad's life, which was still relatively governed by securing his authority and position as prince

• 25:59Ainslie Harvey?

  until 1458, when the chessboard of Europe takes another turn. Having died at the end of 1457, Latislaw, king of Hungary, left what many believe would be a power vacuum for Ottoman supremacy in his wake. However, that wouldn't be the case. For in January of 1458, a familiar face entered the picture, or at least, the relative of a familiar face, with Matthias Corvenus, son of John Hunyadi, being elected king of Hungary, transforming the political landscape of the region, which we will come back to later, it's going to be important. Meanwhile, at this point back at home, Vlad is still ruling over the boyars in his own court of Tavoshti,

• 26:43Ainslie Harvey?

  which was the primary administrative seat where Vlad actually governed as prince, instituting a mix of strict religious observance, military preparation and hospitality, although hardly like the courts of France or England. So, you know, if you're kind of picturing, which when I first started researching, this was definitely what I was picturing, if you're in your head having these ideas of like a Romanian version of Henry VIII's Tudor Court, you would be wrong. Vlad was instead very strict with what he allowed his boyars and staff members to do. And while they were allowed to show off their wealth through luxurious clothing and jewellery, as we see in other European courts, the society element of the Wallachian court was secondary to its role as a workplace, which Vlad ruled over with an iron fist,

• 27:28Ainslie Harvey?

  treating treachery and disobedience with very swift punishment. Also, I will note here, guys, there is a famous place called Bram Castle, which is noted as being kind of like Dracula's castle. This is not Vlad III's castle, okay? With Togvishde acting as the real court and Poinari Castle actually being Vlad's favourite, which he saved from ruin when he was first made prince. So if you want to go to the IRL Dracula Castle, then go to Togvishde or Poinari, although you will have to climb 1,480 concrete stairs up a sheer mountain cliff to reach it today. So, maybe not.

• 28:09Ainslie Harvey?

  This brings us then up to 1459, which is really where we get into the action, guys, because there's a lot of big moves that start to be made. Chief amongst them, Vlad flat-out refuses to pay his taxes to the Ottomans. Yeah, guys, he's done. He's over it. He's in open rebellion against the power he had allied himself with when he took power. And while some historians question this 1459 date as the exact point that he stopped shelling out money to the Turks, we do know it was around this time that the relationship began to sour, which leaves us asking, why?

• 28:49Ainslie Harvey?

  Well, if we look at everything we know about Vlad, he is a classic narcissist, guys, okay? Someone who has spent great periods of his life consumed by thoughts of revenge and violence and power and himself. And as the years pass, remember, at this point, we're like four to five years into his rule, the feeling of having someone looking over your shoulder and pointing the finger to do this or do that is pretty grating. Pair that with the fact the Ottomans were absolute empire machines, who'd conquered Constantinople, expanded into the Balkans and demonstrated an intent to consolidate Ottoman power into smaller regions, there is a genuine fear they would swallow Wallachia whole,

• 29:33Ainslie Harvey?

  leaving Vlad and his people with no power and no identity. So, it basically starts like quiet quitting around this 1459 period, which then escalates further and further as the months pass, until finally, the Sultan has to take action.

• 29:52Ainslie Harvey?

  Now again, I do want to say, difficult to pinpoint this exactly to 1459, but we know it happens sometime between 1459 to 1460. When the Ottoman ambassadors arrive at Vlad's court to inquire about his lax approach to paying his big old tax bill, something that he finds totally outrageous and disrespectful. Not in the least, guys, because they wanted his money, but rather because of their headwear. As official members of the Sultan's delegation, these men wore traditional turbans, which, for religious reasons, they refused to remove, even after Vlad had demanded it, saying that wearing such a headpiece while meeting him was a sign of great disrespect.

• 30:35Ainslie Harvey?

  Again, they explained the religious significance here, but Vlad didn't care, telling them that if they would not remove the turbans, he would nail them to their heads. So, really gruesome here, guys, which is a trend we see from 1459 onwards. For it is here that Vlad begins to impale. Now, the exact details on where he learned to do this and how he learned to do this are unknown, as impalement was pretty non-typical for the Romanian Middle Age, where marks by hot iron, beating, forced labour, jailing, exile, right? They're all the usual kind of punishment that is employed.

• 31:19Ainslie Harvey?

