San Anton Palace and the Romonov connection

Queen Maria of Romania came to Malta aged 12 with her parents. 

Her father was Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh and son of Queen Victoria. Her mother was the the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrova of Russia daughter of Czar Alexander II. The young Marie was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and was expected to marry into royalty. She spent her teenage years living in the San Anton Palace. 

The Russian Orthodox chapel within the palace was constructed for her Russian Orthodox mother and has been recently beautifully renovated.  

Within three decades Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrova would live to see huge numbers of her relatives executed including her nephew, Tsar Nicholas II his wife and his five children.  

For the family of Queen Marie their stay in Malta was the quiet before the storm of the first World War. Marie was becoming a young lady whose hand in marriage was sought by many.

Marie

She had several proposals of marriage including one from her cousin George who would be the future king of England.  These were turned down by her family.  In 1892 she was chosen as the future wife of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, the heir apparent of King Carol I. Her life as Queen of Romania would be a challenging one and she had her share of suffering.  Apart from political intrigues and war she suffered the loss of her youngest son who died aged 3 in 1916.

3 year old son Prince Mircea

Later in 1924 she would return to those gardens and a tree was planted in her name and can be found there still. Her time in Malta was one of the happiest of her life and in her autobiography it became clear how important this happy period of her life was to her.

For the Baha’i community of Malta, which has existed on the island for over 60 years, Queen Maria's connections with the island has another significance. Beginning in 1867 in Adrianople and continuing later in ‘Akká, Bahá’u’lláh (Founder of the Baha'i Faith) wrote to the kings and rulers of the world, including Emperor Napoleon III, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Tsar Alexander II, Emperor Franz Joseph, Pope Pius IX, Sultan Abdul-Aziz, and the Iranian ruler, Nasiri'd-Din Shah. In these letters, Bahá’u’lláh openly proclaimed His station as a Messenger of God. He urged the leaders to pursue justice and disarmament and exhorted them to band together into a commonwealth of nations, warning them of the dire consequences should they fail to establish peace. 

Two of these recipients were Queen Victoria and Czar Alexander II of Russia. During Baha’u’llah’s long imprisonment and exile under the Ottoman Empire he was offered assistance,at different times, from both the Russian and British governments.  Although he refused to avail himself of their offers of protection it is significant to note that Queen Marie, who was a grandchild of both Victoria and Alexander II, spoke movingly of the Baha’i Faith and what it meant to her. The acceptance of Bahá'u'lláh's station by this Queen - made her the first crowned head to embrace the Baha'i Faith.

“The Baha’i teaching brings peace and understanding. It is like a wide embrace gathering together all those who have long searched for words of hope. It accepts all great Prophets gone before, it destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors open. Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers of many confessions and wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I discovered in the Baha’i teaching the real spirit of Christ so often denied and misunderstood: Unity instead of strife, Hope instead of condemnation, Love instead of hate, and a great reassurance for all men. “– Queen Marie