While delivering one of his many erudite speeches in the late 1980s, President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, then minister of education, referred to Malta as having enjoyed a telescoping of history. As a much younger man, I listened to him explain further how global events had always left their footprint on our archipelago, with occupiers always being whoever was dominant on the world stage during any particular period.

That much is true, but there are also instances where our history seems to have been very much in anticipation of, and a key determinant to, global events.

Being a nation that wakes up every day in the firm belief that we are the centre of the world, I am quite convinced that many, if not most, will agree with me outright, even without reading what I have to say. After all, ‘we are small in size, but big in heart’, ‘punch above our weight’ and ‘have an important role to play’, etc.

For the benefit of those who require some pseudo-historical nudging before they can accept the obvious, let me start by going with the universally acknowledged fact (another term for cliché) that Valletta, the 2018 demi-European Capital of Culture, was the precursor of the modern day European Union.

Bringing together the ruling houses of the major European countries of the day, the Order of Saint John had its Spanish, who were divided into the Castille and Aragon langues, with the latter also catering for the always-want-to-be-separate Catalonians. The Order also included France, Italy and Germany.

The enemy then was the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), but I shall refrain from expounding on that and drawing modern-day parallels for reasons of political correctness and sensibilities.

The first city built to house a union of Europeans was Valletta

What more do I need to say? The first city built to house a union of Europeans was definitely Valletta, and Brussels would eventually just play the copycat, centuries later. And what, you are probably asking, does Valletta have in common with Brexit, and what’s this about a ‘first’ Brexit?

There, my friends, lies the heart of the matter (apologies to Graham Greene). The devil lies in the detail and there is one such detail which proves how far ahead of its time Valletta was, way back in 1566, when being a mere demi-capital of culture was not in its grandiose plans. To make sure it would be a true forerunner, if not outright blueprint, of today’s European Union, Valletta had already had its first Brexit.

When the Knights of Saint John (of so many places) first arrived in Malta in 1530, all in disarray after having been unceremoniously kicked out of Rhodes, they were made up of eight langues, one for every point of their cross. The eighth, never-mentioned langue was… yes, English.

In Northwest Street (Triq il-Majjistral), Birgu, subsequently rebaptised Vittoriosa prior to being abandoned by the Knights, one can still find the Auberge d’Angleterre. The building served many purposes in the past, including as a local library for many years after its 1988 restoration and now as a local health centre.

Valletta, on the other hand, does not have an Auberge d’Angleterre, as one was never built. Between 1530 and 1566, the 16th-century Brexit occurred, with Henry VIII taking time between wives to pull England out of the Order and out of the Catholic religion in general. Building a whole auberge for just the one remaining knight, Sir Oliver Starkey, even if he was very close to the man who gave his name to the city, was a bit over the top.

English interests in the Order were still kept alive, however, just in case. No way could it have been the French entrusted with handling English interests, so an Anglo-Bavarian langue was established in the Auberge de Baviere. Little did it matter that there were no Anglos left – their influence had to remain, and the alphabet determined that ‘Anglo’ had to come before ‘Bavarian’ in the name of the langue.

And there you have it. Not only was Valletta the precursor and prototype of today’s European Union, but it’s planners also had the foresight to anticipate the Brexit black spot, thus accentuating the beauty of Valletta’s European Union character, then and now. No surprise then that Brexit negotiations and dealings will be at their most intense while Valletta is a capital of European culture.

It could not have been otherwise.

Martin Bugelli is not a historian.