  In fact, academic Constantin Resicivici says that for the worst crimes like murder, incest and theft, one might even get away with simply paying a fine. So, if impalement is so rare, how did Vlad get the memo? Well, it depends who you ask. Some scholars believe Vlad may have witnessed the act while under house arrest with the Ottomans, who were at the forefront of all kinds of new punishment, thanks to the vastness of their empire. But according to Resicivici, he believed that Vlad, quote, "applied to foreign offenders the kind of punishment used in their country or origin, rather than those provided by Romanian feudal law."

• 31:58Ainslie Harvey?

  And given, guys, that the Saxons of Transylvania actually legalized impalement, this could make sense, as Vlad killed many of them, which we're going to get to in a minute. So, we have a couple of different theories here on how impalement came to be in Vlad's arsenal, which we are going to explain with as little gore as possible, because I do feel like we all kind of get it, and like, I'm not about being gross here. But, for those of you who don't really understand what I'm talking about, impalement involves a long-pointed wooden stake being driven into the body in a number of different ways, leaving the victim alive in terrible pain, often for days.

• 32:39Ainslie Harvey?

  This was proper torture, guys, both physically and mentally, with every breath and every movement increasing suffering, which was exactly the point. Now, we touched on this a little bit at the top when we were talking about his kind of childhood and early days. But Vlad the Impaler is a proper sicko, guys. From a young age, he enjoyed watching executions and the suffering of animals. And while he was brutal in the first few years of his rule to solidify his power with those who would betray him, the escalation of violence from 1459 onwards goes beyond just kind of politics and strategy and like, keeping your house in order, into like, total and utter macabre,

• 33:24Ainslie Harvey?

  especially in his dealings with the Transylvanian Saxons, a group of prosperous trading peoples who up until this point had enjoyed valuable commercial privileges in Wallachia. They could come and go with ease, trade with many different kinds of people and vendors, and enjoyed a more relaxed taxation system. However, around 1459, when Vlad is really trying to assert his dominance in the face of Ottoman expansionism, he takes a stance against these Transylvanian Saxons, imposing trade restrictions and other impediments on their work, resulting in them promoting a rival political figure to steal Vlad's throne.

• 34:06Ainslie Harvey?

  This, as you can imagine, is a red flag to a raging bull. And so, already pissed off, Vlad decides to take matters into his own hands, launching a bloody and brutal campaign, which saw him ordering executions almost daily, burning villages to the ground, and as we said, starting to impale prisoners who were left outside in public areas as warnings for future thoughts of treason. It is so wrong, guys, it is so disturbing, like, on all of these different levels, to even his fiercest opponents at this point, including a rival named Dan III, who alleged that Vlad had confiscated Saxon merchants' property

• 34:50Ainslie Harvey?

  and then impaled 41 of them in a single day's work. Now again, it is key to note, this is a claim from a rival, and a lot of the reporting we have about Vlad's violence is often from biased sources, or just patchy in general. But the thing we know for certain is that Vlad is evolving into a dangerous, bloodthirsty, risk-positive man. And when he gets closer and closer to Matthias Corvenus, the new king of Hungary, he decides enough is enough with the Ottomans, something that Sultan Mehmed simply cannot abide by. And as such, sends a commander named Hasma Pasha to march into Wallachia and drag Vlad before him.

• 35:33Ainslie Harvey?

  So, very cloak and dagger here, right? We're going to kidnap him. However, it's all too little, too late, guys, because Vlad finds out about the plan in advance, setting up soldiers to actually capture and kill Hamza and his entire posse before they could even get to him, essentially declaring war against the Ottomans, which he then takes a step further by marching straight into Bulgaria. And as he tells Matthias Corvenus, quote, "I killed peasant men and women, old and young. Where the Danube flows into the sea, we killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes, or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers.

• 36:16Ainslie Harvey?

  Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him."

• 36:23Ainslie Harvey?

  A lot to take in, guys. So, between 1459 to 1462, when this Bulgarian slaughter goes down, just horrific, the lines are drawn, the statements have been sent, and a bloody campaign breaks out, with Vlad and his forces inflicting maximum pain in a series of victories, which began to spread to the borders of the Ottoman Empire, where some Turks, so terrified of them, fled their homes for safety. But, I bet that you are probably thinking at this point, and this is a good thing to say, right? This is the Ottoman Empire. You have literally been telling us this whole time how powerful they are. They ended the Byzantine Empire.

• 37:06Ainslie Harvey?

