Vlad the Impaler. Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Drăculești, a branch of the House of Basarab , also known, using his patronymic , as (Vlad) Drăculea or (Vlad) Dracula . He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler ( Romanian : Vlad Țepeș , pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ] ), and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia , ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Vlad's nickname of Țepeș (" Impaler ") identifi