The Night Attack 1462: Vlad the Impaler and the Ottoman-Wallachian War of 1461-1476
On the night of June 17th in the year 1462, Prince Vlad Tepes, known to history as Vlad the Impaler or Prince Dracula (b.1431-1476), carried out a daring night raid on the armed camp of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (b.1432-1481) during the Ottoman-Wallachian Wars 1456-c.1475. A bloody battle ensued when Vlad's cavalry and infantry attacked the Ottomans outside Târgoviște (Tirgoviste) in Wallachia (modern day Romania) which came to be know as the 'Night Attack'. It is believed that Prince Vlad launched the assault in an assassination attempt on Sultan Mehmed following the Turkish invasion of Romania in 1462, in what is mostly modern day Romania and Bulgaria. Prince Vlad III on campaign The real Dracula, known also by his cognomen, Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, was a vovoide (princely ruler ) of Wallachia, a once moderately influential kingdom in the Southern Balkans known archaically still today as a portion of Transylvania . Prince Vlad III, Dracula (son of the dra...