The Battle That Left 23,884 People Impaled and Gave Birth To Vlad The Impaler

The true and terrifying ruthlessness of Vlad Țepeș

A painting of a Wallachian attack on Ottoman forces (Public domain)

Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 which immediately — and permanently — changed the global power dynamics. After the Turks had Constantinople firmly under their control, they set out to secure the surrounding lands including the Balkans and the lands bordering the Black Sea in the north.

One such land was the small kingdom of Wallachia. Wallachia was a land at a crossroads that lay in what is present day Romania north of Bulgaria. They were hemmed in by the surging Hungarians, the upstart Ottomans and the warlike Saxons. This created a land of hearty and hardened people who did not back down from a fight.

This was the land that Vlad the Impaler ruled over.

A debt unpaid

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II who was shocked and thwarted by Vlad the Impaler (Public domain)

In order to avoid a menagerie of expensive and far flung wars following the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans offered the lands surrounding the former Byzantine Empire the ability to become tribute states. In exchange for protection and relative autonomy the Ottomans…