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Vlad Dracul
Dracula was born in 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara to Vlad II Dracul. Dracula's father was living in Transylvania in exile. In Romanian "ulea" means "the son of", "Drac" means "devil" and "ul" is like "the". The name translates into "Son of the Devil". An alternate meaning of "drac" is dragon. Vlad II was part of the Order of the Dragon by the Holy Roman Emperor of Luxembourg. So Vlad III's name could have also meant "son of the Dragon". Vlad III had an older brother named Mircea and a younger brother named Radu. Dracula's mother was in charge of his early education and he was tutored after his father recaptured the Wallachian throne from his rival. Although heredity had great sway in deciding would take the throne, the highest level of nobles had the right to elect whom they deemed worthy. Wallachian politics depended on assassination to take out the competition. In 1444 Vlad II, Dracula's father sent his two younger sons to be hostages in Adrianople so that he could show his faith to the Sultan and avoid war. Dracula and Radu remained as hostages for 4 years until 1448. While Dracula was held hostage, his father was slain and his brother Mircea was buried alive. On 1448 Dracula was able to take back his father's throne for two months before he was again forced out. He fled to his cousin, the Prince Bogdan of Moldavia. Vladislav II took the Wallachian throne as only a figurehead. Dracula remained with his cousin until 1451 when Prince Bogdan was assassinated. In 1456, Dracula once more regained Wallachia. During this, his longest stretch of power, Dracula achieved the most gruesome of his atrocities. During these years, Dracula earned his name a Vlad the Impaler. Dracula enjoyed a sick sense of pleasure from his infliction of torment. He took great care to make sure the stake was well oiled and not too sharp lest the victim die prematurely from shock. Normally the stake was slowly driven through the victims by means of the anus or other bodily orifice until the stake protruded from his/her mouth. (Dracula was an equal opportunity torturer.) The stakes length depended on the rank of the victim. It is said the higher the rank the longer the stake. Death by impalement is slow and extremely painful. Often Dracula would leave the corpses as threats or warnings. Ten thousand people were impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in 1460. Some believe that Dracula acted out of desire for revenge as well as a need to solidify his power. Others believe that he was simply insane. The Turks succeeded in defeating Dracula in 1462 and he fled to Turkey. It is rumored that his first wife leapt from the castle's towers into the Arges river, committing suicide rather than surrendering to the Turks. After Dracula escaped he begged Matthius Corvinus for aid, but the king threw him into prison for 12 years. During this time Radu, Dracula's brother, regained the Wallachian throne. Dracula married into Hungarian Royalty and had two sons. He was able to recover the throne of Wallachia in 1476. When he returned he discovered that Radu had died and Basarab the Old had claimed the Wallachina throne. Basarab fled at the approach of Dracula. Dracula was supposedly killed in battle near the small town of Bucharest in December of 1476. The Sultan of Constantinople displayed his head on a stake to prove that the terrible impaler was dead. The rest of his body is reportedly buried at Snagov, located near Bucharest
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