  So how are they being beaten by this one guy and his little army from a small Romanian state? Well, when we say war was declared, this was largely from Vlad's side, with Mehmed viewing Wallachia as an open rebellion versus necessarily as this grand enemy, something that he had experience with, because he himself, at this point, is off fighting actual grand enemies, such as the Serbians and the Peloponnesians, in other wars at this time. So, even though Vlad was incredibly brutal, he was further down on Mehmed's priority list. The other factor in the Ottomans' lack of great resistance was the Danube, which formed a natural barrier that made invading Wallachia difficult.

• 37:50Ainslie Harvey?

  You pair this with the fact that Vlad and his men were fast-moving, hitting resource-heavy towns every other day, and all in all, just kind of mercurial, it's hard to pin them down to one specific spot for a traditional battle to take place. But eventually, guys, Mehmed had to do something. So, he brings together 150,000 men, though some historians actually put the number closer to 300,000, with a range of different skills, from foot soldiers to cavalrymen, those with spears, and even some with firearms, all of whom follow Mehmed into Wallachia for a head-on battle at Tre Gostec.

• 38:33Ainslie Harvey?

  So, let's get into the details here, guys. I always feel like when we get to like a big battle point, it's like in Mean Girls, where a fight breaks out, it's like, fight, fight, that's how I feel when we get to a battle, okay? So let's unpack it. Now, first thing to know is that Vlad's army was about 20% of Mehmed's, coming in at around 30,000 conservatively, but this didn't stop their efficiency. In fact, according to war history, Vlad and his men planned a, quote, "outright ethnic cleansing" by instituting a scorched-earth campaign with as much advanced destruction as possible, burning crops to the ground, poisoning water sources, and diverting whole river streams to create marshlands which would bog the army down. And that's not even the worst of it, guys, although we do love planners.

• 39:18Ainslie Harvey?

  For with the approaching army, merely hours away, Vlad sent civilians infected with syphilis and leprosy and the bubonic plague to infect the Ottoman ranks when they arrived.

• 39:34Ainslie Harvey?

  Talk about a type A diva, alright? He's sending in plague victims to be like, go and spread it. It's crazy. He also burnt whole villages and slaughtered livestock in his own territory of his own people, guys, to prevent the Ottomans from regrouping, eating or resting whatsoever. And after a week, before even a single sword had been drawn, Mehmed's army was exhausted, sick and hungry, with Turkish chronicler Tashin Beg describing, quote, "The front ranks of the army reported that there was not a drop of water to quench their thirst. All their carts and animals came to a halt. The heat of the sun was so great that you could cook kebabs on the mail shirts of the Gazis."

• 40:19Ainslie Harvey?

  So, again, proper preparation work here from Vlad and his men, which he takes up a notch by coordinating some little hit-and-run attacks against troops who were sent out, um, from kind of the main camp to look for resources. And while, yes, the Ottomans did put up a decent fight in some areas, they were pretty easily crushed by Vlad's small but mighty force, something which, as you can imagine, annoyed Mehmed to the point that he had to regroup and decided, instead of a steady campaign, taking certain strategic points to build strength over time, as was normal practice, he would have to launch one large-scale attack on Turgovostye, the capital city of

• 41:02Ainslie Harvey?

  Wallachia, and end this madness once and for all. This was exactly what Vlad had hoped for, and as such, launched his infamous night attack of June 17th. I always get so excited by a night raid. It's like, oh, I just, I see so many of them, like, in films. They just do something to me when they actually come up in real history. Alright, let's get into it. Now, what Vlad decides to do here is stealth mode, okay? And he sneaks into the Ottoman camp, dressed in Turkish clothes alongside seven to 20,000 Wallachian soldiers, causing absolute chaos amongst the Ottoman ranks.

• 41:46Ainslie Harvey?

  He's killing sleeping soldiers and kind of banging these pots and making all these noises, disorientating them all to the point where the Turks were killing each other in confusion. Historians believe, as a result of this, thousands died, 5,000 of whom were Vlad's own men, but the Ottomans lost around 15,000 men in, like, literally a few hours. But even with this immense loss, Mehmed decided to keep on pushing towards the capital. After all, it was too late to turn back now. And so eventually, after brutal conditions, ambushings and many, many bouts of syphilis,

• 42:27Ainslie Harvey?

  the Ottomans arrived and found the city with the gates wide open. Now, obviously, the Ottomans are kind of going, oh, this is a bit weird, a little bit eerie, but they're so desperate at this point, guys, that they walk straight in and they approach, peeping inside to find 20,000 impaled Ottoman soldiers stacked before them. A sea of their fellow brothers, which historian Peter Mario Kruter said was, quote, "A forest of 20,000 wooden pails on which Vlad III allegedly fixed men, women and even children."

