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Ivan The Impaler Research Paper

Decent Essays

Emilio Hernandez
Mr. Belmont
24 January 2017
Compare/Contrast
Ivan the Terrible vs. Vlad the Impaler Ivan the Terrible and Vlad the Impaler are some of history’s most ruthless men to have lived. When they ruled their countries, they did so with fear and cruelty, and one of which even inspired the legend of Count Dracula. They not only instilled fear in their enemies but also in their own people. These two men have several similarities but there are a few subtle differences that make them each very unique characters of history. Both of these men had ruled over their kingdoms and have had troubled childhoods which undoubtedly formed them into the cruel men they were. Ivan IV but more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible was the first tsar …show more content…

The time between his mother’s death and his crowning in 1547 were very violent as he grew up. A very high social class of nobles known as the boyars disputed among themselves as to who should rule ensued and as for Ivan he was constantly neglected and mistreated by these boyars who had looked after him, and occasionally tortured small animals for entertainment as a result. As the first tsar of Muscovy, Russia Ivan also married his wife Anastasia Romanovna during the year of his crowning. The time period between his crowning and his wife’s death in 1560 was considered his most constructive during which he expanded his control over independent territories and instituted laws, a tax collection and ordered the construction of St. Basil’s Cathedral in his kingdom. After his wife’s death he quickly began to decline and during the next twenty-four years of his rule he earned his name as Ivan the Terrible …show more content…

Their own citizens fearing for their lives that they may not be killed next in a violent raid or massacre that these men would often indulge themselves in. Vlad the Impaler earned his famous tittle during his second period as king. The only form of punishment at this time in Walachia was impalement, a form of torture/execution where a blunt stake was driven either horizontally or vertically through the abdomen and erected up so that the persons’ own weight would slowly slide them down the shaft, no matter the crime committed. In one account, in 1462 the invading sultan of the Ottoman empire arrived at the capital city of Targoviste where he found over twenty thousand Ottoman prisoners impaled on the outskirts of the city. Vlad left this as a deterrent to invading the invading Ottomans. Aside from the constant impalements Vlad had a problem with all the poor and sick people of Targoviste. As a way solving his problem Vlad summoned all the sick and poor to a grand feast and when they had all had their fill he had the building in which they were eating boarded up and burned to the ground with everyone inside (Top 10 Lists). Ivan the Terrible became truly terrible after his wife Anastasia had died. Ivan would frequently murder and massacre whole villages solely on the basis that they may have been traitors. One account of his massacring involved the city of Novgorod which he sacked and

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