One of the most infamous characters from the Middle Ages was Vlad III Dracula, the prince of Wallachia. Here is the story of how he gained the nickname of ‘the Impaler’.
The source of this story comes from The Histories by Laonikos Chalkokondyles, which is one of our most important accounts for the fall of the Byzantine empire and the rise of the Ottomans. Written sometime between 1464 and 1468, it centres around the capture of Constantinople in 1453. However, it also covers many events that were happening in Eastern Europe, where the Ottomans, Hungarians and other states were vying with each other.
Control over Wallachia, now part of present-day Romania, was fiercely contested between powerful noble families, while neighbouring states supported rival claimants. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (1444–46; 1451–81) favoured Vlad II Dracula as Prince of Wallachia. In return, Vlad II sent two of his younger sons, Vlad and Radu, to live at the Sultan’s court. In 1456, several years after his father was killed, Vlad returned to Wallachia and, with the Sultan’s backing, took over the principality as Vlad III Dracula.
Vlad’s First Wave of Brutal Reprisals
This image of Vlad appears in a German pamphlet from 1485.
Chalkokondyles begins his narrative here, describing how Vlad immediately asserted control over Wallachia. The chronicler recounts Vlad’s ruthless purge:
When he took over, he first created a corps of bodyguards for himself, who lived with him, and then he summoned separately each of the distinguished men of the realm who, it was believed, had committed treason during the transfer of power there. He killed them all by impalement, them and their sons, wives, and servants, so that this one man caused more murder than any other about whom we have been able to learn. In order to solidify his hold on power, they say that in a short time he killed twenty thousand men, women and children. He established good soldiers and bodyguards for his own use, and he granted them the money, property, and other goods of his victims, so that he quickly affected a great change and utterly revolutionized the affairs of Wallachia. He also worked widespread murder among the Hungarians, those who seemed to be involved in public affairs, sparing none of them.
In the space of months, Vlad reorganised Wallachia’s leadership, redistributed the property of those executed, and established a loyal military base.
A Failed Ambush and Renewed Conflict with the Ottomans
Hand-colored woodcut of Vlad from about the year 1500
Although Mehmet II initially hoped that Vlad’s rule would stabilise the region, by 1461 he learned that Vlad was planning to rebel. The Sultan sent two officials—Thomas Katabolinos, lord of the Porte, and Hamza Bey, governor of Nicopolis—to capture him. They devised a plan in which Thomas would engage Vlad in conversation and lead him into an ambush.
Chalkokondyles describes how decisively this failed:
But Vlad and his men were armed and, when he joined in escorting the lord of the Porte of that region and the secretary, he fell into the ambush. As soon as Vlad realized what was happening, he ordered his men to arrest them and their servants. And when Hamza came against him, Vlad fought bravely, routed and captured him, and killed a few of those who had fled. After capturing them, he led them all away to be impaled, but first he cut off the men’s limbs. He had Hamza impaled on a higher stake, and he treated their retinues in the same way as their own lords. Immediately after he prepared as large an army as he could and marched directly to the Danube, and crossed through the regions there by the Danube and the land that belonged to the sultan, killing everyone, women and children included. He burned the houses, setting fire wherever he moved. Having worked this great slaughter, he returned to Wallachia.
This indeed was an important victory for Vlad, but more was to come.
Mehmet Invades and Vlad’s Brutal Exectuions
Furious at the killing of his envoys, the Sultan launched an invasion with an army said to be second only to that which conquered Constantinople. Vlad attempted to raise forces of his own, but outnumbered and threatened on a second front by the ruler of Moldavia, he retreated into the forests.
From there, Vlad’s troops harassed Ottoman soldiers, capturing stragglers and gathering intelligence. Chalkokondyles even adds that he heard reports that Vlad disguised himself and went into the Ottoman camp, but adds that “I cannot believe that Vlad would willingly expose himself to such a danger, as he would have been able to use many spies of his own, but this tale, I believe, was made up to give a sense of his daring.”
