Who Was the Real Vlad the Impaler (Dracula)？ Vlad III, known as Vlad Țepeș (“the Impaler”) or Vlad Dracula (“son of the dragon/devil”), was a 15th-century Voivode (prince) of Wallachia, born around 1431 in Transylvania and ruling in three turbulent periods: 1448, 1456–1462, and briefly in 1476. Son of Vlad II Dracul (a member of the Order of the Dragon, hence “Dracula”), he spent his youth as a hostage of the Ottoman Empire alongside his brother Radu, learning Turkish, military tactics, and cour