| Vlad III, Dracula, ruled Wallachia three times in 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476.
He gained the name Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) because his favourite method of punishing his enemies, impaling on a wooden stake. Vlad was known beyond Wallachia's borders as a feared fighter against the Turks and a ruthless ruler. He is seen by Romanians as a national hero, credited by historians as a key figure in the evolution of the country's independence, in a leaque with the Devil by the Saxons, Turkish and Germans in the 15-16th century, cruel but just by the Russians. His tales and legends are still alive. He sparked the imagination of Bram Stroker. He was outrageously bloodthirsty, but he was not a vampire .