Estotiland and the Land of Corte Reales

 More Pre-Columbian and Para-Columbian European Contact?

Alleged copy of the Zeno Brothers' map, drawn in 1793

Located on the Zeno map (above) drawn sometime in the late 1390s or early 1400 it appeared on later maps such as the Ortelius map in 1570 (shown below) and on other charts as late as 1660. It was believed to be located somewhere around Labrador, Quebec, and Newfoundland as they appear on modern charts. According to the Zeno brothers of Venice who claimed they voyaged there circa 1390, Estotiland was discovered by European fishermen sometime earlier in the century. They found a land named “Estotiland” whose inhabitants traded with “Engroenelandt” which sounds suspiciously like “Greenland”. The brothers said “The king of this country possessed books written in Latin, which he did not understand. The language that he spoke and his subjects shared no similarity to that of the Vikings.” The Zeno Brothers claim they traveled there with another man they called “Zichnmi” who has been identified by some as Henry Sinclair. The year usually given for Sinclair’s voyage to North America is 1396.

Section of the 1570 Ortelius Map showing Estotiland and Terra Corte Realis

  Regarding its etymology, “estotiland” was a fishermen’s term used to describe stockfish grounds, also known as baccalaos. In modern Spanish “estocafis” is a commercial term for stockfish. The word could also have something to do with harpooning whales. Note on the Ortelius map at the entrance to what is obviously the Gulf of St. Lawrence a reference to “baccalaos”. 

  Considering the location of Estotiland in the far north and its supposed discovery by fishermen, remember the words of Christopher Columbus when he traveled to a similar place in 1477. A place 73 degrees north where the sea was not frozen, where he said "Englishmen from Bristol go there to trade." When John Cabot sailed to what is presumed to be Newfoundland in 1497, evidence suggests he took Bristol merchants with him as guides. Perhaps their colleagues or fathers were trading and harvesting in those waters twenty years prior, and some even earlier than that. 

 Also interesting on the Ortelius map between Estotiland and what is obviously the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a large bay with several rivers emptying into it. One in particular is labeled “R. de Tormenta”. I could find no corresponding river on any map. However, judging by the shape and location, I believe the bay is a primitive depiction of Ungava bay, which makes the River of Torment possibly Hudson Strait. Many places on that part of Ortelius map have names that are obviously Spanish or possibly Portuguese names that have been changed or lost, as there is little or no modern reference to them.

   The Spanish or Portuguese names made more sense when I deciphered the inscription below the River of Torment  “TERRA COR TEREALIS”. After some consideration I understood its meaning.  It should read “Terra Corte Realis” or the land of the Corte-Reals. The Corte-Reals were a family of Portuguese explorers who made several voyages of discovery in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Gaspar Corte-Real, with his father Joao Vaz and brother Miguel are believed to be some of the first Europeans to explore Newfoundland and other parts of what is now Eastern Canada. The land was named for Joao Fernandes Lavrador, another Portuguese explorer who sailed there in 1498. The area is still known as Labrador. Upon arrival, the Corte-Reals found a land of pine trees, large rivers, and berries. Upon the return voyage, one of the three ships, upon which was Gaspar, disappeared. Miguel Corte-Real attempted to return and find his brother the next year but also disappeared. Neither of the men were ever seen again. 

On the Ortelius Map, the River of Torment flows into “Baia de Medaus”. Though the meaning is unclear, that could translate to Bay of Berries. Perhaps Corte-Real saw the same vegetation Leif Erickson mistook for grapes when he named a landing place in the same area Vinland. Near the bay are more likely Portuguese names such as Caravielo (ship?), S. Maria and S. Marco (St. Mary and St. Mark), and S. Ioan (San Joan or St. John). These names merge into the more familiar French place names to the south but farther south still two islands stand out, Dobretan and Arredondo.  While the meaning of Dobretan is unclear (it could mean “kind” or “benevolent”), Arredondo is Portuguese for “rounded”. Baia de los Condes, possibly meaning Cape of the Counts (as in the European title for nobility, though which two Counts the cape is named for is unknown), is farther west and beyond that is C. de Iesus or the Cape of Jesus. These give way to more French names but even farther south near “Apalchen” (a corruption of Appalachia?) are C. de Arenas (Cape of Sand?), C. Doblado (Double Cape?), and C. de S. Ioan (Cape of St. John). Though it is hard to compare landmarks in this part of the Ortelius Map to a modern map, a bay named "C. de Lagos Islas" (Cape of the Lake Islands?) could be Penobscot Bay in Maine, making everything between C. de Arenas and C. de S. Ioan the coasts of modern day Maine and Massachusetts.

Is it possible that in addition to the voyage of the Zeno Brothers and or Henry Sinclar, the Ortelius Map also records the discoveries of the Corte-Reals which later were lost?

Estotiland endured on maps until at least 1650, when it was placed on a more accurate map of eastern North America drawn by French Cartographer Nicolas Sanson. Though he placed it further south than Ortelius, nearer the original location on the Zeno Map, perhaps closer to its true location if there ever was such a place. 

1650 Sanson Map

Yes Columbus Discovered Hurricanes, But Not in February 1493

From Signals newsletter in Arizona:

This Day In History, February 10th, 2020 – “A Terrible Hurricane Has Burst Upon Us”

https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/this-day-in-history-february-11th-2020-a-terrible-hurricane-has-burst-upon-us/

This article has been making its rounds on social media the past few days and I am especially seeing it among my allies in the pro-Columbus camp.  While I do not wish to publicly denigrate my friends, this piece has false information in it which I believe needs to be addressed.  While Christopher Columbus and his ships did experience a terrible storm on the return voyage from the Discovery of the New World in 1493, it was not a hurricane. 

  First off, the article presents information that storm struck around February 10 1493. The article also states, “This was before the establishment of the Gregorian Calendar – which probably puts the actual date earlier in February, or late January”.  Christopher Columbus was a meticulous record keeper, and he was rarely vague on what date something occurred.  All the dates of his journal are Julian Calendar dates.  Therefore, if something happened February 10, it happened February 10 by the Julian Calendar which would be February 20 on the Gregorian Calendar. The entry for February 10, 1493 mentions nothing regarding a storm,  all that occurred on that day was Columbus, Vicente Pinzon (captain of La Niña) and several other officers tried to determine where in the Atlantic Ocean they were (Columbus came nearest the correct position, they were south and a bit west of the Azores). A furious storm did arise on February 14, 1493 (February 24 Gregorian) which lasted two days and nearly destroyed the ships, but this was no hurricane.  This storm came from the wrong direction, it arose from the east-northeast. Hurricanes are driven by the prevailing winds and ocean currents, therefore Mid-Atlantic hurricanes at this latitude always come from the South.  All hurricanes are born in Africa, this storm would have originated either in Europe or the Arctic. The article attempts to prove this storm was a rare winter hurricane by citing Hurricane Alice of 1955.  Hurricane Alice was indeed a winter hurricane and is one of only two known hurricanes to span two calendar years, as it lasted from December 30, 1954 to January 6 1955.  But Alice was not in the mid-Atlantic near the Azores, it formed near Barbuda, then moved NNE before dissipating NW of Grenada. A rare winter hurricane did form in the mid-Atlantic just a few years ago, Hurricane Alex formed near the Bahamas on January 12, 2016.  It traveled east, then a bit south, and then curved north before dissipating near Greenland. Hurricane Alex came near the Azores, but like all other Azorean hurricanes at any time if year it approached from the South.

