Mihailo I of Duklja

With the death of Stefan Vojislav, his dominion was divided among his five sons (according to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja).{{harvnb|Fine|1991|p=212}} {{ill|Gojislav Vojislavljević|sr|Гојислав Војислављевић|lt=Gojislav}} received Travunia (Trebinje) ruled briefly until he was killed by local nobles, who set up Domanek in his place. Mihailo expelled him and Saganek chosen to rule, but Domanek returned and drove him out. Mihailo offered the office to Radoslav, who declined, afraid of losing Luška župa (future Zeta). Radoslav perhaps distrusted his brother, thinking he would seize Zeta, but Mihailo seems to have offered him a deal.

The Byzantine Empire, keen to take advantage of the death of Stefan Vojislav, prepared an offensive against unstable Duklja. At this time, the four remaining brothers made peace and signed an alliance, deemed the oldest treaty in Serbian history. After the agreement, Radoslav attacked Travunia, killing Domanek. After this event, their mother (who had acted as an stability in the relations between the brothers) died. Mihailo succeeded as Knez of "Duklja" in 1046, or as his realm was called by contemporary Cedrenus: "Triballorum ac Serborum principatum".Cedrenus II, col. 338

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, something that might have implied a titular recognition of Constantinople's authority, but without no real concessions on his part. It corresponded to the then-current balance of forces and bought some 20 years of peace and prosperity to his land.

{{main|Uprising of Georgi Voiteh}}

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.

In 1072, the Bulgarian noblemen in Skopje planned a revolt against Byzantine rule under the leadership of Georgi Voiteh, the exarchos of the city. 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.Scylitzes Continuatus: 163Byzantium's Balkan frontier, page 142 In the fall of 1072, Michael I gladly sent Constantine Bodin with 300 troops, which arrived at Prizren and met with Voiteh and other magnates. ThereGeorgius Cedrenus Ioannis Scylitzae ope ab I. Bekkero suppletus et emendatus II, Bonnae, 1839, pp 714-719 they crowned Bodin "Emperor of the Bulgarians" and gave him the name 'Peter III', recalling the names of the Emperor-Saint Peter I (d. 970) and of Peter II Delyan (who had led the first major revolt against Byzantine rule in 1040–1041). Despite some initial successes, Bodin was subsequently captured. When Michael I heard about his son's capture, he sent a captive Byzantine general, Langobardopoulos, whom he had married with one of his daughters, to rescue him, but he defected to the Byzantines.

The aid to Georgi Voiteh moved Mihailo away from the Byzantines.{{harvnb|Fine|1991|p=215}}

After the uprising, Mihailo began looking for support westward - to the Pope. 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. Thereafter, Duklja was referred to as a kingdom, a situation that lasted until its reduction in the following century.

File:Church of St. Michael near Ston (Croatia) 02.jpg]]

It is not known whether his brothers accepted him as supreme ruler or if he forced it upon them. Onwards, Mihailo was the ruler of All Duklja, and his brothers may at most have had only appanages.

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. He left St. Michael's Church in Ston, north of Dubrovnik, a small church following mostly an early Byzantine style, which contains one of the oldest known fresco portraits of a South Slavic ruler.

• According to George Kedrenos (fl. 1050s) and John Skylitzes (fl. 1057), he was the Prince of Triballians and Serbs {{small|(Τριβαλλών και Σέρβων...αρχηγός{{cite book|author1=Georgius (Cedrenus.)|author2=Jacques Paul Migne|title=Synopsis historiōn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cy9KAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA338|year=1864|publisher=Migne|page=338|quote=Τριβαλλών και Σέρβων}}/ Τριβαλλῶν καὶ Σέρβων...ἀρχηγόςSkylitzes 475.13-14)}}, and was called an "ally and friend of the Byzantines", having received the title of protospatharios.{{cite book|title=Zograf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vd9NAAAAYAAJ|year=1986|page=74|quote=Син Војислављев, Михаило Војислављевић, „савезник и пријатељ Ро- меја", учврстио је положај Дукље и својом ве- штом политиком добио од Византије титулу ...}}
• In 1077, he received a crown from Pope Gregory VII, who thereafter addressed Mihailo as "King of the Slavs". A letter dated January 9, 1078, begins "Gregory ... to Michael, king of the Slavs" {{small|({{langx|la|Sclavorum regi}})}}.{{cite book|author=Paul Stephenson|title=Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILiOI0UgxHoC&pg=PA144|date=29 June 2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-77017-0|page=144}}
• Anna Komnene (1083–1153) calls him "Exarch of Dalmatia".{{Cite web |last=Comnena |first=Anna |date=1928 |title=The Alexiad, translated by Elizabeth A. S. Dawes |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad01.asp |website=Fordham University}}{{Cite book |last=Comnena |first=Anna |url=https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/alexiad_dawes.pdf |title=The Alexiad, translated by Elizabeth A. S. Dawes |publisher=In parentheses Publications |orig-date=1927 |date=2000 |location=Cambridge, Ontario |pages=31 |language=English}}

