Vlad the Impaler

One voivode of Wallachia was Vladimir III.
It’s hard to say what’s true among the lore we’ve read and heard,
But this we know: His dad was in the Order of the Dragon.
His surname thus was Dracula, which may seem worth a braggin’.
The patronymic also is Romanian for “devil,”
Which shaped his reputation on a pretty widespread level.

Before he ever ruled, he was a hostage of Murad,
A sultan of the Ottomans, who wasn’t kind to Vlad
But was to brother Radu, who converted to Islam.
With little trust in people, Vlad became a ticking bomb.

His dad and brother Mircea got killed by rival factions.
When Vlad was freed the next year, he began ambitious actions
By ousting cousin Vladislav II from the throne
But had to flee months later, so his plans would be postponed.

Alas, the fifteenth century did not keep records well.
Exactly what went on the next eight years, we cannot tell,
But Vlad secured assistance from the regent John Hunyadi,
A man who helped depose him, and they cleft his cousin’s body.

To help ensure his second reign, Vlad started on impaling
Elites who’d killed his kin (he wasn’t big on merely jailing).
He then established new elites: a military force
Of farmers who had shown their worth within a battle’s course
As well as standing bodyguards. With that, he freed the peasants
From tributes paid to Ottomans. He didn’t stay so pleasant,
Since “crimes” as small as begging could be met with execution.
For Saxons and the Roma, he deployed a harsh “solution.”

The Turks at last defeated him in 1462,
With Radu in the lead, and off to Hungary Vlad flew,
But King Matthias Corvinus, Hunyadi’s younger bro,
For all his hate of Turks, had Vlad imprisoned, don’t you know.
The king had forged some letters to convict the man of treason.
Presumably, some politics accounted for his reason.
Regardless, Vlad’s charisma let him wed Matthias’ sis
And move to Transylvania (there’s a name I couldn’t miss).

When Vlad’s third reign began, at least a dozen years had passed.
The seat had changed hands many times, with Radu’s not the last.
The Ottomans fought Vlad again, and one more time, he failed.
They put his carcass on display, predictably impaled.

Today he’s deemed a hero by Romanian convention.
They say the tales of villainy are myths not worth attention.
He punished with brutality, but they would call it fair.
To every other nation, he provided quite a scare,
Especially in Germany, which estimates a sum
Of forty to a hundred thousand sent to kingdom come.
Bram Stoker wasn’t first to think of Vlad consuming blood.
He may have made some parents eat their kids; I hope that’s crud.
The truth is prob’ly somewhere in between the two extremes.
In any case, I’d better stop before I cause bad dreams.