   This is, however, the first detailed description of a storm at sea, Columbus does get credit for that.  He describes it in such detail that it can be mapped on a chart. Storms similar to this one are now well known in the Azores and eastern Atlantic and are caused by convergence of large masses of warm air from the tropics meeting cold air from the arctic causing various warm and cold fronts to develop along the meeting air masses. This storm was probably caused by an intense low pressure passing north of the Azores generating fronts to the southeast and causing strong winds of variable directions with the fronts on a NE to SW line. Three distinct air masses seem to be involved, separated by one warm and two cold fronts at the boundaries. Continental North America experiences similar weather patterns in Spring and Fall. It was indeed a frightful storm. Columbus wrote in his journal that he feared what would happen if he died and news of his Discovery never reached Spain, and what would happen to his sons if their father were lost at sea. Near despair, Columbus quickly wrote down a brief description of the voyage and of his discoveries, wrapped it in waxed cloth, put it in a barrel and threw the barrel into the sea, hoping it would eventually be found.

What Columbus did not write was the quote given in this article.  I have read his journal many times, and Columbus never wrote the six sentences quoted here. Not in any translation or paraphrase.  The original copy of Columbus’ journal is lost to us, as is a copy of the original presented to him in 1493 by Ferdinand and Isabella.  All we have is a paraphrased abstract made by Bartolome de las Casas.  Though Las Casas occasionally quotes the Admiral verbatim, he does not do so in the February entries.  What is most odd about this quote, however, is not that it is first person, but the style of the English.  Though other authors have redone Columbus’ journal into the first person, none of them bothered to put it in a facsimile of Early Modern English.  The English style of this quote is too late for Columbus, it is nearer the English spoken by the settlers of Jamestown or Plymouth in the early 1600s than Tudor Era 1490s English. Where the author of this article got the supposed quote (other than from their own head) is unknown, but I can think of one possibility.  In 1892 Columbus’ letter in a barrel was allegedly discovered off the coast of Wales.  The letter was written in English, addressed to the Queen of Spain and titled “My Secrete Log Boke”. This obvious forgery duped enough collectors into buying it, and it was still making rounds among collectors of such memorabilia at least into the 1940s.  Columbus no doubt encountered the English language among his many voyages around Europe, but it is doubtful he spoke any English, and certainly was not fluent enough to compose a whole letter in it.  The universal language in 1493 was still Latin, and the letter would likely be in either that language or Spanish. If the author of this article got that quote from anywhere, the most likely source is the 1892 forgery which may still be circulating among naïve collectors.

  Columbus also would not have used the word “hurricane” to describe this storm.  He did not learn that word from the Taino Indians until he experienced his first true hurricane in 1494. The English word hurricane comes through Spanish from the Taino word "huracan" which has roots in the name of the Aztec rain god of  wind, storms and rain Huracan which loosely translates as "Heart of the sky". Columbus and those with him were indeed the first Europeans to encounter and describe a hurricane, and he would experience three of them in the New World: September 15 (24) 1494, late October 1495, and June 30 (July 10), 1500. All three of which struck his colonies in Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus discovered hurricanes yes, but not until two years after he found the New World.

Is Vinland the Great Discoverer’s Ultima Thule?

The time will come

In a number of years, when Oceanus

Will unfasten the bounds, and a huge

Land will stretch out, and Typhis the pilot

Will discover new worlds, so

The remotest land will no loner be Thule.

--- Seneca, Book 7, Tragedy of Medea

From the chorus “audax nimium”

Commentary on Seneca by Christopher Columbus in his Book of Prophecies: In the latter years of the world will come certain time in which the Ocean Sea will relax the bonds of things, and a great land will open up, and a new mariner like the one who was the guide of Jason (1), whose name was Typhis, will discover a new world, and then will the island of Thule no longer be the furthest land.

    The passage above from Seneca’s Medea is the keystone of the Libro de las Profesias or Book of Prophecies by Christopher Columbus.  Columbus believed he was specially chosen by God to discover the “Otra Mundi” the Other Land which was later known as the New World. In his Book of Prophecies be assembled a collection of Bible passages, commentary by Early Church Fathers, Medieval theologians, and secular philosophers which he believed predicted the discovery of the Americas.

  Before we go further, let us establish a point, what or where is Thule?

    Thule, Tile, or Thyle was the farthest north and west land known location to Ancient Greek and Roman Cartography.  Speculation on the location of Thule ranges from the Orkney or Shetland Islands north of Scotland, Saarema in Estonia, or the Norwegian island of Smøla, though most historians recognize Thule as Iceland.  By the late Middle Ages, Thule was usually identified as either Iceland or Greenland. Often in this era, Thule was used to refer to Iceland while Greenland was known as Ultima Thule (Beyond Thule). 

The first Europeans known to settle Iceland were Irish monks who occupied the island sometime between the early 600s A.D. and when the Vikings arrived in 874 A.D. The Medieval Irish understood Iceland as Thule. Even today the Scottish Gaelic word for Iceland is Innis Tile “Island of Thule”. 

    In the biography of his father, Ferdinand Columbus quotes another statement from Christopher Columbus describing a voyage he made to Ireland and Iceland in 1477 and 1478.

“In 1477, in the month of February, I sailed more than a hundred leagues beyond Thule, the southern part of which is seventy-three degrees distance from the Equator, and not sixty-three, as some pretend, neither is it situated within the line which includes the west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly.  The English, principally those of Bristol, go with their merchandise to this island, which is as large as England.  When I was there, the sea was not frozen, and the tide was so great as to rise and fall 26 braccias (cubits)”  Christopher Columbus certainly believed Thule referred to Iceland when he interpreted Seneca’s prophecy and referred to where he visited “100 leagues beyond” as the real Thule, rather than Iceland being Thule “as some pretend”.

