Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County (in the region of Oltenia) in a family of landed peasants (mazili); his birth year is usually given as 1780, but this is still debated.

Tudor's experience as a servant made him familiar with customs, habits and objectives of landowners; this insight helped him walk the fine line between conflicting interests of boyars and peasants in the first months of the uprising against the Phanariotes.

Back in the country in 1815, Tudor learned that Ada Kaleh Ottoman garrison, who roamed Mehedinți and Gorj, had also destroyed his household from Cerneți.

Prince Alexandros Soutzos' death in January 1821 led to the forming of a temporary Comitet de Ocârmuire ("Governing Committee"), three regents - all of them members of the most representative indigenous boyar families, of which the most prominent was Caimacam Grigore Brâncoveanu.

The Comitet, motivated against competition and denied Phanariote rulers' favours, decided to quickly manoeuver anti-boyar and anti-Phanariote sentiment in Wallachia (and especially in Oltenia), acting before the newly appointed Scarlat Callimachi could claim his throne.

The statements were meant to buy Tudor time against Ottoman response, as he was already in negotiations with the Greek Anti-Ottoman revolutionary society Philikí Etaireía (having probably been in contact with it from around 1819).

After fortifying monasteries in Oltenia (Tismana, Strehaia) that were to serve him in the event of Ottoman intervention, Tudor travelled to Padeș where he issued his first proclamation (23 January).

In line with these, Tudor asked for the banishment of some Phanariote families and forbidding future Princes to hold a retinue that would compete with local boyars for offices.

The army, swelled up in numbers as it advanced, occupied Bucharest on 21 March - here, Tudor issued another important proclamation, one that expressed yet again his commitment to peace with the Ottomans.

Previously, the Philikí Etaireía under Alexander Ypsilanti had emerged in Moldavia, proclaiming a liberation from Ottoman rule that was backed by the then Moldavian Prince Michael Soutzos (see Greek War of Independence).

The country was divided into a Greek administration and a Wallachian one, with Tudor's declaring itself neutral in the face of large Ottoman armies preparing to cross the north of the Danube.

Tudor, portrayed by Emanoil Petruţ, falls from his horse after being shot in the back, claiming to return "as the grass of spring" - a far easier death than what Vladimirescu had endured in reality.

A division bearing his name (Divizia Tudor Vladimirescu) was formed by the Red Army with Romanian prisoners of war who had fought on the Eastern Front.