When archaeologist Dinu Rosetti excavated what was believed to be Vlad the Impaler’s tomb in 1933, he did not find the remains of the infamous ruler. Instead, the alleged grave contained only horse bones, deepening the mystery that has surrounded the 15th-century prince for centuries. Even the details of Vlad III’s birth remain uncertain. Historians have never confirmed his exact birth date, but most agree he was likely born around 1431, based on the fact that he reached the minimum age of candidacy for the throne in 1448.
His name, however, has endured. Before he was known as Vlad the Impaler, he carried the title Vlad Dracula, meaning “son of the dragon,” a reference to his father’s membership in the Order of the Dragon. Dracula’s father, Vlad II, was not a stranger to dangerous rivalries, and one of those rivalries would ultimately ensnare his sons. In 1442, Vlad II refused to support an Ottoman invasion of Transylvania, a decision that displeased Sultan Murad II, since Wallachia was an Ottoman vassal state.
To prove his loyalty, Vlad II traveled to Gallipoli with his two sons, Vlad and Radu, at the Sultan’s orders. It was a trap. The Ottomans captured and imprisoned them. The Sultan released Vlad II within the year but kept the two brothers as collateral to ensure his loyalty.
Vlad II’s fate was sealed in November 1447 when John Hunyadi, now Hungary’s regent governor, marched on Wallachia. Shortly after, Vlad II and his elder son Mircea were killed, allowing Hunyadi to install Vlad’s cousin, Vladislav II, as the new ruler. Vlad III, still imprisoned, was now old enough to claim the Wallachian throne. His opportunity came in September 1448, when the throne sat vacant while Hunyadi and Vladislav II were away fighting the Ottomans.
Vlad returned to Wallachia and took control, but his first reign was brief. Hunyadi’s campaign had failed, and when he and Vladislav II returned in December, their diminished forces still proved too strong for Vlad’s army. He was ousted after roughly two months of rule. For nearly a decade, Vlad waited for another chance.
Although Hungary helped him launch another invasion in mid-1456, the details remain vague. By September, he was once again Voivode of Wallachia. The Hungarian king expected loyalty in return for his aid. But when Vlad sent his customary tribute to the Ottoman Sultan, Hungary’s new captain general, Ladislaus Hunyadi, accused him of being deliberately unfaithful.
Vlad then turned his attention to Transylvania, looting villages near Sibiu and Brașov. It was around this time that the first German accounts of his brutality surfaced, telling stories of him kidnapping Saxon residents and taking them to Wallachia to be impaled on stakes. His tactics had a political effect. When Matthias Corvinus was elected King of Hungary in 1458, he ordered Sibiu’s residents to maintain peace with Wallachia’s ruler, believing it better to have the Impaler as a friend than an enemy.
Vlad, however, had no desire for peace. In 1460, his cousin Dan III tried to invade Wallachia with support from Brașov. Vlad swiftly put down the invasion, executed Dan, and took revenge on Brașov by plundering its suburbs and impaling captives. After months of vengeance, he settled down and even called the remaining Brașov residents his “brothers and friends.
” With multiple successful shows of force behind him, Vlad was ready to defy the Ottoman Empire openly. According to the Sultan’s secretary, Tursun Beg, who wrote at the time, Vlad stopped paying his tribute in 1461 while the Sultan was away on an expedition. The Sultan was not pleased. Tursun Beg also claimed that Vlad had begun conspiring with Matthias Corvinus.
Sultan Mehmed II sent an envoy to bring Vlad to Constantinople, with secret orders to capture him once he crossed the Danube. Vlad was suspicious and discovered the plot. He captured the envoy and executed those who tried to take him in. Turning the ruse against his enemies, Vlad approached the fortress of Giurgiu, speaking fluent Turkish and pretending the envoy was still escorting him.
His men captured the fortress in moments. There was no turning back. Vlad launched a full invasion of Ottoman territory, eventually slaying around 23,884 Turks and Bulgarians, according to his own report to Corvinus. Mehmed II responded with overwhelming force, mustering an army of over 150,000 men.
They crossed the Danube and arrived in Nicopolis, Bulgaria, in June 1462. Vlad, recognizing he was heavily outnumbered, retreated to Târgoviște. Vlad’s strategy was stealth. He and a small group of men snuck into the Ottoman camp at night, targeting the Sultan’s tent.
But at the last moment, something went wrong: they tore open the tent to find it was not the Sultan’s, but that of his vizier. Vlad and his guards were forced to flee. His other tactic was psychological warfare. When the Ottomans arrived at Târgoviște, they found no living person inside.
Instead, they found thousands of bodies impaled on stakes, a sight they referred to as a “forest of the impaled. ” The horror took a mental toll on the Ottoman troops. Mehmed II’s invasion ultimately failed. Although his forces had superior numbers, the intense heat, thirst, and psychological damage from Vlad’s tactics contributed to their retreat.
But Vlad knew he could not win alone. He traveled to Transylvania to ask his old ally Matthias Corvinus for help. After weeks of negotiations in 1462, Corvinus refused the request. The explanation was not the worst part, however.
As Vlad returned toward Wallachia, he was overwhelmed and captured at the commune of Rucăr by mercenary commander John Jiskra of Brandýs, acting on Corvinus’s orders. Corvinus needed a justification for imprisoning Vlad. He presented three letters allegedly written by Vlad offering to ally with the Ottomans against Hungary. Most historians now agree these letters were forgeries.
The real reason for Vlad’s captivity was never stated publicly. Corvinus’s court historian noted that the ruler never specified what it was. Bishop Gabriele Rangoni claimed Vlad’s imprisonment was clearly due to his barbarism, spreading a rumor that Vlad, unable to stop his impaling ways, made rats his new victims while in prison. Vlad was initially held in modern-day Alba Iulia, Romania, before being moved to the town of Visegrád, where he remained imprisoned for 14 years.
He was finally released after converting to Catholicism, according to Slavic legend. Corvinus still refused to commit his forces on Vlad’s behalf, but he had no problem using the Impaler for his own benefit. Vlad fought across Bosnia alongside a Serbian nobleman named Vuk Grgurević, slaying civilians and impaling Ottomans by the horde. In mid-1476, Vlad’s old ally Stephen III of Moldavia suffered a defeat as the Ottomans invaded Moldavia.
Vlad again leapt into action, this time with Hungarian commander Stephen Báthory. They broke the Ottoman siege on a citadel and forced the Sultan to withdraw. Sultan Mehmed II had proclaimed another of Vlad’s cousins, Basarab Laiotă, the lawful ruler of Wallachia. Stephen Báthory and Stephen III prepared to invade Wallachia in the fall of 1476 to remove him.
Over the next several weeks, Vlad and Stephen III took Bucharest, defeating Basarab’s forces so badly that he fled to the Ottoman Empire by November 16. By November 26, Vlad had reclaimed the crown and was Voivode once more. This reign was short-lived. The following month, Basarab returned with around 4,000 Ottoman troops.
Refusing to surrender, Vlad and his 2,000 men made their stand. They were defeated, and Vlad was killed. The true nature of Vlad’s death remains another mystery. Accounts differ: some say an assassin slew him in the night, others claim he was decapitated after an ambush.
Adding to the intrigue, no one has ever found his final resting place. Many believe he was buried at the Monastery of Snagov in Romania. But when Dinu Rosetti excavated his alleged tomb in 1933, he did not find the Impaler’s remains.
He found only horse bones.
