2021-06-17 Thu

Vlad III, most commonly known as Vlad the Impaler was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. Today on 17th June in the year 1462, he attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack at Targoviste), forcing him to retreat from Wallachia. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania.

The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, ordered Vlad to pay homage to him personally, but Vlad had the Sultan's two envoys captured and impaled. In February 1462, he attacked Ottoman territory, massacring tens of thousands of Turks and Bulgarians. Mehmed launched a campaign against Wallachia to replace Vlad with Vlad's younger brother, Radu. Vlad attempted to capture the sultan at Târgovi?te during the night of 16–17 June 1462. The sultan and the main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but more and more Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek assistance from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in late 1462, but Corvinus had him imprisoned.

His cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe. Some in the scholarly community have suggested that Bram Stoker’s Dracula character was based on Vlad.

Depicted here is a coin issued under his reign. The obverse of a coin represents the Shield crescent above a star (rosettes) with 6 rays, II three beams. The reveres shows Helmet with an eagle holding the cross in its beak, to the left of the comet.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org