Vlad VI Înecatul

Vlad VI of Wallachia (c. 1508 – September 1532) was the voivode [prince] who ruled Wallachia between June 1530 and September 1532. He has been historically referenced as Vlad Înecatul ["Vlad the Drowned"], as a description of the manner of his death.

One of three (along with Moldavia and Transylvania) primary historic and geographic regions of Romania, Wallachia was founded as a principality in the early 14th century by Basarab I but, by 1417, had accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, albeit with considerable self-rule. Descendants of the House of Basarab continued to rule Wallachia and, as recounted in surviving records from the time of Mihnea Turcitul (the young voivode in 1577–83 and 1585–91), the chronology of a century earlier indicates that the grandfather of Vlad VI, Vlad IV Călugărul [Vlad the Monk] was voivode from 1481 until his death in 1495. His son Vlad cel Tânăr [Vlad V, the Younger] (ca. 1488–1512) became voivode in 1510, at the age of about 22 and, less than two years later, was captured following a defeat at the Battle of Bucharest and executed.

Although no specific historical documentation of his birth remains, the son of Vlad the Younger was about four years old at the time of his father's death. He became voivode at about the same age as his father, 22, in the aftermath of his predecessor Moise's rebellion against the Ottomans, but was immediately contested by Moise himself and the Craioveşti boyar family. On 29 August 1530, at the Battle of Viişoara, Vlad VI defeated Moise who died in combat. In October, after a further unsuccessful rebellion of the Oltenian nobility led by Craioveşti pretender to the throne Drăghici Gogoaşă, who was subsequently executed in Constantinople, Vlad ended Craioveşti's line of succession to the Banate of Craiova.

In his two years as voivode, Vlad is noted as having effected the construction of Dâmboviţa County's famed Viforâta Monastery, in Aninoasa. His life was cut short at about the same age as that of his father, 24, and the historical detail behind his posthumous cognomen is described in the contemporary text of Adolf Armbruster (Dacoromano-Saxonica, p. 198). The account indicates that, following a prolonged banquet, at which, as customary, large quantities of alcoholic beverages were served, Vlad mounted his horse for a ride in the direction of Dâmboviţa River in which, near the village of Popeşti, south of Bucharest, he drowned. His burial at the Deal Monastery was arranged by his mother.

References

• Giurescu, Constantin C. and Giurescu, Dinu C. (1976). Istoria Romanilor volume II (1352-1606) Pages 238-239. Editura Scintifica si Enciclopedica Bucureşti (in Romanian).
• McNally, Raymond T. and Florescu, Radu (1994). In Search of Dracula. New York: Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0-395-65783-0.
• Donat, Ion (1996). Domeniul domnesc în Ţara Românească (Sec. VIV - XVI), Bucureşti (in Romanian).
• Giurescu, Constantin C. (2000). Istoria Românilor, vol.II, Bucureşti (in Romanian). ISBN 973-684-169-3