diff --git a/mkdocs/structure/pages.py b/mkdocs/structure/pages.py
index 8b0a642d..5b4a849b 100644
--- a/mkdocs/structure/pages.py
+++ b/mkdocs/structure/pages.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-import copy
 import enum
 import logging
 import posixpath
@@ -20,6 +19,7 @@ from mkdocs import utils
 from mkdocs.structure import StructureItem
 from mkdocs.structure.toc import get_toc
 from mkdocs.utils import _removesuffix, get_build_date, get_markdown_title, meta, weak_property
+from mkdocs.utils.rendering import get_heading_text
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from xml.etree import ElementTree as etree
@@ -555,23 +555,13 @@ class _ExtractTitleTreeprocessor(markdown.treeprocessors.Treeprocessor):
     def run(self, root: etree.Element) -> etree.Element:
         for el in root:
             if el.tag == 'h1':
-                # Drop anchorlink from the element, if present.
-                if len(el) > 0 and el[-1].tag == 'a' and not (el[-1].tail or '').strip():
-                    el = copy.copy(el)
-                    del el[-1]
-                # Extract the text only, recursively.
-                title = ''.join(el.itertext())
-                # Unescape per Markdown implementation details.
-                title = markdown.extensions.toc.stashedHTML2text(
-                    title, self.md, strip_entities=False
-                )
-                self.title = title.strip()
+                self.title = get_heading_text(el, self.md)
             break
         return root
 
     def _register(self, md: markdown.Markdown) -> None:
         self.md = md
-        md.treeprocessors.register(self, "mkdocs_extract_title", priority=-1)  # After the end.
+        md.treeprocessors.register(self, "mkdocs_extract_title", priority=1)  # Close to the end.
 
 
 class _AbsoluteLinksValidationValue(enum.IntEnum):
diff --git a/mkdocs/utils/rendering.py b/mkdocs/utils/rendering.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..545e1efb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mkdocs/utils/rendering.py
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import copy
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Callable
+
+import markdown
+import markdown.treeprocessors
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from xml.etree import ElementTree as etree
+
+# TODO: This will become unnecessary after min-versions have Markdown >=3.4
+_unescape: Callable[[str], str]
+try:
+    _unescape = markdown.treeprocessors.UnescapeTreeprocessor().unescape
+except AttributeError:
+    _unescape = lambda s: s
+
+# TODO: Most of this file will become unnecessary after https://github.com/Python-Markdown/markdown/pull/1441
+
+
+def get_heading_text(el: etree.Element, md: markdown.Markdown) -> str:
+    el = copy.deepcopy(el)
+    _remove_anchorlink(el)
+    _remove_fnrefs(el)
+    _extract_alt_texts(el)
+    return _strip_tags(_render_inner_html(el, md))
+
+
+def _strip_tags(text: str) -> str:
+    """Strip HTML tags and return plain text. Note: HTML entities are unaffected."""
+    # A comment could contain a tag, so strip comments first
+    while (start := text.find('<!--')) != -1 and (end := text.find('-->', start)) != -1:
+        text = text[:start] + text[end + 3 :]
+
+    while (start := text.find('<')) != -1 and (end := text.find('>', start)) != -1:
+        text = text[:start] + text[end + 1 :]
+
+    # Collapse whitespace
+    text = ' '.join(text.split())
+    return text
+
+
+def _render_inner_html(el: etree.Element, md: markdown.Markdown) -> str:
+    # The `UnescapeTreeprocessor` runs after `toc` extension so run here.
+    text = md.serializer(el)
+    text = _unescape(text)
+
+    # Strip parent tag
+    start = text.index('>') + 1
+    end = text.rindex('<')
+    text = text[start:end].strip()
+
+    for pp in md.postprocessors:
+        text = pp.run(text)
+    return text
+
+
+def _remove_anchorlink(el: etree.Element) -> None:
+    """Drop anchorlink from the element, if present."""
+    if len(el) > 0 and el[-1].tag == 'a' and el[-1].get('class') == 'headerlink':
+        del el[-1]
+
+
+def _remove_fnrefs(root: etree.Element) -> None:
+    """Remove footnote references from the element, if any are present."""
+    for parent in root.findall('.//sup[@id]/..'):
+        _replace_elements_with_text(parent, _predicate_for_fnrefs)
+
+
+def _predicate_for_fnrefs(el: etree.Element) -> str | None:
+    if el.tag == 'sup' and el.get('id', '').startswith('fnref'):
+        return ''
+    return None
+
+
+def _extract_alt_texts(root: etree.Element) -> None:
+    """For images that have an `alt` attribute, replace them with this content."""
+    for parent in root.findall('.//img[@alt]/..'):
+        _replace_elements_with_text(parent, _predicate_for_alt_texts)
+
+
+def _predicate_for_alt_texts(el: etree.Element) -> str | None:
+    if el.tag == 'img' and (alt := el.get('alt')):
+        return alt
+    return None
+
+
+def _replace_elements_with_text(
+    parent: etree.Element, predicate: Callable[[etree.Element], str | None]
+) -> None:
+    """For each child element, if matched, replace it with the text returned from the predicate."""
+    carry_text = ""
+    for child in reversed(parent):  # Reversed for the ability to mutate during iteration.
+        # Remove matching elements but carry any `tail` text to preceding elements.
+        new_text = predicate(child)
+        if new_text is not None:
+            carry_text = new_text + (child.tail or "") + carry_text
+            parent.remove(child)
+        elif carry_text:
+            child.tail = (child.tail or "") + carry_text
+            carry_text = ""
+    if carry_text:
+        parent.text = (parent.text or "") + carry_text
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 71bc189e..28355b73 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "click >=7.0",
     "Jinja2 >=2.11.1",
     "markupsafe >=2.0.1",
-    "Markdown >=3.4.1",
+    "Markdown >=3.3.6",
     "PyYAML >=5.1",
     "watchdog >=2.0",
     "ghp-import >=1.0",
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ min-versions = [
     "click ==7.0",
     "Jinja2 ==2.11.1",
     "markupsafe ==2.0.1",
-    "Markdown ==3.4.1",
+    "Markdown ==3.3.6",
     "PyYAML ==5.1",
     "watchdog ==2.0",
     "ghp-import ==1.0",

