Vlad was done dirty by Matthias Corvinus and the papacy. He wasn’t exactly a nice guy to his enemies (and by modern standards, like every other contemporary ruler, he’d be considered a monster), but a lot of the cruelty was greatly exaggerated and some parts were wholly invented.
EDIT: It also doesn’t help that Romanian fascists actually liked the casting of Vlad as this incredibly overblown brutal ruler. They wrote poems and stories praising his brutality as a positive thing in service of a strong state.
Vlad was done dirty by Matthias Corvinus and the papacy. He wasn’t exactly a nice guy to his enemies (and by modern standards, like every other contemporary ruler, he’d be considered a monster), but a lot of the cruelty was greatly exaggerated and some parts were wholly invented.
EDIT: It also doesn’t help that Romanian fascists actually liked the casting of Vlad as this incredibly overblown brutal ruler. They wrote poems and stories praising his brutality as a positive thing in service of a strong state.
On one hand, I disapprove of Vlad’s Muslim impaling policy.
On the other hand, I absolutely approve of Vlad’s boyar-kiling policy!