Maltese Nobility and Genealogy

By Loïck PORTELLI

Introduction

Malta, a small archipelago situated between Sicily and Tunisia, experienced a significant wave of emigration beginning at the end of the 19th century, particularly towards France. As a result, a considerable number of French families may have a connection to the smallest state in the European Union. Its rich and eventful history is out of all proportion to its size. One finds there, for example, a nobility dating back to the 14th century, and a genealogist might well discover distant titled cousins in their family tree. Before going further, however, a warning is necessary: erroneous genealogies, too flattering to be true, abound on the internet. As always, it is better to verify each piece of information.

"The fact that Malta, a mere speck in the blue of the Mediterranean, has had a nobility from very early times is not the least of the many interesting and uncommon characteristics which distinguish the island from all other overseas possessions of the British Crown."

"The Maltese Nobility," Malta and Gibraltar, Allister MacMillian (ed.), 1915.

On 11 April 1876, when the Prince of Wales (the future Edouard VII) left Malta after a short stay during which he had received a warm welcome, he was far from suspecting the significance of an incident that had taken place behind the scenes in the small British colony. On 8 April, three days after his arrival, the Maltese marquis Lorenzo Antonio Cassar Desain sent the following letter to his private secretary:

"I am charged by the Committee of Nobles to request you to be so kind as to express to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales the deep regret felt by the nobility at having been, contrary to ancient usage, prevented from personally paying homage to His Royal Highness, since His Excellency the Governor, when asked for information on the subject, replied through the Chief Secretary to the Government that 'His Excellency regrets that he is unable to make any arrangement for the nobles to attend the reception of His Royal Highness beyond taking part in the procession.'"[1]

Visibly ill-informed and concerned about the turn that growing discontent might take in one of the British colonies, the Secretary of State for the Colonies Henry Herbert (Earl Carnarvon) wrote from Downing Street to the Governor of Malta on 20 May:

"Questions have been asked in both Houses of Parliament regarding a complaint alleged to have been made by the Nobles of Malta that they were not allowed to present an address to the Prince of Wales on his arrival on the island; for this reason, they abstained from taking part in the reception of His Royal Highness. I have received no information from you on the subject of this complaint and I wish you to inform me of the circumstances of the case."[2]

There followed numerous exchanges of correspondence between the various parties, revealing dissensions between the Governor of Malta, Sir Charles Thomas van Straubenzee, and the nobles. On 20 March 1877, a petition with 60 signatories was even sent to Queen Victoria. The matter grew in importance and the British government suggested establishing an official list of titolati (persons holding a title of nobility). A royal commission was charged with its preparation and with specifying the conditions under which the titles they claimed had been created.

In 1878, a document was published entitled "Correspondence and Report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the claims of the Maltese Nobility presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty."

Incomplete and sometimes contested, the document has the merit of presenting in broad strokes the nobility of the tiny archipelago situated at the heart of the Mediterranean. Two major periods emerge: Aragonese rule (1283–1530) and that of the Hospitallers (1530–1798). During this second period, a distinction is made between titles granted by the Hospitaller Grand Masters acting in their capacity as sovereign princes and those granted by foreign sovereigns.

The strategic location of the archipelago has made it a particularly coveted place over the centuries. Situated 90 kilometres south of Sicily, Malta has been under the rule of numerous powers that have presided over its destiny and left their mark upon it.

Sovereigns of Malta

When the Aragonese kings of Sicily were sovereigns of Malta, they would sometimes grant one or more fiefs to their most faithful vassals. Unless explicitly stated, possession of a fief did not confer the right to the title of baron. The feudatories, members of the highest social class, would then use honorary titles such as Magnifico or Don and Donna. It also happened that the title of barone was (improperly) used, the title for many simply denoting the fact of holding a fief. Before the arrival of the Order of Malta, 72 families held fiefs between the beginning of the 14th century and 1530.[3]

The boundary between an untitled feudatory and a titled feudatory was so thin that when a sovereign addressed the former as if he were titled, this constituted recognition of a noble fief and effectively conferred the right to the title of baron. Thus, in its report, the royal commission of 1878 recognised the fiefs of Djar-il-Bniet and Buqana as noble because even though they had been granted as simple fiefs in 1350 and 1372, their holders had been designated as barons in 1725 by Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena in a Prammatica (ordinance) aimed at prohibiting the use of the formula Illustrissimo e Nobile by families not explicitly titled.

In Malta, unlike many other countries, precedence among nobles is not defined by the hierarchy of titles but by their antiquity. Thus a baron holding a more ancient title than a marquis will rank higher in the order of protocol. As Grand Master Rohan wrote in a decree dated 1795, "It being a universally recognised principle that the greatest lustre of nobility depends principally on its greater antiquity, nothing is more just and more reasonable than that the most ancient noble should take precedence over the most recent."[4]

The Mysterious Sybille d'Aragon

Maltese titles of nobility are generally traced back to the Aragonese kings of Sicily. The links between Malta and the kings of Aragon appear in Maltese archives from the beginning of the 14th century, and some members of the royal family even lived in the archipelago. In 1347, a certain Sybille d'Aragon established a juspatronatus (right of patronage, an act whereby the founder and his descendants build and maintain a chapel while retaining the right to propose the local ecclesiastic) for the Chapel of the Annunciation situated on the island of Gozo.

More than a century later, a seemingly innocuous letter addressed by the Viceroy of Sicily Lope Ximénez de Urrea y de Bardaixi to the Gozitan judge Andrea de Benjamin on 18 November 1472, informing him of the appointment of the new rector of the juspatronatus regium of the Chapel of the Annunciation, reveals the true identity of the mysterious Sybille d'Aragon: Simo informati comu in quissa terra est unum juspatronatus regalis appellatum Santa Maria Annunciata dila Saccaya constitutu et ordinatu olim per condam Madonnam Sibilla de ulmello amasia di condam Re Fidericu…[5] We are therefore in the presence of Sybille de Solimella, mistress of the Aragonese king Frédéric II of Sicily (1272–1337)[6].

As the children born of this couple did not settle in Malta, it is rather unlikely for a genealogist with Maltese ancestry to be able to trace their lineage back to her.

The First Maltese Noble: Francesco (known as Cicco) Gatto

We find the trace of the first Maltese person to be ennobled in January 1350; it is Francesco (known as Cicco) Gatto. The latter, having just quelled a revolution hostile to the Aragonese on the island of Gozo, was granted the fief of Djar il-Bniet as a reward by King Louis I of Sicily. On the same day, Cicco's son, Lancea, was exempted for life from taxes owed to the king.

Grant of the fief of Djar-il-Bniet to Cicco Gatto[7]

During the events of 1372 (see infra), Lancea chose, like his father before him, to support the Aragonese camp and obtained from King Frédéric III of Sicily confirmation of the privileges previously granted. He also received the office of judge under the capitano della Verga (governor of Malta).[8]

For reasons that remain mysterious today, Lancea turned against the king and led a rebellion when the latter appointed a new capitano della Verga named Giovanni Aragona. The insurgents were crushed but the capitano was replaced by Corrado de Castelli. Lancea lost the fief of Djar-il-Bniet, which was thenceforth granted to Henricus de Osa.[9] After the disgrace that befell the Gatto family, Lancea's son, Francesco, attempted to regain royal favour. This was achieved on 14 February 1397 when King Martin I of Sicily granted him the fief of Djar-il-Bniet lost by his father and appointed him captain of the galleys for life and commander-in-chief of the royal galley.

Bolstered by this restored prestige, Francesco Gatto married Paola Castelletti, granddaughter of Baron Guglielmo Murina. Francesco thus became both baron of Djar-il-Bniet and of Buqana. The couple decided to establish a juspatronatus and to build a chapel dedicated to Saint Agatha in Mdina in 1417.

