During this period of breaking ties with the Byzantines, Mihailo turned to Rome. As the time, Pope Gregory VII was involved in the Investiture controversy with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, so they both searched for allies throughout Europe. In this vein, the pope granted the royal title of king to Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia in 1075 and to Mihailo in 1076 or 1077, as in a letter from 9 January 1078, the pope addresses Mihailo as the King of the Slavs ("Michaeli Sclavorum regi") This makes Mihailo the first Serbian ruler ever officially proclaimed a king and he was depicted as a king on the fresco from the Church of Saint Michael, his endowment in Ston. In diplomatic ways of the day, this also meant Duklja was internationally recognized as an independent state. This recognition was soon acknowledged by the Byzantine Empire which referred to Mihailo's successor Bodin as "exousiastes" (as for some other foreign sovereigns), instead of "archon", though never referred in that way to Mihailo.