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Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș [ˈ v l a d ˈ ts e p e ʃ]) or Vlad Dracula (/ ˈ d r æ k j ʊ l ə,-j ə-/; Romanian: Vlad Drăculea [ˈ d r ə k u l e̯a]; 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77.
- Eupraxia of Moldavia (?)
- Vlad II of Wallachia
- Vladislav II
Vlad the Impaler (born 1431, Sighișoara, Transylvania [now in Romania]—died 1476, north of present-day Bucharest, Romania) voivode (military governor, or prince) of Walachia (1448; 1456–1462; 1476) whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe.
- Richard Pallardy
- How did Vlad the Impaler become famous?Vlad was a voivode (prince) of Walachia (part of modern Romania). Surrounded by enemies that included the Hungarians, the Ottomans, his younger bro...
- What was Vlad the Impaler’s childhood like?Vlad was the second son of Vlad II Dracul. When he was 11 years old, Vlad was sent to the court of the Ottoman sultan Murad II as a hostage. His fa...
- How did Vlad the Impaler change the world?Vlad was a minor player during the early period of Ottoman domination of what is today Romania. He likely would have remained a historical curiosit...
- How did Vlad the Impaler die?In 1476 Vlad was ambushed by an Ottoman patrol and killed. He was reportedly decapitated, and his head was sent to the sultan in Constantinople as...
- Early Years
- Struggle to Be Voivode
- Factional Conflict
- Ruler of Wallachia
- Vlad The Impaler’s Wars
- Expulsion from Wallachia
- Final Rule and Death
- Legacy and Dracula
- Sources
Vlad was born between 1428 and 1431 into the family of Vlad II Dracul. This nobleman had been allowed into the crusading Order of the Dragon (Dracul) by its creator, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, to encourage him to defend both Christian east Europe and Sigismund’s lands from encroaching Ottomanforces and other threats. The Ottomans were expand...
Vlad II and his eldest son were killed by rebel boyars—Wallachian noblemen—in 1447, and a new rival called Vladislav II was put on the throne by the pro-Hungarian governor of Transylvania, called Hunyadi. At some point, Vlad III and Radu were freed, and Vlad returned to the principality to begin a campaign aimed at inheriting his father’s position ...
What followed were 29 separate reigns of 11 separate rulers, from 1418 to 1476, including Vlad III thrice. It was from this chaos, and a patchwork of local boyar factions, that Vlad sought first the throne, and then to establish a strong state through both bold actions and outright terror. There was a temporary victory in 1448 when Vlad took advant...
Established as voivode, Vlad now faced the problems of his predecessors: how to balance Hungary and the Ottomans and keep himself independent. Vlad began to rule in a bloody manner designed to strike fear into the hearts of opponents and allies alike. He ordered people to be impaled on stakes, and his atrocities were inflicted on anyone who upset h...
Vlad attempted to restore the balance of Hungarian and Ottoman interests in Wallachia and swiftly came to terms with both. However, he was soon assailed by plots from Hungary, who changed their support to a rival voivode. War resulted, during which Vlad supported a Moldovan noble who would both later fight him and earn the epithet "Stephen the Grea...
Vlad did not, as some of the pro-communist and pro-Vlad historians have claimed, defeat the Ottomans and then fall to a revolt of rebel boyars. Instead, some of Vlad’s followers fled to the Ottomans to ingratiate themselves to Radu when it became apparent that Vlad’s army could not defeat the invaders. Hungary’s forces arrived too late to aid Vlad—...
After years of imprisonment, Vlad was released by Hungary in 1474 or 1475 to seize back the Wallachian throne and fight against a forthcoming invasion by the Ottomans, on the condition he converted to Catholicism and away from Orthodoxy. After fighting for the Moldavians, he regained his throne in 1476 but was killed shortly after in a battle with ...
Many leaders have come and gone, but Vlad remains a well-known figure in European history. In some parts of Eastern Europe he is a hero for his role in fighting the Ottomans—although he fought Christians just as much, and more successfully—whereas in much of the rest of the world he is infamous for his brutal punishments, a byword for cruelty, and ...
Lallanilla, Marc. “Vlad the Impaler: The Real Dracula Was Absolutely Vicious.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 31 Oct. 2013.“10 Fascinating Facts About The Real Dracula.” Listverse, 11 Oct. 2014.Webley, Kayla. “Top 10 Royals Who Would Have Been Terrible on Facebook.” Time, Time Inc., 9 Nov. 2010.Apr 9, 2023 · Wikimedia Commons Though Vlad the Impaler is a national hero in Romania to this day, the “real Dracula” perpetrated untold atrocities throughout the mid-1400s. Vlad III earned his fearsome nickname for impaling more than 20,000 people and killing as many as 60,000 others during his bloody reign.
- Natasha Ishak
Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania.
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Bram Stoker’s Dracula is popularly associated with Vlad the Impaler, and some scholars do believe that the literary bloodsucker is derived in part from the historical Walachian prince. If Stoker did indeed base the archetypal vampire on Vlad, what led him to do so? Among the other possible real-life inspirations, what set Vlad apart from the ...
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia called "Vlad the Impaler" and also known as Vlad Dracula or simply Dracula, in Romanian Drăculea (1431 – December 1476), was a Wallachian (southern Romania) voivode (military commander). His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–1462, and 1476.