Most Columbus scholars regard this quote as a curiosity but not useful and pass over it with little comment, or use it to illustrate how supposedly ignorant Columbus was on the dimensions of the earth.  Samuel Eliot Morrison, by far the greatest Columbus scholar of the 20^th century, unfortunately did the same for this statement. He first tried to correct the Admiral (2) by insisting he meant Iceland which is 63° N not 73° N. After a few more halfhearted efforts to correct Columbus, Morrison gave up and stated, “It would be time and effort wasted to find an explanation of this”.  Regrettably, this is not the only instance where Admiral Morrison dismisses out of hand statements by Columbus as either mistakes or fantastical exaggerations.  It is indeed a shame that so great a Columbus scholar as Morrison did not take his subject more seriously. Had he done so; he would have found some extraordinary possibilities.

  Those who empty their mind of preconceived notions and do waste time and effort to allow the Admiral to speak for himself have indeed found something surprising, even groundbreaking.  Let us parse out this quote line by line:

“I sailed in the year 1477, in the month of February, a hundred leagues beyond Tile (Thule)….” This could not be 100 leagues north of Iceland, no ship could sail that far toward Greenland in February without encountering pack ice, the Ocean freezes over about 150 miles north of Iceland. In normal years, sea ice normally reaches from Greenland southeast for about 200 miles and extends north into the Arctic.

“the southern part of which is 73 degrees distance from the equator and not 63 degrees north as some pretend.” This eliminates Iceland, the southern half of Greenland, the Bay of Fundy (the body of water east of Maine which divides the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia), and Labrador. What Columbus states here is that Iceland is not Thule, as most believe it is.  He claims he visited the “real” Thule which is farther west and farther north than believed by contemporary Europeans and ancient scholars.

  “Neither is Thule situated within the line which includes the west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly.” This again eliminates the possibility that Columbus is referring to Iceland, the Orkneys, and Norway, which Europeans were already aware of at least since Roman times if not before. He is again emphasizing that where he visited is a place not on most maps in the 1470s-1490s.

  “this island is as large as England” Iceland and the Orkney Islands are too small to match this description, Greenland is to big, and Norway is not an island.

  “The English, principally those of Bristol trade there” Here we get nearer the truth.  Columbus tells us here that on the real Thule in 1477, Englishmen trade with native inhabitants.  Presumably, he witnessed such a thing himself.  It is known that English sailors were visiting the Norse in Iceland and Greenland at least as far back as the 1470s, if not before.  There is also evidence that Englishmen were fishing off the coast of Labrador at least since the Portuguese arrived there in 1498. These Englishmen believed they were on the edge of Asia.

   “the tide was so great as to rise and fall 26 braccia” First we should establish what Columbus means by braccia.  A braccia is an old Italian unit of length, principally used by sailors of the era, usually about 26 or 27 inches long, but varying between 18 and 28 inches. Braccia is often translated as “cubit” an ancient measurement of approximately 18 inches.  Washington Irving mistakenly translated braccia as braza which is the Spanish word for fathom.  Twenty-six fathoms is 156 feet, and there is nowhere on Earth tides are this height.  However, if one braccia is about 23 inches (the midway point between 18 and 28) and observed tides are 26 braccia, that gives a tide height of approximately 50 feet. (23 x 26 = 598 ÷ 12= 49.833).  The highest tides in the world are 70 feet, found in the Bay of Fundy, 50-foot tides in that part of the world are realistic. So, an island 73° N where 50 ft tides are known.  The east coast of Greenland does not have 50-foot tides, so this place can only be west of Greenland, which puts Columbus somewhere in the Canadian arctic!

  “When I was there, the sea was not frozen” Columbus claims he sailed to this place in February, and arctic sea ice normally reaches its full extent in March, so he was present when the sea ice would be at nor near its fullest extent.  One of the only places this far north that may be ice-free in February is Baffin Bay, the expanse of ocean than lies between Greenland and Baffin island, the largest island in the Canadian Artic Archipelago.  Baffin Bay does freeze over, but not every year. On average it freezes over once every two or three years.  Columbus may have been fortunate enough to find Baffin Bay in an ice-free year.  Also, though the Little Ice Age began about 150 years prior to the 1470s, it did not reach its fullest extent until the late 1500s or early 1600s.  Therefore, parts of the North Atlantic likely were more accessible in the late 1400s than they would be a century later. Gilbert S. Aleman, Master Mariner, claims in his book The Unknown Columbus that the place Columbus describes on this voyage is either Baffin Island or perhaps even Ellesmere Island. Both are on the eastern edge of the Canadian Archipelago.

   If we let the Admiral speak for himself and interpret what he said without trying to correct him or force his words to describe places which they obviously do not, an extraordinary possibility emerges.  It is possible, probable even, that Christopher Columbus discovered America fifteen years before his historic voyage of 1492 and discovered it without realizing where he had been.  Indeed, it appears that everyone who had contact with North America prior to 1492, Vikings, Englishmen from Bristol, and the odd Portuguese sailor who may have been blown off course, seemed to believe it was either a further extension of Europe or the outer edge of Asia.

  Thule and the Vinland Map.

The Vinland Map

The Vinland Map surfaced in the 1950s bound to the Tartar Relation, which is a manuscript dating to circa 1440.  When discovered, the VM and TR (3) were purchased by Laurence C. Witten II along with another bound manuscript, Speculum Historiale.  Wormholes in the VM and TR did not line up, indicating they were not originally bound together. However, on further examination, the wormholes of VM and SH, did line up, while SH wormholes did line up with TR, indicating the three manuscripts were originally bound together, with VM first, SH second, and TR last.  Wormhole patterns also indicated that when the VM and TR were rebound together, the original cover was put on backwards. 

   R. A. Skelton, Thomas E. Marston, and George D. Painter, all experts in Medieval manuscripts at Yale University, examined the map and concluded it was made circa 1440 in conjunction with the Council of Basel. The Council of Basel, also known as the Council of Florence, was an ecumenical council held between 1431 and 1449 to discuss various wars over heresy occurring in the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, and the principle of papal supremacy. Captions on the Vinland Map describe the Carpini Mission which carried the Christian Faith to Tartary (i.e. the Mongol Empire) in the Northeast, Bishop Eric Gnupsson (the first bishop of Greenland) visiting Vinland to the Northwest, Prester John to the Southeast (a mythical Medieval figure who was either supposed to be head of the Ethiopian Christians or the Nestorian Christians in India, no one was quite sure), and Saint Brendan’s 7^th century voyage to the Antilles in the Southwest.  Essentially, this map was meant to illustrate the spread of Christianity to all corners of the World.

