First rule (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. VladislavII of Wallachia accompanied John Hunyadi, who launched a campaign against the Ottoman Empire in September 1448. Taking advantage of his opponent's absence, Vlad broke into Wallachia at the head of an Ottoman army in early October. He had to accept that the Ottomans had captured the fortress of
Giurgiu on the
Danube and strengthened it. The Ottomans defeated Hunyadi's army in the
Battle of Kosovo between 17and 18October. Hunyadi's deputy, Nicholas Vízaknai, urged Vlad to come to meet him in Transylvania, but Vlad refused him. VladislavII returned to Wallachia at the head of the remnants of his army. Vlad was forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire by 7December 1448.
In exile Vlad first settled in
Edirne in the Ottoman Empire after his fall. Not long after, he moved to Moldavia, where
BogdanII (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. 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. However, Hunyadi concluded a three-year truce with the Ottoman Empire on 20November 1451, acknowledging the Wallachian boyars' right to elect the successor of VladislavII if he died. Vlad allegedly wanted to settle in Brașov (which was a centre of the Wallachian boyars expelled by VladislausII), but Hunyadi forbade the
burghers to give shelter to him on 6February 1452. Vlad returned to Moldavia where
Alexăndrel had dethroned Peter Aaron. The events of his life during the years that followed are unknown. He must have returned to Hungary before 3July 1456 because, on that day, Hunyadi informed the townspeople of Brașov that he had tasked Vlad with the defence of the Transylvanian border.
Second rule Consolidation The circumstances and the date of Vlad's return to Wallachia are uncertain. He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support either in April, July or August 1456. VladislavII died during the invasion. Vlad sent his first extant letter as
voivode of Wallachia to the burghers of Brașov on 10September. He promised to protect them in case of an Ottoman invasion of Transylvania, but he also sought their assistance if the Ottomans occupied Wallachia. 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", showing his authoritarian personality. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Conflict with the Saxons Vlad sent the customary tribute to the sultan. After John Hunyadi died on 11August 1456, his elder son,
Ladislaus Hunyadi, became the captain-general of Hungary. 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 VladislavII's brother,
DanIII, against Vlad. The burghers of
Sibiu supported another pretender, a "priest of the Romanians who calls himself a Prince's son". The latter (identified as Vlad's illegitimate brother,
Vlad Călugărul) took possession of
Amlaș, which had customarily been held by the rulers of Wallachia in Transylvania. (or administrative units) of the
Transylvanian Saxons Ladislaus V of Hungary had Ladislaus Hunyadi executed on 16March 1457. Hunyadi's mother,
Elizabeth Szilágyi, and her brother,
Michael Szilágyi, stirred up a rebellion against the king. Taking advantage of the civil war in Hungary, Vlad assisted Stephen, son of BogdanII of Moldavia, in his move to seize Moldavia in June 1457. Vlad also broke into Transylvania and plundered the villages around Brașov and Sibiu. The earliest German stories about Vlad recounted that he had carried "men, women, children" from a Saxon village to Wallachia and had them
impaled. Since the
Transylvanian Saxons remained loyal to the king, Vlad's attack against them strengthened the position of the Szilágyis. Vlad's representatives participated in the peace negotiations between Michael Szilágyi and the Saxons. According to their treaty, the burghers of Brașov agreed that they would expel Dan from their town. Vlad promised that the merchants of Sibiu could freely "buy and sell" goods in Wallachia in exchange for the "same treatment" of the Wallachian merchants in Transylvania. Vlad referred to Michael Szilágyi as "his Lord and elder brother" in a letter on 1December 1457. Ladislaus Hunyadi's younger brother,
Matthias Corvinus, was elected king of Hungary on 24January 1458. He ordered the burghers of Sibiu to keep the peace with Vlad on 3March. Vlad styled himself "Lord and ruler over all of Wallachia, and the duchies of Amlaș and Făgăraș" on 20September 1459, showing that he had taken possession of both of these traditional Transylvanian