• 43:09Ainslie Harvey?

  Just horrific, guys, like brutal. And we see here, like, almost just in this one incident alone, why Vlad gets "The Impaler" as his famous moniker. But did he actually do this? Right? Did he really put 20,000 Turks on stakes when Mehmed and his men arrived at the city? Well, as is the case with much of this episode, guys, it depends on who you ask, right? Peter Kruter considers the forest of 20,000 impaled Turks to often be an exaggerated literary episode, created by Vlad's enemies to underline his cruelty and ruthlessness. However, Adrian Gorgay's work has uncovered invaluable Ottoman sources that contradict

• 43:54Ainslie Harvey?

  this thinking, with the chronicler Enveri, who participated in the 1462 Ottoman campaign, claiming to have personally witnessed the full field of impaled Turks. Another separate source conveys a figure that is not far from those found in the two registers, and finally, we have a report sent from Benistur Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga in Rome in March of 1462, which puts the number of victims of Vlad's campaign at 21,660, according to academic Deniz Hery. So even if we discount the 20,000 figure, guys, the reports do suggest that this really did happen, which, again, it is no wonder. He, you know, becomes the Impalites, horrifying.

• 44:38Ainslie Harvey?

  A sentiment Mehmed shared, being so afraid after discovering the corpses, that he ordered a trench to be dug around the Ottoman camp as they slept that night to protect them before retreating the next day. So it seems based off this that Vlad and the Wallachians have beaten the big, bad Ottomans, they've stuck it to them, right? Sending the Sultan running off with his tail between his legs. But is that the case? Well, yes, but also no. For while Mehmed did flee, both sides actually claimed to have won the battle, with no real physical blows to either of the leaders being dealt. But that didn't mean the cost of Vlad was nil.

• 45:18Ainslie Harvey?

  In fact, the conflict with the Ottomans occupied so much of Vlad's time and resources that by the second half of 1462, he loses control of much of the country, allowing his younger brother Radu to worm his way into power with the help of what Vlad thought was a friendly face. Our guy, Matthias Corvenus. That's right, my divas. The bromance is dead, with the King of Hungary ordering Vlad's arrest a few months after the events at Turgovostye, imprisoning the Wallachian prince for 12 years, which, of course, is a major shift in the dynamics of the region and kind of confusing, to be

• 46:03Ainslie Harvey?

  honest, because Radu, who became the new Prince of Wallachia, was no ally of Hungary and rather pretty staunchly supported the Ottomans. So why then would Matthias, one of the Ottoman Empire's biggest haters, arrest the guy who's trying to fight them? Well, it was for the politics of it all, with Hungary using the arrest of Vlad, the great impaler of the Turks, as an excuse to avoid launching a costly war against those same Turks. So a bit of the, like, my enemy's enemy thing going on here. But the other reason, which to me is the more obvious one in the evidence that we have, is that Vlad's monstrous use of violence and the reputation that came with this was

• 46:47Ainslie Harvey?

  considered anti-Christian. Now, before we unpack this and how it kind of links to Dracula and the vampirism of it all, which, you know, we will get to, I want to first note that the Battle of Turgovostye and all of its impaling was at first met with quite a bit of praise, especially from the Vatican. Because as far as the Pope saw it, Vlad was able to do something that he had wanted for years, a crusade against the Ottomans, who, again, guys, are Muslim. Of this, Pope Pius II was so impressed that he actually gave Matthias Corvenus 40,000 gold florins to finance an army to continue Vlad's work.

• 47:29Ainslie Harvey?

