Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler (born 1431, Sighișoara, Transylvania [now in Romania]—died 1476, north of present-day Bucharest, Romania) was a voivode (military governor, or prince) of Walachia (1448; 1456–1462; 1476) whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe. He is more widely known today as the possible inspiration for Count Dracula, the vampire at the center of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897).