Vlad the Impaler

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Vlad Dracula" redirects here. Not to be confused with Count Dracula, Vlad

Dracul, or Vladracula.
"Vlad Țepeș" redirects here. For other uses, see Vlad Țepeș
(disambiguation).
For the baseball player so nicknamed, see Vladimir Guerrero.

Vlad III

Ambras Castle portrait of Vlad III (c. 1560), reputedly a

copy of an original made during his lifetime
Voivode of Wallachia

1st reign October – November 1448

Predecessor Vladislav II

Successor Vladislav II

2nd reign 15 April 1456 – July 1462

Predecessor Vladislav II

Successor Radu cel Frumos

3rd reign December 1476 or January 1477

Predecessor Basarab Laiotă cel Bătrân

Successor Basarab Laiotă cel Bătrân

Born 1428–1431
 Died December 1476 – January 1477 (aged 45–49)

Spouse Unknown first wife

Justina Szilágyi

Issue Mihnea

House Drăculești

House of Basarab (original branch)

Father Vlad II of Wallachia

Mother Eupraxia of Moldavia (?)

Religion Eastern Orthodox[1]

Roman Catholic[2][3] (disputed)

Signature

Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad

Țepeș [ˈvlad ˈtsepeʃ]) or Vlad Dracula (/ˈdrækjələ/; Romanian: Vlad
Drăculea [ˈdrəkule̯a]; 1428/31 – 1476/77), 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.[4]

He was the second son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in
1436. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu, were held as hostages in
the Ottoman Empire in 1442 to secure their father's loyalty. Vlad's eldest
brother Mircea and their father were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-
governor of Hungary, invaded Wallachia in 1447. Hunyadi installed Vlad's
second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode. Hunyadi launched a military
campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448, and Vladislav
accompanied him. Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support in
October, but Vladislav returned and Vlad sought refuge in the Ottoman
Empire before the end of the year. Vlad went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450,
and later to Hungary.

Relations between Hungary and Vladislav later deteriorated, and in 1456 Vlad
invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support. Vladislav died fighting against him.
Vlad began a purge among the Wallachian boyars to strengthen his position.
He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons, who supported his
opponents, Dan and Basarab Laiotă (who were Vladislav's brothers), and
Vlad's illegitimate half-brother, Vlad Călugărul. Vlad plundered the Saxon
villages, taking the captured people to Wallachia where he had
them impaled (which inspired his cognomen). Peace was restored in 1460.

The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, ordered Vlad to pay homage to him

personally, but Vlad had the Sultan's two envoys captured and impaled. In
February 1462, he attacked Ottoman territory, massacring tens of thousands
of Turks and Muslim Bulgarians. Mehmed launched a campaign against
Wallachia to replace Vlad with Vlad's younger brother, Radu. Vlad attempted
to capture the sultan at Târgoviște during the night of 16–17 June 1462. The
sultan and the main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but more and more
Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek assistance
from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in late 1462, but Corvinus had him
imprisoned.

Vlad was held in captivity in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475. During this period,
anecdotes about his cruelty started to spread in Germany and Italy. He was
released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475. He
fought in Corvinus's army against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476.
Hungarian and Moldavian troops helped him to force Basarab Laiotă (who
had dethroned Vlad's brother, Radu) to flee from Wallachia in November.
Basarab returned with Ottoman support before the end of the year. Vlad was
killed in battle before 10 January 1477. Books describing Vlad's cruel acts
were among the first bestsellers in the German-speaking territories. In Russia,
popular stories suggested that Vlad was able to strengthen his central
government only through applying brutal punishments, and a similar view was
adopted by most Romanian historians in the 19th century.
Vlad's patronymic inspired the name of Bram Stoker's literary vampire, Count
Dracula.

