The Battle That Left 23,884 People Impaled and Gave Birth To Vlad The Impaler
By: Grant Piper
Tags: War, Military, Ottoman Empire, History, Mythology

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 allowed client states to pay an annual jizya tax that totaled 10,000 ducats. As long as the states paid the tax and produced the alloted amount of soldiers and grain for the Ottomans they would be left alone. This system had been started before the fall of Constantinople and continued long after.

The ruler of Wallachia at the time, Vlad Țepeș, had ceased paying the jizya in 1459. The tax had gone unpaid in 1459 and 1460 and now the debt was stretching into 1461. Vlad and Wallachia now owed a sum approaching 30,000 ducats, a steep amount of money for such a kingdom. Failure to pay the tax was starting to grind on the Ottoman sultan who now had to consider marching to Bulgaria to try and subdue the defiant Wallachian people.

First, the sultan tried to negotiate with Vlad.

Vlad claimed he had no money to pay such a steep tax after fighting the Saxons and negotiating with the Hungarians. In response, the Ottoman sultan sent troops over the Danube into the region in order to try and recruit and collect the tax on their own.

This greatly angered Vlad Țepeș.

Vlad the Impaler rises

Portrait of Vlad Țepeș (Public domain)

Vlad knew that he had very few options when it came to the Ottomans. As a small kingdom with few allies, he could not hope to resist the full might of the Turks in a prolonged fight. As he saw it, he could do one of three things.

A. Pay the tax B. Dig in for a fight C. Take the fight to the Turks

He decided on option C.

Instead of waiting for the inevitable arrival of a massive Ottoman army on the doorstep of Wallachia, Vlad decided to turn the tide by launching a vicious surprise attack on the Turks in the region. With speed and fury, he hoped to stun the Ottomans enough to get them to withdraw and reconsider negotiating for the jiyza.

Vlad, speaking Turkish, disguised his elite troops and sacked a major fortress under deception which left the Ottomans defenseless for the time being. Using the surprise to his advantage Vlad quickly campaigned through southern Wallachia and into Bulgaria attacking Ottoman outposts, and civilians, wherever he found them.

In this lightning campaign in 1461 he began his practice of impaling his enemies. Civilians, deserters, sympathizers and soldiers were rounded up and impaled on large wooden spikes. The bodies were left at major intersections, along the road and in the town squares.

They were meant to deter Wallachian and Bulgarian people from supporting the Turks but the sight terrified Ottoman, Wallachian, Turk and Slav alike.

Vlad Țepeș wrote to his ally, the king of Hungary, of this impaling spree saying:

I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers…Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him (Sultan Mehmet II).

Vlad was at war, and he had impaled over 23,000 Turks and Turkish sympathizers.

Just the beginning

Vlad’s practice of impaling his enemies led to him gaining the nickname Vlad the Impaler. He struck terror into the hearts of his enemies and his loyal subjects. This practice did win him the war against the Ottomans but it cost him his throne. The brutal and morbid tactics lost the hearts and minds of the Wallachians and Saxons who eventually defected to support Vlad’s brother for the throne.

When the sultan laid eyes upon Vlad’s work for himself he was amazed. One such account was recorded by the historian Chalkokondyles in his work The Histories writing:

The sultan’s army entered into the area of the impalements, which was seventeen stades long and seven stades wide. There were large stakes there on which, as it was said, about twenty thousand men, women, and children had been spitted, quite a sight for the Turks and the sultan himself. The sultan was seized with amazement and said that it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who had done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and its people. And he said that a man who had done such things was worth much. The rest of the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes. There were infants too affixed to their mothers on the stakes, and birds had made their nests in their entrails.

And thus Vlad the Impaler and his legend was born. His effectiveness on the battlefield was not to be understated, he defeated the Ottoman sultan, and his brother, in battle but could not retain the loyalty and love of his subjects.

Today, Wallachia is rife with legends and lore about Vlad the Impaler, Dracula, vampires and other dark tales that were all born out of the sight of thousands of people laid out impaled on stakes for the world to see.