Vlad the Impaler Was Medieval Europe's Bloodiest Warlord, But Is the Scale of His Murder Just a Myth?

In 1462, a host of Ottoman soldiers trudged through the countryside of what is now southern Romania, then the principality of Wallachia, towards its capital, Târgoviște – the fortress of Vlad III Dracula. As they neared the city, a grisly spectacle of horror rose to meet them: a field of 20,000 corpses impaled on stakes.

This became one of the most famous images of late-medieval warfare; a picture of extreme cruelty that secured Vlad III Dracula’s reputation as ‘Vlad the Impaler’, and centuries later, would inspire Bram Stoker’s fictional vampire.

But curious historians have long questioned the veracity of the tale. Could the story of Vlad’s 20,000 impalings be entirely legend, entirely true, or something in between?

Now, a study led by Dénes Harai, a historian at Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, might provide the answer.

The research, published in the journal Transactions of the Royal Historical Society under the title ‘Counting the Stakes: A Reassessment of Vlad III Dracula’s Practice of Collective Impalements in Fifteenth-Century South-eastern Europe’ argues that the story of Vlad’s penchant for impaling his enemies has been vastly exaggerated, while still being rooted in horrific elements of truth.