Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25947144-20150614164217

Vlad III Dracul. Also known as Dracula by foreigners, which once meant "son of the dragon", or by his nickname-"The Impaler". His reign was rather short, ruling in 1448, 1456-1462 and 1476. This probably meant much, much longer for his enemies though. He was considered to be a hero from many aspects in his country, protecting Romanians from north and south of Danube. He was known for his rather...unorthodox methods for punishments and cruelty.

He was born in Transylvania in 1431. In 1436 his father, Vlad II, became the ruler of Wallachia and moved there along with him. When he was just 13, the Ottoman Empire, trying to conquer Wallachia since the early 1400s, took him and his brother Radu as political hostages. It's said that he was tortured in his time as hostage and developed a sadistic behavior as a result. Because of the conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, both trying to make Wallachia their vassal, the ottomans freed Vlad and his brother.

Vlad hated the Ottoman Empire, despite being in their influence for 4 years, and hated his brother as a result, since Radu was well behaved and quickly earned the friendship of Sultan Murad's son, Mehmet; he eventually converted to Islam and entered Ottoman service. Vlad begun his first rule in 1448, this rule being short as Hungary conquered now Wallachia and sent their ally, Vladislav to the throne.

His second and main rule begin in 1456. He was known for his "eye for an eye" policy, never tolerating crimes. His people respected and feared him for this. Anybody who would do any recognized crimes such as: stealing, murder, rape, fornication or adultery would be punished. The punishments methods included boiling, skinning, blinded, strangled, hanged, nailed, incinerated, buried alive, the removal of the nose, tongue, ears and genitals, but mostly, as his nickname suggests, impaling. Impaling was especially recognized as one of the most horrible and painful methods of execution in those times. A stalk would enter the anal cavity and forced inside until it came out on the other side and vice-versa. The stalks used usually were not very sharp to increase the pain greatly.

A proof of the effectiveness of his methods is perhaps the golden cup: it's said that Vlad once placed a gold cup across a fountain in the city Targoviste and said it belonged to everyone to drink water from the fountain and nobody ever dared to steal it in his entire reign. Another thing he was known for was his hatred towards the boyars (nobles). Partly because of their implication in the death of his father and his brother and partly because of their lack of support for his causes. One of his first acts of revenge was on Easter 1459, in Targoviste, where he took hostage every boyar who came to his party. The oldest were impaled and the rest were put to walk 100 kilometers from the capital to built a fortress in Poenari.

Perhaps one of the greatest acts of rebellion against the Ottoman Empire was the Night Attack. It all started when Vlad refused to pay Jizya, a tax for non-Muslims, by sending a letter to Mehmet II, explaining that the war with Saxons costed him a lot and that he couldn't leave the country with the risk of the Hungarians trying to invade Wallachia in his absence. Mehmet found out soon about Vlad's alliance with the leader of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, and sent his man Hamza Pasha with a cavalry of 1.000 men to ambush and capture him. Vlad was warned about this and planned his own ambush. While Hamza and his men were passing a narrow road in their way to Giurgiu, Vlad launched a surprise attack and surrounded the turks with his handgunners until the entire expedition force was killed.

In his next move, he went on a campaign and slaughtered enemy soldiers and population that might have sympathized with the Turks; first in southern Wallachia, then, in Bulgaria by crossing the frozen Danube. While in Bulgaria, he divided his army into several smaller groups and covered over 800 kilometers in two weeks as they slaughtered thousands of turks. In a letter to Corvinus, he stated:

"I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers...Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him (Sultan Mehmet II)"

When the war started, the chances were against Vlad. Mehmet had around 110,000-120,000 soldiers and 175 battleships while Vlad barely had, at most, 30.000. Many of them were untrained peasants, women and children from the age from twelve up. Vlad stated that "it would be better that those who think of death should not follow me".

