Order of Malta -
Emmanuel de Rohan - Grand Master of the Order of Saint John: 12 November 1775 - 14 July 1797
1790 Silver 30 Tari 40mm (29.53 grams) Valletta mint
Reference: Dav. 1609; KM# 335.1
Certification: NGC AU 53 5846614-003
F· EMMANUEL DE ROHAN M. M.; Draped bust right of Emannuel de Rohan.
HOSPITA. ET S. SEP. HIERUS. T. 30; coat-of-arms of the Order of Malta; year in top left field. You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Fra' Emmanuel Marie des Neiges de Rohan-Polduc (18 April 1725, in la Mancha, Spain - 14 July 1797, in Valletta, Malta) was a member of the wealthy and influential Rohan family of France, and 70th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of St. John from 1775 to 1797.
De Rohan was born in la Mancha, Spain on 18 April 1725. His father was French, but had been banished to Spain. He served in the courts of Madrid and Parma, before becoming an ambassador to Francis I. He eventually joined the Order of St. John, and served in several posts. He was considered as a potential successor to Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca following his death in 1773, but Francisco Ximenes de Texada was elected instead. Ximenes' magistracy was unpopular due to the Order's bankruptcy. He died in 1775, and was succeeded by De Rohan. De Rohan sought to win the respect of the people, and he became a popular Grand Master. On 21 June 1777, he elevated the village of Żebbuġ to the status of city, naming it Città Rohan. An archway commemorating this event was constructed in 1798. The coat of arms of Żebbuġ contains the arms of the House of Rohan, in honour of the Grand Master. De Rohan authored the Code de Rohan, a constitutional law book published in two volumes titled Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes of Malta in 1782. This Grand Master was also responsible for the publication of the Diritto Municipale in 1784. De Rohan instituted the Anglo-Bavarian langue, which was housed in the former Palazzo Carniero. In 1797, he established the Russian Grand Priory, which later evolved into the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller. In 1792, he commissioned and partially financed the construction of Fort Tigné. St. Lucian Tower & Battery were also upgraded during De Rohan's magistracy, and the complex was renamed Fort Rohan in 1795 after the Grand Master. It was rebuilt as Fort San Lucian in the 1870s, but it still retains De Rohan's coat of arms on the façade. The last few years of De Rohan's magistracy were troublesome, due to the decline of the Order because of the French Revolution. De Rohan suffered a stroke in 1792, and his health began to deteriorate. He died on 14 July 1797, and was buried at St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. His last words were "I, at any rate, am the last grandmaster, at least of an order illustrious and independent." He was proven correct, since less than a year after his death, the French invaded Malta and expelled the Order from the island.
 The De Rohan Arch (Maltese: Il-Bieb De Rohan; Italian: Porta De Rohan), also known as the New Gateway (Maltese: Il-Bieb il-Ġdid), is a commemorative archway in Żebbuġ, Malta. It was built in 1798 to commemorate the locality's status as a city, which had been granted by Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc on 21 June 1777.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (Italian: Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta; Latin: Supremus Militaris Ordo Hospitalarius Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodiensis et Melitensis), commonly known as the Order of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalric and noble nature. It has been called "the smallest sovereign state in the world", though it is not recognized as one by the United Nations. SMOM claims continuity with the Knights Hospitaller, a chivalric order that was founded c. 1099 by the Blessed Gerard in medieval Jerusalem. In terms of international law, it is an establishment of the 19th century, recognized at the Congress of Verona of 1822, and since 1834 headquartered in Palazzo Malta in Rome. The order is led by an elected Prince and Grand Master. Its motto is Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum ('defence of the faith and assistance to the poor'). The order venerates the Virgin Mary as its patroness, under the title of Our Lady of Mount Philermos. The headquarters of the Order of Saint John had been located in Malta from 1530 until 1798. It was technically a vassal of the Kingdom of Sicily, holding Malta in exchange for a nominal fee, but declared independence in 1753. It was expelled from Malta under the French occupation in 1798 and, from 1805 to 1812, much of its possessions in Protestant Europe were confiscated, resulting in the fragmentation of the order into a number of Protestant branches, since 1961 united under the umbrella of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 confirmed the loss of Malta, but the Congress of Verona in 1822 guaranteed the continued existence of the Catholic order as a sovereign entity. The seat of the order was moved to Ferrara in 1826 and to Rome in 1834, the interior of Palazzo Malta being considered extraterritorial sovereign territory of the order. The grand priories of Lombardy-Venetia and of Sicily were restored from 1839 to 1841. The office of Grand Master was restored by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, after a vacancy of 75 years, confirming Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce as the first Grand Master of the restored Order of Malta. The Holy See was established as a subject of international law in the Lateran Treaty of 1929. In the following decades, the connection between the Holy See and the Order of Malta was seen as so close as to call into question the actual sovereignty of the order as a separate entity. This has prompted constitutional changes on the part of the Order, which were implemented in 1997. Since then, the Order has been widely recognized as a sovereign subject of international law in its own right. It maintains diplomatic relations with 107 states, has permanent observer status at the United Nations, enters into treaties and issues its own passports, coins and postage stamps. Its two headquarters buildings in Rome enjoy extraterritoriality, similar to embassies, and it maintains embassies in other countries. The three principal officers are counted as citizens. The Order has 13,500 Knights, Dames and auxiliary members. A few dozen of these are professed religious. Until the 1990s, the highest classes of membership, including officers, required proof of noble lineage. More recently, a path was created for Knights and Dames of the lowest class (of whom proof of aristocratic lineage is not required) to be specially elevated to the highest class, making them eligible for office in the order. The order employs about 42,000 doctors, nurses, auxiliaries and paramedics assisted by 80,000 volunteers in more than 120 countries, assisting children, homeless, handicapped, elderly, and terminally ill people, refugees, and lepers around the world without distinction of ethnicity or religion. Through its worldwide relief corps, Malteser International, the order aids victims of natural disasters, epidemics and war. In several countries, including France, Germany and Ireland, local associations of the order are important providers of medical emergency services and training. Its annual budget is on the order of 1.5 billion euros, largely funded by European governments, the United Nations and the European Union, foundations and public donors.
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