Vlad III dining among the impaled corpses of his victims. Engraving from 1500. Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula (1428/31 ,Ai 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. Notorious for his cruelty, his patronymic inspired the name of Bram Stoker's literary vampire, Count Dracula.