Without a doubt, the most famous prince of Wallachia was Vlad III, popularly known as Țepeș (“the Impaler”) or Drăculea (a diminutive of Dracul, “Dragon,” the nickname of his father, Vlad II), and the historical seed for the vampire count in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. However, this character—the real one—was not the only member of his lineage to rule that territory; his aforementioned father and his three brothers also did, with the most intriguing story belonging to the youngest, Radu cel Frumos (Radu the Handsome).

The eldest was Mircea II, probably born in 1428, who was the first to temporarily take the throne at the age of twenty in his father’s absence, as the latter was imprisoned by the Ottomans in Gallipoli. That interim situation was immediately exploited by the Hungarian military commander Janos Hunyadi, governor of Transylvania and an old enemy of Dracul, to invade Wallachia (in present-day Romania) and restore his kingdom’s traditional influence over that small principality. To this end, he deposed Mircea and appointed a ruler aligned with his interests, Basarab II.

However, Basarab could not hold power for long because Sultan Murad had an interest in maintaining a buffer state between his empire and Hungary. Thus, he cunningly released Vlad Dracul so he could reclaim his domains in exchange for signing an agreement in which the Wallachian ruler would pledge vassalage to him. This pact included paying an annual tribute of ten thousand gold ducats, delivering half a thousand children for the Devşirme (a levy to recruit janissaries and loyal officials), and leaving his other two sons, Vlad and Radu, as hostages.

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
The Voivodeship of Wallachia in the mid-15th century. Credit: NeimWiki / Wikimedia Commons

The first, the future Impaler, was born between 1429 and 1431. His mother was Cneajna Bathory, daughter of a Transylvanian boyar, more commonly known as Eupraxia; this distinguished him from Radu, who was a few years younger and the son of his father’s third wife, the Moldavian Vasilisa Mușata (Eupraxia was the second; nothing is known about the first). It is worth noting that Dracul also had a daughter, Alexandra, whom he married off to the Wallachian boyar Vintilă Florescu, as well as several illegitimate sons, one of whom, Vlad the Monk, would also briefly rule in the future.

The two young Drăculești, a dynastic title their father adopted after joining the Ordinul Dragonului or Order of the Dragon in 1431, were educated under the Ottomans—it is said that Vlad learned the method of impalement from them—at the fortress of Egrigoz (now Doğrugöz, in the interior of Anatolia, present-day Turkey). As was customary since antiquity, their status as hostages did not necessarily mean mistreatment; obviously, their treatment depended on their father’s adherence to the agreed loyalty, the violation of which could lead to severe punishment—as happened in 1441 to the sons of the Serbian despot Durad Brankovic, who were blinded when he attempted to escape.

However, Vlad and Radu avoided experiencing such a horrific fate. On the contrary, they learned Turkish and Persian, as well as logic and literature, while refining their horsemanship and military skills, which had already been taught by their tutors in Europe. They were also instructed in the knowledge of the Qur’an, though conversion was not mandatory; in fact, Vlad remained faithful to Christianity, but Radu, being younger and more impressionable, may have embraced Islam. This opened the doors of the Ottoman court for him and, as we shall see, led him to move to the Topkapi Palace in Constantinople after its conquest. Therefore, he did not return to Wallachia when the sultan decided to release his brother.

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Janos Hunyadi portrayed in the Chronica Hungarorum. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Thus, he did not directly witness the tragedy that befell his family: in 1447, Dracul and Mircea were assassinated by the boyars, while Janos Hunyadi proclaimed a cousin of the former, Vladislav II, as voivode (prince) of Wallachia. The Hungarians and Wallachians launched an attack against the Ottoman Empire the following year but were ultimately defeated. Meanwhile, Vlad Țepeș, leading a Turkish army, seized his father’s throne. However, he could not hold it for long, as Vladislav returned and reclaimed it until 1456, when Vlad invaded the principality with the help of the Hungarians, who now saw him as a bulwark against Ottoman expansion after the fall of Constantinople.

