After the restoration of the stadtholdership in 1744, Freemasonry revived. In 1756, ten lodges joined together to form the 'Groote Loge der Zeven Vereenigde Nederlanden', which name was changed in 1817 to the name that still applies today: Orde van Vrijmetsaren onder het Grootoosten der Nederlanden'.Two princes of the House of Orange held the position of Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons in the 19th century: Prince Frederik (the younger brother of King William II, who was also a Freemason) for 65 years, from 1816 to 1881, and Prince Alexander (the younger son of King William III) from 1882 until his early death in 1884.
Frederik, Prince of the Netherlands, was born on 28 February 1797, the second son of Prince William Frederik, later King William I. Born and raised in Berlin, he was for some years an active officer in Prussian service, and in 1813 entered the Netherlands. He married Louisa Augusta Amelia, daughter of Frederick William III, King of Prussia. Frederick became commander of the army corps during the Belgian revolt in 1830 and in 1840 appointed Field Marshal of the army.
In 1816 he was accepted as a Freemason in a Berlin lodge of the German Grand Lodge "Zu den Drei Weltkugeln" and in the same year he was appointed as Grand Master National of the Grand East of the Netherlands and for the Chapter of the High Degrees. In 1819 he declared that he did not want to work in the High Degrees any more, because he detested the Christian character and thought that this would undermine the character of
Freemasonry as a sanctuary for all believers. In addition, this was partly in connection with the establishment of the Department of the Master Degree, which he had envisaged. In 1835, however, the prince was again elected Grand Master National for all Dutch obediences.
In 1856 he donated the The Order In 1856 he donated the building on the Fluwelen Burgwal in The Hague, which remained in use as an Order and Lodge building until 1993. In 1866, during the celebration of his 50th anniversary of Freemasonry, Frederick donated the famous library of Georg Kloss, which he had purchased, to the Order and took the initiative to found the Louisa Foundation.
In his time he was a highly respected and beloved member of the House of Orange. From the moment his father King William I was proclaimed sovereign of the Netherlands in 1813 until his death in 1881, he played an important role as advisor to Kings William I (his father), William II (his brother) and William III (his nephew). He was also very active in society. For instance, the Prince was for 65 years Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons of the Metropolitan Netherlands.
Prince Frederick was born in Berlin in 1797, the son of hereditary Prince William Frederick (later King William I) and Princess Wilhelmina.
The reason he was not born in the Netherlands but in Berlin was that his family, led by his grandfather Stadtholder William V, had had to flee the country two years earlier because of the French invasion. At that time, the chance that the Oranges would ever return to the Netherlands as a stadholder family seemed very small. Prince Frederik therefore grew up mainly in Prussia and other German principalities and received a corresponding (partly military) Prussian upbringing. It was only after Napoleon's failed campaign in Russia that the tide began to turn in the European balance of power and there was some prospect of a return to the long-lost fatherland.
In 1813, Willem Frederik was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands after he landed on the coast of Scheveningen on 30 November of that year. Square 1813 in Willemspark and the monument to independence unveiled by Prince Frederik in 1869 in the middle of the square are reminders of this event.
Prince Frederik first set foot on Dutch soil in December 1813 and shortly afterwards began studying at Leiden University. From 1815, when William I had become King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Prince took up public functions: in 1815 he became a member of the Council of State, in 1816 Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons and in 1817 Grand Master of Artillery. The reason that Prince Frederik became Grand Master of the Freemasons was political: there was some fear that the Freemasons would want to block the policy of unification of the Northern and Southern Netherlands. This was especially true for the southern Lodges where there were many opponents of the United Kingdom and Bonapartists and who were still connected to the French Grand-East. Therefore, royal supervision was considered necessary. For Freemasonry, this had the advantage of a direct link to the royal family. With this aim in mind, a court lodge called L'Union Frédérique was founded in 1816, which in many respects can be seen as a forerunner of L'Union Frédéric, founded in 1914.
The Louisa State in Baarn.
Although his entrance into Freemasonry had a political background, the prince took his task as Grand Master seriously.
Frederik soon felt at home in the brotherhood and soon began to involve himself in all kinds of organisational aspects of Freemasonry.
An important Masonic legacy of the prince concerns the still existing Divisions of the Master Degree, which was to form an alternative to the higher degrees.
For Prince Frederik personally, Freemasonry was a school of learning in many respects: in addition to the "usual" Masonic education, he learned how to manage an unruly organisation with very diverse people and visions. Above all, Freemasonry brought him into contact with many people (ordinary citizens) whom he would otherwise never have met.