{{Commons category|Mihailo Vojislavljević}}

Mihailo married a niece of Constantine IX Monomachos, with whom he had seven sons, out of which four are known:

• Vladimir
• Constantin Bodin
• Dobroslav II
• Petrislav, ruled Rascia (anachronism for the Principality of Serbia)
• A daughter

{{reflist|2}}

;Primary sources

{{refbegin|2}}

• {{Cite book|last=Кунчер|first=Драгана|year=2009|title=Gesta Regum Sclavorum|volume=1|location=Београд-Никшић|publisher=Историјски институт, Манастир Острог}}
• {{Cite book|last=Живковић|first=Тибор|author-link=Tibor Živković|year=2009|title=Gesta Regum Sclavorum|volume=2|location=Београд-Никшић|publisher=Историјски институт, Манастир Острог}}
• {{Cite book|editor-last=Шишић|editor-first=Фердо|editor-link=Ferdo Šišić|title=Летопис Попа Дукљанина (Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja)|year=1928|location=Београд-Загреб|publisher=Српска краљевска академија|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HXwCSCgxTlcC}}
• {{Cite book|editor-last=Thurn|editor-first=Hans|title=Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum|year=1973|location=Berlin-New York|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=9783110022858 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79jH-QXdf0EC}}

{{refend}}

;Secondary sources

{{refbegin|2}}

• {{Cite book|last=Ćirković|first=Sima|author-link=Sima Ćirković|year=2004|title=The Serbs|location=Malden|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=9781405142915 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wc-DWRzoeIC}}
• {{Cite book|last=Curta|first=Florin|author-link=Florin Curta|title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250|year=2006|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521815390 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC}}
• {{Cite book|last=Fine|first=John Van Antwerp Jr.|author-link=John Van Antwerp Fine Jr.|title=The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century|year=1991|orig-year=1983|location=Ann Arbor, Michigan|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0472081497 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Kalić|first=Jovanka|author-link=Jovanka Kalić|title=The First Coronation Churches of Medieval Serbia|journal=Balcanica|year=2017|issue=48|pages=7–18|doi=10.2298/BALC1748007K |url=http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/ft.aspx?id=0350-76531748007K|doi-access=free|hdl=21.15107/rcub_dais_4886|hdl-access=free}}
• {{Cite book|last=Stephenson|first=Paul|title=Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=9780521770170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILiOI0UgxHoC}}
• {{cite web|last=Stephenson |first=Paul |title=Partial Translation of Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja |publisher=.Mac |date=November 2006 |url=http://homepage.mac.com/paulstephenson/trans/lpd2.html |access-date=2007-12-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514005239/http://homepage.mac.com/paulstephenson/trans/lpd2.html |archive-date=2011-05-14 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Veselinović|first1=Andrija |last2=Ljušić|first2=Radoš |title=Srpske dinastije|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWctAQAAIAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Službeni glasnik|isbn=978-86-7549-921-3|language=sr}}
• {{Cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550-1150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ|year=2008|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa|isbn=9788675585732 }}

{{refend}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-roy}}

{{s-bef| before = Neda }}

{{s-ttl| title = Prince of Triballians and Serbs /
Exarch of Serbia
{{small|(at Duklja)}}

| years = 1050 – 1081 }}

{{s-aft| after = Constantine Bodin }}

{{s-end}}

{{Serbian monarchs}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihailo 01 of Duklja}}

Category:Monarchs of Duklja

Category:Vojislavljević dynasty

Category:11th-century Serbian monarchs

Category:1081 deaths

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:11th-century births

Category:11th-century Byzantine people

Category:Serbian royal families

Category:Medieval history of Montenegro

Category:Christian monarchs

Category:Protospatharioi