Name
Further information: House of Drăculești

Vlad's father, Vlad Dracul

The name Dracula, which is now primarily known as the name of a vampire,

was for centuries known as the sobriquet of Vlad III.[5][6] Diplomatic reports and
popular stories referred to him as Dracula, Dracuglia, or Drakula already in
the 15th century.[5] He himself signed his two letters as "Dragulya" or
"Drakulya" in the late 1470s.[7] His name had its origin in the sobriquet of his
father, Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon" in medieval Romanian), who received it
after he became a member of the Order of the Dragon.[8][9] Dracula is
the Slavonic genitive form of Dracul, meaning "[the son] of Dracul (or the
Dragon)".[9][10] In modern Romanian, dracul means "the devil", which
contributed to Vlad's reputation.[10]

Vlad III is known as Vlad Țepeș (or Vlad the Impaler) in Romanian

historiography.[10] This sobriquet is connected to the impalement that was his
favorite method of execution.[10] The Ottoman writer Tursun Beg referred to
him as Kazıklı Voyvoda (Impaler Lord) around 1500.[10] Mircea the Shepherd,
Voivode of Wallachia, used this sobriquet when referring to Vlad III in a letter
of grant on 1 April 1551.[11]

Early life
Vlad was the second legitimate son of Vlad II Dracul, who was himself an
illegitimate son of Mircea I of Wallachia. Vlad II had won the moniker "Dracul"
for his membership in the Order of the Dragon,[12] a militant fraternity founded
by Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary. The Order of the Dragon was
dedicated to halting the Ottoman advance into Europe. [13] Since he was old
enough to be a candidate to the throne of Wallachia in 1448, Vlad's time of
birth would have been between 1428 and 1431. [14][13] Vlad was most probably
born after his father settled in Transylvania in 1429.[15][13] Historian Radu
Florescu writes that Vlad was born in the Transylvanian Saxon town
of Sighișoara (then in the Kingdom of Hungary), where his father lived in a
three-story stone house from 1431 to 1435.[16] Modern historians identify
Vlad's mother either as a daughter or kinswoman of Alexander I of Moldavia[13]
[16][17] or as his father's unknown first wife. [18]

The house in the main square of Sighișoara where Vlad's father lived from 1431 to 1435

Vlad II Dracul seized Wallachia after the death of his half-brother Alexander I

Aldea in 1436.[19][20] One of his charters (which was issued on 20 January
1437) preserves the first reference to Vlad III and his elder brother, Mircea,
mentioning them as their father's "firstborn sons". [14] They were mentioned in
four further documents between 1437 and 1439. [14] The last of the four
charters also refers to their younger brother, Radu.[14]

After a meeting with John Hunyadi, Voivode of Transylvania, Vlad II Dracul

did not support an Ottoman invasion of Transylvania in March 1442.
[21] The Ottoman Sultan, Murad II, ordered him to come to Gallipoli to

demonstrate his loyalty.[22][23] Vlad and Radu accompanied their father to the

Ottoman Empire, where they were all imprisoned.[23] Vlad Dracul was released
before the end of the year, but Vlad and Radu remained hostages to secure
his loyalty.[22] They were held imprisoned in the fortress of Eğrigöz
(now Doğrugöz), according to contemporaneous Ottoman chronicles. [24]
[25] Their lives were especially in danger after their father supported Vladislaus,

King of Poland and Hungary, against the Ottoman Empire during the Crusade
of Varna in 1444.[26] Vlad II Dracul was convinced that his two sons would be
"butchered for the sake of Christian peace," but neither Vlad nor Radu was
murdered or mutilated after their father's rebellion. [26]

Vlad Dracul again acknowledged the sultan's suzerainty and promised to pay

a yearly tribute to him in 1446 or 1447.[27] John Hunyadi (who had by then
become the regent-governor of Hungary in 1446), [28] invaded Wallachia in
November 1447.[29] The Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus wrote that Vlad
and Radu fled to the Ottoman Empire, which suggests that the sultan had
allowed them to return to Wallachia after their father paid homage to him.
[29] Vlad Dracul and his eldest son, Mircea, were murdered. [29][18] Hunyadi

made Vladislav II (son of Vlad Dracul's cousin, Dan II) the ruler of Wallachia.

