The Association of Foreign Title Holders in Malta brings together the holders of bona fide titles of nobility. These titles form part of the Nobility in Malta and they have proud origins of their own, fully endorsed by leading and lawful authorities.          

The Association is an autonomous body and enjoys a Statute approved by the Assembly of Members at a General Meeting held on the 21st October 1995. A Council of Officers is elected every two years and is responsible for the administration of the Association. Full membership is accorded to the holders of the relative titles whilst associate membership is offered to those persons proving their descent from the lawful grantee of a foreign title in terms of the Statute.            

Most of the individual members of the Association are themselves of very ancient, noble lineage. The Association acknowledges that other titled families in Malta are descended from its own members' illustrious predecessors. Some of those families claim titles of nobility founded on titles forming part of the Association of Foreign Title Holders in Malta .            

On the 15th August 1994, His Serene Highness Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Victor Alexander, Sovereign Prince of Lippe, Noble Lord of Biesterfeld, Count of Schwalenberg and Sternberg, Hereditary Burgrave of Vianen and Ameiden near Utrecht, Grandmaster of the House Order of Lippe, extended his Royal recognition and patronage to all members of the “August group known, as the Foreign Title Holders in Malta” whose titles are endorsed by Burkes Peerage, namely The Prince of Selimbria, The Duke of Paganica (in abeyance), The Marquis Bugeja (in abeyance), The Marquis Buttigieg De Piro, The Marquis Drago, The Marquis Mattei, The Marquis Scicluna, The Marquis Testaferrata, The Marquis Testaferrata Moroni Viani, The Marquis of Tiana, The Count Bernard, The Count of Casandola (in abeyance), The Count Gauci, The Count of San Paolino d'Aquilejo, The Count von Zimmermann (in abeyance), The Baron von Brockdorff, The Baron of Calaforno and Tummarello, The Baron della Gabella della Scannatura di Trapani, The Baron de Pausier, The Baron of Montagna di Marzo, The Baron of Ortigos, The Baron of San Paolino and The Baron Testaferrata Moroni Viani.

The armorial bearings of the Association are the ancient arms of Malta incorporating the red rose of the Royal House of Lippe by special Royal decree.