Who Is Vlad The Impaler

Vlad III the Impaler

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia is seen by his own people as a hero and by his enemies as a merciless villain. Vlad played a significant role during the Ottoman invasion, and the call of the third crusade to fight them off. During the 1456, he built a notorious reputation for himself from which legends and folk stories were born. Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler, was born in Sighisoara during the winter of 1431 to Vlad II Dracul, the future ruler of Wallachia or as they used to call them, voivode. His grandfather was a celebrated voivode, known as Mircea I of Wallachia or Mircea the Elder. His mother was unknown, although his father was married to Cneajna of Moldavia, Princess and aunt to Stephen the
The Order of Dragons was a fellowship of knights, who swore to protect Christianity against the invading Ottomans and European heresies, such as the Hussites. When he joined, he was given the pseudo name Dracul, or dragon, by the holy Roman emperor Sigismund. Because of Vlad father position, Vlad and Radu spent their early stages of life in Sighisoara, and later in Tragoviste, the capital of Wallachia, when Vlad II Dracul became the voivode. The two boys were well educated by Romanian and Greek scholars, brought in from Constantinople, by the byzantine chancellor Mikhail Doukas. Vlad was taught combat, geography, mathematics, sciences, and many languages: Old Church Slavonic, German, and Latin, and the classical arts and
Vlad was not capable of stopping this massive Turkish advance, but he kept small guerrilla attacks such as “The Night Attacks”, where Vlad Tepes attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to assassinate Mehmed. The Ottomans over ran Wallachia, forcing Vlad to run away, and marched on conquering the entire Balkans, keeping Radu behind in hopes of gaining anti-Vlad support. Around 1475, Vlad allied himself with Stephen V Bathony to reconquer Wallachia from the rule of Prince Basarab the Elder, who took over after his brother’s death. After a swift victory, Vlad retook the throne, yet victory was short lived. Stephen took back his troops to his country, which left Vlad with less than 4000 troops. The Ottomans counter attacked and took back Wallachia, killing Vlad within two