how do you know you're a truly evil
ruler when your real name is vlad
dracula but that isn't evil sounding
enough so people call you vlad the
impaler
as you can probably guess from this true
name vlad the impaler was originally
from what is now called romania
but back in the 15th century it was
known as wallachia the people of volacia
suffered terribly under vlad the impaler
but the residents of other empires
suffered much worse
in fact when other rulers saw the true
scale of vlad's murders they were second
there's no points for guessing his
favorite method of torture and death
clue it's in his nickname
so here's the story of vlad iii also
called vlad dracula but who today is
mostly known as vlad the impaler
vlad dracula is born
vlad dracula was almost definitely born
in the most appropriate place for
someone with that name
transylvania no one knows exactly when
he was born but the best estimates that
people have made are that he came into
the world at some point between the
years 1428 and 1431.
no one can say for sure who vlad
dracula's mother was but his father was
most definitely vlad ii then known as
vlad dracul because he was in the order
of the dragon a militant group that had
one aim to push back the ottoman empire
when vlan dracula later known as vlad
the impaler was just a small boy he saw
just how difficult it was to lead a
nation positioned in between a number of
great powers
the child's father ascended to the
throne of velachia when his half-brother
died in 1436.
at first the father tried to maintain
his opposition to the ottomans then the
ottomans invaded the country and the
peasants revolted meaning that vlad ii
had no choice but to swear felty to the
ottoman ruler murad ii
for the next several years vlad ii tried
to maintain peace between the ottomans
and the european powers
of course whenever war broke out vlad ii
sided with whoever seemed more likely to
win
and then vlad ii did something so cruel
to vlad dracula that it probably
resulted in the boy becoming vlad the
impaler
[Music]
vlad ii imprisons his children
after years of switching allegiances
back and forth vlad ii enraged murad ii
so murad summoned vlad ii to his palace
and imprisoned vlad dracula and his
brother radu
eventually after vlad had sworn that he
would remain loyal to the ottomans murad
decided to release him but there was a
catch
vlad ii would have to keep his children
imprisoned with the ottomans
vlad ii immediately agreed abandoning
his sons so that he could be free again
soon vlad ii was back in his country and
ruling the people once more while his
sons rotted in an ottoman prison
for five long years vlad ii clinged on
to the throne of velachia while his two
sons suffered
eventually john hunyadi who had taken
over hungary turned against vlad the
second and invaded walachia vlad ii
tried to flee from hunyadi's forces but
the army managed to track him down to a
marshland in what is now romania
the army captured him and soon executed
him for being a double crossing coward
vlad the impaler follows in his father's
footsteps
john hunyadi decided to make a distant
relative of vlad dracula the king of
velachia who was named vladislav ii
by now vlad dracula had convinced the
ottoman sultan that he could take over
wallachia and make it an extension of
the ottoman empire
so in 1448 vlad dracula led an ottoman
army into wallachia as vladislav ii was
busy fighting elsewhere
soon vlad dracula had claimed the throne
but this would not last long
in less than two months vladislav ii
returned with a still strong army
vlad dracula had no choice but to flee
as his father often had done
the mystery of what happened next
the details of what vlad dracula did for
a long time after he fled walachia have
been lost to history
it's likely that at first he spent a lot
of time lying low then he did something
that no one knows to get the men who had
killed his father john hunyadi to trust
him in 1456 hunyadi put vlad dracula in
charge of an army which was supposed to
defend the hungarian transylvanian
border
instead of defending the border vlad
dracula used the army to invade
wallachia
soon vladislav ii was dead and vlad
dracula was the king once more
this time he was determined to hold on
to power and that's when he showed the
world just how evil he was
vlad dracula becomes vlad the impaler
one of the first things that vlad
dracula did when he became the king of
velachia once more was order the deaths
of anyone who was suspected of taking
part in the murder of his father and he
guessed which people were plotting to
overthrow him and had them killed as
well
the money and possessions of those that
he killed were then distributed among
the people that had sworn to be loyal to
vlad dracula
but vlad never stopped suspecting that
his advisors and generals were plotting
against him
in fact records show that only two
members of his personal council managed
to remain in his favor during the first
five years of this reign
it's likely that almost all if not all
of the others were executed
no one knows exactly when vlad dracula
started impaling people so frequently
that he became known as vlad the impaler
the earliest known reference to vlad
impaling like crazy comes from the time
when he started plundering the saxon
villages of transylvania
according to german stories vlad would
round up every last man woman and child
within these villages then he forced
them to march back to elatcia
