<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_VIII" id="mwHA" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Pope John VIII">Pope John VIII</a> recognises the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Croatia" id="mwHQ" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Duchy of Croatia">Duchy of Croatia</a> under Duke <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branimir_of_Croatia" id="mwHg" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Branimir of Croatia">Branimir</a> as an independent state.<sup about="#mwt21" class="mw-ref reference" data-mw='{"name":"ref","attrs":{},"body":{"id":"mw-reference-text-cite_note-2"}}' id="cite_ref-2" rel="dc:references" typeof="mw:Extension/ref"><a href="./June_7#cite_note-2" id="mwHw" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"><span class="mw-reflink-text" id="mwIA">[2]</span></a></sup>
<span class="mw-reference-text reference-text" id="mw-reference-text-cite_note-2"><cite about="#mwt18" class="citation book cs1" id="mwBNQ"><a class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_a0cAQAAMAAJ" id="mwBNU" rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow"><i id="mwBNY">Croatia Press</i></a>. Croatia Press. 1977. p.<span id="mwBNc" typeof="mw:Entity"> </span>58.</cite><span about="#mwt18" class="Z3988" id="mwBNg" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&amp;rft.genre=book&amp;rft.btitle=Croatia+Press&amp;rft.pages=58&amp;rft.pub=Croatia+Press&amp;rft.date=1977&amp;rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D_a0cAQAAMAAJ&amp;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AJune+7"></span></span>