12. The Scariest Vlad of Them All
Vlad the Impaler’s Easter Sunday feast was not halted by the mass impalements, and the party went on. Afterwards, the impaled aristocrats’ wives and children were taken to the mountains to rebuild a fortress, still dressed in their Easter finery. Vlad worked them hard, until most died of exhaustion. When the task was finally finished months later, Vlad’s reward for the few survivors, now skeletal figures clad in tattered rags, was to impale them. That was just the start of his passion for impalement. To solidify his rule, Vlad systematically exterminated the aristocratic class that had given his family so much grief. Impalement was his preferred method to deal with them and with all others who displeased him.
Vlad also warred against the Ottomans, and added new chapters to his horrific legend. Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, who had seized Constantinople and extinguished the Byzantine Empire a few years earlier, sent a force of 10,000 cavalrymen to deal with him. Vlad ambushed and defeated them, then impaled the survivors, with their leader mounted on the highest stake. In 1462, the Sultan led an army of 90,000 against The Impaler. As they approached Vlad’s capital, the Ottomans met no resistance. Instead, the road was lined with 20,000 impaled Turks and Muslim Bulgarians. The horrific sight terrified the Sultan, who, according to legend, promptly turned his army around and went back home.
