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King Samo (? – 658) was a merchant born in the Senonian country (Senonago) (probably today's Sens in France). He was the first ruler of the Slavs whose name is known, and the founder of the so-called (King) Samo's Empire or Samo's Realm (623 - 658), the first known organized community of the Slavs - actually a kind of supra-tribal union, not a true state. As for Samo's nationality (see the end of this article), Fredegar's chronicle - the only contemporaneous source mentioning Samo - says explicitly "Samo, a Frank by birth [or nation] from the Senon[ag]ian province". It is recorded that the Frankish ruler Samo had twelve Wendish wives; the women were possibly refugees and their men or husbands dead.