In 1462, Vlad the Impaler used a psychological warfare tactic that would cement his place in history. After learning of an advancing Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed II, Vlad created a “forest” of 23,844 impaled Turkish prisoners outside his capital of Târgoviște.
The horrifying display stretched for miles. When the Sultan’s army arrived, they found their fellow soldiers transformed into a grotesque warning. The sight was so terrifying that Mehmed II, the same leader who had conquered Constantinople, turned his army around and retreated.
While Vlad’s methods were brutal, they achieved his goal of protecting his homeland of Wallachia from Ottoman conquest. He ruled three separate times between 1448-1477, earning both fierce loyalty and bitter enemies through his harsh justice against criminals and foreign invaders alike.
Though remembered today as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the real Vlad III was no vampire – but his actual history proved just as captivating. His tactical use of terror and unflinching leadership against overwhelming odds turned him into a legendary figure whose story still haunts us over 500 years later.
Sources: Contemporary accounts from the 1460s-1470s, The Tale of Dracula (1490), Works by historians McNally and Florescu