diff --git a/mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py b/mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py
index 77d8542b..14bb85da 100644
--- a/mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py
+++ b/mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py
@@ -342,6 +342,12 @@ class PageTests(unittest.TestCase):
             expected='Welcome to MkDocs Setext',
         )
 
+    def test_page_title_from_markdown_with_email(self):
+        self._test_extract_title(
+            '''# <foo@example.org>''',
+            expected='&#102;&#111;&#111;&#64;&#101;&#120;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#108;&#101;&#46;&#111;&#114;&#103;',
+        )
+
     def test_page_title_from_markdown_stripped_anchorlinks(self):
         self._test_extract_title(
             self._SETEXT_CONTENT,
@@ -349,6 +355,24 @@ class PageTests(unittest.TestCase):
             expected='Welcome to MkDocs Setext',
         )
 
+    def test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_footnoteref(self):
+        foootnotes = '''\n\n[^1]: foo\n[^2]: bar'''
+        self._test_extract_title(
+            '''# Header[^1] foo[^2] bar''' + foootnotes,
+            extensions={'footnotes': {}},
+            expected='Header foo bar',
+        )
+        self._test_extract_title(
+            '''# *Header[^1]* *foo*[^2]''' + foootnotes,
+            extensions={'footnotes': {}},
+            expected='Header foo',
+        )
+        self._test_extract_title(
+            '''# *Header[^1][^2]s''' + foootnotes,
+            extensions={'footnotes': {}},
+            expected='*Headers',
+        )
+
     def test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_formatting(self):
         self._test_extract_title(
             '''# \\*Hello --- *beautiful* `wor<dl>`''',
@@ -356,17 +380,19 @@ class PageTests(unittest.TestCase):
             expected='*Hello &mdash; beautiful wor&lt;dl&gt;',
         )
 
