Vlad’s psychological war against the Turks take every possible form and reach its apex with the scene of Târgovişte where Mehmet, a man used to the horrors of an war sees a scene that terrifies him: a field of 20.000 impaled men in front of Vlad's Palace. This gives rise to Vlad’s Turkish nickname: Kaziklu Bey – The Impaler Warlord.
Vlad has retreated into the mountains, in Poienari Castle, from where he runs in Transylvania. He will return on the Wallachian throne for a short period. In 1476 Dracula dies in a battle against the Turks, around Bucharest, but the cause of his death are still unknown.
Three are the most probable causes of Vlad Dracula’s death:
· he gets killed by a paid man or
· he really dies fighting an enemy or
· he climbs a small hill to see his army throwing away the Turkish army, as he has the habitude to change clothes , wearing enemy’s clothes. Some of his men did not recognize him and killed him by mistake.
Anyway, while his “official” thumb is in Snagov Monastery, a monastery in the middle of a lake, there is no body there. Now there is a mystery to clear out: as mentioned by Matei Cazacu in his book in 1933 a thumb is found with a body that was wearing the purple coat, with golden needlecrafts. The archaeologists (Dinu Rosetti e George Florescu) could easily notice they were facing the thumb of a man wearing a purple or green coat, and they were sure they have seen the true thumb of Vlad Dracula – the Impaler. However, the so documented History Channel didn't mention this and I'm seriously asking myself: "why ?". However we know from historical sources that Dracula has been decapitated and his head sent to the Sultan as a proof of his death. But the Turks were only cutting the skin, therefore letting the skull (cranium).
Here is the very good documentary: