60 Fun Facts About Vlad the Impaler

The Ottoman writer Tursun Beg called Vlad 'Kazıklı Voyvoda' around 1500. What does it mean?

A later voivode used the Romanian equivalent in a letter of grant in 1551.

How many separate reigns did Vlad III have?

The middle one, 1456 to 1462, was the long one; the last lasted only weeks before he was killed.

By what sobriquet is Vlad III known in Romanian historiography?

The word is tied to impalement, his favourite method of execution.

Vlad's father earned the sobriquet 'Dracul' through membership of which militant fraternity?

'Dracula' is simply the Slavonic genitive: 'son of Dracul'; in modern Romanian, dracul means 'the devil'.

Which King of Hungary founded the militant fraternity that gave Vlad's father his nickname?

The brotherhood was dedicated to halting the Ottoman advance into Europe.

What does 'dracul' mean in modern Romanian?

In medieval Romanian it meant 'the dragon', which is what his father was actually being called.

How did Vlad himself sign his name in two surviving letters from the late 1470s?

Diplomatic reports were already calling him Dracula, Dracuglia or Drakula in the 15th century.

According to historian Radu Florescu, in which Transylvanian Saxon town was Vlad born?

His father lived there in a three-storey stone house from 1431 to 1435; the town was then called Segesvár.

Vlad's grandfather was which famous ruler of Wallachia?

Vlad's father, Vlad II Dracul, was an illegitimate son of Mircea the Elder.

To secure their father's loyalty, Vlad and his younger brother were held as hostages by whom from 1442?

Ottoman chronicles say the boys were held in the fortress of Eğrigöz.

Which sultan ordered Vlad's father to Gallipoli in 1442 to prove his loyalty?

Father and both sons were imprisoned; the father was released within the year and the boys were kept as hostages.

Which Hungarian regent-governor invaded Wallachia in 1447, after which Vlad's father was murdered?

The same man later tasked Vlad with defending the Transylvanian border in 1456.

Which second cousin of Vlad took the Wallachian throne in 1447 and died in Vlad's 1456 invasion?

Vlad had briefly seized the throne from him with Ottoman help in October 1448, only to be chased out within two months.

In his first surviving letter as voivode, Vlad wrote that when a prince is weak, what happens?

The 1456 letter to the burghers of Brașov is often quoted as a window into his authoritarian personality.

On taking power in 1456, Vlad launched a purge against which class of Wallachian society?

Only two members of the princely council kept their seats between 1457 and 1461.

Vlad's long conflict in the late 1450s was with which community of Transylvania?

They sheltered his rivals; he plundered their villages and impaled the captives, which inspired his epithet.

According to Dan III's letter, how many Brașov merchants did Vlad impale?

The same letter accused him of gathering 300 boys and impaling some and burning others.

Which pretender did Vlad defeat and execute before 22 April 1460?

Vlad then destroyed the suburbs of Brașov and impaled every man and woman captured.

When the sultan's envoys came to summon him, what did Vlad do?

He then gave orders in fluent Turkish to open the gates of the fortress of Giurgiu, and his men stormed it.

In which language did Vlad give orders to the commander of Giurgiu to open the fortress gates?

Years as an Ottoman hostage had left him fluent; he later reportedly disguised himself as a Turkish soldier in battle.

How many 'Turks and Bulgarians' did Vlad claim to have killed in his 1462 letter to Hungary's king?

The oddly precise figure came with a request for military help 'for the honor' of the Holy Crown of Hungary.

Which sultan led an army of more than 150,000 men into Wallachia in 1462?

Chalkokondyles said it was second in size only to the army that had taken Constantinople in 1453.

On the night of 16–17 June 1462, Vlad broke into the Ottoman camp with what aim?

His men attacked the wrong tents, those of the viziers Mahmud Pasha and Isaac, and withdrew at dawn.

Near which town did the Night Attack of 1462 take place?

When the sultan entered the deserted town at the end of June, he found the 'forest of the impaled' outside it.

Per Chalkokondyles, roughly how many people were on stakes in the 'forest of the impaled'?

The field was described as seventeen stades long and seven wide; the sultan reportedly said such a man could not be deprived of his country.

Which port on the Danube was Wallachia's only one, where the Ottoman fleet landed in May 1462?

The main army crossed the river under the sultan at Nikopol on 4 June.

Which brother of Vlad did the sultan install as ruler of Wallachia in 1462?

Known as Radu the Handsome, he had been a fellow hostage at the Ottoman court as a boy.

Which King of Hungary had Vlad imprisoned when he came seeking help in late 1462?

His Czech mercenary commander John Jiskra captured Vlad near Rucăr.

What do most historians think of the three November 1462 letters the Hungarian king produced to justify jailing Vlad?

The clumsy Latin and meek tone did not match Vlad; Florescu suspects a Saxon priest of Brașov as the author.

In which Hungarian castle town was Vlad held for about 14 years?

No documents about him survive from 1462 to 1475; his cruelty stories spread through Germany and Italy meanwhile.

At whose request was Vlad released from captivity in 1475?