The Turks first tried to disembark at Vidin, but were pushed back by arrows. On June 4, a contingent of janissaries (elite soldiers) landed in the night, at Turnu Severin, where 300 of them died from Wallachian attacks. The janissary Constantin of Ostrovitza remarked about their encounter:

"When night began to fall, we climbed into our boats and floated down the Danube and crossed over to the other side several miles below the place where Vlad's army was stationed. There we dug ourselves trenches, so that cavalry could not harm us. After that we crossed back over to the other side and transported other janissaries over the Danube, and when the entire infantry had crossed over, then we prepared and set out gradually against Vlad's army, together with the artillery and other equipment that we had brought with us.

Having halted, we set up the cannon, but not in time to stop three hundred janissaries from being killed ... Seeing that our side was greatly weakening, we defended ourselves with the 120 guns which we had brought over and fired so often that we repelled the prince's army and greatly strengthened our position ... Vlad, seeing that he could not prevent the crossing, withdrew. After that the emperor crossed the Danube with his entire army and gave us 30,000 coins to be distributed among us".

The Ottoman army managed to advance as Vlad instituted a policy of scorched earth, poisoned the waters, and also created marshes by diverting the waters of small rivers. Traps were created by the digging of pits, and then covered with timber and leaves. The population and animals were evacuated to the mountains and as Mehmed advanced for seven days, his army suffered from fatigue as "he found no man, nor any significant animal, and nothing to eat or drink." Vlad adopted guerrilla tactics and he would also send ill people suffering from lethal diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis, syphilis — and in more significant numbers – those who suffered from the plague. The bubonic plague managed to spread in the Ottoman army.

The Sultan managed to capture a Wallachian soldier and at first tried to bribe him for information; when that didn't work, he threatened him with torture, to no avail. Mehmed was said to have commended the soldier by saying, "if your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!"

The Turks continued with their advance towards Targovişte, after failing to capture the fortress of Bucharest and the fortified island of Snagov. On June 17, when the Turks camped south of the capital, Vlad launched his night attack with 24,000, or possibly with only 7,000 to 10,000 horsemen. According to Chalcondyles, before making his attack, Vlad went freely into the Turkish camp disguised as a Turk, and wandered around to find the location of the Sultan's tent and learn about his organization. Mehmed had disallowed his soldiers to exit their tents during the night, as to not cause panic in case of an attack. Vlad, being aware of Mehmed's strategy, had decided for an attack in the night, knowing how to proceed in his offensive when the enemy soldiers would have to remain in their tents.

The skirmish would last from "three hours after sunset until four the next morning" and would cause great confusion in the Ottoman camp. The Wallachians made noise from their buglers and illuminated the battle with their torches; and in that night, they launched not one, but several attacks. The Wallachians slaughtered a great number of Turks and many horses and camels were killed. Some blame a Wallachian boyar named Galeş, who supposedly led a simultaneous attack on the Turks with a second army, for not being brave enough to cause the expected devastation on the enemy. Vlad Ţepeş himself aimed for the tent of the sultan, as he routed the Asian cavalry, but mistakenly went for the tent of the two grand viziers Ishak Pasha and Mahmud Pasha.

The janissaries, under the command of Mihaloğlu Ali Bey, pursued the Wallachians and killed 1,000-2,000 of them. Even though the morale of the sultan and his army was low, Mehmed decided to besiege the capital, but instead found it deserted with its gates wide open. The Turkish army entered the capital and for half an hour, the army marched on the road that was bordered by some 20,000 impaled Turks. There, they found the rotten corpse of Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, to symbolize his 'high ranking'. Other sources say that the city was defended by the soldiers, while the impaled corpses lay outside the city-walls for a distance of 60 miles.

"That bloody forest, that's the work of no man-that's the work of a monster! We had to retreat, your highness!"

"That shouldn't have been possible, we had four times their army and four times losses."

"Sh...should we sent another army?"

"Are you mad? We have to wait until he leaves."

"Leaves what, your highness?"

"Leaves the country, leaves the throne, dies...it doesn't matter what comes first...as long that man is on the throne, our soldiers can simply put their own heads on sticks"

He died around 10 years later in 1476, though nobody knows exactly how he died and today nobody knows where his body is. 