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Dan III of Wallachia. Dan the Younger (executed in April 1460) (Also known as Dan the Pretender) was a pretender to the throne of Wallachia from 1456 to 1460. He was the son of Dan II of Wallachia who died fighting for the throne in 1431.
War of succession in Wallachia, which opposed Radu II, brother of Mihail I, to the Danesti pretender Dan II (son of Dan I and member of the Order of the Dragon), where both had brief periods of power in succession.
The night attack at Târgoviște (Romanian: Atacul de noapte de la Târgoviște) was a battle fought between forces of Prince Vlad III of Wallachia, and Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire on Thursday, 17 June 1462.
Dan tried to seize Wallachia with the support of the burghers of the town, but he was defeated and captured in a battle near Rucăr. He was forced to dig his own grave before being beheaded. Dan the Younger was a pretender to the throne of Wallachia from 1456 to 1460.
With his small but powerful army, ranging between 7,000 and 10,000 soldiers, Vlad Ţepeş invaded Transylvania on several occasions (1458-1460) to punish the cities of Sibiu and Braşov, which had supported Dan III’s candidacy for the throne of Wallachia.
However, the two were often at odds on later dates, siding with the Turks or Hungarians against the other, as circumstances dictated. The most serious political threat Vlad faced from Hungary was when Matthias Corvinus supported Dan III, pretender to the Wallachian throne, beginning in 1458.
On 5 April, Dan authorized the officials of Brașov to confiscate the wealth of the Wallachian merchants who had fled from the town because of the emerging conflict. After Vlad Dracul broke into Țara Bârsei, plundering the region in August or September, Dan accused him of cooperating with the Ottoman Empire.
