How did Vlad the Impaler die?
Vladislav III Ţepeş (the Impaler) was forced by the Turks, against whom he had been fighting and earned his fierce reputation, and by the puppet-king they had installed in his place, Vlad’s brother Radu, to flee from them in 1462, leaving his wife behind. According to rumour, his wife committed suicide by leaping from the towers of Vlad’s castle into the waters of the Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks. Vlad himself escaped through a secret passage and fled across the mountains into Transylvania and appealed to Matthias Corvinus (his titular overlord) for aid. However, Radu had already made secret pacts with Corvinus. Thusly, Corvinus had Vlad arrested and imprisoned in the Royal Tower. Through political cunning and force of personality, Vlad slowly won his way back into the good graces of the Hungarian nobility, and led a strong force of men granted him thereby to recapture his throne. While he achieved this goal, all but his own sworn-men and peasent conscripts left and r
