Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431 - 1476/77) was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler. He is best known for inspiring the Dracula legend, and the cruel methods he used to torture and kill people. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania as well as other parts of Europe for his protection of the Romanian population both south and north of the Danube. His practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. He ordered people to be poisoned, blinded, strangled, hanged, decapitated, stabbed, disemboweled, skinned, exposed to extreme elements and animals, hacked, dismembered, burned, boiled, scalped, roasted, nailed in the head, and buried alive. He was decapitated in 1476.