‘Brilliant, complex and unmatched for sheer cruelty, Vlad III Dracula drove the Turks out of his native Wallachia in 1462, only to be deposed from his throne. By Will Romano ive and a half centuries alter his death, the Turks still ‘equate the name Dracula with evil, and they are not re- ferring to Bram Stoker fictional vampire. In 1462, when the real Dracula retreated from an attack on the Turks in the Danube River valley, he left whathistory records as “a forest of the impaled”—20,000 Turkish prisoners rotting on large stakes outside the city of Tirgoviste. So cruel was this Dracula that he enjoyed dining while watching mass executions, usually by the slow death of impalement, although he was not averse to watching people skinned or boiled alive. By the time he was deposed, he had killed between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Iron- ically, he prided himself on his sense of fairness, lad IIT Dracula came of age during external and internal tur- ‘oil that ravaged the Wallachain Danube and Transylvania’s Carpathian Mountains. Fifteenth-century Wallachia (now part of Romania) was not strong enough to fend off either the Otto- man Empire or the Kingdom of Hungary. Consequently, Turks forced the principality to pledge a policy of neutrality. More often than not, however, Dracula's father, the Wallachian prince Vlad II Dracul, betrayed treaties for personal or religious reasons. Vlad Dracula was barely 12 when he became a pawn of his father’s political maneuvering. Vlad Dracul gave the young Vlad and his 7-year-old brother Radu to the Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1442 as human peace offerings, hostages to allay the sultan’s fear of further Wallachian attacks. But Viad Dracul knew he could not maintain his promise neutrality. Ten years earlier he had taken an oath to an order- the Order of the Dragon—to protect the Holy Roman Empire In fact, his very name, Dracul, which meant dragon, was be- stowed on him by that ord Dracula means “son of the dragon,” Justa year after swearing neutrality'to the Turks, Dracul took part in a Bulgarian crusade called for by the pope, though he was still a subject of Murad. The Bulgarian campaign ended with a disastrous de! of the Christians at Varna in 1444. Once home from Bulgaria, Dracul and the other Christian ders feared that the victorious Turks would now dominate ‘Above: A German portrait of Voivade Viad lil of Walla- chia, also known as Vlad Tepes (‘the Impaler”) and as *Son of the Dragon.” or Dracula. Opposite: Viad's cam- paign against Mehmed Il reaches its high tide as he leads his men into the Ottoman sultan’s camp on the night of June 17, 1462, in an illustration by Angus McBride, OCTOBER 2009, MILITARY HISTORY 59Bulgaria, Wallachia and other European countries. Against the better interests of his sons and his own country, Dracul Jaid siege to Giurgiu, a Turk- ish stronghold on the Danube. But he failed due to a lack of Hungarian support, having earlier made an enemy of ‘Fanos Hunyadi, a leader and hero in Hungarian service (each blamed the other for the defeat at Varna). This, plus a very harsh winter, brought Dracul’ siege of Giurgiu to a stalemate. Then in a sudden change of allegiances, Dracul promised the Turks peace. And as a show of good faith, he returned some 12,000 Bulgarian refugees who had fled into Wallachia seeking asylum from Murad. Draculls old enemy from the Bulgarian crusade, Jénos Hun- yadi, was incensed at this capitulation to the Turks, As. gesture Of his anger, he backed Vladislav Dan Il, a member of a rival family, the Danesti for prince of Wallachia, rather than one from Dracul’s own Mircea lineage. The throne of Wallachia was not necessarily passed from father to son. The ruler, or voivode, was lected by the country’ boyars, the land-owning nobles. The lin- eage was split into two factions—the Mircea and the Danesti clans. In 1447 Hunyadi killed Dracul and another of his sons. While their father waged battle, the young Dracula and his brother Radu endured an unhappy captivity at the sultan's palace. The fiery Dracula was frequently reprimanded, some- times physically, and Radu had to fend off the sexual advances of the sultan’ son. Even in those early years one could see that Radu and Dracula were headed in different directions—Radu “The Handsome” was a compromiser, consumed by the plea- sures of the palace, whereas Dracula was the defiant one. In spite of, or perhaps because of, their different personalities, the boys would eventually become two distinctly different rulers of Wallachia. After his father's death, Dracula was released, only to be im- pressed into the Turkish army: The 17-year-old, having vowed to ascend to the throne of his homeland, got backing from the sultan