Burebista - King of the Dacians Decebal Basarab I the Founder Vlad III the Impaler Stephen III the Great Michael the Brave Ion Antonescu Mircea Eliade Nicolae Ceaușescu Sergiu Nicolaescu Vlad III Dracula (1431-1467/77) was one of the most important rulers in the history of Wallachia. He was also known as Vlad the Impaler due to the cruelty with which he dealt with his enemies, which earned him notoriety in 15th century Europe. Here are 10 facts about the man who inspired fear and legends for centuries to come. His name means “dragon.” The name Dracula was given to Vlad's father, Vlad II, by his fellow knights, who were members of a Christian order known as the Order of the Dragon. Dracula translates from Romanian as "dragon." The Order of the Dragon was dedicated to a single mission: the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. His son, Vlad III, became known as “son of Dracula” or, in old Romanian, “Dracula,” hence “Dracula.” In modern Romanian, the word “drac” refers to the devil. He was born in Wallachia, modern Romania. Vlad III was born in 1431 in Wallachia, now the southern part of modern Romania. It was one of the three principalities that made up Romania at the time, alongside Transylvania and Moldova. Located between Christian Europe and the Muslim territories of the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia was the site of many bloody battles. He was a prisoner for 5 years. In 1442, Vlad accompanied his father and his 7-year-old brother Radu on a diplomatic mission to the heart of the Ottoman Empire. However, all three were captured and taken prisoner by Ottoman diplomats. Their captors told Vlad II that he could be released if the two sons remained. The boys were kept in a fortress atop a rocky cliff overlooking the city of Egrigez, now Dogrugez in modern Turkey. During the 5 years of captivity, Vlad and his brother were taught military strategy, science, and philosophy. His father and brother were killed. Upon return, Vlad II was overthrown by a coup organized by local nobles known as boyars. He was killed in the swamps behind his house, and his elder son Mircea II was tortured, blinded, and buried alive. He invited his rivals to dinner — and killed them. Vlad III was released shortly after the death of his family, but by then he had developed a penchant for violence. To consolidate his power and assert his authority, he decided to host a banquet and invited hundreds of members of rival families. Knowing his authority would be challenged, he ordered his guests to be impaled, and their still-twitching bodies to be set on spikes. He was named after his preferred method of torture. By 1462, he had inherited the Wallachian throne and was at war with the Ottomans. The enemy forces were three times larger than his own, and Vlad ordered his men to poison wells and burn crops. He also paid sick people to infiltrate and infect the enemy. His tendency to impale his enemies and leave them to die earned him the name Vlad the Impaler ("Vlad Țepeș"). He ordered the mass killing of 20,000 Ottomans. In June 1462, while retreating after a battle, Vlad ordered 20,000 defeated Ottomans to be impaled on wooden stakes outside the city of Târgoviște. When Sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481) came across the field of dead, torn apart by crows, he was so horrified that he retreated to Constantinople. The place of his death is unknown. Vlad was forced into exile and imprisoned in Hungary. He returned in 1476 to restore his rule over Wallachia, but his triumph was short-lived. During a march to battle the Ottomans, he and his soldiers were ambushed and killed. According to Leonardo Botta, the Milanese ambassador in Buda, the Ottomans cut his body into pieces and sent it back to Constantinople in the hands of Sultan Mehmed II to show the city’s guests. His remains were never found. He remains a national hero of Romania. Vlad the Impaler was undoubtedly a cruel ruler. However, he is still considered one of the most important rulers in the history of Wallachia and a national hero of Romania. His victorious campaigns against Ottoman troops defending Wallachia and Europe earned him praise as a military leader. He was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” It is believed that Stoker based the main character of his 1897 novel “Dracula” on Vlad the Impaler. However, the two characters have little in common. Despite Vlad's infamous bloodthirstiness, Stoker’s novel first established the connection between Dracula and vampirism.