[29][18]

Reigns
First rule

Lands ruled around 1390 by Vlad the Impaler's grandfather, Mircea I of Wallachia (the lands on the right side of the Danube had

been lost to the Ottomans before Vlad's reign)

Upon the death of his father and elder brother, Vlad became a potential
claimant to Wallachia.[18] Vladislav II of Wallachia accompanied John Hunyadi,
who launched a campaign against the Ottoman Empire in September 1448. [30]
[31] Taking advantage of his opponent's absence, Vlad broke into Wallachia at

the head of an Ottoman army in early October.[30][31] He had to accept that the
Ottomans had captured the fortress of Giurgiu on the Danube and
strengthened it.[32]

The Ottomans defeated Hunyadi's army in the Battle of Kosovo between

17 and 18 October.[33] Hunyadi's deputy, Nicholas Vízaknai, urged Vlad to
come to meet him in Transylvania, but Vlad refused him. [31] Vladislav II
returned to Wallachia at the head of the remnants of his army. [32] Vlad was
forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire by 7 December 1448.[32][34]
We bring you the news that [Nicholas Vízaknai] writes to us and asks
us to be so kind as to come to him until [John Hunyadi] ... returns from
the war. We are unable to do this because an emissary from Nicopolis
came to us ... and said with great certainty that [Murad II had defeated
Hunyadi]. ... If we come to [Vízaknai] now, the [Ottomans] could
come and kill both you and us. Therefore, we ask you to have patience
until we see what has happened to [Hunyadi]. ... If he returns from the
war we will meet him and we will make peace with him. But if you
will be our enemies now, and if something happens, ... you will have to
answer for it before God
— Vlad's letter to the councilors of Brașov[34]

In exile

Vlad first settled in Edirne in the Ottoman Empire after his fall.[35][36] Not long

after, he moved to Moldavia, where Bogdan II (his father's brother-in-law and
possibly his maternal uncle) had mounted the throne with John Hunyadi's
support in the autumn of 1449.[35][36] After Bogdan was murdered by Peter III
Aaron in October 1451, Bogdan's son, Stephen, fled to Transylvania with Vlad
to seek assistance from Hunyadi.[35][37] However, Hunyadi concluded a three-
year truce with the Ottoman Empire on 20 November 1451,[38] acknowledging
the Wallachian boyars' right to elect the successor of Vladislav II if he died.[37]

Vlad allegedly wanted to settle in Brașov (which was a centre of the

Wallachian boyars expelled by Vladislaus II), but Hunyadi forbade
the burghers to give shelter to him on 6 February 1452.[37][39] Vlad returned to
Moldavia where Alexăndrel had dethroned Peter Aaron.[40] The events of his
life during the years that followed are unknown. [40] He must have returned to
Hungary before 3 July 1456, because, on that day, Hunyadi informed the
townspeople of Brașov that he had tasked Vlad with the defense of the
Transylvanian border.[41]

Second rule
Consolidation
 Ruins of the Princely Court [ro] in Târgoviște

The circumstances and the date of Vlad's return to Wallachia are uncertain.
[41] He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support either in April, July or August

1456.[42][43] Vladislav II died during the invasion.[43] Vlad sent his first extant

letter as voivode of Wallachia to the burghers of Brașov on 10 September.
[42] He promised to protect them in case of an Ottoman invasion of

Transylvania, but he also sought their assistance if the Ottomans occupied

Wallachia.[42] In the same letter, he stated that "when a man or a prince is
strong and powerful he can make peace as he wants to; but when he is weak,
a stronger one will come and do what he wants to him", [44] showing his
authoritarian personality.[42]

Multiple sources (including Laonikos Chalkokondyles's chronicle) recorded

that hundreds or thousands of people were executed at Vlad's order at the
beginning of his reign.[45] He began a purge against the boyars who had
participated in the murder of his father and elder brother, or whom he
suspected of plotting against him.[46] Chalkokondyles stated that Vlad "quickly
effected a great change and utterly revolutionized the affairs of Wallachia"
through granting the "money, property, and other goods" of his victims to his
retainers.[45] The lists of the members of the princely council during Vlad's
reign also show that only two of them (Voico Dobrița and Iova) were able to
retain their positions between 1457 and 1461. [47]
Conflict with the Saxons

Vlad sent the customary tribute to the sultan.[48] After John Hunyadi died on
11 August 1456, his elder son, Ladislaus Hunyadi became the captain-
general of Hungary.[49] He accused Vlad of having "no intention of remaining
faithful" to the king of Hungary in a letter to the burghers of Brașov, also
ordering them to support Vladislaus II's brother, Dan III, against Vlad.[42][50] The
burghers of Sibiu supported another pretender, a “priest of the Romanians
who calls himself a Prince's son".[51] The latter (identified as Vlad's illegitimate
brother, Vlad Călugărul)[42][52] took possession of Amlaș, which had customarily
been held by the rulers of Wallachia in Transylvania. [51]