diff --git a/mkdocs_rss_plugin/plugin.py b/mkdocs_rss_plugin/plugin.py
index a650280a..33ceae83 100644
--- a/mkdocs_rss_plugin/plugin.py
+++ b/mkdocs_rss_plugin/plugin.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 # ##################################
 
 # standard library
+import html as html_module
 import json
 from copy import deepcopy
 from dataclasses import asdict
@@ -357,7 +358,8 @@ def on_page_content(
                 ),
                 guid=page.canonical_url,
                 link=page_url_full,
-                title=page.title,
+                # MkDocs keeps HTML entities in titles extracted from the H1
+                title=html_module.unescape(page.title) if page.title else None,
                 updated=page_dates[1],
                 # for later fetch
                 _mkdocs_page_ref=MkdocsPageSubset.from_page(page),
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/docs/page_with_special_chars.md b/tests/fixtures/docs/page_with_special_chars.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f3c5f33e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/docs/page_with_special_chars.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+authors:
+    - Test Author
+date: 2024-01-15 10:00
+description: "Description with & ampersand and <angle> brackets"
+---
+
+# Test: A & B < C > D
+
+This page tests that special characters are properly encoded in the RSS feed.
+The title is derived from the H1, which is the only case where MkDocs
+returns it with HTML entities.
diff --git a/tests/test_build.py b/tests/test_build.py
index 2a1d0883..08eeb1c3 100644
--- a/tests/test_build.py
+++ b/tests/test_build.py
@@ -961,6 +961,10 @@ def test_xml_escaping_in_author(self):
             self.assertIn("OpenSavvy &amp; contributors", feed_xml)
             self.assertNotIn("OpenSavvy & contributors</managingEditor>", feed_xml)
 
+            # H1-derived titles arrive from MkDocs with HTML entities:
+            # they must be unescaped once, then escaped once for the XML
+            self.assertIn("Test: A &amp; B &lt; C &gt; D", feed_xml)
+
 
 # ##############################################################################
 # ##### Stand alone program ########