Imperia, the only daughter of Francesco and Paola, married Antonio Inguanez, from a prestigious Spanish family originally from Catalonia. Imperia brought as her dowry a palace situated in Notabile (present-day Mdina), as well as several properties. Her husband was a faithful vassal of King Alphonse V of Aragon and followed him in the wars he waged. His devotion was rewarded and he was appointed governor of Malta. He even had the honour of hosting the king in his family residence in Mdina for three months in 1432.[10]

That same year, Francesco Gatto, ill and bedridden ("jacens in meo lecto infirmus"), drew up his will ("nil cercius morte et nil Incercius hora mortis"). On the day of his death, numerous masses were to be said and his body was to be accompanied by an armed horseman (Thomas Azzopardi) carrying a red flag bearing the arms of the deceased. All personnel in the baron's service were to attend the funeral in mourning attire. In order to ensure the perpetuity of his name, he asked his daughter and son-in-law to take the name Gatto-Inguanez. One notes from reading the document that Francesco had remarried a certain Donna Constantia and that he bequeathed to her a palace purchased from Gaddu Bertella ("item lego dicte donne costancie mee uxori omnia Jura et acciones quas et que Ipsa habet et habere potest In quodam palacium sive ospicium per me in civitate meliveti emptum quod fuit gaddi bertella"). For the remission of his sins, he asked his heirs to give each year on the feast of Saint Agatha a dowry to a young woman in need.

Antonio Gatto-Inguanez continued to obtain numerous favours from the king, such as the right to place his coat of arms on the gates of the city of Mdina as well as on Fort Saint Angelo. He died in 1458. His children were Guglielmo Goffredo, Angarao, Francesco and Lanza.

The Marguerite Pellegrino mystery

Among the powerful Maltese families enjoying the favor of the kings of Sicily is that of Giacomo Pellegrino. Originally from Messina, he was appointed capitano della Verga by King Frederick III of Sicily (1341-1377) in the mid-14th century. On 22 June 1361, Frederick III granted him and his heirs numerous estates in perpetuity. On 17 April 1366, the king was in Malta. He appointed Giacomo as Secreto (tax collector) and granted him the status of familiar of the king[11]. In return, Giacomo lent the sum of 3,000 florins to the crown, equivalent to nearly 300,000 euros today[12].

King Frederick III of Sicily, known as the Simple, saw his power challenged by the powerful Sicilian barons, notably the Alagona and Chiaramonte families. In Malta, Pellegrino ruled as absolute master. In order to regain control of his kingdom, the king organized a military operation with the support of the Genoese fleet. He landed in Malta in 1372 and laid siege to Pellegrino's forces at both Fort Saint Angelo and Mdina for two months.[13]

In November, Pellegrino was defeated, his assets were seized and used to repay his debts to the Doge of Genoa. The king rewarded those who had sided with him; thus Guglielmo Murina was granted the fief of Buqana.

In these particular circumstances, Marguerite, wife of Giacomo Pellegrino, took her family's destiny into her own hands and accompanied the king when he left Malta to return to Messina.[14] The king's first official act upon returning to Sicily on 20 November was to grant Marguerite, now reduced to poverty, an annual income of 50 uncie ("Pro nobile Margarita uxore Jacobo de Peregrino militis […] Ad humilem supplicationem noviter Culmini nostro factam per Margaritam mulierem uxorem Jacobi de Peregrino militis consanguineam fidelem nostram asserentem se nichilum inde habere seu de suis bonis nichilum inde remansisse unde possit vitam suam sueque familie ad presens inopem substentare, compacientes de eius inopia sueque paupertatis, uncias quinquaginta… ").[15] The document is of great importance because, even though her family name is not mentioned, it reveals that Marguerite was noble and a relative of the king.

The second act issued in favor of Marguerite, dated 11 October 1373, tells us that following her intervention on behalf of her husband, the latter received a royal pardon. It also reveals Marguerite's identity: "nobilem Margaritam de Aragonia consorte Jacobj de Peregino militis consanguineam familiarem et fidelem nostram".

In 1375, Marguerite of Aragon obtained the restitution of the properties confiscated three years earlier. On 15 June 1418, Marguerite, now widowed and ill, drew up her will (Ego Domina Margarita relicta quondam Magnifici Domini Jacobi de Peregrino iacens in domo mea egra licet). Among the beneficiaries were her three daughters Cesarea, Francia and Eleanora.