   Radiocarbon age of the parchment determined it was made about A.D. 1434 with a margin of 11 years.  When the map was first examined by Medieval manuscript experts in 1965, the consensus was the Map was a genuine article and no forgery.  However, once husband and wife team Walter and Lucy McCrone tested the map in 1974 and found traces of titanium dioxide (TiO2, also known as titanium white) they immediately declared it a forgery since TiO2 was supposedly not discovered until the early 1900s.  With this, all the scholars who had declared the map real, and nearly everyone who studied it, reversed their opinions to agree with the McCrones and declared the Map a clever forgery. However, more recent study of the Map revealed the TiO2 only appears in trace amounts and suggest that the substance could be naturally occurring.  Titanium dioxide could be a result of the ink manufacturing process as conducted in the 1440s, it could also have occurred if the map was stored in a place which contained an amount of clay dust (such as peeling paint or plaster walls), or it could be a result of an early 20^th century attempt to restore the manuscripts. Scholars of the Victorian Era and early 20^th Century had very misguided ideas on the restoration of Medieval manuscripts, such as cleaning them with acid or bleach. This could have damaged the ink and caused TiO2 to precipitate out of the pigment. One study even found the pages had been covered at some point with an organic modern varnish (post 1950) which presumably was placed on the map to preserve it. 

  Linguistic study of the VM captions indicate the inscriber was Italian. The Council of Basel attracted many scholars from Italy and other parts of Europe.  The VM, if it indeed is authentic, could have been drawn as an aid to, or a result of the Council, and as a guide to the other manuscripts which with it was bound The Tartar Relation is Giovanni Caprini’s own account of his mission to the Mongol Empire. Speculum Historiale was originally written in the mid-1200s by Vincent of Beauvais, a Dominican friar in France, and was a history of the World up to his time. One scholar who has studied the Vinland Map, Thomas Goldstein, is even so bold to state the VM shares a connection with the geographic ideas of Paolo Toscanelli.  If this is so, it gives the Vinland Map an indirect connection to Christopher Columbus.  Paolo Toscanelli (1397-1482) was a Florentine mathematician and cosmographer, who had a wide-ranging circle of associates throughout Europe, which consisted of architects, philosophers, and mathematicians. One of his correspondents was Fernão Martins, a priest of Lisbon Cathedral.  Toscanelli sent a letter to Martins along with a map that detailed directions for sailing west to reach Asia. This letter is unfortunately lost, but a copy of the letter and map was also sent by Toscanelli himself to Christopher Columbus, who also lived in Portugal at the time. Columbus carried this letter and Toscanelli’s map with him on his first voyage. Is it possible that Toscanelli has once seen the Vinland map for himself? Or that the VM was one of several maps drawn of the world, one of which Toscanelli used for his own map?  The possibility is extraordinary.

Greenland

Crosier and Episcopal ring from Greenland

Hvalsey Church in Greenland

  Regarding Greenland, it is a modern misconception that sometime after the Norse discovered it, the island was forgotten and then re-discovered by Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real in 1500. (Corte-Real mistook Greenland for Asia and never landed there.)  Greenland was in fact so well-known in Europe the Roman Catholic Church established an archdiocese in Greenland beginning in 1126 which was known as the Diocese of Gardar and had its own cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas.  Ten bishops were appointed to Gardar between 1112 and 1377. Upon their death, many bishops were interred in the cathedral itself.  After 1377, worsening communications and sailing conditions prevented appointed bishops from reaching Greenland and the diocese was abandoned when ship departures from Norway ceased, mainly due to the ravages of the Black Death.  Despite this, the Church continued to appoint bishops to Gardar until 1537. Between 1377 and 1537, thirteen bishops were appointed there, though none ever took possession of it. By 1448 Pope Nicholas V noted that Greenland had been without a bishop for about 30 years.

 Greenland was settled by Europeans beginning in 986 A.D.  Settlers from Iceland and Norway established three settlements on the southern and western edge of the Island, known as the Eastern, Western, and Middle Settlements.  Greenlanders submitted to Norwegian rule in 1261 and the colonies were brought under the Kingdom of Norway.  Herjolfsnes, in the Eastern Settlement, was the longest lasting settlement and endured for around 500 years, from the late 900s until the early 1400s.  Archaeological evidence located ruins of approximately 650 farms over all three settlements, with a total population estimated between 2,000 and 10,000 people. The main export from Greenland was walrus ivory, but exports also included rope, sheep, seals, wool, and cattle hides. The Greenland settlements in turn were dependent on Iceland and Norway for iron tools, wood, some foodstuffs as well as religious and social contact.

   This was during the Medieval Warming Period when the climate was as warm, if not warmer, than the present day.  Despite the high latitude, Greenlanders were able to farm and raise livestock easily.  Oats were grown in Norway as far north as the 65^th Parallel, and settlements in Greenland could grow barley as far north as the 70^th Parallel (this is same latitude as central Alaska, for reference). Norse Greenlanders could also raise cattle for milk and meat, as well as cowhides.  DNA analysis of Norse remains in Greenland show the diet of early residents mainly contained pastoral food (i.e. grains and cattle or sheep), but later residents’ diet shifted to marine-based protein (seals and fish), indicating the weather was growing too cold and unpredictable for crops and livestock.  Documentary evidence indicates people stopped traveling to Greenland because the seas were too treacherous and stormy, a sign the weather had worsened.

  Greenland was eventually abandoned for two reasons. One reason was the weather. The Little Ice Age began around 1350 when the climate began cooling, which made farming more difficult. This climate shift also made storms more frequent and thus made sailing to Greenland difficult.  Climatological studies indicate the coldest winter temperatures for the North Atlantic in the past 2,000 years occurred in the late 1300s and early 1400s, right when the Greenland settlements were abandoned en masse.  At the same time, the Black Death reached Norway and Iceland, where it killed half the population of each.  The Plague never reached Greenland, but ship departures from Norway stopped, cutting off many supplies the Greenlanders required.  Norway, however, seemed unaware that the colony ceased to exist.  Norwegian archbishop Erik Valkendorf planned an expedition to Greenland in 1514 where he believed he would still find Norse inhabitants. The last official record we have from Greenland is a wedding that took place at Hvalsey church in September 1408.  However, a German ship blown off course in the 1540s reached Greenland where the crew found the body of a man with European features, who had clothing and tools which were a mixture of both European and Inuit cultures. This indicates that perhaps not all the Norse left Greenland and a few colonists lived out their days there.

   Both Iceland and Greenland were well known to Medieval Europe, neither one was discovered by Vikings, forgotten, and then re-discovered by Portuguese or Englishmen later.  In fact, there is good indication that many people in Medieval Europe, at least the highly educated and well-informed, were not only familiar with Iceland and Greenland, but also knew of another place further beyond Thule, an Ultima Thule known as “Vinland”. 