  But this wouldn't come to fruition, because Matthias launched one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in medieval history, to show once and for all that this man was, one, not worthy of the funds for his army, and, two, a danger who needed to be arrested. In doing so, this allowed Matthias to make a case for those 40,000 florins to be redistributed to himself and justify his own actions in arresting a foreign prince, which makes sense here. So how did this all go down? Well, Matthias did something very simple. He created a monster, presenting the countless dead bodies left on pikes, multiple burned-out

• 48:14Ainslie Harvey?

  villages of his own citizens and the many, many death certificates of his own boyars as evidence of Vlad's depravity, which he finished with a cherry on top. A series of letters allegedly written by Vlad, which said that he offered to join forces with the Ottomans against Hungary, therefore leaving Matthias no other choice but to protect his own people. So, very neat and tidy here from the King of Hungary. However, even his own court historian, a man named Antonio Bonfino, said that the letters looked forged, saying, quote, "The style of writing, the rhetoric of meek submission, hardly compatible with what we know of his character, clumsy wording and poor Latin

• 48:55Ainslie Harvey?

  are all evidence that the letters could not be written on Vlad's order." So that's really suspicious. But, as we have seen countless times on this show, guys, it doesn't matter what it actually is in the moment, it just matters what it looks like. And according to Natalia Novakovska, a lecturer at Oxford, the countless enemies, particularly among the Germans and Saxons whom Vlad gave plenty of horror story material, ate this up, taking the obviously monstrous acts of Vlad's, which are in and of themselves enough to make one skin crawl, and exaggerating them, creating outright lies and gaudy caricatures in the process, which is where the legend of Dracula comes from.

• 49:41Ainslie Harvey?

  Now, as we said at the top, the name Dracul comes from Vlad II, so our Vlad's dad, and is thanks to his admission to the Christian Order of Knights, known as the Dragons, aka the Dracul in old Romanian, as we said, which was a hereditary order, that our Vlad also went by Dracul, although up until this point, it wasn't commonly used. However, within a few months of Vlad's arrest, it became one of the key things associated with him. For German court poet Michael Baim wrote a ballad titled "Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia", which he allegedly performed for the Pope himself at the Vatican, who thought it was amazing. This, as so often is the case, then led to another more dramatic account,

• 50:26Ainslie Harvey?

  and another, and another, until we're finally left with the idea of Vlad Dracula as a man with an endless bloodlust. Although, at this point, guys, it wasn't one you consumed via fangs, and rather just an appetite for murder more generally. And I do want to say, I pinky promise, we're coming up to the vampire chat of it all shortly, but for now, let's finish off this story. So Matthias's campaign is a huge success, turning the tides as far against Vlad as you can possibly imagine, with academic Nowakowska saying, quote, "Anyone who had been scoring any sort of victory against the Turks, even one, could expect to have religious poems written in their honour.

• 51:10Ainslie Harvey?

  But here was Vlad Dracula, whose brutality and thirst for violence overshadowed his own military successes." Which may leave you thinking, "Well, how the hell then does this big bad man, who's so evil and monstrous that tales of his insatiable bloodthirst reach across Europe, remain in prison? Like, surely, someone so malevolent could swindle their way out of this?" But that wasn't the case for 12 years, with Vlad being kept under Hungarian lock and key, the conditions of which, we don't really know. But as you can imagine, there are many reports about, from tiny, dark, underground dudgens to coffins. But in reality, there is no reliable contemporary evidence

• 51:53Ainslie Harvey?

  establishing the exact room in which Vlad was held, whether he was chained, or what his daily living conditions were. We do, however, know he was treated with respect at least at some point in his imprisonment, as he is generally believed to have married a woman connected to the Hungarian nobility during his years in captivity, and even fathered several children by her. So, it's not all bad, right? For Vlad during his prison years, and he was eventually released in 1475, after winning Matthias back over by promising Wallachia to Hungary by removing his Ottoman-loving baby brother Radu from the throne. Although, some old Slavic stories say that he was only released when he reconverted to Catholicism,

• 52:37Ainslie Harvey?

  which, again, no evidence whatsoever, and was likely a rumour used to combat a lot of the bloodthirsty anti-Christian propaganda, which was used to justify his earlier imprisonment. After all, it's easier to stomach that a reformed Catholic was out and about than a notorious impaler.

• 52:59Speaker 01

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• 53:28Speaker 02

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• 53:58Ainslie Harvey?

