In response, Vlad nailed their turbans to their heads, so they could never remove them again. During this same war Mehmet II invaded Wallachia with his army.
Vlad and his brother Radu, are characters in my Order of Darkness series. In this scene from Stormbringers , Radu talks about Vlad:. He is dead to me. He chose the wrong side. He is my enemy. Our fates have led us in opposite directions: he is a great Christian commander, and I am one of the greatest commanders that my friend the Sultan Mehmet can put in the field. The newest book in my Order of Darkness series is called Dark Tracks , and will be out at the end of January. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind.
Under the Ottomans, Vlad and his younger brother were tutored in science, philosophy and the arts. Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior, according to Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, former professors of history at Boston College, who wrote several books about Vlad III — as well as his alleged connection to Stoker's Dracula — in the s and s.
But Vlad held enmity, and I think it was one of his motivating factors for fighting the Turks: to get even with them for having held him captive. While Vlad and Radu were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father was fighting to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia, a fight he would eventually lose. Vlad's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed alongside his father.
Not long after these harrowing events, in , Vlad embarked on a campaign to regain his father's seat from the new ruler, Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman governors of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria, according to Curta.
Vlad also took advantage of the fact that Vladislav was absent at the time, having gone to the Balkans to fight the Ottomans for the governor of Hungary at the time, John Hunyadi. Vlad won back his father's seat, but his time as ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was deposed after only two months, when Vladislav II returned and took back the throne of Wallachia with the assistance of Hunyadi, according to Curta. Little is known about Vlad III's whereabouts between and But it is known that he switched sides in the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, giving up his ties with the Ottoman governors of the Danube cities and obtaining military support from King Ladislaus V of Hungary, who happened to dislike Vlad's rival — Vladislav II of Wallachia — according to Curta.
Vlad III's political and military tack truly came to the forefront amid the fall of Constantinople in After the fall, the Ottomans were in a position to invade all of Europe. Vlad, who had already solidified his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed voivode of Wallachia in One of his first orders of business in his new role was to stop paying an annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan — a measure that had formerly ensured peace between Wallachia and the Ottomans. To consolidate his power as voivode, Vlad needed to quell the incessant conflicts that had historically taken place between Wallachia's boyars.
According to legends that circulated after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and — knowing they would challenge his authority — had his guests stabbed and their still-twitching bodies impaled on spikes. This is just one of many gruesome events that earned Vlad his posthumous nickname, Vlad the Impaler.
He returned in to reclaim his rule of Wallachia, however his triumph was short-lived. While marching to battle with the Ottomans, he and his soldiers were ambushed and killed. Vlad the Impaler was an undeniably brutal ruler.
However he is still considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. His victorious campaigns against the Ottoman forces which protected both Wallachia and Europe have won him praise as a military leader. He was even praised by Pope Pius II , who expressed admiration for his military feats and for defending Christendom. However the two characters have little in common. TV A new online only channel for history lovers. Sign Me Up. Here are 10 facts about the man who inspired fear and legends for centuries to come.
Image Credit: Public Domain. A 16th century portrait of Vlad the Impaler. You May Also Like.
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