    Tangled in the debate over the authenticity of the Vinland Map is exactly what part of the North American coast is depicted there.  Most claim it to be the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador with the indentations on the eastern side representing the Gulf of St Lawrence and Lake Melville.  This is possible, but the shape of Vinland does not seem to fit that coastline as well as it could.  Also, Labrador and Newfoundland are rather too far south from the latitude Vinland as shown on the map. The part of North America that most resembles “Vinlanda Insula” is the southern half of Baffin Island. The same place as Christopher Columbus’ Ultima Thule.

Baffin Island. Ultima Thule? 

Vinlanda Insula on the VM

February 1477

1.     Jason is the legendary Ancient Greek leader of the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece.

2.     Ferdinand Columbus in the biography of his father, constantly refers to Christoper Columbus as “the Admiral”.  Columbus enthusiasts have picked up the same habit, so any references to the Admiral (definite article) mean Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea/Admiral of the Indies.

3.     Abbreviations in this section: VM= Vinland Map  TR= Tartar Relation  SH= Speculum Historiale

4.     For an excellent analysis of the debate over the Vinland Map, and an in-depth analysis of the map itself see The Vinland Map- Some “Finer Points” of the Debate by J. Huston McCulloch, published by The Ohio State University.  The Vinland Map

The Christmas Story is Not About Refugees, Immigrants, or the Homeless....It is About How God Became Flesh

The Flight Into Egypt, by Vittore Carpaccio (1466-1525).

  In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  Luke 2:1-7

  Now when they [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.  Matthew 2:13-15

  Around this time of year, for the past several years, somebody or somebodies begin proclaiming Jesus was either homeless, a refugee, or an immigrant.  I find such statements are made by either the ignorant or those with a political agenda, as the point of these statements is to in fact drive a certain political or social schema.  We should help the homeless because Jesus was homeless. We should let refugees and immigrants into whatever country or territory because Jesus Christ was a refugee or an immigrant.  These statements are all false.  Let us examine the evidence for each of these statements.

  “Jesus was homeless”.  This is a false statement, and the only reasoning I find for such a statement is the fact he was born in a stable.  However, Mary and Joseph were not residing in a barn because they were homeless.  Luke tells us that Caesar Augustus decreed “all the world should be registered”.  Some translations of Luke’s gospel say “taxed” or a “census be taken” or “enrolled” and “the world” is of course the whole Roman Empire.  Upon this decree, everyone in the Empire was required, by law, to travel to their hometown to be counted as part of a census.  This was not a one-time registration but a recurring census that took place every 14 years.  This one was probably, however, the first one to take place in Palestine, because until then Jews had been exempt from military service. The census was designed to register young men for service in the Roman Army.  Population was counted by family and tribe, which is why everyone had to return to their hometown for registration.  Due to this, many people had crowded into Bethlehem, and probably many descendants of David (Joseph and Mary were both children of David).  The journey from Galilee to Bethlehem is some 70 miles, and by the time Joseph arrived with a very pregnant Mary, all the inns were full.  The only place left to stay was the stable where animals were kept.  Jesus was not homeless because he was born in a stable.  He was born in a stable because his parents were victims of bureaucracy.  When the Wise Men arrived some months later, Mary, Joseph and Jesus were living in a house in Bethlehem.

  “Jesus was a refugee”.  While technically this could be a true statement, it is made for false reasons.  I assume this statement comes from the fact that Joseph with Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus. In fact, Herod killed every baby boy under the age of 2 years old in an attempt to eliminate Jesus.  In this sense, one could say Jesus was a refugee, but not in the sense the term is normally used. Modern refugees, especially the ones concerning the “Jesus was a refugee” political statement, are not fleeing a despot who is killing people to eliminate the rightful king.  These refugees are fleeing either war or natural disaster, a regime that is killing everyone who dares defy it, or simply because there is better economic opportunity elsewhere. The angel did not tell Joseph to flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary because there was an impending war, or because an earthquake was about to hit Bethlehem, or because Joseph could get higher-paying carpentry work in Egypt.  They had to flee, in the middle of the night no less, because Herod wanted none but himself to have the title “King of the Jews”, and because this was a desperate attempt by Satan to destroy the Messiah.

   “Jesus was an immigrant”. Though the reasoning behind this is related to the refugee statement, it is as untrue as the idea Jesus was homeless.  Though I am unsure of the reason, I presume the logic for this statement is the flight to Egypt.  Someone who is an immigrant leaves one country to permanently reside in another country, usually for better economic opportunity.  Unlike refugees, immigrants usually are not fleeing wars or disasters.  As stated above, Joseph did not flee with Jesus and Mary into Egypt because he wanted a better job, or because Egypt had a better education system than Palestine.  They fled because Herod wanted to kill Jesus and massacred all baby boys he could find to be certain he slayed the correct child.  Also, unlike most immigrants, Jesus’ stay in Egypt was not permanent.  Joseph received another message from the angel saying Herod was dead and they could go home.  Herod died not long after Slaughter of the Innocents, so Jesus’ time in Egypt could have been as short as a few weeks or months.  Jesus was not an immigrant because his (earthly) father did not take him somewhere for a better opportunity, and when the danger was past, the family returned home. 

   Jesus was not homeless, he had a home but his family was required by law to travel to another place for tax and census purposes.  He was not an immigrant or a refugee because he had to flee his homeland. Jesus was God in human flesh and therefore a special child who was born to free people from their sins.  Because of this, all the powers of darkness in this world were organized against him. Statements like this are nearly as bad as those in the pro-life movement who claim Jesus was an unplanned pregnancy.  We would all of us do well, to not twist Biblical truth into our own social or political agenda. 

Letter to the Mayor of Baltimore

I wrote the below letter to Catherine Pugh, Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, and the Baltimore City Council.  The letter is in reference to the Columbus Obelisk that has been vandalized twice and now is in dispute over its long-term fate. 

August 19, 2018

To the Honorable Mayor of Baltimore, Catherine Pugh, Greetings:

   I am writing to you as an American Citizen, an historian, and a member of the National Christopher Columbus Association concerning the Columbus Obelisk on Harford Road.  It has come to my attention that the Italian American Civic Club made you aware of matters concerning the Obelisk, namely their request to restore the monument after it was vandalized August 21, 2017.  According to the Italian American Civic Club you, Mayor Pugh, and the Baltimore City Council, promised them in October 2017 to restore the Obelisk.  I request that you honor that promise. 

    The Columbus Obelisk is the oldest monument to Christopher Columbus in the United States and the World.  It was dedicated in 1792 in the presence of President George Washington.  In July of this year, the Obelisk was again vandalized.  Because of the continuing danger to this important historical relic, the Civic Club wishes the Obelisk to be moved to a more secure location where it can be protected from further desecration.

