To consolidate power, Vlad invited hundreds of them to a banquet. Though he was now ruler of the principality of Wallachia, his lands were in a ruinous state due to constant warfare and the internal strife caused by feuding boyars. Located in Transylvania, Romania, it is a major tourist attraction. Bran Castle is known more as Dracula's castle. His 1456 battle to protect his homeland was victorious: Legend holds that he personally beheaded his opponent, Vladislav II, in one-on-one combat. Vlad was charged with leading a force to defend Wallachia from an invasion. In 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, threatening all of Europe with an invasion. What is certain, however, is that once Vlad was freed from Ottoman captivity shortly after his family's death, his reign of blood began. Whether these events turned Vlad III Dracula ("son of the dragon") into a ruthless killer is a matter of historical speculation. Vlad's older brother, Mircea, was tortured, blinded and buried alive. The rest of Vlad's family, however, fared even worse: His father was ousted as ruler of Wallachia by local warlords (boyars) and was killed in the swamps near Balteni, Wallachia, in 1447. ![]() According to some accounts, however, he may also have been imprisoned and tortured for part of that time, during which he would have witnessed the impalement of his the Ottomans' enemies. Under the Ottomans, Vlad and his younger brother were tutored in science, philosophy and the arts - Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior. A portrait of Vlad the Impaler, circa 1450, from a painting in Castle Ambras in the Tyrol. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind. But the meeting was actually a trap: All three were arrested and held hostage. When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along. ![]() ![]() Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Transylvania and Wallachia were frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian Crusaders repulsed the invaders or marched eastward toward the Holy Land. Vlad II was granted the surname Dracul ("dragon") after his induction into the Order of the Dragon, a Christian military order supported by the Holy Roman emperor. His father was Vlad II Dracul, ruler of Wallachia, a principality located to the south of Transylvania. Vlad III was born in 1431 in Transylvania, a mountainous region in modern-day Romania.
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