Claim: Vlad the Impaler's father and brother died.

Vlad III , known as Vlad the Impaler -LRB- Vlad Țepeș -LSB- pronˈvlad_ˈțepeș -RSB- -RRB- or Vlad Dracula -LRB- 1428/311476/77 -RRB- , was voivode -LRB- or prince -RRB- of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death . He was the second son of Vlad Dracul , who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436 . Vlad and his younger brother , Radu , were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire from 1442 to secure their father 's loyalty . Vlad 's father and eldest brother , Mircea , were murdered after John Hunyadi , Regent-Governor of Hungary , invaded Wallachia in 1447 . Hunyadi installed Vlad 's second cousin , VladislavII , as the new voivode .   Hunyadi launched a military campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448 , and Vladislav accompanied him . Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support in October , but Vladislav returned and Vlad sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire before the end of the year . Vlad went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450 , and later to Hungary . He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support in 1456 . Vladislav died fighting against him . Vlad began a purge among the Wallachian boyars to strengthen his position . He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons , who supported his opponents , Dan and Basarab Laiotă -LRB- who were Vladislav 's brothers -RRB- , and Vlad 's illegitimate half-brother , Vlad the Monk . Vlad plundered the Saxon villages , taking the captured people to Wallachia where he had them impaled -LRB- which gave rise to his cognomen -RRB- . Peace was restored in 1460 .   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 broke into 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 Târgovişte during the night of 1617June 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 .   Vlad was held in captivity in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475 . During this period , anecdotes about his cruelty started to spread in Germany and Italy . He was released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475 . He fought in Corvinus 's army against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476 . Hungarian and Moldavian troops helped him to force Basarab Laiotă -LRB- who had dethroned Vlad 's brother , Radu -RRB- to flee from Wallachia in November . Basarab returned with Ottoman support before the end of the year . Vlad was murdered before 10January 1477 . Books describing Vlad 's cruel acts were among the first bestsellers in the German-speaking territories . In Russia , popular stories suggested that Vlad was able to strengthen central government only through applying brutal punishments , and a similar view was adopted by most Romanian historians in the 19th century . Vlad 's reputation for cruelty and his patronymic gave rise to the name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker 's 1897 novel Dracula .