Vlad Loved a Banquet
Vlad “Dracula” Tepes had creative ways of dealing with local problems in Wallachia. He is famous for helping out the poor, homeless, elderly, and lame. Of course his definition of “helping” may differ than most. He invited a large group of them to the great hall of Târgoviște for a feast. They ate, drank, and enjoyed the generosity of their ruler well into the night.
When the party was over, he locked the doors and barred exits. He told guards to light the hall on fire, saying, “These men live off the sweat of others, so they are useless to humanity.” However, some historians argue it wasn’t the poor that he burned alive, that it was the boyars and wealthy who wouldn’t support his policies to help. Historic evidence from this time don’t speak much about hall-burning, but Vlad is stuck with the reputation as history’s worst party host.
