Vlad the Impaler

the second reign - Part 1

After Vlad the Impaler took the Wallachian throne, he began his reign under the sign of authority.

The lack of authority of the previous ruling princes ruined the economical power (and implicit the political power) of Wallachia.

So, Vlad's first thoughts were to strengthen the ruling prince's power and make order in the country.

In a letter addressed to the leaders of the Brasov fortified town on September the 10th 1456 he said:


"And you must think that if a man or a ruling prince is powerful and strong, than he can make peace as he wishes but, if he is weak, somebody more powerful will come against him and will do with him what he pleases".

The authority is the main idea of Vlad III internal policy, that he applied constantly his whole life.

The deth of Ioan Corvin in August 1456 deprived Vlad of his greatest ally against the Turks. The power in the Hungarian Kingdom was split between two parties: one led by Mikhail Szilagy, the brother in law of the deceased Ioan Corvin, willing his son, Matthias Corvin, on the throne and the other formed by Hungarian noblemen, supporting king Ladislau V the Posthumus.

At the beginning, Vlad turned his hopes on the two neighboring powerful towns Sibiu and Brasov. On October the 10th 1456 the ruling prince sends again a letter to Brasov, asking for help. He communicates that the Ottoman sultan sent him an embassy, asking for Wallachian obedience to the Porte and he asks for help.

The expected support never came, so, to assure the peace for his country, Vlad the Impaler accepted Ottoman conditions: the money tribute (the equivalent value of 222 villages) and the blood tribute (500 little boys to be educated and integrated in the Ottoman army). A hard load for Wallachians.

Vlad's first external step to establish an alliance against the Turks was to help Stephan The Great to take the Moldavian throne. This way the frontline against the Ottomans was once again raised from the dead.

But Vlad the Impaler knew this alliance isn't enough to support his fight against the Ottomans. So...