  But while his imprisonment may have cooled the former would-be conqueror, the anger he had towards his brother for usurping his throne was very much firmly fixed. And when Radu died of natural causes in 1475, although, was it really natural? Who knows? Vlad invaded Wallachia, retaking the throne after more than a decade, and then, a few weeks later, guys, is murdered. Yeah, my divas! Vlad, the impaler, Prince Dracul, is killed after only just reclaiming his throne, which is not only ironic here, okay? But incredibly mysterious, as we don't actually know who killed him,

• 54:43Ainslie Harvey?

  with some reports saying it was one of his own soldiers, while others lay blame at a rogue Ottoman assassin who was looking to make a name for himself. Truthfully, though, we have no idea what happened in his final moments. The same way, we have no idea what happened to his body after, with all sorts of rumours about the prince's remains arising in the years that have passed. From local monks claiming he was buried in the monastery of Snagov near Bucharest, where a simple tombstone lies today, to Ottoman whispers that his head was taken to Constantinople as a trophy. Which, if I'm being honest here, guys, I think it's probably best we don't know what the truth is, given the way some people behave around dead criminals' graves and homes. Plus, if we're taking legend as gospel here, guys,

• 55:28Ainslie Harvey?

  who's to say Vlad Dracul ever really did die? After all, history's most famous vampire has to have some of the key tropes, one of which is life as an undead. So let's talk about the vampiness of it all. You've been so patient, I'm rewarding you all with this little sweet treat to end. Now, as we've already said, all right? It was a pretty hectic propaganda campaign by Matthias against Vlad when he was imprisoned, and it wasn't entirely made up. I mean, after all, guys, this is a man whose moniker is "The Impaler", so brutality and monstrous violence are fact here. But the exaggeration and targeted messaging

• 56:12Ainslie Harvey?

  as a result of the Hungarians' campaign has moulded a lot of the mythology around Vlad as Dracula. Roth Smith even goes as far as to call Vlad, quote, "History's first celebrity bad guy", given the sheer volume of publications in Germany about him in the 15th century, which also coincided with the invention of the printing press, and therefore, the mass reach that this message had. So we have more audiences being able to read about Vlad's acts as this kind of, you know, dramatized historical figure, which does border on legend, kind of like Rasputin in many ways, right? This guy, he's real, there's documents about him, he did terrible things, and he's kind of characterised as this villain

• 56:57Ainslie Harvey?

  with the sort of mysticism and occult and divine element which makes him legend. But again, guys, I want to reinforce here that at this point, the legend was of Vlad as the bloodthirsty impaler, not as the undead bloodsucker, which didn't come until 1890, when an Irish author named Bram Stoker picked up a copy of William Wilkinson's "An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia", dated to 1820. Now, in this volume, he came across a man so mercurial, so mysterious, so monstrous, that he would impale thousands of men, women, and children

• 57:40Ainslie Harvey?

  as the blood drained from their bodies. This, for him, was it, right? The story he'd longed to bring to life of the baddest, boldest, most famous creature of them all: the vampire Dracula. Now, Stoker did not come up with the idea of vampires. In fact, they'd existed for centuries and had been made popular in the 1700s with the rise of Gothic novels. So by the time we get to him, the vampire is a known plot device. But what Stoker was able to do was bring this, like, originality

• 58:22Ainslie Harvey?

  and detail to the vampire trope by leaning into the historical, pulling on real events and places, fleshing out legends and reports, and turning the title of Vlad's father as Dracul into a household name with the publishing of Dracula in 1897. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the story, you should absolutely, guys, go and listen to the new audible adaptation of Stoker's novel. It is amazing, okay? Jonathan Bailey, which, like, enough said, plays the Count. Ella Purnell plays Mina, and it's just, like, so rich and glorious and spooky, and just gives all the best of the Dracula story and the Gothic vibes

• 59:07Ainslie Harvey?

  in this new and modern way, which I just love, like... Obviously, after you've listened to this pod and have, you know, caught up on all of your episodes, if you're looking for something long form to like have on in the car, or if you're going on a flight or something, even just like in the background while you're cleaning, like obsessed. Also, because I love a recommendation for you guys and I'm in the like spooky, I mean the spooky vibes, right? I'm obsessed with the new series called Yaga on Binge. I don't know if you guys have seen it or not, um, but it stars Hudson Williams, Shane Hollander from Heat of Rivalry, guys, and is basically set in this small town where a missing person case ends up having links to the Barbie Yaga legend. I don't know if you guys know about Barbie Yaga, it's like

• 59:52Ainslie Harvey?

  a witch who, you know, is, has this house on chicken legs. It also actually started in Eastern Europe, the legend, and that is on binge at the moment, and I am loving that. It's like if Shane Hollander was in American Horror Story Coven, right? Blending of the worlds, obsessed, which is kind of how the late Victorian critics felt about Dracula. They were obsessed, right? It received really strong critical success after publication, but the general English audiences weren't so keen on the idea of this kind of evil monster landing on their shores, and so it had a slower upfront commercial interest, which meant that Stoker never saw

