An official page for ‘The Chief Herald of Malta” on Heritage Malta gives a detailed breakdown of the prices for the registration of arms. 

To register heraldic arms, Maltese and non-Maltese residents can pay up to €750 and €1,250 respectively. But there are further costs for other services, including ‘Letters Patent’, which is a document issued by a government confirming the titles or arms. 

That means that the Chief Herald has the power to devise and grant new arms, both personal and corporate; register arms which have already been in use locally for many years; and register those previously granted by appropriate foreign authorities.

Essentially, it allows an “international clique of holders to pay to register their coat of arms”, turning “imaginary princes to ones recognised” in the EU.

It seems that there are very few checks and balances on the applications, meaning that anyone, even you, could find themselves with an honourary title by just sending over a fee. 

One American man is even calling himself ‘Count of Knockgraffon and Prince of Munster’, while a New Zealander is now titled ‘Lord of the Manor of Little Neston’ thanks to the Chief Heald.

What a country. From @PrivateEyeNews. pic.twitter.com/mucgCT81xX

— Paul Caruana Galizia (@pcaruanagalizia) August 28, 2022

The office was set up in March 2019 upon recommendation by then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the Cabinet. 

However, it has long been dismissed as a “false title of authority” by EUNORAC, the European Nobility and Orders Registry and Commission.

“The Office of the Chief Herald of Malta is a false title of authority, lacking the fons honorum right onto which it possesses offices which could grant heraldic titles and arms represented on or by a national or international level,” it previously said in a statement. 

“The Republic of Malta has not established a governmental heraldic institution which would be introduced and regulated by law. There is no national law which created or regulates any heraldic authority by the name “Office of the Chief Herald of Malta”.

The Chief Herald of Malta is Charles Gauci, who styles himself as the Lt Colonel Dr Chev. Count Charles A. Gauci, Hereditary Noble in the Oblesse of Scotland, Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists of England. 

Gauci has also faced criticism as being a pretender in the role, both by Private Eye and EURONAC, which said that he “is not educated in matters of heraldry”.

“The title itself even if being taken into account has no legality on matters of Malta. Gauci is educated in the medical field and not the heraldic one.”

But it seems that the mockery and lack of official recognition have not stopped malta, with the website still very much up and running.

“It’s unlikely Gauci and his backers will allow this to set them back for long, and no doubt Malta will continue to launder titles as well as cash; just a bit more quietly in the future,” Private Eye reads. 

Are you going to apply for a new title?