[5] While in no imminent danger from that side, Mihailo found it favorable to further strengthen ties with Byzantium and, in 1050, he received the title of protospatharios and married a niece of Constantine IX Monomachos,[5] something that might have implied a titular recognition of Constantinople's authority, but without no real concessions on his part.

Matters started to change after 1071, the year of Byzantium's key Asian debacle at the Battle of Manzikert, as well as of the Norman conquest of southern Italy.

The rebel chieftains (proechontes) asked Mihailo I for help and, in exchange, offered to one of his sons, a descendant of the House of the Cometopuli, the Bulgarian throne.

This came as a result not only of his alienation from the Byzantines, but also from a desire to create an independent archbishopric within his realm and to finally to obtain a royal title.

In the aftermath of the Church schism of 1054, Pope Gregory VII was interested in bestowing royal crown on rulers in the rift area and Mihailo was granted his in 1077.

[4] Having sealed ties with the Normans through marriage of his heir, Constantine Bodin, with Jaquinta of Bari, Mihailo died in 1081, after a rule of 30 or so years.