What is now republican Malta seems to have had an uncomplicated rapport with monarchies and their loves, lives and wives.

Celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897, in Queen’s Square, Valletta. All images from the author’s collection

From recorded history, anything connected with the royal presence inspired awe, inquisitiveness, deference and reverence.

Malta only once had its own exclusive monarch. Elizabeth II of England was Queen Elizabeth I of Malta between 1964 and 1974. Apart from that brief independence bracket, Malta always had to make do with the kings of the colonising powers, be they Romans or Byzantines.

The Normans, Aragonese, Castilians and the Knights of St John ruled over Malta, but as part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Sicilian sovereignty over Malta, with brief but significant gaps, was by far the longest – from 1130 to 1814.

King Edward VII in Malta. Photo: The Grand Studio

Malta’s kings and queens, for all those years, were simply the monarchs who happened to occupy the throne of Sicily. It is thus wrong to assert that Malta was passed to the Order of St John in 1530 by Emperor Charles V of Spain. Not at all. The ‘enfeoffment’ of Malta to the Knights was made by Charles II, as King of Sicily.

This series of three pictorial articles deals with royal events in Malta after the invention of photography in 1839.

To be continued next week

Military parade before the Duke of Connaught%2C 1907.

Prince%2C later Emperor Hirohito of Japan (left) in San Anton Gardens%2C Attard%2C 1919.

A locally made card to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s tour of the Empire and HMS Bermuda%2C 1954.

HMS Ramillies in Grand Harbour celebrating the wedding of Prince George to Princess Mary in 1934.

King Alfonso XIII of Spain visiting Malta in 1929.

The last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire%2C Mehmed VI%2C defeated and exiled%2C lands in Malta in 1922.

Royal visit to Malta by King George V and Queen Mary%2C 1912.