In Transylvania, he presented himself to the new king of Hungary, Mattias Corvinus, and was arrested and imprisoned in a royal tower near Buda. The Russian pamphlets indicate that he was a prisoner from 1462 until 1474. Dracula. McNally and Florescu place Dracula's actual period of confinement at about four years from 1462 until 1466.

He was able to gradually win his way back into the graces of Hungary's monarch; so much so that he marry a member of the royal family (some of the sources claim Dracula's second wife was actually the sister of Matthias Corvinus) and have two sons. For most of the period of Dracula's incarceration his brother, Radu the Handsome, ruled Wallachia as a puppet of the Ottoman sultan. When Radu died (1474) the sultan appointed Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan. where his remains are buried. But one fact does emerge from all of this material.

In 1476 Dracula was again ready to make another attempt to recover his throne. Dracula and Prince Stephen Bathory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia with a mixed force of Transylvanians, a few dissatisfied Wallachian boyars and a contingent of Moldavians sent by Dracula's cousin, Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia. At the approach of Dracula's army Basarab and his coherents fled, some to the protection of the Turks, others to the shelter of the mountains.

After placing Dracula on the throne (November 1476) Stephen Bathory and the bulk of Dracula's forces returned to Transylvania, leaving Dracula's tactical position very weak. Dracula had little time to gather support before a large Turkish army entered Wallachia determined to return Basarab to the throne. Dracula's cruelties over the years had alienated the boyars who felt they had a better chance of surviving under Prince Basarab. Apparently, even the peasants, tired of the depredations of the Impaler, abandoned him to his fate. Dracula was forced to march to meet the Turks with the small forces at his disposal, somewhat less than four thousand men.

Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the small town of Bucharest in December of 1476. Some reports indicated that he was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have Dracula falling in defeat; surrounded by the bodies of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard (the troops loaned by Prince Stephen of Moldavia remained with Dracula after Stephen Bathory returned to Transylvania). Still other reports claim that Dracula, at the moment of victory, was accidentally struck down by one of his own men.

Dracula's body was decapitated by the Turks and his head sent to Constantinople where the sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that the Impaler was dead. His headless body was reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest.