The Birth of Vlad The Impaler
The Birth of Vlad The Impaler
The Battle That Left 23,884 People Impaled and Gave Birth To Vlad The Impaler

A Debt Unpaid

A Debt Unpaid The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II who was shocked and thwarted by Vlad the Impaler

In order to avoid a menagerie of expensive and far flung wars following the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans offered the lands surrounding the former Byzantine Empire the ability to become tribute states. In exchange for protection and relative autonomy the Ottomans allowed client states to pay an annual jizya tax that totaled 10,000 ducats. As long as the states paid the tax and produced the alloted amount of soldiers and grain for the Ottomans they would be left alone. This system had been started before the fall of Constantinople and continued long after.

The ruler of Wallachia at the time, Vlad Țepeș, had ceased paying the jizya in 1459. The tax had gone unpaid in 1459 and 1460 and now the debt was stretching into 1461. Vlad and Wallachia now owed a sum approaching 30,000 ducats, a steep amount of money for such a kingdom. Failure to pay the tax was starting to grind on the Ottoman sultan who now had to consider marching to Bulgaria to try and subdue the defiant Wallachian people.

First, the sultan tried to negotiate with Vlad.

Vlad claimed he had no money to pay such a steep tax after fighting the Saxons and negotiating with the Hungarians. In response, the Ottoman sultan sent troops over the Danube into the region in order to try and recruit and collect the tax on their own.

This greatly angered Vlad Țepeș.

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