in 1448 for an invasion of Wallachia, After two months of fight ing there, he was driven out by Vladislav Dan. But these were tur- bulent and shifting times. Not long afterward, during a subsequent political upheaval, Dracula was forced to seek Hunyadi’ support 60 MILITARY HISTORY OCTOBER 2003 ‘Mehmed tl Fatih (the Conqueror’), portrayed by André Thevet took Constantinople in 1453, but found his former hostage, Dracula, a difficult as well as implacable enemy. Hunyadi not only refused it, but topped off his rejection with a plot to kill the young Dracula. Tipped off, Dracula slipped away to Brasov. Then matters took a surprs: ing turn. Relations between Hunyadi and his propped-up prince began to cool, partly be- cause of Vladislav Dans warm ing to Murad’s son and sue cessor, Mehmed, who was now Sultan Mehmed IL. In consequence, Hunyadi cham pioned young Dracula's claim to the Wallachian throne. It may seem odd that Dracula would forge an alliance with the man who was responsible for the deaths of his father and brother, but one must under- stand that he was driven by two motives—power and revenge. By ascending his father's throne he could achieve both. He therefore swore allegiance to the new Hungarian king, Ladis- las Posthumous, and Hunyadi gave him responsibility for guarding the Transylvanian border from Turkish attacks, Taking what he felt was rightly his, Hunyadi seized the duchies of Amlas and Fagaras in Transylvania, incurring the \wrath of Vladislav Dan. When the Turks moved on Belgrade in 1456, Hunyadi ordered Dracula to stay at Sibiu, thus obliging the Turks to split their forces and keep men at Sibiu. Meanwhile, Hunyadi, his professional fighting men and John of Capistrano, a 70-year-old crusading monk who organized a peasant army, plunged into Turkish-held Serbia, routed Mehmed’s 90,000-man army and relieved Belgrade. Before the end of the campaign, Dracula, with a small band of Hungarians, mercenaries and disgruntled boyars, invacled Wal- lachia in July 1456, and moved on Viadislav’s capital of Tirgo- viste. Not much is known of the actual fight, but some histori- ans believe that the invaders won an overpowering victory—at any rate, Vladislav Dan was killed, possibly by Dracula himself. Just as Christian hopes were riding high in Eastern Europe, Hunyadi and John of Capistrano died of bubonic plague. At th same time the Turkish army was recovering its strength and Vigor: The Ottomans’ manner of enlisting and training a national army was far superior to that oftheir enemies. Young Christian males in Turkish-held Europe were inducted into military serv- ice, converted to Islam and trained into highly skilled warriors called janissaries (new soldiers). These troops, which first came ! H ipeople a feeling of loyalty to a unified country. Some 50 years later, Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli would help stir those same feelings in Italy with his 1513 book The Prince, which some say may be loosely based on Dracula's career. to prominence about 1330, were in the sultan’ service for 20 years and were grouped in units of eight to 12 called odas. ‘As prince of Wallachia for a second time, Vlad III Dracula knew of the sultans growing might, but he had his own problems. He had to juggle the in- terests of the Ottoman Empire, Hungary and Wailachia’s polit- structure just to maintain balance. Vlad wished to carry on his father’s crusading tradition, but he needed to strengthen his power at home first. To do that, he employed mercenaries called armas, whose duty it was to impale anyone who stepped out of line. Called “Kaziklu Bey" (impaler prince) by the Turks, and Vlad “Tepes” (pronounced Tzepesh) by his own subjects in reference to his favorite form of execution, Dracula would not tolerate subver- sion of any kind. Because of his harsh leadership, gory stories of Vlad reign spread from Germany to Russia. Though those accounts were written with various political and religious agen- das and cannot be taken as completely accurate, they illustrate how Dracula was feared and despised in his own time, while laying the groundwork for the vampire myth, “He invited all his principal vassals and the noblemen in his Iand to a banquet,” a manuscript in Nimberg claimed in 1488, “When the meal was done he turned to the oldest and asked how many princes he remembered who had been rulers in that Tand. Thus, he asked one after another. They all said as many as each knew. One said fifty, one thirty. So that there were none among them who spoke of seven. Then he had them all impaled. ‘There were five hundred in number.” According to Romanian folklore, when Dracula had! discov- ered that boyars of Tirgoviste had buried his brother alive, he invited those who he felt were responsible