The family relationship between Marguerite and King Frederick III is not clearly stated in the documents studied above, and historians have put forward several theories whose analysis would go beyond the scope of this introduction to Maltese nobility. The most commonly accepted hypothesis is also the oldest. It was established by Giovanni Francesco Abela, vice-chancellor and official historian of the Order of Malta, in his work published in 1647. He indicates that Marguerite could have been the daughter of William II of Athens, who was Count of Malta from 1320 to 1330.[16] This would give us the following family tree:

Hypothetical tree:

Titles granted before the presence of the Order of Malta recognized by the commission.

Titles created by the Order of the Hospitallers.

When Charles V offered the Maltese archipelago to the Hospitallers, who were looking for a new place to establish themselves after the loss of Rhodes, the Maltese nobles were hardly enthusiastic. In addition to fearing that their importance on the island would diminish, they remembered that when in 1421 Malta had been assigned to the unpopular Don Gonsalvo de Monroy, two years of revolt had been necessary to drive him out.

Shortly after his arrival in Malta in 1530, Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam pledged to respect the privileges and rights of the Maltese. Despite the commitments made that day, the Order asserted its authority and reduced the number of fiefs to thirteen, held by only eight families.[17]

The first title of nobility recognized by the royal commission as having been granted by the Hospitallers is that of Baron of Għariexem and Tabia. It was originally an untitled fief first created in 1372. In 1535, its owner, Gio Maria Cassia, was dispossessed and the fief became the property of the Order of Malta. In 1638, it was granted to Giacomo Cassia by Grand Master Jean-Paul de Lascaris-Castellar, still as an untitled fief. Giacomo's descendants were, however, regularly referred to as barons by the Order itself, which led the British commission of inquiry to consider it in 1878 as a noble fief.

One of the persons ennobled by Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc particularly draws attention: Vincenzo Fontani. At the age of four, Rohan appointed him captain of cavalry; at eight, he made him a knight of devotion of the Order of Malta. Vincenzo also received a gold cross encrusted with diamonds. On 6 June 1795, Vincenzo, aged eleven, was made Count of Senia.

Let us summarize what we know about Vincenzo: he was baptized on 15 August 1784 at the church (now basilica) of Saint-Dominique in La Valette. He was the son of Lorenzo Fontani, who worked in the service of the Grand Master as Intendente del Palazzo Magistrale, and of Giovanna Crespi. Lorenzo's occupation required him to reside at the magistral palace, and the Grand Master also authorized the presence of his son there. Lorenzo died in 1788 and his widow Giovanna remarried on 16 June 1799 to the Frenchman Antoine Castinel, originally from Senez (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence)[18].

Why did Vincenzo receive so many honors from the Grand Master? The first hypothesis is that Rohan simply had affection for the son of his steward. The second is that Vincenzo was in fact the son of the Grand Master, whose care had been entrusted to Lorenzo Fontani to keep up appearances.[19] Finally, the last hypothesis is that Lorenzo was the son of the Grand Master and Vincenzo his grandson.[20]

A clue may lie in the gold cross that was given to him. The archives of the Order of Malta contain the following entry dated 1 December 1792: "Croci d'Oro […] per intercessione di sua Altezza Reale Madama Adelaide, sorella del Re di Francia."[21] The entry contains an error: Madame Adélaïde was not the sister of the King of France (Louis XVI) but the daughter of Louis XV. This confusion aside, it is difficult to imagine that the princess would intervene without reason to offer a valuable object to the son of the steward of a foreign sovereign. The date mentioned adds some context to this mystery: On 1 December 1792, less than three months after the beheading of her nephew Louis XVI, Adélaïde was in exile in Rome. The cross may have been offered to Vincenzo – who was particularly close to Rohan – in gratitude for a service rendered in those troubled times.

Titles granted by the Hospitaller Grand Masters recognized by the commission (1530-1798).

Titles granted by foreign sovereigns.

While a noble title is often granted to someone based on their merits, some more pragmatic individuals prefer to force fate by reaching into their pockets. Thus, Salvatore Baldassare Sant purchased lands in Lombardy and made contact with the Habsburg chancellor of state, Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, in 1770. By the end of the year, Salvatore paid the sum of three thousand florins (more than fifty thousand euros)[22] and was granted the title of Count Sant by Empress Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche.

