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Samo was a Franc merchant who decided to settle down with the Slavic tribes. He gave rise to the first Slavic state in Middle Europe. It stretched through Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The information on Samo and his empire is very brief – all of it comes from a Franc chronicler Fredegar, who documented a battle between Samo and Franc king Dagobert.
In 631, a group of Slavic men robbed a Franc caravan and Dagobert expected repayment. Samo took this as an excuse for war, which was inevitable to total independence of his empire. He defeated Dagobert in the Wogastisburg battle and this victory only confirmed his skills as a leader.
And what do we know about Samo? Fredegar described him as a wine-lover and a hedonist, who had seven wives at once and over thirty children. His strong personality held the empire together, but after his death in 658, twenty five years after he came to Middle Europe, it fell apart.