I read with sorrow the news about the disappearance of the pair of Maltese falcons. If, as concluded by BirdLife Malta, this was the act of illegal shooting by poachers, I sincerely hope that the culprits are caught and brought to justice. As the joint statement by the Federation for Hunting and Conservation and St Hubert Hunters Malta states, this should not be a difficult task for the police, since BLM report that the presence of poachers with shotguns was witnessed by 120 of their members. Surely some photos and footage were taken.

Truly, the Maltese falcon has important historical connotations. However, for the sake of correctness and credibility, I wish to point out that when the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem came to Malta in 1530, the last Roman emperor had been dead for some years and, therefore, no Maltese falcon could have been donated by the Knights to a “Roman emperor”..

The truth is that Malta was donated to the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem by Charles V of Spain. He was king of the Spanish empire and ruled the major part of Europe including the “Holy Roman Empire”, a cluster of lands that existed in central Europe and, as such, he was also referred to as the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V of Spain.

In 1530, the emperor, also king of the “Two Sicilies”, of which Malta formed part at the time, granted the islands of Malta to the Order. It was for this reason that an annual feudal tax was paid, though this was only a token and included, a “Maltese falcon”. Some authors say that it was two falcons, one to be sent to the ruler of Spain himself and the other to his Viceroy in Sicily.