fiefs of the rulers of Wallachia. Michael Szilágyi allowed the boyar Michael (an official of VladislavII of Wallachia) and other Wallachian boyars to settle in Transylvania in late March 1458. Before long, Vlad had the boyar Michael killed. In May, Vlad asked the burghers of Brașov to send craftsmen to Wallachia; however, his relationship with the Saxons deteriorated before the end of the year. According to a scholarly theory, the conflict emerged after Vlad forbade the Saxons to enter Wallachia, forcing them to sell their goods to Wallachian merchants at compulsory border fairs. Vlad's protectionist tendencies or border fairs are not documented. Instead, in 1476, Vlad emphasized that he had always promoted free trade during his reign. The Saxons confiscated the steel that a Wallachian merchant had bought in Brașov without repaying the price to him. In response, Vlad "ransacked and tortured" some Saxon merchants, according to a letter that
Basarab Laiotă (a son of DanII of Wallachia) wrote on 21January 1459. Basarab had settled in
Sighișoara and laid claim to Wallachia. However, Matthias Corvinus supported DanIII (who was again in Brașov) against Vlad. DanIII stated that Vlad had Saxon merchants and their children impaled or
burnt alive in Wallachia. Dan III broke into Wallachia, but Vlad defeated and executed him before 22April 1460. Vlad invaded southern Transylvania and destroyed the suburbs of Brașov, ordering the impalement of all men and women who had been captured. During the ensuing negotiations, Vlad demanded the expulsion or punishment of all Wallachian refugees from Brașov. Peace had been restored before 26July 1460, when Vlad addressed the burghers of Brașov as his "brothers and friends". Vlad invaded the region around Amlaș and Făgăraș on 24August to punish the local inhabitants who had supported DanIII.
Ottoman war ,
Mehmed II, who invaded Wallachia during Vlad's reign
Konstantin Mihailović (who served as a
janissary in the sultan's army) recorded that Vlad refused to pay homage to the sultan in an unspecified year. The Renaissance historian
Giovanni Maria degli Angiolelli likewise wrote that Vlad had failed to pay tribute to the sultan for three years. 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.
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. According to Tursun Beg, Vlad started new negotiations with Matthias Corvinus, but the sultan was soon informed by his spies. Mehmed sent his envoy, the Greek Thomas Katabolinos (also known as Yunus bey), to Wallachia, ordering Vlad to come to Constantinople. He also sent secret instructions to Hamza,
bey of Nicopolis, to capture Vlad after he crossed the Danube. Vlad found out the sultan's "deceit and trickery", captured Hamza and Katabolinos, and had them executed. After the execution of the Ottoman officials, Vlad gave orders in fluent Turkish to the commander of the fortress of Giurgiu to open the gates, enabling the Wallachian soldiers to break into the fortress and capture it. He invaded the Ottoman Empire, devastating the villages along the Danube. He informed Matthias Corvinus about the military action in a letter on 11February 1462. He stated that more than "23,884 Turks and Bulgarians" had been killed at his order during the campaign. He sought military assistance from Corvinus, declaring that he had broken the peace with the sultan "for the honor" of the king and the
Holy Crown of Hungary and "for the preservation of Christianity and the strengthening of the Catholic faith". The relationship between Moldavia and Wallachia had become tense by 1462, according to a letter of the
Genoese governor of
Kaffa. Having learnt of Vlad's invasion, Mehmed II raised an army of more than 150,000 men that was said to be "second in size only to the one" that
occupied Constantinople in 1453, according to Chalkokondyles. The size of the army suggests that the sultan wanted to occupy Wallachia, according to a number of historians (including
Franz Babinger, Radu Florescu, and Nicolae Stoicescu). On the other hand, Mehmed had granted Wallachia to Vlad's brother, Radu, before the invasion of Wallachia, showing that the sultan's principal purpose was only the change of the ruler of Wallachia. about Vlad's
Night attack at Târgoviște The Ottoman fleet landed at
