diff --git a/plugin/markdown/example.html b/plugin/markdown/example.html
index 1253cbac..90ff1346 100644
--- a/plugin/markdown/example.html
+++ b/plugin/markdown/example.html
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@
 
 			<div class="slides">
 
-                <!-- Use external markdown resource, and separate slides by three newlines; vertical slides by two newlines -->
-                <section data-markdown="example.md" data-separator="^\n\n\n" data-vertical="^\n\n"></section>
+                <!-- Use external markdown resource, separate slides by three newlines; vertical slides by two newlines and specify a custom charset -->
+                <section data-markdown="example.md" data-separator="^\n\n\n" data-vertical="^\n\n" data-charset="iso-8859-15"></section>
 
                 <!-- Slides are separated by three dashes (quick 'n dirty regular expression) -->
                 <section data-markdown data-separator="---">
diff --git a/plugin/markdown/markdown.js b/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
index 473666b8..9681cf1d 100755
--- a/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
+++ b/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
@@ -128,6 +128,12 @@
                 var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(),
                     url = section.getAttribute('data-markdown');
 
+                datacharset = section.getAttribute('data-charset');
+                // see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/element.getAttribute#Notes
+                if (datacharset != null && datacharset != '') {
+                    xhr.overrideMimeType('text/html; charset=' + datacharset);
+                }
+
                 xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
                     if( xhr.readyState === 4 ) {
                         if (xhr.status >= 200 && xhr.status < 300) {