to an Easter dinner, and as they were eating, he seized them and marched them, in their Easter clothes, to the site of his future castle, Poienari. Ac- cording to the story, “They were put to work until the clothes were torn and they were naked.” Much has been made of Dracula's relationship with the boyars. By 1457 there were still three boyars on the 12-man council who had served Dracula's enemy, Vladislav Dan. And there had been as many as 18 princes of Wallachia from M418 to 1456 alone, No matter how strong Dracula was, could he trust the boyars—or, for that matter, could they trust him? Dracula also had troubles with the Saxon merchants in the ‘Transylvanian towns of Amlas and Fagaras. Accusing them of unfair trade practices, Dracula pitted himself against the vil- lages and a pretender to the throne, Vladislav IT brother Dan III (Dracula uncle), whom he later assassinated. ‘Meanwhile, Dracula was distancing himself from the Otto- man Empire. He forged an agree- ment with the sultan, in part to stop the Turks from interfering in Wallachian affairs. In 1459, Pope Pius 1 convened the Congress of Mantua to call for European leaders to embark on a three-year Crusade against the Turks. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick IIL pledged to fight the infidels, but Dracula was the only ruler to actively respond, In 1460, Sultan Mehmed II seized the fortress city of Smed- erevo in Serbia, not far from the Wallachian border. In addition to that city, the sultan commanded two other major points along, the Danube, Giurgiu and Nicopolis. Adding salt to an opening, wound was the death of Dracula’ ally and friend Mihaly Szi- lagyi, Jénos Hunyadi’s brotherin-law and uncle of the new king of Hungary, Matyas Corvinus. While on an exploratory mission. in Bulgaria, Szilagyi was caught by the Turks, who pressed him, for information on Hungarian military might and Dracula's oath to Corvinus. When Szilagyi would not cooperate, he was: sawed in half before the sultan’ eves. At that point, Dracula, combining megalomania with vengeance, decided that Wallachia should stop paying tribute to the sultan and cease serving as a buffer between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. If he wanted national independence, however, he would have to fight for it, and fight he did, instill- ing in the common people a feeling of loyalty to a unified coun- try. Some 50 years later, Florentine political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli would help stir those same feelings in Italy with his, 1513 book The Prince, which some say may be loosely based on Dracula's career Most historians believe that by 1461, if not earlier, Dracula's tribute payments to the sultan were three years in arrears. He ‘owed 30,000 ducats and no longer provided 500 young boys an- nually for the janissary corps. Mehmed was then on a campai in Asia Minor, but he ordered Dracula to meet his representa- tive, Hamza Pasha, at Tirgoviste and explain his delinquency. Soon afterward, however, the sultan chanced to obtain inter~ cepted letters, sent by Dracula to Hungary, vowingallegiance to Corvinus against the Turks. Mehmed secretly ordered Hamza Pasha to change the meeting place to the fortress of Giurgiu, where the garrison would be waiting to arrest the Wallachian prince. A second envoy, Hamza Bey, was sent to inform the pasha of Dracula's departure from Tirgoviste. As in the past, Dracula benefited from a tip; instead of being ambushed, he captured both Hamza Bey and Hamza Pasha. In late 1461, Dracula laid his plans for breaking free of Turkish rule by conquering fortresses along the Danube. Dis- guised as a Turk, Dracula tricked the garrison at Giurgiu. “AS the Turks opened the gates,” he wrote to King Matyas in Feb- (OCTOBER 2003, MILITARY HISTORY 6NY ery 7 Seas MEY ic? pe i : AMIE eg 000 8 Ni |ruary 1461, “our soldiers mixing with theirs entered the fortress and conquered the city which T then set on fire. From Giurgiu, Dracula began plundering fortresses and ports along the Bulgarian Danube to the Black Sea, transporting his i fantry in barges with Wallachian cavalry riding along the flanks. As he burned cities and villages, rav- aged food supplies and impaled Turks, many liberated Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbians sought asylum in Wallachia. Dracula’ letter to Matyas Corvi- nus recounted the exact number of deaths in each town. In Giurgiu, on both sides of the river, there were 6,414 dead; at Eni Sala, 1,350; ‘at Durostor, 6,840; at Nicopolis and Ghighen, 1,138. He claimed the total to be “23,884 Turks and Bul- garians in all, not including those who were burned in their houses and whose heads were not presented to our officials.” Dracula, also known as Viad the