History's Most Infamous Figures: Vlad The Impaler

By: Caleb Kavanaugh

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Before Bram Stoker created his fictional vampire, before Hollywood gave the world a caped count with a Transylvanian accent, there was a real man named Dracula. Vlad III of Wallachia earned his epithet "the Impaler" through methods so brutal that they shocked even the violent fifteenth century. His story involves hostage years at the Ottoman court, the murder of his father and brother by treacherous nobles, and a campaign of terror that killed tens of thousands and stopped the most powerful empire on earth in its tracks.

The historical Vlad bears almost no resemblance to the vampire who borrowed his name. He was a medieval warlord who dined among forests of impaled victims, who nailed turbans to the heads of Ottoman envoys, who launched a night attack that nearly killed Sultan Mehmed II in his own tent. When the Sultan's army finally reached the Wallachian capital, they found twenty thousand of their countrymen displayed on stakes stretching to the horizon, a sight so horrific that hardened soldiers refused to advance.

Yet Vlad's legacy is far more complicated than simple monstrousness. Romanian folk tradition remembers him as a harsh but just ruler who eliminated crime, crushed corrupt nobles, and defended his people against foreign domination. His bloodline survived through the centuries, spreading through European royalty until it reached the current King of England, who has publicly acknowledged his descent from the Impaler.

This book strips away centuries of vampire mythology to reveal the extraordinary man beneath. From his birth in a Transylvanian fortress to his death on a battlefield and his head displayed in Constantinople, Vlad's life encompassed extremes of fortune that few rulers have ever experienced. The truth about Dracula is stranger, darker, and more fascinating than any fiction.