Vlad the Impaler Episode 2: Forest of Humans

What's the best way to tell the most powerful empire in the neighborhood to go screw itself? If you're Vlad the Impaler, apparently you burn down everything, attack them in the middle of the night, and leave a few thousand impaled bodies lying around as a welcome message.

In Part 2 of our series on Vlad the Impaler, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan pick up where we left off, as Vlad's problems with the Transylvanian Saxons escalate into open conflict with the Ottoman Empire. We follow his increasingly brutal campaign against Sultan Mehmed II, including a daring night raid that nearly reached the sultan himself and the infamous forest of humans that reportedly greeted the Ottoman army outside Wallachia's capital.

But terror can only get you so far. As Vlad's own brother turns against him, his supporters abandon him, and the Hungarian king who should have been his ally throws him in prison, the Impaler's grip on power begins to crumble. We follow his long imprisonment, brief return to the throne, and mysterious death.

Along the way, we examine the stories that helped turn Vlad into a monster, the legends that painted him as a just ruler, and just how much of his life actually inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Join us for the conclusion of Vlad's story, packed with medieval warfare, political betrayal, questionable historical anecdotes, and Kevin and Dan's grim sense of humor. The real man behind the Dracula legend turns out to be considerably more complicated than either the monster or the hero.

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