Impaler, even sent two bags of chopped off ears, noses and heads—including the head of Hamza Bey— to Corvinus as proof of his victory. Other unfortunate Turkish prisoners were impaled on long stakes with rounded ends, to prolong the agony of dying, and left to rot in the hills surround- ing Tirgoviste. It was said that some Turks were so frightened of "Kaziklu Bey” that they retreated into Asia Minor. Once Drac- ula reached the Black Sea, however, he halted, knowing that his amphibious army would be overextended and outnumbered ‘Mehmed was furious, but did not campaign in the winter when the Danube would be frozen. Knowing that, Dracula ap- pealed to Corvinus for military support. Corvinus had indeed received papal funds for just such crusading, but he was also engaged in a power struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor, so he kept most of the money and released only a small contingent of soldiers to Dracula—just enough to justify his accepting the papal funds ‘Mehmed, in the meantime, mustered his forces, which he first dispatched overland through Bulgaria to Braila, where some 18,000 Turkish troops looted and pillaged the Wallachian port and enslaved its populace. To counteract that, according to Ital- ian chronicler Donado de Lezze, Dracula screened his retreat to the right bank of the Danube by launching a series of light- Opposite: A woodcut published in Strasbourg shows Dracula enjoying lunch while having Saxon squatters on \Wallachian territory dismembered or impaled. Above: A statue of Jénos Hunyadi towers over Budapest's Hero's ‘Square. As did his father, Vied Dracul, Dracula sometimes found Hunyadi to be an ally and at other times an enemy. ning raids against the Turkish rear guard, killing some 8,000 troops. Dracula's fighting retreat w. successful throughout the wint but by May 1462 the warm weather had restored safe passage along the Danube. At that point, Mehmed curtailed his Asia Minor campaign and joined his forces in Europe. Though Dracula com- manded the river, the Turks could strike anywhere along it. If Drac- ula miscalculated, there would be dire consequences. The sultan’s troops were equipped with long spears, bows and arrows, an arsenal of firearms, 120 cannons and a wealth of ex- perienced military commanders. ‘The size of his army is still de- bated, but it probably numbered about 60,000 men, more than a third of them janissaries. Mehmed also employed slave soldiers as ad- vance guards, in what he called his Ceausi Division. They were literally fighting for their freedom, but if someone showed cowardice, he was whipped, beheaded or both, Dracula's army was largely made up of peasants, with a small number of able-bodied veterans equipped with axes, swords, hammers, scimitars and bows and arrows. Those best prepared for battle were armored boyar cavalrymen who wielded swords, knives and lances. Russian chronicles put Dracula's force at around 30,000 men, including 22,000 foot soldiers, but a letter \written by Ven Petrus de Thomasius, the Venetian ambassador to Hungary, stated that Dracula had only 22,000 men in total In late May, the sultan led 25 galleys and 150 ships up the Bosporus Strait, the unofficial boundary between Asia and Europe, intending to join a second force assembled at Nicopolis. Ultimately the plan was to reclaim Giurgiu and head to Tirgo- viste. Spies informed Dracula of the sultan’s plan to cross the Danube at Vidin, near Nicopolis. At frst Dracula archers held off the approaching Turks, but after six days of frustration and heavy ‘Turkish casualties, Mehmed led his soldiers and their weapons across the Danube while his cannons drew the Wallachian army’ fire. An Ottoman chronicle stated: ‘[Dracula] was followed by the Great Sultan with the rest of the glorious army; they inflicted such a merciless punishment on Wallachia that it seemed as if the end of the world had come, shedding much blood with their OCTOBER 2003, MILITARY HISTORY 63He had done con damage, but he had failed to get to his primary target, Mehmed....Dracula rewarded men who had been wounded in the front of their bodies, but told any who were wounded in the back, ving swords.” Dracula's retreat northward was interrupted by a few minor skirmishes, Faced with the enor- mity of what lay before him, he saw only one alternative—a scorched earth policy. Dracula burned villages and crops, killed his own people, slaughtered cattle and poisoned wells as he made his way back through Wallachia, while the surviving population migrated to the island, monastery of Snagov and the Carpathian Mountains. Dracula's soldiers, familiar with the vast forest terrain, set traps and am. bushed his pursuers. The weather also began to take a toll on the Turks, “There was not a drop of