Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum in the context of "Carantania"

Samo (c. 600–c. 658) was the founder and sole ruler of the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samo's Empire ("realm", "kingdom", or "tribal union"), ruling from 623 until his death in 658. The question about his origins is unresolved. According to Fredegar, Samo was a Frankish merchant from Sens. However, according to Conversio Carantanorum, Samo was of Slavic origin. One of his origin theories suggests that Samo was a Slav who fled persecution in the Frankish lands and sought refuge in Bohemia.

Samo built his career by unifying several Slavic tribes against the robber raiders from the nearby settled Avars and raising a rebellion against Avar rule, showing such bravery and command skills in battle that he was elected "King of the Slavs" (Latin: rex Sclavorum). In 631, Samo successfully defended his realm against the Frankish Kingdom in the three-day Battle of Wogastisburg.

Pribina (c. 800 – 861) was a Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians (a historical work written in 870), illustrates the political volatility of the Franco–Slavic frontiers of his time. Pribina was the first ruler of Slavic origin to build a Christian church on Slavic territory in Nitra, and also the first to accept baptism.

He was attacked and expelled from his homeland by Mojmir I, duke of Moravia. Pribina first fled to Ratpot, one of the border lords in East Francia. Thereafter he was wandering in Central and Southeastern Europe for several years. Finally, in the late 830s, Louis the German, king of East Francia granted Pribina lands near Lake Balaton (now in Hungary) where he set up his own principality under the king's suzerainty. He died fighting against the Moravians.