Vlad learned that the Ottoman forces were lax at protecting their camp, and one night he launched a surprise attack. However, it failed to sow panic among the Ottoman troops, and despite several hours of fighting, the Wallachians had to retreat just before dawn. Mehmet II continued his advance into Wallachia and most of the towns were destroyed or surrendered without a fight, while Vlad could do little more than follow and keep watch.
Woodcut from the title page of a 1499 pamphlet published by Markus Ayrer in Nuremberg. It depicts Vlad III “the Impaler” dining among the impaled corpses of his victims.
The most striking episode in Chalkokondyles’ account occurs when the Ottomans reached the area where Vlad had carried out his mass executions. The chronicler describes what they saw:
The sultan’s army entered into the area of the impalements, which was seventeen stades long and seven stades wide. There were large stakes there on which, as it was said, about twenty thousand men, women, and children had been split, quite a sight for the Turks and the sultan himself. The sultan was seized with amazement and said that it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who had done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and its people. And he said that a man who had done such things was worth much. The rest of the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes. There were infants too affixed to their mothers on the stakes, and birds had made their nests in their entrails.
Soon after Mehmet II ended his campaign and returned across the Danube. However, he did leave behind Vlad’s younger brother Radu to convince the Wallachians to give up their resistance to the Sultan. Radu told them: “You have suffered all these horrible things of account of my brother, and you ingratiate yourselves with a most unholy man who has brought such harm upon Wallachia as we have not heard has been visited upon any other part of the earth.”
The nobles quickly abandoned Vlad, and Radu assumed the throne. Vlad fled to Hungary seeking support, but instead was arrested by King Matthias Corvinus and imprisoned for nearly eight years. In 1476 he regained Wallachia briefly, only to be killed two months into his final reign.
Legacy of a Medieval Tyrant
Vlad III Dracula’s rule, marked by dramatic reversals of fortune and extraordinary brutality, became the foundation for countless legends and folktales across Eastern Europe. Centuries later, his name inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, cementing him as one of the most recognisable figures of medieval history and horror literature.
One of the most infamous characters from the Middle Ages was Vlad III Dracula, the prince of Wallachia. Here is the story of how he gained the nickname of ‘the Impaler’.
The source of this story comes from The Histories by Laonikos Chalkokondyles, which is one of our most important accounts for the fall of the Byzantine empire and the rise of the Ottomans. Written sometime between 1464 and 1468, it centres around the capture of Constantinople in 1453. However, it also covers many events that were happening in Eastern Europe, where the Ottomans, Hungarians and other states were vying with each other.
Control over Wallachia, now part of present-day Romania, was fiercely contested between powerful noble families, while neighbouring states supported rival claimants. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (1444–46; 1451–81) favoured Vlad II Dracula as Prince of Wallachia. In return, Vlad II sent two of his younger sons, Vlad and Radu, to live at the Sultan’s court. In 1456, several years after his father was killed, Vlad returned to Wallachia and, with the Sultan’s backing, took over the principality as Vlad III Dracula.
Vlad’s First Wave of Brutal Reprisals
Chalkokondyles begins his narrative here, describing how Vlad immediately asserted control over Wallachia. The chronicler recounts Vlad’s ruthless purge:
When he took over, he first created a corps of bodyguards for himself, who lived with him, and then he summoned separately each of the distinguished men of the realm who, it was believed, had committed treason during the transfer of power there. He killed them all by impalement, them and their sons, wives, and servants, so that this one man caused more murder than any other about whom we have been able to learn. In order to solidify his hold on power, they say that in a short time he killed twenty thousand men, women and children. He established good soldiers and bodyguards for his own use, and he granted them the money, property, and other goods of his victims, so that he quickly affected a great change and utterly revolutionized the affairs of Wallachia. He also worked widespread murder among the Hungarians, those who seemed to be involved in public affairs, sparing none of them.
In the space of months, Vlad reorganised Wallachia’s leadership, redistributed the property of those executed, and established a loyal military base.
