Vlad III
The Prince of Wallachia notorious for impalement, the model for the "Dracula" legend.
Life
Ottoman hostage
Vlad III's father, Vlad II, Prince of Wallachia, had joined the "Order of the Dragon," so both father and son were called "Dracul." As a youth he spent many years as a hostage at the Ottoman court.
The Impaler
He took the throne of Wallachia three times and punished nobles, criminals and enemies cruelly by impalement, earning the name "the Impaler." In 1462 he led a night raid on the camp of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II; when the Ottoman army reached his capital, it is said to have retreated at the sight of tens of thousands of impaled corpses lining the road.
Dracula
He was later imprisoned for many years by the King of Hungary, regained the throne in 1476, and was killed in battle soon afterward. In Romania he is regarded as a hero who resisted foreign enemies, while in the West his cruelty made him the model for the vampire legend.
Legacy
When the British writer Bram Stoker wrote his novel Dracula in 1897 he borrowed his name, but the vampire in the novel has little to do with the real Vlad III.
Did you know? In Romanian, "Dracula" means "son of the dragon," a name derived from the Order of the Dragon that his father had joined.
Key dates
- 1448First accession
- 1456Second accession
- 1462Night attack on the Ottoman sultan's camp
- 1476Third accession
- 1477Killed in battle