I just watched a documentary called Most Evil Men in History featuring Vlad Dracula (son of the order of the dragon.) Vlad was indeed a maniac to be sure. That may even be putting it mildly. But you must admit that alot of the things this brutal mass murderer did, well.. made sense.

He was a fierce oppressor punnishing the smallest misnomers with horrifying violence. But consider how his land was right in between a battle ground between turks and his orthodoxy. His kingdom would be a highly unstable one and treason would be numerous. In effect his strict oppression kept his kingdom stable and strong.

When he invited a bunch of noblement to a dinner party he asked how many rulers they had seen in their days. What he was really trying to find out by asking this question was how much respect & loyalty they would likely have toward him. If he had just asked them if they were loyal, obviously they would say, "oh yes my lord," or something like that. Instead when they told him they had seen like 5 or 8 or 12, that told Vlad something of the depths of their loyalty to him. So he made an example and worked them to death. In their place he cleverly appointed lesser nobles because he new they would be grateful for the "promotion," which in effect helped to ensure their loyalty.

But who could forget the infamous forest of corpses? When Vlad was on the run, chased by the sultan's army, he had 12000? or so bodies impaled in a grim forest of death. However when the sultan's army encountered this forest in their chase, it stopped them dead in their tracks. Appalled at this disgusting sight of brutality before them the sultan's main army turned and withdrew from the chase. Vlad's violent display had worked, once again showing that this killer definitely had method to his madness.