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Dracula.
    This sick sadistic monster was, even so, regarded as a hero. He was a gifted general, and he succeeded in ending decades of feuding within his country. He also fended off the Turks who were constantly trying to encroach on his lands.
    In 1462, Vlad launched a campaign against the Turks along the Danube, killing over 38,000 people. The Turks sent envoys to agree a peace settlement but, when the envoys refused to remove their turbans in his presence, Vlad had their turbans nailed onto their heads. This was risky, as the Sultan’s army was three times larger than Vlad’s, and the Sultan pushed his huge army forward. Vlad was forced to retreat to his capital. As he did so, he burned his own villages and poisoned the wells, so that there was nothing for the Turks to eat or drink. When the Sultan reached the capital, he was met by an appalling sight, the impaled bodies of 20,000 Turkish captives – the Forest of the Impaled. This tactic had the desired effect. The Sultan admitted defeat.
    Vlad’s favourite method of execution was impaling his victims on stakes. This was an exceptionally slow and painful way to die, and Vlad usually insisted that the stakes should not be too sharp, so that it would take longer. His preference for impaling led to his nickname, ‘The Impaler’, first recorded in 1550; even the Turks, who were frequently his victims, called him ‘Kaziglu Bey’, ‘The Impaler Prince’. But he used other techniques too.
    After the Forest of the Impaled, Vlad’s support dwindled, and his brother Radu, with his own Turkish-supported army, pursued Vlad to Poenari Castle. According to legend, Vlad’s wife committed suicide by throwing herself from the battlements. Vlad escaped the siege by using a secret passage. He made his way to Transylvania, where he met the new King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus. Instead of offering help, Matthias arrested and imprisoned him at the Hungarian capital of Visegrad.
    He was able to return as Prince of Wallachia again in 1475, but this third reign was brief. He was assassinated in December 1476. His head was cut off and sent to the Sultan, who mounted it on a stake as proof that the Impaler was dead.
    Some dictators have used the death penalty as a means of getting rid of enemies, and as a deterrent to potential opponents. But what Vlad did went beyond this. He was a sadist who derived deep pleasure from watching other people’s sufferings. We can only speculate that the extraordinary experiences of his boyhood must have played a great part in generating feelings of intense and violent rage towards others. One good effect of his brutal regime was that it was designed to enforce honesty and order, which to a great extent it did. Vlad placed a golden cup in the central square of Targoviste, for the use of thirsty travellers. It seems that it was never removed, that no attempt was made to steal it. Vlad was also concerned that everyone should be productive; vagrants and beggars were treated as thieves, because they were unproductive parasites. This sounds good, but Vlad took it to a surreal extreme. He invited all the poor and sick of Wallachia to a hall in Targoviste for a feast. Afterwards, he asked them if they would like never to be poor again. Naturally they said yes, so Vlad had the hall locked and set on fire. None of them survived.
    Vlad is supposed to have been buried at the Snagov monastery, which is located on an island near Bucharest, but his tomb contains only the bones – of a horse. No-one knows where the Impaler’s body is.

Richard Iii
    (1452–1485)

     
    Richard III is another great icon of evil. We know the nature of this evil man all too well from Shakespeare’s presentation of him. But playwrights often bend history to make a better play. Just how evil was Richard III?
    Richard III, King of England, was born on 2 October, 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle in the Nene Valley not far from Peterborough. He was officially the fourth son of Richard Duke of