“I will defend Christendom or die in the attempt.”
—Vlad III, letter to Pope Pius II, 1462
1456: Wallachia, a rugged strip north of the Danube, bleeds after a decade of chaos. Boyars, scheming nobles, have gutted it. Vlad II Dracul, an Order of the Dragon knight, was hacked apart in 1447. His eldest son, Mircea, was blinded and buried alive. Puppets flop on the throne until Vlad III, Son of the Dragon, storms back. At 25, he is forged in hell, a hostage to the Ottomans from 12 to 17, he was taught war while his brother Radu bent the knee and would inevitably become a Janissary. Vlad didn’t bend. He burned with hatred. With Hungarian steel, he slays Vladislav II in one on one combat, seizes Târgoviște, and crowns himself Voivode. Mehmet II looms, but Vlad has struck. In 1459, Mehmet’s envoys demand tribute, gold and a flesh tithe consisting of young Wallachian boys. Vlad nails their turbans to their skulls when they refuse to remove them in his Court. “He defied the Sultan’s yoke,” writes Raymond Ibrahim. In 1461, Vlad stalls. His Letters promise gold later and no boys are sent. In 1462, Mehmet is growing increasingly frustrated by Vlad and sends Hamza Bey and Yunus Bey (Thomas Katabolinos) with 1,000 cavalry to Giurgiu. Vlad ambushes them and has them impaled. He then raids and torches Ottoman outposts. Twenty-three thousand, eight hundred forty-four Turks are spiked. Mehmet’s warpath ignites and the air is thick with treason and blood.
The War: Stakes and Blood
Vlad’s Wallachia is a battered shield, up to 30,000 men at his peak, 10,000 at Târgoviște, against Mehmet’s 90,000 to 100,000. By 1462, the Sultan marches, a “barbarous” tide outnumbering Vlad tenfold. He fights like a wolf. “We are few, they are many,” he writes Pius II, but his mind is a blade: guerrilla strikes, deception, and plague turned into potent weapons. He dresses his men in Ottoman garb. His raids shred Turk camps. “He struck where least expected,” notes Tursun Beg. Vlad’s sword cuts deep. He is trained in the use of Turkish blades and he is a killer, leading charges.
Then bio-war hits. Plague-ridden Wallachians are used to flood enemy ranks. “Pestilence among the Turks,” says Chalkokondyles. Disease fells hundreds. Crops are burned, wells are poisoned. Vlad starves the Ottoman horde.
June 17, the Night Attack at Târgoviște: 10,000 Wallachians descend upon the sleeping Ottoman camp. He hits them at midnight, Vlad is aiming for Mehmet’s tent. “He sought the beast in its lair,” Beg writes. Vlad’s horsemen thunder in, 15,000 Turks fall. Vlad misses the Sultan, it’s a failure, but chaos still reigns. Late raids harry Mehmet’s march. The city of Brăila burns. Then, Mehmet finds 20,000 impaled Ottomans. Hamza and Yunus are staked the highest in a rotting forest. “A dreadful lord,” Beg admits, and the Sultan retreats, his spirit broken. Success cracks Turkish morale and buys time, but Vlad’s few cannot hold out forever.
The Traitors: Noble Blood
Inside Wallachia, it’s boyars fester. Wallachia’s elite are rich in treachery. They had sold Vlad’s father to Hungarian blades in 1447. John Hunyadi’s men cut Vlad II down in a swamp. Mircea got even worse. Blinded with hot irons, he was buried alive by the snakes who propped up Vladislav II. “They trafficked in princes,” writes Ibrahim. Easter 1457, Vlad lures them to Târgoviște for a great Feast. Five hundred are impaled, old men, wives, and children creating a forest of screams. “He spared none who’d turned,” Ibrahim notes. The fit rot in dungeons. The weak are all impaled. The Nobles turn into his grim trophies. With Mehmet at the gates and Radu in Istanbul, Vlad purges all opposition to survive.
The Man: A Christian, Not a Vampire—and a Hero Still
No cape, no fangs. Vlad is a Christian warrior. “I am the shield of the West,” he tells Pius II, facing Ottomans who flogged him, turned Radu, and razed cities. Impalings? A medieval norm. The Ottomans flayed their victims and worse. “He matched their cruelty,” Ibrahim argues, via Chalkokondyles. His war buys years, but betrayal comes home. In 1476, Vlad’s third reign ends near Bucharest. He is ambushed and beheaded at 45, his head is sent to Mehmet, per Treptow. Wallachia falls, but his stand has become legendary.
Today, Romania, Wallachia’s heir, hails him a hero. Streets bear his name. Statues rise in Bucharest and Târgoviște. “He saved us from the Turks,” locals say. Ninety percent of Romania’s citizens admire his defiance (Romanian Academy, 2016). Not a saint, a savage, yes, but a shield when none stood.
The Myth: Propaganda’s Blade
German merchants, stung by taxes, spin fake news. 1460s pamphlets call him “bloodthirsty,” woodcuts show corpse feasts. It’s “Saxon revenge,” Treptow debunks the myth. It’s due to trade wars and not the truth. Stoker’s Dracula (1897) twists Vlad’s legendary story, Hollywood piles on it and he becomes a vampire, not a Voivode. However, Mehmet’s retreat and tens of thousands dead (with some estimates as high as 80,000) prove who really feared whom.
Thanks to Vlad’s iron determination and sheer force of will, Wallachia held longer for it. Was Vlad’s defiant stand pure gallantry or grim necessity? You decide—sound off below. Vlad’s tale demands it. Join me on my next quest—History’s echoes, faith’s sparks, mysteries uncharted. What’s your battle?
Sources & Further Reading:
https://amzn.to/43fMb7Q Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim – Vlad’s war through primary lenses.
https://amzn.to/3XfEHhm Dracula: Prince of Many Faces by Radu Florescu & Raymond McNally -The bloody details of his reign.
https://amzn.to/41jzt5y Vlad III Dracula by Kurt W. Treptow– Life, death, and debunked myths.