[104] Radu sent messengers to the Wallachians, reminding them that the sultan could again invade their country. [81] Tursun Beg (a secretary in the sultan's court) stated that Vlad only turned against the Ottoman Empire when the sultan "was away on the long expedition in Trebizon" in 1461. Vlad's father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary, invaded Wallachia in 1447. [149] He described Vlad as "a man of unheard cruelty and justice". [14] The last of the four charters also referred to their younger brother, Radu. [142] The papal legate, Niccolo Modrussiense, had already written about such stories to Pope Pius II in 1462. The morbid nickname is a testament to the Wallachian prince's favorite way of dispensing with his enemies. Still, Vlad wasn’t finished with the Transylvanians yet. [41], The circumstances and the date of Vlad's return to Wallachia are uncertain. We don’t actually know the identity of Dracula’s mother. He was an excellent military leader and was often victorious in battle against Ottoman incursions and internal riots. [37][39] Vlad returned to Moldavia where Alexăndrel had dethroned Peter Aaron. [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. [136], Vlad's eldest son,[138] Mihnea, was born in 1462. Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. [86] Stephen III of Moldavia hurried to Chilia (now Kiliya in Ukraine) to seize the important fortress where a Hungarian garrison had been placed. One night, he allegedly invited hundreds of Targoviste’s poor to a grand feast. [80] Both records suggest that Vlad ignored the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, already in 1459, but both works were written decades after the events. [127][126] Bonfini wrote that Vlad's head was sent to Mehmed II. For him, the high-stakes nature of the power struggle took on a literal dimension in 1456, when he closed his iron fist around the reins of power and exacted vengeance. [29] Vlad Dracul and his eldest son, Mircea, were murdered. Now, to be fair, Michel Beheim was a wandering bard who was known to stretch the truth here and there, but this at least gives you an idea of how gruesome Vlad’s reputation was, even while he was still alive. You know, the guy who kept Vlad prisoner for over a decade? [144] The poem, called Von ainem wutrich der heis Trakle waida von der Walachei ("Story of a Despot Called Dracula, Voievod of Wallachia"), was performed at the court of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor in Wiener Neustadt during the winter of 1463. [53] Taking advantage of the civil war in Hungary, Vlad assisted Stephen, son of Bogdan II of Moldavia, in his move to seize Moldavia in June 1457. "[184] Ioan Bogdan was one of the few Romanian historians who did not accept this heroic image. [177] Deleanu's Țiganiada (Gypsy Epic) (which was published only in 1875, almost a century after its composition) presented Vlad as a hero fighting against the boyars, Ottomans, strigoi (or vampires), and other evil spirits at the head of an army of gypsies and angels. [87] He informed Matthias Corvinus about the military action in a letter on 11 February 1462. Of course, having a legendary vampire named after you helps with that—but somehow, the man was even more horrifying than the monster. [120] The relationship between the Transylvanian Saxons and Basarab remained tense, and the Saxons gave shelter to Basarab's opponents during the following months. [166], The mass murders that Vlad carried out indiscriminately and brutally would most likely amount to acts of genocide and war crimes by current standards. In their place, Vlad left what has been called “The Forest of the Impaled.”. 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. [29][18], Upon the death of his father and elder brother, Vlad became a potential claimant to Wallachia. These same accounts call Vlad “a demented psychopath, a sadist, a gruesome murderer, a masochist.”. [97] Mehmed entered Târgoviște at the end of June. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on…. Hunyadi launched a military campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448, and Vladislav accompanied him. Vlad’s reputation for cruelty inspired the name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. [93][95] However, the Wallachians "missed the court of the sultan himself"[96] and attacked the tents of the viziers Mahmut Pasha and Isaac. After Dan III was hanging from a pike, Vlad invaded Transylvania and sacked Brasov. [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. Vlad's reputation for cruelty and his patronymic inspired the name of the vampire Count Dracula. [144], The meistersinger Michael Beheim wrote a lengthy poem about Vlad's deeds, allegedly based on his conversation with a Catholic monk who had managed to escape from Vlad's prison. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. "Vlad Țepeș" redirects here. Not long after these harrowing events, in 1448, Vlad embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. Corvinus had helped him out in the past, but this time, the Hungarian King had him imprisoned! [185] In his work published in 1896, Vlad Țepeș and the German and Russian Narratives, he concluded that the Romanians should be ashamed of Vlad, instead of presenting him as "a model of courage and patriotism". After the fall, the Ottomans were in a position to invade all of Europe. [16] Modern historians identify Vlad's mother either as a daughter or a kinswoman of Alexander I of Moldavia,[13][16][17] or as his father's unknown first wife. [158] Almost half of the anecdotes emphasize, like the German stories, Vlad's brutality, but they also underline that his cruelty enabled him to strengthen the central government in Wallachia. So yeah, a slight variant on his usual schtick. [174] For instance, the tales about the burning of the lazy, the poor, and the lame at Vlad's order and the execution of the woman who had made her husband too short a shirt can also be found among the German and Slavic anecdotes. [26] Vlad II Dracul was convinced that his two sons were "butchered for the sake of Christian peace", but neither Vlad nor Radu was murdered or mutilated after their father's rebellion. [82] According to Tursun Beg, Vlad started new negotiations with Matthias Corvinus, but the sultan was soon informed by his spies. [10] Mircea the Shepherd, Voivode of Wallachia, used this sobriquet when referring to Vlad III in a letter of grant on 1 April 1551. It is said he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. [171] In other villages of the region, the donation is attributed to the legendary Radu Negru. [61] He ordered the burghers of Sibiu to keep the peace with Vlad on 3 March. [130], Vlad had two wives, according to modern specialists. This time he got to govern. [74] Dan III stated that Vlad had Saxon merchants and their children impaled or burnt alive in Wallachia.[74]. [144], In 1475, Gabriele Rangoni, Bishop of Eger (and a former papal legate),[146] understood that Vlad had been imprisoned because of his cruelty. [93] Either the imprisonment or the death of the sultan would have caused a panic among the Ottomans, which could have enabled Vlad to defeat the Ottoman army. [184] Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol was one of the first historians to emphasize that Vlad could only stop the internal fights of the boyar parties through his acts of terror. [117] When a group of soldiers broke into the house while pursuing a thief who had tried to hide there, Vlad had their commander executed because they had not asked his permission before entering his home, according to the Slavic stories about his life. Only many bones and jaws of horses. [147] Rangoni also recorded the rumour that while in prison Vlad caught rats to cut them up into pieces or stuck them on small pieces of wood, because he was unable to "forget his wickedness". But if you will be our enemies now, and if something happens, ... you will have to answer for it before God, Vlad first settled in Edirne in the Ottoman Empire after his fall. [181] He urges Vlad to return from the grave and to annihilate the enemies of the Romanian nation:[181]. [158] They are a mixture of fact and fiction, according to historian Raymond T. Unwilling to give his enemies even an inch, he went to disturbing lengths in order to slow them down.