water to quench their thirst,” \wrote Turkish chronicler Tursun Bey. “The sun was so great that ‘one could cook kebabs on the mail shirts of the [soldiers].” Dracula’ army was also undergoing steady attrition. Rea- soning that chopping off the head would confuse the body, he became obsessed with getting at the sultan himself. Through his spies, he learned the location of Mehmed’s camp in the mountains south of Tirgoviste and laid his plans to strike. In what the Romanians would remember as the Night Attack of June 17, Dracula slashed his way into the sluggishly guarded ‘Turkish camp. One account of the controversial assault, possi- bly dictated by Dracula himself, stated that late that evening he “provoked an incredible massacre without losing many men in such a major encounter, though there were many wounded.” According to the account of Asik-Pasa-Zade, the Turks stood their ground: “When [the Turks] realized that the attack was made by the devilish Tepes and that he himself led it, the sol- diers remained stil, allowing him to get closer to the Turkish army. When he was right in the middle of the army, the soldiers shouted, ‘Allah be blessed!’ and slaughtered them so badly that, more than half of the infidels were killed.” Greek chronicler Laonic Chalkondyles may have written the ‘most balanced view of the attack: “Using torchlight, [Dracula] proceeded with his army in closed ranks and in good order they headed directly for the Emperor’ tents. Missing their target, they fell upon the tents of the vizier Machmut and Vizier Issac; and here there was a great battle and they killed the camels, donkeys and other pack animals. Fighting in closed ranks, they had no losses worth mentioning, but if one of them went astray he was immediately killed by the Turks.” The fighting continued until daybreak, but Dracula eventually fled the scene. He had done considerable damage, but he had failed to get to his primary target, Mehmed. Furious at the in- decisive outcome, Dracula rewarded men who had been wounded in the front of their bodies, but told any who were wounded in the back, “You are not a man but a woman,” and, then had them impale 66) MILITARY HISTORY OCTOBER 2002 ‘You are not a man, but a woman,’ D and then had them impaled. 5 icula’s bold but ultimately less night attack was the turning point of the campaign. Weary ofa bloody, ruinous war in which the prospects of victory seemed hopeless, most of his boyars were defecting to Radu, now backed by the sultan as successor to the Wallachian throne. ‘Mehmed proceeded to Tirgoviste, flanked by Radu and his army, at dawn’ first light. As they approached the city, smoke filled the ait—a byproduct of Dracula's scorched earth policy ‘Unmanned cannons stood in dormant impotence. Mehmed ex- pected Dracula to defend his capital, but there was no food, water, cattle or men. The place was uninhabited, save for the inhuman spectacle that greeted them. In a mile-long ditch sur~ rounding the city, the remains of Turkish prisoners, including Hamza Pasha, were rotting away on stakes. The troops found themselves in a veritable forest of the impaled. “And there were large stakes on which they could see the im- paled bodies,” wrote Chalkondyles, “about twenty thousand of them....The Emperor himself, in wonder, kept saying that he could not conquer the country ofa man who could do sueh ter- rible and unnatural things...” That night, the Turks dug a deep trench around their camp in anticipation of Tepes’ return. In the morning, when Dracula failed to show up, Mehmed, disheartened and dealing with an outbreak of plague that was decimating his troops, signaled a retirement eastward. Perhaps, for the first time, Mehmed felt the terror he had struck in other men’ hearts when he impaled hapless victims after conquering Constantinople in 1453. ‘Meanwhile, Dracula's army was coming apart at the seams. Wallachian boyar Gales (Galesh) jumped ship. Dracula's heart had hardened toward Gales ever since he failed to mobilize his, men during the night attack. Then, later in June 1462, Dracula's cousin, Stephen the Great, backed by the Ottoman fleet, at- tacked the fortress at Chilia, probably to ensure his borders. For eight days the two forces brutalized the castle with cannon fire, but incredibly, the small Wallachian and Hungarian garrison held off the double assault. Some historians seriously doubt that there was ever a Moldavian-Turkish alliance, but it seems that Wallachian, Mol- davian, Hungarian and Ottoman armies did clash at Chilia, though Dracula himself never reached the fortress. The siege of Chilia was unsuccessful (Stephen claimed it after a second at- tempt in 1465), but the mood in Wallachia had shifted. With his armies depleted (the losses in one baitle