Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · Romania

Vlad the Impaler

c. 1428/31–1476/77

Vlad III Dracula, Prince of Wallachia in 1448, 1456–1462 and 1476. Fought the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II and became known for mass impalement. Death counts handed down by chroniclers are disputed.

Facts

Born: Between 1428 and 1431, probably Sighișoara, Transylvania (then Kingdom of Hungary).; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vlad III
Reigns: Prince of Wallachia in 1448, from 1456 to 1462, and in 1476.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vlad III
Name: Dracula, 'son of Dracul': his father, Vlad II, was called Dracul after the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1408.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vlad III
Campaign of 1462: Raids south of the Danube in winter 1461–1462; Mehmed II's invasion and Vlad's night attack on the Ottoman camp in June 1462. Chalkokondyles' figure of about 20,000 impaled is disputed.; Source: Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Histories; Dénes Harai, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (2025)
Died: Late 1476 or early 1477, in battle near Bucharest.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vlad III

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2026-10-06Vlad the ImpalerA field outside Târgoviște, June 1462. An Ottoman army under Sultan Mehmed II, the same man who had taken Constantinople nine years earlier and ended the Byzantine Empire, marched north expecting to crush a small Wallachian prince and absorb his land.Read

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