when they were within what was securely
vlad's land he would impale them all
showing peasants what would happen if
they sided with any of the rival
kingdoms and empires despite this the
saxons within transylvania refused to
surrender
vlad kept on fighting and impaling as
many people as he could in the region
until his negotiators convinced him to
enter peace talks
tries and fails to stop impaling
for two years walachia transylvania and
hungary stopped fighting
transylvania remained a disputed land
but there was peace until vlad the
impaler felt like there shouldn't be for
instance the new king of hungary michael
zilagi at one point led a former
official of the person who had taken
malachi from vlad the impaler vladislav
ii
live in transylvania
when vlad the impaler found out he
ordered his men to kill this official
then transylvanian saxons confiscated
metal from obelachi and merchant so vlad
the impaler sent his men into the region
to impale and burn 41 sacks and
merchants and 300 of their children
the shock and outrage of this event
caused many in the region to back dan
the third the brother of vladislav ii
who had once forced vlad the impaler out
of velachia
vlad the impaler battles dan the third
dan iii and his men invaded bellatia but
the soldiers of velachia stayed loyal to
vlad the impaler knowing what would
happen if they were disloyal
in april 1460 vlad defeated dan third in
battle
vlad told dan the third the good news he
wasn't going to be impaled but the bad
news was that dan iii was going to have
to dig his own grave and then get
beheaded
with dan the third out of the way vlad
the impaler went back into transylvania
determined to punish those who had
supported the would-be usurper
once more he rounded up the inhabitants
of these communities and impaled all of
the men and women this time he appears
to have spared the children
perhaps he had learned from the outrage
after destroying the merchant children
previously
vlad betrays the ottomans and impales
more than ever before
now that vlad the impaler had secured
his place on the throne of velachia he
reasoned that he no longer needed to be
a stooge of the ottomans he had been
sending money from olachia to the
ottoman empire but now he decided to
stop and keep that money for himself
mimid the second the sultan of the
ottoman empire had spies in malachi who
reported that vlad was stronger than
ever and was using his position to form
an alliance with hungary so the sultan
arranged for vlad the impaler to be
imprisoned once more but vlad had his
own spies and learned of this plot
instead vlad captured those who were
planning to capture him and soon had
them executed probably by impaling
then before mehmed ii could amass an
invasion force vlad the impaler sent
troops into ottoman land
soon every village that vlad's army
encountered along the danube river had
been destroyed with every inhabitant
unable to flee being impaled
when mehmed ii learned of what vlad the
impaler was doing he raised an army of
150 000 men as soon as he could
determined to end the terror
when the ottoman army arrived vlad the
impaler was initially wrong-footed he
and his men had no choice but to retreat
to safer lands but vlad the impaler was
not giving up
vlad believed that he knew where the
sultan was camping
one night vlad and a strike force snuck
into the camp attempting to either
capture or kill mehmed ii
but when the men attacked the camp
mehmed ii was nowhere to be found
enraged at missing his target vlad
decided to do what he did best he
impaled all of the men that he had
captured
then he retreated once more to the town
of targavista
but vlad was still enraged at having
failed to find mimit ii so he gathered
up the people of targavista
the peasants knew about vlad the
impaler's reputation and hoped that it
was all an exaggeration
soon they would never think again a few
weeks later mehmed ii entered the town
of targaviste and was shocked the sultan
had seen many horrors during his reign
but nothing compared to this
he looked upon a forest of people
impaled on wooden sticks sticking out of
the ground
no one wanted to look at the horrifying
sight for long but they could see that
thousands upon thousands of men women
and children had been eliminated
as the forest of the impaled had been
there for some hours the stench was
intolerable
nature had also started making use of
the bodies for instance birds had
started building nests within the
corpses knowing that the rotting flesh
made perfect insulation
soon after witnessing the forest of the
impaled mehmed ii decided to abandon his
invasion but he would be back with even
more men
vlad the impaler dies
for another 15 years the fighting
between vlad the impaler and mehmed ii
continued
vlad the impaler continued to live up to
his name creating more forests of the
dead whenever he could
no one knows for sure how vlad the
impaler died he either died late in 1476
or early 1477.
it did take place while vlad was
fighting the ottomans
some say that he was slaughtered
alongside his men on the battlefield
others say that an assassin snuck into
vlad's camp found his tent and slit his
throat
others say that vlad's own men mistook
him for an ottoman and killed him in a
moment of misjudgment
similarly no one knows what happened to
vlad the impaler's body the man who
caused so much suffering is lost to
history
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