The Youth
The Youth
Dracula was born in November or December of 1431. His given name
was Vlad. He had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger
brother, Radu the Handsome. Their mother may have been a
Moldavian princess or a Tranyslvanian noble. It is said that she
educated Dracula in his early years. Later he was trained for
knighthood by an old boyar who had fought the Turks.
In late 1436 or early 1437 Vlad Dracul killed a rival prince named Alexandru and became Prince Vlad II.
In 1447, Vlad Dracul and his brother Mircea were murdered. Hungarians put a member of the rival Danesti clan, Vladislav II, on the Walachian throne. Mircea was killed by the boyars and merchants of the Walachian city Tirgoviste. There are different stories about how he died - he may have been tortured and burned, or buried alive. Apparently Dracula's father died at the same time. Some say that the assassinations were organized by Hunyadi, a Hungarian general who may have been the illegitimate son of Emperor Sigismund
In 1448 Turks freed Dracula and gave him an army. He was seventeen years old.
It seems that Dracula's little brother Radu chose to remain in Turkey.
