Dracula family

In a letter addressed to Nicolaus Olahus, Archbishop of Esztergom in Hungary, dated 2 December 1543, the nobleman Ladislas Dracula stated that he and Olahus were both grandsons of Vlad vaida, sive Dracula ("Voivode Vlad, or Dracula"), who, in the wording of the letter, had been "slaughtered" by the boyars on account of his cruelty.^[1] The reference is to Vlad the Impaler, a member of the Drăculești branch of the Basarab dynasty, who ruled Wallachia on three occasions: briefly in 1448, from 1456 to 1462, and again in 1476.^[2] He was also known as Dracula, a name derived from the epithet of his father, Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon"),^{[note 1]} and meaning "son of the Dragon".^[4]

From 1417, the voivodes, or princes, of Wallachia paid tribute to the Ottoman sultans, while most also owed fealty to the kings of Hungary.^[5] These competing allegiances, together with rival dynastic claims to the throne, contributed to frequent succession crises.^[6] Claimants to the Wallachian throne often sought refuge in Transylvania, the easternmost province of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Wallachian voivodes held the Transylvanian districts of Făgăraș and Amlaș as fiefs.^[7] Vlad the Impaler spent much of his childhood in Transylvania and several years as a hostage in the Ottoman Empire. He briefly seized the Wallachian throne after the Ottoman victory over John Hunyadi, governor of Hungary, at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448, but was soon expelled by Vladislav II, a rival claimant.^[8][9] He then lived in exile in the Ottoman Empire, Moldavia, and Hungary. With Hunyadi's support, he regained the throne in July 1456, around the time of Hunyadi's victory over Sultan Mehmed II at the Siege of Belgrade.^[10][11] Vlad's rule was repeatedly challenged by rivals, including his brother Radu the Handsome, who expelled him with Ottoman assistance in autumn 1462. Vlad fled to Transylvania, where he was accused of encouraging an Ottoman invasion and imprisoned by Hunyadi's son, King Matthias Corvinus. Released in summer 1475 during efforts to form an anti-Ottoman alliance, Vlad returned to Wallachia in November 1476 and expelled the pro-Ottoman voivode Basarab Laiotă. Basarab soon returned with Ottoman backing, and Vlad was killed shortly afterwards, either by Basarab's supporters or his own men.^[12]

According to recent scholarship, Vlad married twice; both marriages were to kinswomen of Corvinus. His first wife has been identified by the historian Matei Cazacu as an illegitimate daughter of John Hunyadi, while his second wife was Corvinus's maternal cousin, Justina Szilágyi.^[13] Vlad's firstborn but illegitimate son, Mihnea the Bad, lived as a hostage at the Ottoman court during his father's second reign and was serving in Corvinus's retinue in Buda by 1482 or 1483. More than two decades later, he ruled Wallachia from 1508 to 1509. His direct male line became extinct with Alexander the Coccon, who briefly held the Wallachian throne between 1623 and 1627.^[13][14] The name of Vlad's elder legitimate son is unknown, although Cazacu suggests that he was probably named Mircea. He died in 1482 or 1483 while serving John Filipec, Roman Catholic bishop of Oradea, in Hungary.^[13][15]

Vlad's second legitimate son was his namesake, who, like Mihnea, served at Corvinus's court in 1482 or 1483. In 1495, he attempted to seize Wallachia, but his attack was repelled by his cousin Radu the Great. He died sometime after November that year.^[16] This Vlad, a son of Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula, is generally regarded by historians as the progenitor of the noble Dracula family, to which the correspondent of Archbishop Nicolaus Olahus belonged.^[15][17][18]