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Vlad III the Impaler (Vlad
Ţepeş IPA: ['tsepeʃ] in common Romanian reference; also known as Vlad
Dracula or Vlad Drăculea and Kazıklı Bey in Turkish; November or December,
1431 – December 1476) was Prince (voivode) of Wallachia, a former polity
which is now part of Romania. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–1462, and
1476. In the English-speaking world, Vlad is best known for the legends of
the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign, and serving
as the inspiration for the vampire main character in Bram Stoker's popular
Dracula novel, though to an extent that has been greatly exaggerated.
As Prince, he led an independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire,
and in Romania he is best remembered as a prince with a deep sense of
justice and a defender of Wallachia against Ottoman expansionism. His impact
on the expansion of the Ottoman Empire is recognizable in that his
successful hold against them bought precious time for Western Europe.
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