   Mayor Pugh, I share the sentiments and desires of the Italian American Civic Club regarding the Columbus Obelisk.  I also share their outrage at the suggestion from the Baltimore City Council to rededicate the monument to a figure other than Christopher Columbus.  If such a thing is done, it will violate the historic importance of the monument itself and also remove the value this monument holds in the Italian-American community.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Italian Americans adopted Columbus as a symbol of struggle against prejudice and a desire to be accepted a American citizens. At the time, the Ku Klux Klan was attempting to erase the legacy of Columbus because he was a Spanish/Italian Catholic and not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. At the same time, many Italian immigrants were persecuted for the same reasons. After eleven Italians were lynched in New Orleans in 1891, many Italian-American communities erected monuments to Columbus in their memory. 

   I believe Christopher Columbus is not only for Italian-Americans.  Every American citizen who is a descendant of immigrants, from those who arrived at Jamestown to those who arrived yesterday, belong to the legacy of Columbus.  If George Washington is the father of the United States, then Christopher Columbus is its grandfather. We are all in the New World because of him.  Our nation’s capital, the District of Columbia, was named for Columbus, and the Pledge of Allegiance was written in his honor. 

  The people who vandalized the Columbus Obelisk and other such monuments did so because they believe Columbus to be guilty of crimes such as rape, slavery, and genocide.  I can assure you, Mayor Pugh, based on historical evidence all these allegations are false.  Columbus did not mistreat Native Americans,  he did not rape or engage in sex trafficking, did not own slaves, and did not attempt to exterminate native populations.  The few people Columbus did sell as slaves were prisoners of war he fought in a conflict of self-defense. According to Columbus’ own writings the slaves he did capture as prisoners of war he intended to later release. 

  Mayor Pugh,  I implore you to uphold the promise given to restore the Columbus Obelisk.  I also entreat you to not rededicate it to another subject.  This monument belongs to the heritage of all Americans.

Possible People: Hope for Christendom and the Rescue of the Soul of Civilization

“ One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners.”  C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled….Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Luke 12:49, 51

  

 I am currently reading a book that is at times a joy to read, and other times a vexation.  The book is Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization by Os Guinness.  Where I was reading a few days ago, Guinness said that there is a direct link between the militancy of atheism and the intolerance of the Church, chiefly the European Church.  In other words, if the Church had not been so oppressive and hurtful, atheists would not be so vehement in their rejection of religion as a whole, i.e. Christendom caused Atheism.  From this, Mr. Guinness goes on to say that modern Christians, specifically Western ones, should humbly beg forgiveness for the alleged cruelties of the Church’s past. We should also, according to him, cease our culture war with the secularists, and admit to the fact that we live in a post-Christian society.  Christendom needs to stop trying to restore the past, but to lay down their arms and form a new alliance with the Secularists and Atheists so we may all create a new peaceful society for the sake of freedom.

   Some of this I find laughable, the rest I find sickening.  To begin, the idea that Atheism exists because of Christendom is so absurd it can barely be taken seriously. Those who reject God need no help from other people, Christians or otherwise.  This is giving the Church too much credit.  I would also state those who claim to be Atheist because they have been hurt by Christians are merely using their pain as an excuse, and they fail to recognize that followers of Christ still suffer as humans. As the Apostle Paul tells us, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Rom. 7:15) As for Christians apologizing for the past, stopping the culture war, and allying with our opponents to create a peaceful and free future, the whole idea is senseless.

  Yes, nearly every Christian today will admit that Christendom has had its dark times where sinful men or even non-Christians were in charge and did terrible things in the name of God. These must answer for their own sins, those who are innocent should not be held to account. Also, how drastic the sins of past Christendom were is often a matter of opinion or in some cases propaganda.  Even the most ruinous times in Christendom were nothing compared to wickedness of any ancient heathen or modern secularist state. The darkest eras of Christendom were still within the shadows of the Light, Godlessness is only dark continually. “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness” (Matt. 6:23) “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

   Atheism and it sibling Secularism crept in when the Church let down it’s guard and began attempts to placate and arrange compromise with its enemies.  Therefore, ceasing the culture war will only hasten the destruction of Christianity.  Mr. Guinness either does not realize or cannot admit that the enemies of Christ do not want His followers to kneel and sue for peace so we can live freely together, it wants them removed from the face of the earth.  He told us they will hate us as they hated Him.  Ceasing the culture war will not save the West, and it will not save Christianity, it will destroy both.  Christendom and its progeny Western Civilization endure as a result of a two-thousand-year-long culture war.  A war against pagan Rome, against pagan Barbarians, against Islam, against the event known as Enlightenment which was in fact a descent of darkness, and against secularism. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”(Eph. 6:12) “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34)  Truly, the enemies from within are often more deadly to the Church than those from outside.

The Infidel Pages: A War on Two Fronts; Part II: Son of the Dragon

Blessed be The LORD, my rock,

who trains my hands for war,

and my fingers for battle:

He is my steadfast love and my fortress,

My stronghold and my deliverer,

My shields in whom I take refuge,

who subdues peoples under me.

Psalm 144:1-2

      In my last publication, I introduced us to our first guide in this journey, our Virgil, Christopher Columbus.  Although, unlike Virgil, he would not be in Limbo with the rest of the noble pagans.  His home I think would be the sphere of Mars with the rest of the warriors of the Faith, among Charlemagne, Roland, and Godfrey of Bouillon (had Dante Aligheri created a heavenly sphere for explorers, he doubtless would be its chief soul).  Our second guide Vlad Draculea of Wallachia I referred to as our Cato, another noble pagan who has been granted the position of guarding the mountain of Purgatory.  Though he would no doubt play that role well, Vlad was no pagan, and would probably be placed in the circle of the wrathful on that mountain.  Once his stint there had finished, he would doubtless also join the sphere of warriors. The man himself was and is still of disputed and corrupted reputation, but he is most certainly a far cry from the title character of Bram Stoker’s Victorian melodrama.

     Once the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire, the last stronghold of Rome, and seized Constantinople “Rome of the East” the powerful kingdom of Hungary to the north began to see itself as the defender of Christendom.  The two countries would spend the next century in sporadic wars, the Ottomans trying to invade Europe, and Hungary (and later Austria also) working to push them back and keep Islam out of The West.  Caught between these two giants was the tiny nation of Wallachia, which struggled to maintain its independence in the midst of both the Hungarian and Ottoman Empires claiming it as their own land. 