Vladislav was not the only one who perished in that event; numerous boyars also lost their lives in a bloody purge that Vlad carried out to avenge his father’s and Mircea’s murders, as well as to preempt any conspiracies against him. Meanwhile, Radu remained in Constantinople, where he had chosen to stay, captivated by his new lifestyle and, according to some sources, also by Sultan Mehmed II. This is described by Laonikos Chalkokondyles, a contemporary Greek chronicler who was an ambassador—and hostage—before Mehmed’s father, Murad II, in his work Historical Expositions:

However, this winter, the sultan, who spent it in his palaces, sent for Vlad, the son of Drăcula, the lord of Dacia; and he had with him his younger brother, who was his favorite and lived and resided with him. And it happened that when he ascended the throne and was about to leave for Karaman, the sultan, wanting to have relations with this boy, was nearly killed by his hands. Because of his affection for the boy, he invited him to feasts and, passionately tilting his cup toward him, invited him to his chamber. And the boy, unsuspecting that he would suffer such a thing from the sultan, saw him approaching for this reason and resisted, refusing to yield to his desire…

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Vlad Tepes in an anonymous painting of the 17th century. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Of course, seducing Radu was not easy for the sultan, no matter how young and handsome he was. Chalkokondyles himself, who personally knew Radu, describes his initial vehement reaction to Mehmed II’s harassment, which was worthy of his fierce lineage:

[The sultan] kissed him against his will, and the boy, drawing a dagger, wounded him in the thigh and immediately fled as far as he could. The doctors healed the sultan’s wound. And the boy, climbing a tree somewhere nearby, remained hidden. However, after the sultan packed up and left, the boy also descended from the tree and, not long after, arrived at the Gate and became his favorite.

In reality, it must be pointed out that Mehmed II’s interest in Radu began when he was young, before he was proclaimed sultan, as it is known that he was impetuous and untamed, reluctant to receive orders because he spent his first eleven years away from his father, Murad II. The latter tried to guide him through several tutors, but none succeeded until the sultan authorized one of them, Mullah Ahmed Gurani, to use a whip. From then on, Mehmed changed and became an exemplary student, excelling in history, science, philosophy, and literature (both Islamic and Latin and Greek).

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Mehmed the Conqueror. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The fact is that Murad abdicated in favor of his son in 1444, when Mehmed had not yet turned thirteen. His youth and aforementioned impulsiveness led him to plan an attack on Constantinople, which ultimately did not take place because the grand vizier warned Murad, who came out of retirement to reclaim the throne two years later. In 1448, Mehmed received his long-awaited baptism of fire by repelling Janos Hunyadi’s expedition and, finally, succeeded his father when he died in 1451. Now with free rein, he resumed his plan to seize Constantinople and carried it out, putting an end to the Byzantine Empire and establishing his new capital there.

That was where Radu settled, who, now an adult, still enjoyed Mehmed’s favor and had become a prominent dignitary of the Ottoman court, commander of the Janissaries, gaining experience in battles against the Turkomans of Anatolia. But his great moment arrived when the war against Wallachia broke out. His brother Vlad had broken the agreement signed by their father, ceasing to pay tribute as the state’s coffers were depleted. On top of that, he offended the sultan by killing his envoys and refusing to come and pay homage because the Hungarian king promised him the hand of one of his relatives in return.

Tursun Bey, secretary of the sultan’s council and future chronicler of his successor, Bayezid II, wrote that Vlad neither came nor paid the tribute. Therefore, he had to be punished and destroyed. In his biography of Mehmed, he also describes the Wallachian as an evil horseman, as well as a bloody and cruel tyrant. In other words, there was no turning back, and, anticipating the expected response, the voivode led a violent incursion into enemy territory in 1461, taking advantage of Mehmed’s absence during an expedition to Trebizond.

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Vlad Tepes and the Turkish envoys, work by Theodor Aman. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Vlad miscalculated his strength; he believed he could count on the support of Christendom, but no one mobilized to help him, not even the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, son of Janos Hunyadi, who was too preoccupied with an internal war within the Holy Roman Empire. Consequently, a powerful Ottoman army, personally led by Mehmed, invaded Wallachia and advanced unstoppably. The number of troops is uncertain, ranging from eighty thousand to three hundred thousand depending on the sources; Chalcocondylas compares its size to the one that took Constantinople, and among its soldiers were four thousand cavalrymen under Radu’s command.

However, the morbid fraternal confrontation never took place because Vlad, with barely twenty-two thousand men, withdrew to Transylvania, employing a scorched earth policy in his wake. The Ottomans landed in Braila, the only Wallachian port on the Danube, and advanced inland, but not only did they face supply issues, but as they approached the capital, Targoviste, they were horrified to discover a forest (of seventeen stadia long and seven stadia wide, according to Chalcocondylas) made up of tens of thousands of impaled bodies, both their own men and Wallachians deemed traitors, without distinction of sex or age.

The sight of that gruesome forest of corpses and dying men left a deep impression on Mehmed and led him to end the campaign. However, he still had time to experience another fright when Vlad, who had launched a guerrilla war, infiltrated behind enemy lines one night in person and then carried out a night raid on the camp. The sultan narrowly escaped with his life, thanks to the fact that the Wallachians mistook the grand vizier’s tent for his own. Nevertheless, the invading force remained formidable, and Radu was tasked with seeking allies in the Saxon-majority cities of the Danubian plains.