A Failed Ambush and Renewed Conflict with the Ottomans
Although Mehmet II initially hoped that Vlad’s rule would stabilise the region, by 1461 he learned that Vlad was planning to rebel. The Sultan sent two officials—Thomas Katabolinos, lord of the Porte, and Hamza Bey, governor of Nicopolis—to capture him. They devised a plan in which Thomas would engage Vlad in conversation and lead him into an ambush.
Chalkokondyles describes how decisively this failed:
But Vlad and his men were armed and, when he joined in escorting the lord of the Porte of that region and the secretary, he fell into the ambush. As soon as Vlad realized what was happening, he ordered his men to arrest them and their servants. And when Hamza came against him, Vlad fought bravely, routed and captured him, and killed a few of those who had fled. After capturing them, he led them all away to be impaled, but first he cut off the men’s limbs. He had Hamza impaled on a higher stake, and he treated their retinues in the same way as their own lords. Immediately after he prepared as large an army as he could and marched directly to the Danube, and crossed through the regions there by the Danube and the land that belonged to the sultan, killing everyone, women and children included. He burned the houses, setting fire wherever he moved. Having worked this great slaughter, he returned to Wallachia.
This indeed was an important victory for Vlad, but more was to come.
Mehmet Invades and Vlad’s Brutal Exectuions
Furious at the killing of his envoys, the Sultan launched an invasion with an army said to be second only to that which conquered Constantinople. Vlad attempted to raise forces of his own, but outnumbered and threatened on a second front by the ruler of Moldavia, he retreated into the forests.
From there, Vlad’s troops harassed Ottoman soldiers, capturing stragglers and gathering intelligence. Chalkokondyles even adds that he heard reports that Vlad disguised himself and went into the Ottoman camp, but adds that “I cannot believe that Vlad would willingly expose himself to such a danger, as he would have been able to use many spies of his own, but this tale, I believe, was made up to give a sense of his daring.”
Vlad learned that the Ottoman forces were lax at protecting their camp, and one night he launched a surprise attack. However, it failed to sow panic among the Ottoman troops, and despite several hours of fighting, the Wallachians had to retreat just before dawn. Mehmet II continued his advance into Wallachia and most of the towns were destroyed or surrendered without a fight, while Vlad could do little more than follow and keep watch.
The most striking episode in Chalkokondyles’ account occurs when the Ottomans reached the area where Vlad had carried out his mass executions. The chronicler describes what they saw:
The sultan’s army entered into the area of the impalements, which was seventeen stades long and seven stades wide. There were large stakes there on which, as it was said, about twenty thousand men, women, and children had been split, quite a sight for the Turks and the sultan himself. The sultan was seized with amazement and said that it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who had done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and its people. And he said that a man who had done such things was worth much. The rest of the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes. There were infants too affixed to their mothers on the stakes, and birds had made their nests in their entrails.
Soon after Mehmet II ended his campaign and returned across the Danube. However, he did leave behind Vlad’s younger brother Radu to convince the Wallachians to give up their resistance to the Sultan. Radu told them: “You have suffered all these horrible things of account of my brother, and you ingratiate yourselves with a most unholy man who has brought such harm upon Wallachia as we have not heard has been visited upon any other part of the earth.”
The nobles quickly abandoned Vlad, and Radu assumed the throne. Vlad fled to Hungary seeking support, but instead was arrested by King Matthias Corvinus and imprisoned for nearly eight years. In 1476 he regained Wallachia briefly, only to be killed two months into his final reign.
Legacy of a Medieval Tyrant
Vlad III Dracula’s rule, marked by dramatic reversals of fortune and extraordinary brutality, became the foundation for countless legends and folktales across Eastern Europe. Centuries later, his name inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, cementing him as one of the most recognisable figures of medieval history and horror literature.
The Histories, by Laonikos Chalkokondyles, translated by Anthony Kaldellis, appears in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Click here to buy this two-volume edition from Amazon.com.
See also: Vlad III Țepeș: The man who inspired Dracula
See also: The Life of Vlad the Impaler: A Timeline (1429-1476)
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