With the Ottoman empire leaded by sultan Mehmed the Conqueror capturing after a siege of 53 days on 29 May 1453 Constantinople [nowadays known as Istanbul, Turkey] ended the Byzantine Empire, the former eastern part of the Roman Empire. The western part of the Roman Empire already fall in 476. The Ottoman Empire was since then involved in wars with European nations and increased further and further until the unsuccessful Turkish siege of the Austrian town Vienna in 1689 which was a turning point. Allied forces managed in the following years to drive Ottoman forces backwards with capturing southern part of Hungary and Transylvania. It is in this struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the East and Middle European world that historical well known figures like Vladislav III Draculea nicknamed Vlad Tepes and the Hungarian king Mathias Corvinus lived.
Vlad III is well known as Count Dracula since Bram Stoker wrote his well known Dracula in 1897. He was a voivode or prince of Wallachia, member of the House of Draculesti who lived between November/December 1431 (Segesvar, Transylvania which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary) and December 1476/January 1477 (Wallachia). He has been for several years in Turkish captivity. In later years he prove to be a harassment for the Ottoman forces accused of sadistic behaviour.
Mathias Corvinus (23 February 1442-6 April 1490) a contemporary of Vlad III and reigned as King of Hungaria and Croatia between 1458 and 1490 although his coronation was on 29 April 1464. In 1469 he was elected as King of Bohemia and since 1487 Duke of Austria.