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The night attack in Târgoviște in a painting by Theodor Aman (1866). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Since he was Mehmed’s chosen candidate to replace his brother, Radu could promise the withdrawal of the Ottomans, a less severe government, the restoration of privileges to the boyars, and no reprisals for the past, aside from encouraging Vlad’s loyalists to defect by guaranteeing them amnesty. He offered protection and commercial advantages to the Saxon population, which had been repressed by Vlad. This conciliatory attitude, combined with Radu’s natural charisma, also helped him win over the cities of Bucharest and Târgoviște, which were weary of the ruthless rule they had suffered under the Impaler.

Vlad did not give up and eventually had the chance to battle his brother in two engagements, winning both. But the enemy’s human and material resources seemed inexhaustible, and Radu’s propaganda was effective, causing increasing defections within Vlad’s ranks. The Impaler was forced to take refuge in the Carpathians, while his brother steadily strengthened his forces. The wealthy city of Brașov also joined him, delivering the final blow to the reigning prince.

Vlad once again sought help from Corvinus, but the latter was uninterested in a confrontation with the Ottoman Empire at that time. In a display of realpolitik, he had Vlad imprisoned in 1462, justifying his actions to the Pope and Venice (which had financed a crusade against the Muslims) with letters—possibly forged—in which the Wallachian allegedly offered an alliance to the sultan to conquer Hungary together. Vlad was incarcerated, and Radu, who was twenty-six at the time, assumed power in Wallachia for the first time.

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Radu in a 19th century engraving. Credit: Free Art License / Wikimedia Commons

We say “first time” because his rule did not turn out to be as effective as expected. Initially, he was hindered by the need to crush the last remnants of resistance at Poenari Fortress, which he demolished. Later, he was constrained by the demands of the Ottomans, who had placed him in power and expected returns. Indeed, Radu was forced to comply with them by granting commercial and strategic advantages in the country. Eventually, he broke his promise of a peaceful reign by clashing with his cousin, Stephen III of Moldavia.

Ironically, Stephen, whose father, Bogdan II, had once been an ally of Vlad, would later become Radu’s son-in-law by marrying his daughter, Maria Voichița, whom he had with his wife, Maria Despina, a Serbian or Albanian princess. But before becoming relatives, they were enemies and fought multiple times, as the Moldavian ruler carried out several incursions into Wallachian territory. The most notable of these was the Battle of Sochi, fought in 1471 for control of the Chilia fortress, in what is now the Odesa region of Ukraine.

A devout Christian, Stephen could not tolerate either Radu’s apostasy (which remains uncertain, as Radu always referred to himself in his letters as a lover of Christ) or seeing Wallachia subjected to the Muslims. However, in 1473, for somewhat unclear reasons (Was it Stephen’s doing? An agreement with Constantinople?), the boyars elected one of their own as prince: Basarab Laiotă the Old.

Radu Vlad Tepes brother
Letter on parchment signed by Radu as voivode of Wallachia in 1465, first written mention of Bucharest. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Radu was deposed, though he managed to reclaim his throne twice—once a year later and again in 1475, only to lose it again. He had no time for more, as he died in 1475, reportedly of syphilis, leaving the throne in Basarab’s hands.

As an epilogue, let us add that although Mehmed recognized Basarab’s legitimacy, maintaining power was not easy for him, as he faced opposition from the Saxon minority. Moreover, the sultan suspected that Stephen harbored ambitions of seizing Wallachia, which undermined his authority. Thus, he sent troops against Moldavia, but in 1475, he suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Vaslui. However, the following year, he took revenge at Războieni, with both sides returning to a status quo.

Meanwhile, Basarab had to deal with an unexpected problem: the relentless Vlad Țepeș. In 1476, released by Corvinus in exchange for converting to Catholicism and now related to the Hungarian king by marriage, as had been promised years earlier, Vlad returned with the help of Hungarians and Moldavians to reclaim his throne and expel the Ottomans. It would not go as he expected, though he would become a legend. But that is another story.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 4, 2023: La historia de Radu el Hermoso, el hermano pequeño de Vlad el Empalador que vivió en la corte otomana y participó en la toma de Constantinopla

SOURCES

M. J. Trow, Vlad el Empalador. En busca del auténtico Drácula

Radu Florescu, Raymond T. McNally, Dracula. Prince of many faces

Ralf-Peter Märtin, Los Drácula. Vlad Tepes, el Empalador y sus antepasados

Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and his time

Wikipedia, Radu el Hermoso

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