Count Sant was not the only one to have purchased his title. While the practice was rare for the oldest titles, with the exception of Francesco Mego who bought his title of Baron of Castel Cicciano from Cristoforo Grimaldi in 1560, it seems to have become common in the 18th century. The creation of titles was a profitable operation for European sovereigns. On 6 November 1742 Gio Pio de Piro purchased his title of marquis in Spain for 572,000 maravédis.[23] Under the reign of Grand Master Rohan the usual procedure for obtaining a title was to present him with a documented case called Suppliche which was merely a formality to which the response was surprisingly quick. There is no doubt that discreet negotiations had been conducted beforehand.

Titles granted by foreign sovereigns (1530-1798)

Maltese nobility and the British monarchy

When the British Crown took possession of Malta upon the departure of the French in 1800[24], it committed, as the Order of the Hospitallers had done three centuries earlier, to respecting the "laws, rights, privileges and religion" in force in the archipelago. The meeting of the two nobilities, however, created unexpected problems. Thus, following the Italian custom confirmed in 1725 by Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena, Maltese nobles could precede their names with the superlatives Illustrissimo e nobile. In English Illustrissimo translates as Most Illustrious, a formula reserved for princes of the blood, that is to say descendants of a monarch who could potentially succeed them on the throne. A compromise was finally reached in 1886 by Count Granville, Secretary of State for the Colonies: the titolati would be designated either by the Italian formula Illustrissimo e nobile or by the English formula Most Noble in official documents.

This matter settled, the count received the following month a letter requesting a modification of the hierarchy of titles: "the dignity of the title must have precedence, namely marquises before counts and counts before barons." It appears that the request had been made by only five nobles (four marquises and one count) acting on their own initiative without consulting the other persons concerned. Their proposal was not followed up.

Conclusion

The royal commission enabled the compilation of a list of titled persons, but this list does not capture the Maltese nobility as a whole. It is indeed a snapshot at a specific moment in time, but when the commission was established, some noble titles had already disappeared, such as for example that of Baron of Frigenuini. Indeed, the heiress to the title Maria Adeodata Pisani renounced all her possessions and rights upon becoming a nun in 1830. Because of her exemplary life she was beatified by Pope Jean-Paul II in 2001.

As we have seen, the history of the Maltese nobility is rich, complex but above all fascinating. For the genealogist interested in the Maltese archipelago, there are various ways to conduct research. The essential starting point is the database of the Adami Group, made available online on the Généanum website where volunteers provide transcriptions of numerous records (baptism, marriage, burial, notarial acts, etc.). Regarding Maltese nobility, the work of the royal commission is an excellent starting point. Publications (mostly in English) also cover the subject but are not free of errors. As for certain websites dedicated to Maltese genealogy presenting endless "ready-made" genealogies invariably going back to illustrious real or imaginary figures, it is best to keep one's distance!

Published with the kind permission of Loïck PORTELLI

1. Economic life in Malta in the 18th century, Aurore Verié
2. Foreigners in Malta (late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), Anne Brogini
3. The Maltese language, a linguistic crossroads, Martine VANHOVE
4. The Jews in Malta, Aurore Verié
5. The French in Algeria from 1830 to today (excerpts), Jeannine VERDES-LEROUX
6. The emigration of Maltese in Algeria in the nineteenth century, Marc DONATO
7. Malta in "A Winter in Egypt" (excerpts), Eugène Poitou
8. The Maltese in Tunisia before the Protectorate (excerpts), Andrea L. SMITH
9. The population of Malta in the seventeenth century, a reflection of modernity (excerpts), Anne Brogini
10. The fear of the French Revolution in Malta, Frans CIAPPARA
11. The Siege of Malta by Napoleon Bonaparte (excerpts)
12. Malta, frontier of Christendom (1530-1670), by Anne BROGINI
13. Everyday slavery in Malta in the 16th century, by Anne BROGINI
14. Maltese nobility and genealogy, by Loïck PORTELLI
15. Some Disreputable Maltese, by Loïck PORTELLI