Brăila (which was the only Wallachian port on the Danube) in May. The main Ottoman army crossed the Danube under the command of the sultan at
Nikopol, Bulgaria on 4June 1462. Outnumbered by the enemy, Vlad adopted a
scorched earth policy and retreated towards
Târgoviște. During the night of 1617 June, Vlad broke into the Ottoman camp in an attempt to capture or kill the sultan. The imprisonment or death of the sultan would have caused panic among the Ottomans, which could have enabled Vlad to defeat the Ottoman army. However, the Wallachians "missed the court of the sultan himself" and attacked the tents of the
viziers Mahmud Pasha and Isaac. Having failed to attack the sultan's camp, Vlad and his retainers left the Ottoman camp at dawn. Mehmed entered Târgoviște at the end of June. The town had been deserted, but the Ottomans were horrified to discover a "forest of the impaled" (thousands of stakes with the carcasses of executed people), according to Chalkokondyles. Tursun Beg recorded that the Ottomans suffered from the summer heat and thirst during the campaign. The sultan decided to retreat from Wallachia and marched towards
Brăila. StephenIII of Moldavia hurried to Chilia (now
Kiliya in Ukraine) to seize the important fortress where a Hungarian garrison had been stationed. Vlad also departed for Chilia, leaving behind a force of 6,000 men to hinder the march of the sultan's army, but the Ottomans defeated the Wallachians. Stephen of Moldavia was wounded during the siege of Chilia and returned to Moldavia before Vlad arrived at the fortress. The main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but Vlad's brother Radu and his Ottoman troops stayed behind in the
Bărăgan Plain. Radu sent messengers to the Wallachians, reminding them that the sultan could again invade their country. Although Vlad defeated Radu and his Ottoman allies in two battles during the following months, more and more Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad withdrew to the
Carpathian Mountains, hoping that Matthias Corvinus would help him regain his throne. However, Albert of Istenmező, the deputy of the
Count of the Székelys, had recommended in mid-August that the Saxons recognize Radu. Radu also made an offer to the burghers of Brașov to confirm their commercial privileges and pay them a compensation of 15,000
ducats.
Imprisonment in Hungary 's summer residence at
Visegrád (engraving from the 1480s) Matthias Corvinus came to Transylvania in November 1462. The negotiations between Corvinus and Vlad lasted for weeks, but Corvinus did not want to wage war against the Ottoman Empire. At the king's order, his Czech mercenary commander,
John Jiskra of Brandýs, captured Vlad near
Rucăr in Wallachia. To provide an explanation for Vlad's imprisonment to
Pope Pius II and the
Venetians (who had sent money to finance a campaign against the Ottoman Empire), Corvinus presented three letters, allegedly written by Vlad on 7November 1462, to MehmedII, Mahmud Pasha, and Stephen of Moldavia. According to the letters, Vlad offered to join his forces with the sultan's army against Hungary if the sultan restored him to his throne. Most historians agree that the documents were forged to give grounds for Vlad's imprisonment. Corvinus's court historian,
Antonio Bonfini, admitted that the reason for Vlad's imprisonment was never clarified. Florescu writes, "[T]he style of writing, the rhetoric of meek submission (hardly compatible with what we know of Dracula's character), clumsy wording, and poor Latin" are all evidence that the letters could not be written on Vlad's order. He associates the author of the forgery with a Saxon priest of Brașov. Vlad was first imprisoned "in the city of Belgrade" (now
Alba Iulia in Romania), according to Chalkokondyles. Before long, he was taken to
Visegrád, where he was held for 14 years. No documents referring to Vlad between 1462 and 1475 have been preserved. In mid-1475, StephenIII of Moldavia sent his envoys to Matthias Corvinus, asking him to send Vlad to Wallachia against Basarab Laiotă, who had submitted himself to the Ottomans. Stephen wanted to secure Wallachia for a ruler who had been an enemy of the Ottoman Empire, because "the Wallachians [were] like the Turks" to the Moldavians, according to his letter. According to the Slavic stories about Vlad, he was only released after he converted to Catholicism.
