Anyone heard of Amlas? (war, state, historical, years)

[hawk55732]

I was watching a video on youtube about Vlad the Impaler. In the video he showed a map that had what looked like a little country inside of Hungary called Amlas. I tried finding out about it but couldnt find anything that matched that time frame? Does anyone have any idea what it is?

Link to the video if it helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtCjc5OwBi4

[JimRom]

It wasn't a country, it was a town/village/city that was destroyed by Vlad III Tepes during his rise to power. There isn't much online about it, but I do remember reading about it years ago in a book about Vlad the Impaler (Sorry, but I don't remember the title of the book).

The only reference I can find online is this one, which is pretty basic:
https://www.executedtoday.com/2010/0...acula-impaled/

ETA: There is some question about exactly how brutal Vlad was. While it's evident that he executed multiple people via impaling, it's also speculated that his detractors may have made up some of the stories to turn people against him.

[hawk55732]

Originally Posted by JimRom

It wasn't a country, it was a town/village/city that was destroyed by Vlad III Tepes during his rise to power. There isn't much online about it, but I do remember reading about it years ago in a book about Vlad the Impaler (Sorry, but I don't remember the title of the book).

The only reference I can find online is this one, which is pretty basic:
https://www.executedtoday.com/2010/0...acula-impaled/

ETA: There is some question about exactly how brutal Vlad was. While it's evident that he executed multiple people via impaling, it's also speculated that his detractors may have made up some of the stories to turn people against him.

Good to know, thanks. The main reason I was interested in it was because from the map it looks like it was a small country and it was completely surrouneded by Hungary. It wouldnt be the first time that a country was completed encased inside another country and I was interested in how it became like that. Your explanation throws that idea out the window now. Thanks for the info.

[Dd714]

I am not familiar with Amlas either, but that's the way medieval rule worked - you had a number of city-states even within a defined kingdom that operated either totally independent or semi-independent (maybe as a vassal state) to the crown of that kingdom. They would usually be centered around a castle stronghold. If a vassal, they would give tribute to the superior state for both protection and to be left alone.
But it was also an unstable time and these little city states were continuously popping up and then dissapearing - with that region recovering from the Mongol invasion and being at the crossroads of Christianity and the Ottoman Emprie. I think also there was a civil war in Hungary in the 12th or 13th century.

[William Blakeley]

The answers given by others seem to be pretty on spot OP , but for the sake of additional information I'll throw a few more tidbits in .

To my understanding Amlas was a duchy ( https://books.google.hu/books?id=wjd...0amlas&f=false ) much like Fagaras that existed as a sort of vassal state of the Kingdom of Hungary .

The Banate of Severin ( https://alchetron.com/Banate-of-Severin ) is another polity that seems to have had similar status to these two duchies , with a very explicit frontier march aspect to it , what with it having been given to the Knights Hospitallers by Béla IV with the intention of them guarding it against foreign excursions IIRC .

I must say that the history of what's commonly referred to as Transylvania is a very fascinating subject , which is precisely why it's a pity that a large amount of historical sources concerning it are either unavailable in the English language and/or biased in favor of particular schools of historical thought .

Anyways I hope this post has been of some help to you and I may post some more historical sources if I manage to dig them up .