     Wallachia actually did start out as part of Hungary.  It was founded as a separate territory when Basarab I rebelled against Charles I of Hungary in the early 14^th century and also founded its dynasty, the House of Basarab.  The name Wallachia stems from the Germanic word walha which was used to describe the Celts, Romanized Celts, and later any Romance-language speaking people (i.e. non-Germans).  This root word is also still preserved in place names like Wales, Cornwall, and Wallonia (a region of Belgium).  The name Wallachia was used even before it seceded from Hungary, but Basarab probably kept it to distinguish his Romanic people from the more Germanic Hungarians (rather like the term “Hoosier” in the U.S. was originally pejorative slang for a backwoods hick, but then was adopted as a title of honor by residents of Indiana).   The dynasty of Basarab would later split into two rival lines, the Danesti and the Draculesti when then Vlad II of Wallachia was inducted into the Order of the Dragon.

     King Sigismund of Hungary founded the Order of the Dragon in 1408 as a chivalric order of Eastern European noblemen, based on the military orders of the Crusades, who were tasked with defending Christendom against its enemies, particularly the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II, then future ruler of Wallachia, was inducted into the order in 1431 the same year his son, also named Vlad, was born.  Vlad had two half-brothers, and a younger brother named Radu.  Both boys were raised in the Wallachian capital of Targoviste, and, as sons of the king, were well-education in combat, geography, mathematics, languages, and philosophy. In 1436, Vlad II ascended the throne of Wallachia, but five years later he was overthrown by rival factions in Hungary.  The elder Vlad was able to gain support from the Ottomans in taking back his kingdom by agreeing to pay them tribute.  As a guarantee of his loyalty, Vlad agreed to allow his two sons, the Vlad Draculea (“Son of the Dragon”) and Radu, to live at the Ottoman court.  Other sources say that Vlad II took his sons to the Ottoman court to meet Sultan Murad and his son Mehmed (who would soon become the famous Sultan Mehmed II) and, because Vlad misunderstood the situation, his sons were captured as hostages and kept at the Ottoman court.  Whatever the truth, what is certain is that the boys were now prisoners of the Turks, and would remain so for the next six years.  During this time, the boys would grow into men and enjoy a rather privileged status, continuing their classical education and also studying the Koran as well as the Turkish language and literature.  Privileged or no, Vlad was not pleased to be a captive of the Turks. Radu was well-behaved and quickly became a favorite at the Ottoman court, he would come to be known as Radu Cel Frumos “Radu the Handsome” and eventually converted to Islam.  Vlad meanwhile was defiant and impudent, and often punished for his disobedience.  He resented his situation, the attention his brother gained as well as his conversion, and he likely resented his father who, after swearing to fight against the enemies of Christendom, sold out to the Ottomans and let his sons be taken hostage. 

   At the end of their captivity, Vlad and Radu were released.  In the meantime, their father Vlad II had died, probably assassinated by his successor, Vladislalv II who was the current ruler of Wallachia.  Upon his release from Ottoman captivity, Vlad Draculea staged a coup with the help of some Turkish allies and overthrew Vladislav. Vlad’s reign lasted two months before he was overthrown himself and escaped to Moldova, where he found refuge with his uncle Prince Bogdan and cousin Prince Stephen. Vlad and Stephen formed a close friendship and swore to help each other in time of need.  Three years later, Prince Bogdan was assassinated, and Vlad had to go into further exile, this time to Transylvania.  There he found refuge with the warlord Janos (John) Hunyadi and the Hungarian King Ladislaus.  In 1456, these two send him back to Wallachia to eliminate the Ottoman-friendly Vladislav II who had taken back the throne after Vlad’s coup to unseat him.  Ladislaus and Hunyadi did not appreciate a Muslim ally so close to their own border, and Vlad was happy to oblige by killing Vladislav himself in hand-to-hand combat.  With the death of his rival and assassin of his father, Vlad III Draculea began his second and longest reign of Wallachia.  This time, Vlad set about improving the kingdom.  Throughout the reigns of Vlad’s father and Vladislav, if not even earlier, the economy of Wallachia had been wasted in the hands of the Boyars, which were the Eastern European ruling aristocracy.  They had been ruining the territory with petty wars against each other to the extent that they even at times held sway over their kings and princes.  When Vlad began his second term, he drove away most of the Boyars in the ruling body of Wallachia, and replaced them with men he knew were loyal only to him.  Some of these replacements were even commoners and foreigners, which further upset the Boyars’ noble sensibilities. The offended nobles would come to plague Vlad as much as his Turkish enemies.

Portrait of Vlad Draculea painted circa 1560, rumored to be a copy of an earlier portrait created during his lifetime.

      A year later Vlad, true to his promise, helped Stephen establish himself as ruler of Moldavia by providing 6,000 horsemen to assist Stephen defeat his rival Petru Aron.  Prince Stephen’s long rein was marked by its strong resistance to Ottoman interference.  Two years after Stephen ascended the throne, in 1459, Pope Pius II called for a new crusade against the Ottomans which was to be led by the son of Janos Hunyadi, Matthias Corvinus (“Matthew the Crow”). Vlad quickly allied himself with Matthias, hoping that Matthias would assist him in keeping the Ottomans out of Wallachia, as Mehmed was at the time trying to claim the tiny kingdom as Ottoman territory. That same year, Mehmed sent envoys to Vlad requesting that he pay back-owed tribute in the amount of 10,000 ducats (About $13,000 at the time, if dollars had been around.  This is the 1914 dollar value, which is as far back as I could go.  In modern American dollars, that would have been about $307,483.00, which I believe is a low estimate.).  The envoys also requested that Vlad give 500 men as recruits to the Ottoman army.  This would not only have stressed the already weak economy of Wallachia, which was still recovering from the wastes of the Boyars, but also it would have robbed the country of many of the men that could protect it.  In addition, giving in to such terms would demonstrate public acceptance of Wallachia as a territory of the Ottoman empire.  Vlad absolutely refused and, to literally make his point, he had the Turkish envoys turbans nailed to their heads.  When Mehmed received news of this, he was less than pleased, and in response sent the lord of Nicopolis, Hamza Bey (the son of a prominent Serbian noble family that had become Ottoman Vassals about 70 years prior), to sue for peace and, if that did not work, to eliminate Vlad.  Hamza and his cavalry were ambushed by Vlad in a mountain pass and nearly all captured.  They were executed by impalement, with Hamza placed on the highest stake.  Riding high on this success, Vlad invaded Ottoman territory in Bulgaria and, using the intimate knowledge of Turkish language and culture he gained as a hostage, managed to infiltrate and destroy the Ottoman camps.  He wrote to Matthias about his accomplishments saying “I have killed peasants men and women, old and young,…where the Danube flows into the sea… We killed 23, 884 Turks…Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace.”

