Vlad broke into Wallachia at the head of an Ottoman army in early October. He had to accept that the Ottomans had captured the fortress of Giurgiu on the Danube and strengthened it. The Ottomans defeated Hunyadi's army in the Battle of Kosovo between 17and 18October. Hunyadi's deputy, Nicholas Vízaknai, urged Vlad to come to meet him in Transylvania, but Vlad refused him. VladislavII returned to Wallachia at the head of the remnants of his army. Vlad was forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire by 7December 1448. In exile Vlad first settled in Edirne in the Ottoman Empire after his fall. Not long after, he moved to Moldavia, where BogdanII (his father's brother-in-law and possibly his maternal uncle) had mounted the throne with John Hunyadi's support in the autumn of 1449. After Bogdan was murdered by Peter III Aaron in October 1451, Bogdan's son, Stephen, fled to Transylvania with Vlad to seek assistance from Hunyadi. However, Hunyadi concluded a three-year truce with the Ottoman Empire on 20November 1451, acknowledging the Wallachian boyars' right to elect the successor of VladislavII if he died. Vlad allegedly wanted to settle in Brașov (which was a centre of the Wallachian boyars expelled by VladislausII), but Hunyadi forbade the burghers to give shelter to him on 6February 1452. Vlad returned to Moldavia where Alexăndrel had dethroned Peter Aaron. The events of his life during the years that followed are unknown. He must have returned to Hungary before 3July 1456 because, on that day, Hunyadi informed the townspeople of Brașov that he had tasked Vlad with the defence of the Transylvanian border. Second rule Consolidation The circumstances and the date of Vlad's return to Wallachia are uncertain. He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support either in April, July or August 1456. VladislavII died during the invasion. Vlad sent his first extant letter as voivode of Wallachia to the burghers of Brașov on 10September. He promised to protect them in case of an Ottoman invasion of Transylvania, but he also sought their assistance if the Ottomans occupied Wallachia. In the same letter, he stated that "when a man or a prince is strong and powerful he can make peace as he wants to; but when he is weak, a stronger one will come and do what he wants to him", showing his authoritarian personality. Multiple sources (including Laonikos Chalkokondyles's chronicle) recorded that hundreds or thousands of people