Samo's realm

Samo's realm was the first recorded Slavic polity of Central Europe, a tribal kingdom that its Frankish merchant founder, Samo of Sens (c.600-c.658), ruled from 623 to his death in 658. Samo of Sens won his throne by uniting Slavic tribes against Avar robber-raids and revolt, and Fredegar's heirs called him King of the Slavs. In 631 he broke the Frankish host at Wogastisburg in three days of battle, and the Sorb Dervan changed sides to his rising star. His sons dropped the kingly title the Gesta Dagoberti had recorded, the realm's extent before and after 631 is disputed, its heart in Moravia and Nitravia. Slavic nationalists later claimed him against Fredegar's Frankish account, Gesta Dagoberti's reworking and Conversio's rival telling all deriving from the one chronicle, but the realm itself needed no myth: it held the Middle Danube between Avars and Franks for a generation, then died with its founder as tribal polities do.