totaled 2,000 as Wal lachian heads danced at the ends of Turkish swords), Dracula managed to win one final victory at Buzau, about 40 miles, southeast of the site of his night raid. It had little effect. He had already lost Bucharest, Braila and Tirgoviste. For Dracula, thesyivania, His castle at Poienari on the Arges River les in rut cost in human life was immeasurable, and the sultan simply had more lives to spend for his cause. In the fall of 1462, Dracula retreated southeast along the, River toward Poienari. Led by Radu, his pursuers set up on the opposite side of the Arges. Eventually, the Turkish in fantry slinked across the river to administer a massive dose of gunpowcler and cannon balls to Dracula's Poienari castle. Still, its sturdy walls did not crumble and the Turks paused to reor ganize and storm it the next day. According to a popular Ro: manian legend, when Dracula's Transylvanian wife was given a \written warning of the castle's impending doom, she cried, “I would rather have my body rot and be eaten by the fish of the Arges than be led into captivity by the Turks,” then flun, self into the river below. Dracula did not stay to see his castle wasted, and instead! fled in darkness while his cannons fired on the Turks as a diver sionary tactic. Some reports say he left behind a son who would later be raised by a Wallachian peasant. With a small band of men, Dracula reached the Transylvanian mountains and, having sent notice to Matyas Corvinus of his situation, hoped the Hun. garian king would send relief. None came. Corvinus was still in Buda, anxiously awaiting the mpaign’s outcome, Desper- ately in need of money and men, Dracula traveled to Brasov, thinking he would get an audience with the king. Instead, he was detained and, in November 1462, arrested by Corvinus. There has been much speculation as to why Corvinus impris- oned Dracula, including his having made a secret treaty with Mehmed If, though there is no evidence of that. What is known, is that Corvinus used forged letters to accuse and convict Drac ula of siding with the Turks against Hungary. Romanian folklore often blames the boyars for Dracula's downfall. But the fact is that he ran out of resources, men and support. Radu was already on the throne by July 1462, and Originally built by the Teutonic Knights in 1212, Castle Bran served as Viac's base of operations in Tran demolished by its Turkish besiegers many of the boyars who ruled under Dracula were expelled once Radu be came prince. Dracula was taken to Buda and spent nearly 12 years in the castle of Vise grad. Ironically, with Radu ‘on the throne, Sultan Mehmed agreed to let Wallachia maintain its au: tonomy: One has to wonder what effect Dracula really had on the Ottoman Em- pire. Did his terror tacties make the Turks think twice about making it a pashalik (a Turkish province with an ap- pointed ruler)? Kurt W. Treptow, in his book, Vlad 117 Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, pointed to an Ot toman chronicle as proof that the sultan had no intention of making it such, and invaded Wallachia simply to seat Radu: “The conquering Sultan gave the throne of that country to the brother of that wicked man, named Radu voievod [sic], who had been accepted by the Porte a long time before: Some Romanian historians still maintain that the sultan’ un willingness to turn Wallachia into a Turkish province proved Dracula to be the ultimate victor in his 1462 campaign. Stil that view has been fiercely disputed and has all but left a his- torical hole in the last days of Drac Corvinus held Dracula in captivity until 1474, when he was released under the condition that he convert from Orthodox to Catholic Christianity. By November 1476, Dracula had res the throne with the help of Hungary and Moldavia. Stephen finally made good on his promise and left behind troops to pro- tect Dracula from internal squabbles. Later that same year however, Dracula died in battle near Bucharest. There is also much speculation about how the impaler prince died. Austrian chronicler Jacob Unrest wrote that Dracula fought the Turks unmercifully, only to be killed by assassins. Dracula, having dressed as a Turk, may have been done in by his own men. Either way, his head was chopped off, put in preservative honey and sent to the sultan, where it sat on the main parapet of his palace. Vlad III Dracula's third and final reign had lasted only two months. MH las second campaign, For fierther reading, Long Beach, N.¥—based writer Will Romano suggests: Dracula: Prince of Many Faces, by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally; and Vlad II Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, Kurt W. Tieptow (OCTOBER 2008. MULITARY ORY 6sCopyright © 2003 EBSCO Publishing