Matthew Festing

Fra' Robert Matthew Festing (born 30 November 1949) is the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Festing succeeded his compatriot Andrew Bertie, becoming the third Englishman to have served as Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta since 1259.

Robert Matthew Festing is the youngest of four sons born to Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, a Roman Catholic convert who became a Knight of Malta, and Mary Cecilia, née Riddell, the elder daughter of Cuthbert David Giffard Riddell of Swinburne Castle, Northumberland. His father was the grandson of Colonel Francis Worgan Festing. His mother's family is an ancient English recusant family, descending from the Throckmorton baronets and Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue, martyred in 1539. His three elder brothers are John Festing (a former High Sheriff of Northumberland), Major Michael Festing, and Andrew Festing (formerly President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters).

Fra' Matthew attended Ampleforth College, before going up to St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Modern History. He was sponsored by the British Army in the rank of second lieutenant on a university cadetship whilst at Cambridge before being commissioned, on 23 July 1971, as an Ensign in the Grenadier Guards; his service number was 486330. Currently holding the rank of Colonel in the Territorial Army, Festing has also served as the County Cadet Commandant of Northumbria Army Cadet Force.

Festing was a Deputy Lieutenant for Northumberland and, in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, HM Government appointed him Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Fra' Matthew is Patron of the Sandhurst Foundation and Trustee to Northumbria Historic Churches. Until 2008, he was Sotheby's auction representative in Northumberland.

Fra' Matthew was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1977. In 1991, he took perpetual vows, becoming a Knight of Justice. From 1993 to 2008 he served as Grand Prior of England, the first in this office since 1815.

On 11 March 2008, Fra' Matthew was elected Grand Master following a conclave-style meeting at the order's villa on the Aventine Hill in Rome. Only the third English Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he is the immediate successor to the second, Fra' Andrew Bertie, the first being Hugh de Revel in 1258–59.

Titles and style

The full title of Fra' Matthew is:

His Most Eminent Highness Fra' Matthew Festing, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Most Humble Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ.

The Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta was the sovereign ruler of Malta from 1530 until 1798, and nowadays represents the Order's claim to sovereign status. The sovereign Prince was created ex officio a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1607 (as an honorary title, as the Prince and Grand Master was already a Head of State in his own right outside the Empire), as well as the style of Most Eminent Highness from the Pope in 1630, recognising his status as a Prince of the Church. In Catholic Church precedence Fra' Matthew is the highest-ranked officer following the Cardinals, and remains the only leader of an entity within the Catholic Church in modern times, apart from the Pope (as Sovereign of Vatican City State) and the Bishop of Urgell (as Co-Prince of Andorra), to be considered as an independent monarch: historically, many bishops (and archbishops) held sovereign-prince status.

Chivalric orders

•  Sovereign Military Order of Malta:
  • Grand Master (2008)
  • Bailiff (1991)
  • Knight (1977)
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (1998)
• Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St John (GCSTJ) (5 May 2009)
• Territorial Decoration (TD) (1991);
• Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania (2008)
• Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Three Stars (14 October 2008)
• Knight Grand Cross with Collar Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (27 October 2008)
• Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (6 February 2009)
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. Charles (14 October 2009)
• Grand Collar of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword (2010)
• Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2012)
• Member of the Grand Order of King Tomislav (12 October 2008)
• Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (Franco-Neapolitan branch):
  • Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice with the Collar (2010)
  • Knight Grand Cross of Justice (1994)
  • Knight of Justice (1991)
• Knight of the Order of St Januarius (2010)
• Knight of the Order of St. Andrew
• Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
• Knight of the Order of the White Eagle
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Anna
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stanislaus.
• Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr
• Grand Collar of the Order of Sikatuna, Rank of Raja (3 March 2015)
• Grand Collar Of the Order of Makarios III
• Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (31 July 2015)

National Honours

• National Flag Order (Albania) (2015)

Crown appointment of the United Kingdom

• Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Northumberland

Honorary citizenship

• Honorary Freeman of the City of Rapallo (Italy, 18 September 2008)
• Pompeii, Italy
• Birgu, Malta

Honorary academic degrees

Country	Date	School	Degree
United States of America	10 October 2009	Catholic University of America	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Italy	12 May 2014	John Cabot University	Doctor of Public Service
England	'	Northumbria University