Kids dealt with.
The reason I chose Vlad Dracula to be my military leader is that he had such a violent life. I would say that most of his adult life and a fair bit of his childhood, he faced death daily. Through this adversity he managed to take and hold power of a small realm surrounded by much larger foes.
Any day he could be assassinated by his own people, or killed in battle. He fought several successful campaigns against the Turks and never shied away from the battle itself.
He had to contend with usurpers from his own extended family backed by the Turks, or Steven of Moravia or even his oft time ally Hungary.
The boyars of Sibiu, Brasov, and Tirgoviste certainly wanted him dead.
He ruled with an iron fist and murdered enemies from within and without with wild abandon. He certainly did impale people without mercy, killing them by the thousands in the most painful way imaginable.
To defend him, I suppose he did these things to send a message. One Turkish army retreated upon entering the "forest" of impaled Turkish soldiers captured in battle. I suppose defending his atrocities by pointing out the low crime rate may compare with admiring Adolf Hitler for building nice roads.
However, they say history is written by the victors; and in this case the "history" of Dracula was written by the Germanic boyars who gained access to printing pamphlets that were very negative to his memory. If you choose to believe the worst of what he did, then you must credit some of the other things he is said to have done.
The torture and death by impalement were not invented by him, he learned well from his Turkish masters. Perhaps Machiavelli could have found him an interesting study.
Some stories about him:
He once nailed the hats on some ambassadors who did not take off their hays.
He left a golden cup on the well in the main square of Tirgoviste for all to drink from. It was stolen twice, the first time the man who stole it and some dozen of his family were impaled. The second time the family of the thief turned him in to be impaled.
He impaled thoudands of boyars then dined amongst them. When one man was holding his nose, Dracula had him impaled on a high stake so he could be above it.
The Turks finally ousted Dracula and he fled to Hungary where he was arrested. The King of Hungary never gave Dracula the promised support against the Turks. He was a prisoner on the danube bend and at court for some 10-12 years. Russian stories have it that the Hungarian king Mattias Corvinus liked to have Dracula present to frighten ambassadors.
Eventually he married into Mattias family and fathered two sons. He was killed in battle trying to re take Wallachia with an under manned army.
Rumoured to be buried at Snagov monastery.
His castle on the river Arges stands (ruined) today, I think I read that the Rumanian government is re building for tourism. Most associate Castle Bran with Dracula, but that is incorrect.
