Vlad III is actually a much more interesting character than "common" history tells us. Sir John, I'd like to expand on your info a bit, if I may.
It is thought he learned his brutal ways when he was young. As a child, Vlad was a hostage of the turks, along with one of his brothers; for 6 years. Stories of his captivity include a daily "start off the morning", in which all of the hostages were brought forward, and one was selected, tortured and executed quite gruesomely in front of everyone. They would announce "tomorrow may be your turn" before putting them to hard labor. While Vlad eventually was freed (escaped?), he never forgot or forgave the cruelty of the Turks, and sought to destroy as many as he could in the worst ways possible. This fire would only be fueled by two more major upcoming events.
The majority of his victims were boyars (nobles) (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyar), the class of people responsible for the conspired assassination of his father, and the death of one of his brothers. They killed his brother by burying him alive. He started off his rampage by hosting a feast for local royalty, including those he believed responsible for his father and brother's death. As they were in his land, and law meant little ... he had them all arrested. He enslaved some of them, and impaled the rest. Thus began his "crusade" against the hundreds of thousands he would later kill. It is said he learned that impaling was so greatly feared, he would use it as his primary offensive weapon.
We all hear the stories of his impalings, and I will spare the gory details of how much worse it was historically than they usually tell us - but there was "a method to the madness" in many ways. When he campaigned against the Turks in retaliation for their invasion, it is said that he rounded up as many enemies as he could, surrounded one of the cities, and created a wall of impalements encircling the entire city. Those still alive and in the city were so terrified they was little resistance and they were crushed. It is also said that the impalements he left in his wake caused reinforcing armies of the Turks to flee in terror. Since he impaled so many at a time, the higher ranked enemies (when he knew who they were) would be impaled on taller stakes, to separate them from the "common soldiers" and "highlight" his prize kills.
He is famous for being undiscriminating of men, women or children. It is thought that Vlad may have had "lady troubles" in early life. When he heard of unfaithful women in his domain, he would have them tortured and executed in absurdly vile ways which I will not even go into. He also abhorred laziness and dishonesty, which were commonly perceived traits of the royalty; when he heard of merchants defrauding the commoners, he had the merchants executed, and left them as examples to be "good, honest people" lest they meet his wrath. His "citizens" who were commoners thought him a true "champion of the people", and when he had the aforementioned feast and executed many of the local royalty, he put commoners in their place.
Years later, after his castle was overrun and he was defeated, his wife is said to have jumped to her death from the top of one of the towers; she is never seen or heard from again (at least in recorded history). Vlad managed to flee through a secret escape tunnel and attempted to gain support from the king and rebuild to continue to wage war; it was denied, and the king had him imprisoned for 12 years. It is said while he was imprisoned, he continue to impale victims on small shards of wood; mice, birds, bugs, and whatever other hapless creature happened to wander near or into his cell. He was eventually released in 1476. He attempted to regain power after his release, and as Sir John said, he died in that battle against the Turks, having a small army of a few thousand.
Interestingly enough, Vlad's remains were taken two places. The victorious Turks took his head, but the people of Wallachia took his body. He was buried at Snagov monastery, in an almost saint-like manner; indoors, in a vault built into the floor, in front of a small room with an altar. Or so said the legend ... because when his body was later exhumed from there, the bones were identified as horse bones! Where his actual body is, and why, is a mystery.