Third rule and death Matthias Corvinus recognized Vlad as the lawful prince of Wallachia, but he did not provide him with military assistance to regain his principality. Vlad settled in a house in
Pest. 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. Vlad moved to Transylvania in June 1475. He wanted to settle in Sibiu and sent his envoy to the town in early June to arrange a house for him. MehmedII acknowledged Basarab Laiotă as the lawful ruler of Wallachia. Corvinus ordered the burghers of Sibiu to give 200 golden
florins to Vlad from the royal revenues on 21September, but Vlad left Transylvania for
Buda in October. Vlad bought a house in
Pécs that became known as
Drakula háza ("Dracula's house" in Hungarian). In January 1476
John Pongrác of Dengeleg,
Voivode of Transylvania urged the people of Brașov to send to Vlad all those of his supporters who had settled in the town, because Corvinus and Basarab Laiotă had concluded a treaty. The relationship between the Transylvanian Saxons and Basarab remained tense, and the Saxons gave shelter to Basarab's opponents during the following months. Corvinus dispatched Vlad and the Serbian
Vuk Grgurević to fight against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476. They captured
Srebrenica and other fortresses in February and March 1476. In the Bosnian campaign, Vlad once again resorted to his terror tactics, mass impaling captured Turkish soldiers and massacring civilians in conquered settlements. His troops mostly destroyed Srebrenica,
Kušlat, and
Zvornik. , who tried to defend his throne against Vlad with Ottoman support Mehmed II invaded Moldavia and defeated StephenIII in the
Battle of Valea Albă on 26July 1476.
Stephen Báthory and Vlad entered Moldavia, forcing the sultan to lift the siege of the
fortress at Târgu Neamț in late August, according to a letter of Matthias Corvinus. The contemporaneous Jakob Unrest added that Vuk Grgurević and a member of the noble
Jakšić family also participated in the struggle against the Ottomans in Moldavia. Matthias Corvinus ordered the Transylvanian Saxons to support Báthory's planned invasion of Wallachia on 6September 1476, also informing them that Stephen of Moldavia would also invade Wallachia. Vlad stayed in Brașov and confirmed the commercial privileges of the local burghers in Wallachia on 7October 1476. Báthory's forces captured Târgoviște on 8November. Stephen of Moldavia and Vlad ceremoniously confirmed their alliance, and they occupied Bucharest, forcing Basarab Laiotă to seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire on 16November. Vlad informed the merchants of Brașov about his victory, urging them to come to Wallachia. He was crowned before 26November. Basarab Laiotă returned to Wallachia with Ottoman support, and Vlad died fighting against them in late December 1476 or early January 1477. In a letter written on 10January 1477, StephenIII of Moldavia related that Vlad's Moldavian
retinue had also been massacred. According to the "most reliable sources", Vlad's army of about 2,000 was cornered and destroyed by a Turkish-Basarab force of 4,000 near
Snagov. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear. The Austrian chronicler Jacob Unrest stated that a disguised Turkish assassin murdered Vlad in his camp. In contrast, Russian statesman
Fyodor Kuritsyn –who interviewed Vlad's family after his demise– reported that the voivode was mistaken for a Turk by his own troops during battle, causing them to attack and kill him. Historians Florescu and
Raymond T. McNally commented this account by noting that Vlad had often disguised himself as a Turkish soldier as part of military ruses. According to Leonardo Botta, the Milanese ambassador to Buda, the Ottomans cut Vlad's corpse into pieces. Bonfini wrote that Vlad's head was sent to MehmedII; it was eventually placed on a high stake in Constantinople. His severed head allegedly was displayed and buried in Voivode Street (today
Bankalar Caddesi) in Karaköy. It is rumoured that Voyvoda Han, located on Bankalar Caddesi No. 19, was the last stop of Vlad Tepeş's skull. Local peasant traditions maintain that what was left of Vlad's corpse was later discovered in the marshes of Snagov by monks from the nearby monastery. The place of his burial is unknown. According to popular tradition (which was first recorded in the late 19th century), Vlad was buried in the Monastery of Snagov. However, the excavations carried out by Dinu V. Rosetti in 1933 found no tomb below the supposed "unmarked tombstone" of Vlad in the monastery church. Rosetti reported: "Under the tombstone attributed to Vlad, there was no tomb. Only many bones and jaws of horses." Historian Constantin Rezachevici said Vlad was most probably buried in the first church of the
Comana Monastery, which had been established by Vlad and was near the battlefield where he was killed. == Ancestry and descendants ==