Stephen wanted a proven enemy of the sultan on the Wallachian throne, since 'the Wallachians were like the Turks' to Moldavians.

According to the Slavic stories, what was Vlad required to do as a condition of his release?

The Russian tales condemned this apostasy from Orthodoxy and blamed his death on it.

According to the Slavic stories, why did Vlad have a Hungarian commander executed while living in Pest?

The men had been chasing a thief who tried to hide in the house.

Vlad bought a house in which Hungarian city that became known as 'Drakula háza'?

'Dracula's house' is a rare surviving footprint of his years in Hungary.

In early 1476, Vlad fought for Hungary against the Turks in which region, capturing Srebrenica?

He again used terror tactics, mass-impaling captured Turkish soldiers and destroying Zvornik and Kušlat.

Which Turkish-backed rival did Vlad drive from Wallachia in November 1476?

Vlad's final reign lasted barely a month; he was crowned before 26 November and dead by 10 January.

Near which place was Vlad killed in battle around the turn of 1476–77?

His army of about 2,000 was cornered by a Turkish-Basarab force of 4,000, according to the most reliable sources.

According to a Russian account based on interviews with his family, how did Vlad die?

Vlad had often disguised himself as a Turkish soldier as a ruse, which lends the story some plausibility.

According to Bonfini, what happened to Vlad's head after his death?

Voyvoda Han on Bankalar Caddesi in Karaköy is rumoured to be the skull's last stop.

When the tomb traditionally attributed to Vlad was excavated in 1933, what was found under the tombstone?

Historian Constantin Rezachevici thinks he was more likely buried at the Comana Monastery he had founded near the battlefield.

What was the name of Vlad's son born in 1462, who later ruled Wallachia?

According to legend, Vlad's first wife threw herself from Poenari Castle's tower into the river below to avoid capture that same year.

Vlad's second wife, Justina Szilágyi, was a cousin of whom?

She outlived Vlad and married twice more; their son Vlad Drakwlya was the forefather of the noble Drakwla family.

According to Michael Beheim's poem, why did Vlad have a donkey impaled alongside two monks?

Beheim performed the poem at the court of Emperor Frederick III in the winter of 1463.

When messengers from the sultan refused to remove their headgear, Vlad reportedly did what?

The story goes that he used three spikes each, 'to strengthen their custom'.

What invention helped make the German stories about Vlad's cruelty some of Europe's first bestsellers?

Editions printed in Nuremberg in 1499 and Strasbourg in 1500 showed him dining among people on stakes.

The Russian 'Tale about Voivode Dracula' is commonly attributed to which courtier of Ivan III?

Its 19 anecdotes call Vlad 'evil-wise' and praise the public order his cruelty produced; some were later grafted onto tales of Ivan the Terrible.

A 2023 analysis of Vlad's letters suggested he may have had which rare condition?

The samples were taken from proteins left on the letters he had handled.

Which novelist's 1897 book was the first to connect the name Dracula with vampirism?

His working notes never mention the historical Vlad at all.

What was the vampire called in all but the last drafts of Stoker's novel?

Stoker took the name and 'scraps of miscellaneous information' from William Wilkinson's 1820 book on Wallachia and Moldavia.

The only surviving physical description of Vlad, by the papal legate Modrussa, notes what facial hair?

He also described a bull neck, an aquiline nose and large green eyes framed by very long eyelashes.

A copy of Vlad's portrait hangs in the 'monster portrait gallery' at which location?

The portrait seems to show fair hair, though Modrussa said he was black-haired.

What share of Romanians in a 1999 poll named Vlad the Impaler as a positive influence on the nation?

Since the mid-19th century Romanian historians have generally cast him as a champion of national independence.

Which Czech mercenary commander captured Vlad near Rucăr on the Hungarian king's order in 1462?

Matthias Corvinus had negotiated with Vlad for weeks in Transylvania but did not want a war with the Ottomans.

Which fortress, per legend, did Vlad force the young boyars and their families to build?

The tale appears in the Cantacuzino Chronicle, the first Romanian history to record a story about Vlad.

Where did Vlad first settle after being driven from Wallachia in 1448?

He soon moved on to Moldavia, where his relative Bogdan II had taken the throne with John Hunyadi's backing.

In 1459 Vlad styled himself ruler of Wallachia and which two Transylvanian duchies?

Both were traditional fiefs of Wallachian rulers; the title appears in a document dated 20 September 1459.

How is Vlad's first wife said to have died during the 1462 Ottoman attack on their castle?

The river below is called Râul Doamnei, the Princess's River, supposedly in memory of the tragedy.

What do the title-page woodcuts of the 1499 Nuremberg and 1500 Strasbourg editions show Vlad doing?

Publishers added horrific woodcuts to boost sales of the pamphlets, among Europe's first printed bestsellers.

How many men did Vlad leave behind to slow the sultan's retreating army in 1462?

The Ottomans defeated them anyway. Vlad had hurried towards the fortress of Chilia, which Stephen of Moldavia was besieging.

Which tactic had Vlad send diseased townspeople to mingle with Ottoman soldiers?

Those who complied and survived were promised riches; his armies also poisoned wells, burned crops and killed cattle.