• 1:00:35Ainslie Harvey?

  the phenomenon he created, dying in 1912, just 10 years before the OG vampire of the screen would see his book go stratospheric. Titled Nosferatu, this unauthorised German silent film introduced the cultural phenomenon of Dracula to cinema without actually calling him Dracula, thanks to an IP dispute. This was then followed in 1924 with a theatrical adaptation by Hamilton Dean, and then the big one in 1931, when Universal Pictures released Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, whose portrayal established not only much of Dracula's iconic appearance and mannerisms, but a lot of the vampire lore we see now on screens and in books.

• 1:01:20Ainslie Harvey?

  Dracula's success also made Transylvania and Romania big tourism destinations, and while Romania tourism says that Bram Stoker never travelled to the country, they note he quote, "crammed his book with descriptions of many real locations that can still be visited in present day Romania", which we love, guys. The big question though, guys, that scholars, vampire enthusiasts, and I have left though, is whether Vlad the Impaler was really the inspiration for Dracula, because there are many conflicting ideas here on whether this is true, with David Goldfrank, professor of Eastern European history at Georgetown University, saying that Vlad's real story, quote, "has nothing whatsoever to do with the character in Bram Stoker's novel",

• 1:02:04Ainslie Harvey?

  while others like English professor Elizabeth Miller restates the connection to the book we mentioned earlier, which is when the word Dracula first popped up for Stoker. Journalist Lauren Davis has a totally different perception here, believing that Bram was likely never aware of Vlad III writing how he would have got the name Dracula, not from Vlad's name, but from that same book we mentioned, which contained references to a number of princes who were in the Order of the Dragon. Regardless though, guys, I think the text doesn't lie, and we see many, many strong comparisons between the real man and the monster, although at this point, it's pretty

• 1:02:45Ainslie Harvey?

  hard to tell the former from the latter, with a bloodied and brutal history that remains as infamous and as spooky now as ever before. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History, guys. Thank you so much for following along with me on this one. I really am loving the spooky vibes, the cursed vibes, the like vampire, dragon, witches vibes, and wishing you all a happy Halloween for this week, and stay safe, stay spooky, and stay well clear of any Vlad's that you may see. Make sure as well, guys, to tune in next week because we are going into a mini-series about one of my favourite topics of all time, guys, okay? I know we just did our six-part

• 1:03:30Ainslie Harvey?

  Romanovs, they're my number one, um, the Tudors are like my number two, but after that is the Gilded Age, okay? I am so excited because season four of the show is dropping in the next week, and I am dying to know what the Russells and the Van Rhys and the Scots are all up to. So to celebrate, I am going to be giving you three episodes on the Gilded Age, which we are actually, drumroll please, going to New York to film, guys! Another boots-on-the-ground journalism trip, I am so excited. I'm going with Paramount to do some bits and pieces which I cannot currently disclose around the film. Um, I

• 1:04:13Ainslie Harvey?

  am going to the premiere, I can say that. Um, the after-party, guys, I literally can't believe this is my life, like, the words that are coming out of my, my mouth right now, okay? The after-party for the premiere is a ball held in the ballroom at the Plaza Hotel, and I'm gonna be there. This little old hot historian from Sydney, Australia is gonna soak up the Gilded Age goodness in the city that never sleeps. Are you joking? Like, I can't even deal. I, I owe it all to you, my divas, and I'm bringing you all along. You best believe I'm gonna vlog the whole thing. I'm also delivering you two

• 1:04:55Ainslie Harvey?

  episodes from over there. I'm not gonna spill any of the details, but I am seeing some original artefacts from the Gilded Age. I'm going to a couple of different locations to film at, um, with some incredible institutions and some incredible people and some incredible experts and seeing incredible things, and I just like, again, can't believe this is real life. So I am so excited for that. If you guys wanna follow along, because I'm gonna be doing a lot more stuff separately on socials as well as the pod, um, Instagram Substack, at Hot History Club, YouTube and TikTok, at hot dot history. And that's it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in with me. Thank you to Incogni for

• 1:05:36Ainslie Harvey?

  sponsoring this episode. It is a pleasure, as always, to be getting down and dirty in time with you, and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

• 1:05:52Ainslie Harvey?

  This episode of Hot History was recorded on Dharik land, always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.