“Realm of the Slavs” and the Coronation of Svatopluk, King of the Slavs: Historical Fiction or Fact? A Few Sentences on the Origins of the Political Imagination of Regnum Sclavorum

Abstract

In 1976, Lubomír E. Havlík opined that Chapter IX of the text Gesta Regum Sclavorum (Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja) could have been written as early as the ninth century in Great Moravia. In 2023, this opinion was elaborated by Dragana Kunčer, who assumed that the archetype of this part of the GRS originated in 880. The published material summarizes the previous knowledge and presents a complex of arguments in favor of the postulated hypothesis, according to which the original of Chapter IX should have originated in the early autumn of 885. The article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the genesis of the earlier parts of GRS and to contribute to the debate of whether the concept of Regnum Sclavorum was an original Ottonian invention or a renewed concept from the Carolingian era.