A Maltese Falcon for the King of Spain

A Maltese falcon will once again be offered to the King of Spain at a Vittoriosa ceremony this Sunday. From TMIS:

The elaborate and colourful ceremony will commemorate the 475th anniversary of the cession of the island of Malta to the Knights of St John by Emperor Charles V on 24 March 1530. The Maltese falcon, on which the famous Humphrey Bogart film was based, is the bird which the Knights and the people of Malta sent every year to the Holy Roman Emperor and his descendants, the Kings of Spain, as a sign of their continuing fealty. The Maltese were subjects of Spain before the Knights came and continued being so even under the Knights..

A solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving (in Latin) will be sung at 9.45am and the falcon blessed, after which guests and visitors will leave the church for the nearby Main Square where a Maltese actor, representing Grand Master L’Isle Adam will hand over the falcon to the Spanish Chief Falconer. The ceremony will then proceed from the Main Square to the Vittoriosa waterfront where some of the guests and visitors will leave in dghajsas.

The next day, on Monday 5 September, the guests will visit the National Library in Valletta where they will be shown the authenticated copy of the original Charles V document cedeing Malta to the Order of St John, including the annual donation of a Maltese falcon as proof of the Maltese people’s continuing fealty to the Spanish Crown...