VLAD TEPES : Portrait

Voivode Vlad III Basarab, nicknamed “the Impaler” (in Romanian Țepeș, born between 1429 and 1431 probably in Târgoviște in Wallachia (but, according to modern legend, in Sighișoara in Transylvania) and died in December 1476 near Bucharest, was prince of Wallachia in 1448, then from 1456 to 1462 and in 1476.

Another nickname of Vlad III, Drăculea (meaning "son of the dragon" in medieval Romanian), was taken by Bram Stoker to name the literary character of the vampire Count Dracula.

Vlad had 2 brothers. His eldest, Mirçea the Younger, reigned between 1443 and 1447. His younger brother was Radu III known as "the Beautiful", with whom he lived at the Ottoman court between 1442 and 1447.