Vlad the Impaler

Dracula
Thanks to Bram Stroker and his novel, Dracula, everybody knows about Transylvania or at least heard about it. The famous fiction story about the vampire emperor who ruled the lands of Transylvania and was feared all over the country. But you know the saying, all tales are based on some level of truth, even the story about the hard ruling vampire of Transylvania. Vlad Tepes (or Dracula as reffered to in the novel) was a ruler of the area known as Walachia, not Transylvania, and even the horrifying spiking of his enemies told in the story is based on truth.

Vlad III
Vlad III was born as third son of the ruler of Walachia known as Vlad II from Wallachia. At the time the area of Wallachia was being plundered by the Ottaman kingdom (the Turkisch ancestors). Vlad Tepes’ father was nicknamed ‘dracul’ meaning at the time ‘dragon’ and his son was named ‘dracula’ meaning ‘the son of dracul’. At one point in history (around 1442) did Vlad ‘dracul’ decide to start a peace alliance with the Ottoman empire. Vlad ‘dracul’ then send as guarantee two of his sons to be imprisoned in the Ottoman empire, this was Vlad ‘dracula’ and Radu ‘cel frumos’ (meaning Radu the pretty). While being imprisoned Vlad ‘dracula’ felt incredibly humiliated and developed a raging anger for the Ottoman empire. He also did not agree with the decision his father made to try and make peace with the Ottoman empire. Around 1448 the empire ruled by Vlad II got attacked by the rivalry kingdom of the Bojarians (Hungaria). He lost the fight and got beheaded, his oldest son Mircea was blinded by force and burried alive. The reign of Vlad Tepes his father was over, Vlad ‘dracula’ with the help of the Ottoman empire where he was imprisoned went to Wallachia to claim back the throne. After the battle Vlad was victorious and just at the age of 17 he became ruler of Wallachia.

After another battle for the throne of Wallachia, just a few months after Vlad took back his throne, he had to flee Wallachia and move to his uncles kingdom going by the name of Bogdan II in Moldavia. He made good friends with his nephew Stefanus III  while he was staying at his uncles place. After Vlads uncle got killed by a rivalry kingdom he and his nephew had to flee Moldavia, they searched help by the man who killed Vlad his older brother and father. Janos Hunyadi saw something in Vlad and took him in as his adviser. Its speculated that the reason behind this is because Vlad knew a lot about the Ottoman empire which Hunyadi had war with. Hunyadi decided to attack the Ottoman empire at Belgrado after Vladislav joined the Ottoman empire while Vlad marched back to Wallachia to regain the throne with a considerable small army. Vlad rose victorious and gained revenge against Vladislav by letting him read his own eulogy in front of his dug out grave before being killed and buried.

Vlad Țepeș
After Vlad took back the throne of Wallachia he immediately started by getting rid of all the Bojarians who killed his older brother and father. Vlad invited all the Bojarians for a giant meal at his castle. Ones arrived Vlad revealed the trick he had up his sleeve. He immediately ordered his entourage to impale all the Bojarians soldiers. In addition he took all the children and family members and let them work on the building of the castle until they dropped dead. If they survived they would still be killed by impaling. Over the next years Vlad has had many battles with the Ottoman empire, the raging anger he had towards them never faded. He still felt humiliated for being imprisoned. One of the most legendary battles he fought is named ‘the night attack’. Vlad with a couple of his knights sneaked into an Ottoman camp where the Sultan (leader) was located. The mission was to kill the Sultan and deal as much damage possible to the camp. The killing of the Sultan failed but Vlad and his knights dealt a lot of damage to the camp along with a lot of killings. The Sultan (Mehmet II) had decided to retreat to the capitol city when he saw how worn out his army was after Vlad’s attack. The Sultan did not know what the situation has developed in to at the capitol. Once arrived, the Sultan and his army made a dark discovery, 25.000 members of the Ottoman army impaled waiting for the Sultan to arrive. After this event Vlad gained a new name, Vlad Țepeș (Țepeș = Impaler in Romanian).