+    def test_page_title_from_markdown_html_entity(self):
+        self._test_extract_title('''# Foo &lt; &amp; bar''', expected='Foo &lt; &amp; bar')
+        self._test_extract_title('''# Foo > & bar''', expected='Foo &gt; &amp; bar')
+
     def test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_raw_html(self):
-        self._test_extract_title(
-            '''# Hello <b>world</b>''',
-            expected='Hello world',
-        )
+        self._test_extract_title('''# Hello <b>world</b>''', expected='Hello world')
+
+    def test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_comments(self):
+        self._test_extract_title('''# foo <!-- comment with <em> --> bar''', expected='foo bar')
 
     def test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_image(self):
-        self._test_extract_title(
-            '''# Hi ![😄](hah.png)''',
-            expected='Hi',  # TODO: Should the alt text of the image be extracted?
-        )
+        self._test_extract_title('''# Hi ![😄](hah.png)''', expected='Hi 😄')
+        self._test_extract_title('''# Hi *-![😄](hah.png)-*''', expected='Hi -😄-')
 
     _ATTRLIST_CONTENT = dedent(
         '''

Header and navigation sidebars display incorrectly arbitrary markup
Hello!

## Since when does the bug occur?

I recently upgraded my `mkdocs` package from `1.4.2` to `1.5.2`, and I noticed this bug when...
* I don't specify a page title in `mkdocs.yml` file or in the page metadata (in yaml).
* I use an emoji (HTML in general) in the first level section title in the markdown file:

```md
# Intégration et Déploiement Continu sur :simple-gitlab: Gitlab
```

For example (with `mkdocs-material` theme and `readthedocs` theme):

![263000285-555a71e9-3530-4a63-906a-17617c1d0be3](https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/assets/46783975/fafe7715-678b-4813-9535-c6ddf3df9acd)
![263459179-2afb6262-bde4-4727-b0e3-c5c4da035873](https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/assets/46783975/90edf72c-61df-4d96-a8ba-aed2e35332a0)

... while it was displayed like that before:

![262992157-dcebad1a-82b1-445d-b250-8ef7aa34bafb](https://github.com/mkdocs/mkdocs/assets/46783975/8e25e34a-036d-4358-8929-f08d473e6004)

More generally, some parts like the search page of `readthedocs` theme don't handle well the HTML in title sections.

## External links:

[`readthedocs` theme pictures and bug explanations](https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/issues/5893) are from @squidfunk.
mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_html_entity mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_comments mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_footnoteref mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_image mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_with_email
mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_BOM mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_homepage mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_missing_page mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_nested_index_page mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_nested_index_page_no_parent mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_nested_index_page_no_parent_no_directory_urls mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_nested_nonindex_page mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_canonical_url mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_canonical_url_nested mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_canonical_url_nested_no_slash mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_defaults mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_edit_url mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_edit_url_custom_from_file mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_edit_url_warning mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_eq mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_ne mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_no_directory_url mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_render mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_capitalized_filename mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_filename mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_homepage_filename mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_preserved_attr_list mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_formatting mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_strip_raw_html mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_stripped_anchorlinks mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_markdown_stripped_attr_list mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_meta mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_page_title_from_setext_markdown mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::PageTests::test_predefined_page_title mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::SourceDateEpochTests::test_source_date_epoch mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_anchor_link_with_validation mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_anchor_link_with_validation_and_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_link_preserved_and_warned mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_link_with_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_link_with_validation mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_link_with_validation_and_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_link_with_validation_just_slash mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_self_anchor_link_with_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_self_anchor_link_with_validation_and_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_absolute_win_local_path mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_bad_relative_doc_link mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_email_link mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_external_link mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_image_link_with_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_invalid_email_link mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_no_links mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_possible_target_uris mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_doc_link_without_extension mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_hash mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_hash_only mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_index mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_parent_index mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_sub_index mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_sub_index_hash mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_sub_page mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_sub_page_hash mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_with_encoded_space mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_html_link_with_unencoded_space mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_image_link_from_homepage mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_image_link_from_sibling mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_image_link_from_subpage mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_relative_slash_link_with_suggestion mkdocs/tests/structure/page_tests.py::RelativePathExtensionTests::test_self_anchor_link_with_suggestion