    Furious at Vlad's cunning, Mehmed raised an army of 60,000 the following spring and sent them north to crush Vlad and bring Wallachia back under Ottoman control.  Among the commanders of this force was Vlad’s now estranged brother Radu, the “handsome” favorite of the Ottoman court. Mehmed placed Radu at the capital city of Targoviste, hoping that he would raise anti-Vlad sympathies which would eventually lead to Radu becoming ruler of Wallachia. Vlad was originally successful in repelling Mehmed’s forces, and this victory as well as the prior one was celebrated by the Saxons of Transylvania, the Italian states, and the Pope.  Indeed, a group of Genovese personally thanked Vlad, as his war against the Turks kept away a fleet of Ottoman ships that otherwise would have attacked them at Caffa (a Genovese port on the Black Sea coast). Vlad’s victories against the combined forces of Mehmed and Radu was short-lived however.  Radu’s plans succeeded, due in part to the fact that the Boyars Vlad he had alienated earlier were eager to get him out if their way.  This faction managed to pursue Vlad and besiege him in his famed lair at Poinari Castle, which is above a cliff.  Legend says that when the castle was surrounded, a prisoner of the Ottomans who was loyal to Vlad managed to get a message to him, by shooting an arrow through the castle window, saying the Turks would soon attack.  Frightened by what her fate would be at the hands of the Turks, Vlad’s young wife threw herself from the castle walls over the cliff.  Today, the stream that flows through the valley below is still known by locals as The Princess’s River. Poinari was indeed besieged, but Vlad managed to escape to Moldavia and later the protection of Matthias Corvinus in Hungary.  He would never return to Poinari, and the castle fell to ruins.  Radu was quickly crowned Voivode * ("Prince") in his brother’s place.

The ruins of Castle Poenari on Mount Cetatea, overlooking the valley.

   After his rather humiliating defeat, Vlad and Matthias spent five weeks in the Autumn of 1462 forging his alliance and making battle plans. Vlad then headed home to Wallachia, thinking his trust with Hungary had been sealed. To his surprise, Vlad was captured just inside the Wallachian border by Matthias’ own men and taken prisoner back to Hungary.  Even today, no one is quite sure why Matthias’ sympathies changed so quickly.  Recent research has suggested that the ruler of Hungary was tempted by the idea of becoming Holy Roman Emperor, and to do this, he had to abandon his campaigns against the Turks  which included his new alliance with Wallachia, to focus on gaining power in Western and Central Europe.  To justify this move, he had Vlad captured and claimed he was actually in league with the Ottomans and therefore, Wallachia was unworthy of his assistance.  Vlad would be imprisoned in Hungary for approximately four years.  Eventually his dear friend and cousin Stephen the Great of Moldavia would intervene on Vlad’s behalf to have him released.  Around the time of his release, Vlad married Ilona Szilagyi, a cousin of Matthias.  She would give Vlad two sons, Vlad IV Draculea and Mircea.  The elder son's descendants would later marry into the Hungarian royal family.  Even later, A descenant of Vlad and Ilona would marry into the British royal family. 

   In the meantime, Radu died, and his successor to the throne was the Turkish vassal Basarab the Elder, a member of the rival Danesti line of House Basarab.  Vlad was having none of this.  With the aid of some Hungarian forces led by Stephen V Bathory, Voivode of Transylvania (also an ally of Corvinus), forces from Stephen of Moldavia, and some dissatisfied Wallachian Boyars (whom it seems could not be satisfied no matter who was in charge) Vlad invaded Wallachia for a third time.  Basarab and his government fled as soon as rumor of Vlad’s arrival reached them.  Vlad was established as ruler of Wallachia once again for a third and final reign.  Unfortunately, this last rule would be very short.  Once Vlad was crowed, his allies went home, leaving him in a weak position with a very small army.  Before he had time to gain assistance from anyone else, the Turks returned with the intention of placing Basarab back on the throne and eliminating Vlad for good.  They succeeded.  Vlad had declared himself ruler on 26 November, and by early January, he was dead. How he died is not clear even to this day.  Some sources claim he was killed battling the Turks, surrounded by the bodies of Moldavian bodyguards.  Others have claimed he was killed by traitorous Boyars who sided with the Turks in Basarab the Elder’s final coup.  Or, he possibly was killed while hunting, either a tragic accident or an assassination made to look like a hunting calamity.  What is certain is that Vlad, who was notorious in life, would become infamous in death and his name would become synonymous with ruthlessness and bloodlust

     For the next hundred years, legends and stories about Vlad III Draculea, the Dragon’s Son known as Tepes ‘The Impaler”, or “Impaler Lord” would spread across Europe.  His reputation varied throughout.  In Germany he was known as a cruel, evil and bloodthirsty ruler, who killed infants and forced their mothers to eat them, and cut off women’s breasts and fed them to their husbands.  Others claimed he liked to dine within the forests of impaled bodies he created, even collecting the blood of his victims and drinking it.  Yet in Russia and Eastern Europe, he was seen through a more optimistic lens. Yes, he went a bit far at times, but his at times cruel actions were seen as the necessary workings of a strong ruler, and he was also hailed as a great warlord against the encroaching Muslim menace of the Ottoman Empire.  In Romania and Bulgaria, Vlad was and still is hailed as a hero, and a harsh yet fair leader who did what had to be done to rid the kingdom of corruption within, and keep the Ottoman invaders at bay.

    Before we pass final judgment let us consider the times.  It is a favorite saying among historians that you cannot take a man out of his times.  In other words, a person’s tastes and sentiments are dictated by their surroundings.  That is not always the case, but in this instance I believe it is to an extent.  Europe and the Middle East in the 15^th century were very violent by modern standards.  This was the era of the Inquisition (whose own reputation is worse than the actual organization), and in its wake would come the post-Reformation religious struggles where Protestants and Catholics would abuse and destroy each other in ways that no Christian should ever behave toward their brother or sister in Christ. And when Constantinople fell, the Turks spent three days ravishing and killing all they found, even going so far as to rape the altar boys of the Hagia Sophia.  Was Vlad the Lord Impaler cruel? Most certainly, but I doubt he was much more “devilish” than many others were they in his place. 

   And what of Wallachia?  It would be fought over by both Christians and Muslims for the next four hundred years until it united with Moldavia and Transylvania in 1859 to become Romania.  Romania itself would declare its final independence from the now declining Ottoman Empire in 1877.  She was at last free. 

  This is the end of the known territory of our search into Islam, its relation to the Fall of Rome, and its permanent stunting of Christianity en masse, and why Western Civilization has an indescribable fear of it.  From here I must decide which direction to take. Certainly we have touched on the loss of the Rome of the East in Constantinople and will revisit that again.  I must write about a few other things first, but I assure you I shall explore further soon.

   *Voivode is the Wallachian title used by their rulers. This title has no direct English translation, but "Prince" is the closest meaning to the concept.