A second important legacy of the prince concerns his gift of the Order building on the Fluwelen Burgwal. In 1847 he donated this building to the Order and until the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century the executive committee and the lodges in The Hague were housed here. Condition for this gift was that the three existing lodges in The Hague Loge L'Union RoyaleEendragt maakt Magt and L'Union Fréderique would merge into one Lodge. In 1847, he offered the Hague Masonic Lodges L'Union Royale (founded 1757), Eendragt maakt Magt(1795) and L' Union Frédéric (1816) the "use and exploitation" of the building. A temple was built in the garden. In 1856, Prince Frederik donated the lodge building to the Masonic Order on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
The former Masonic building at 22 Fluwelen Burgwal in The Hague.
In 1825 Prince Frederick married the Prussian Princess Louise, who was also his niece (at this time, marriages between nephews and nieces were especially common in royal and noble families, as this was seen as an excellent way to establish and confirm political alliances). From this marriage two daughters and two sons were born. The eldest daughter Louise married King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway and thus became Queen of these countries. The present kings of Belgium and Norway and the Queen of Denmark descend from her and thus from Prince Frederick in a direct line. The Prince's two sons both died in childhood. During the winter, the Prince's family lived in a city palace on Korte Voorhout, which stood where the Ministry of Finance now stands and was destroyed in the bombing of Bezuidenhout in 1945. In the summer they lived in Huize de Pauw, the present town hall of Wassenaar.
Furthermore, the Prince owned considerable pieces of land in and around The Hague and he owned land in present-day Germany and Poland.
Unlike his brother King Willem II, he managed his capital skilfully and he died in 1881 as a very wealthy man.
The prince died on 08 September 1881 after a Grand Mastery of more than 65 years.
Thierry Stravers is co-owner of Masonic Store.
He likes to combine his passion for style and elegance with his Masonic activities.
Thierry is the owner of Trenicaa marketing agency and is a board member of Loge Enlightenment No.313 O: Hoofddorp.
https://vrijmetselaarswinkel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Prins-Frederik.jpg15001500Thierry Stravershttps://vrijmetselaarswinkel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Vrijmetselaarswinkel_logo-2.pngThierry Stravers2021-05-24 15:03:042021-09-18 09:56:26Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, the old Grand Master
https://vrijmetselaarswinkel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Gurkha4.png514402Raphaël van den Poelhttps://vrijmetselaarswinkel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Vrijmetselaarswinkel_logo-2.pngRaphaël van den Poel2021-05-16 10:25:152021-06-30 10:07:10The origins of the Gurkha pantaloon.
Painting by Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon in his office'.
5 May marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. He is still the most famous ruler France has ever had. Despite his contradictory nature, he is undoubtedly one of the most important personalities in history. Many generations of French people have been filled with admiration, pride and unremitting interest in studying the life of the "little corporal" who became emperor.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica. He became a successful and popular military leader and came to power in France in 1799. This was not enough for the ambitious Napoleon: he later crowned himself emperor.
With his armies, he conquered large parts of Europe in those years. However, the campaign in Russia in 1812 ended in defeat. Napoleon was exiled to Elba. But he escaped and within 100 days he was back in power in France. In 1815 he was finally defeated at Waterloo.
The English bring him to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he finally dies in 1821, at the age of 51.
Was Napoleon a Freemason?
Historians have no document that could confirm this, but there are some undeniable facts that show Napoleon's strong affiliation with Freemasonry. It was thanks to Napoleon that Freemasonry spread in Europe. He changed Freemasonry from a secret society, as it was until then, to almost an official state religion and united all French Lodges in the Grand Orient de France. On his native island of Corsica, Bonaparte grew up surrounded by Freemasons. His father and all three of his brothers were Freemasons, so there was undoubtedly a lot of talk about Freemasonry.
The youngest brother, Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860) was initiated into Freemasonry at the age of 17 in the Mir Lodge in the east of Toulon.
His Masonic career developed rapidly. A year later, in 1801, he became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Westphalia, and in 1807 Napoleon made him King.
The elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), was initiated into the Loge La Parfaite Sincérité (The Perfect Sincerity) in the east of Marseille. In 1804 he became Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France and King of Naples, then King of Spain.
Finally, Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), father of the future Napoleon III, served as Deputy Grand Master from 1803 to 1806, before being succeeded by Jean-Jacques Regis Cambasseres.
Napoleon's wife, Empress Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), was initiated into a women's lodge in Strasbourg and held the position of Grand Master for some time.
Eugène de Beauharnais, Josephine's only son from her first marriage, at the age of 24, who had been given the title of Viceroy of Italy by her stepfather, became the founder of the Grand Orient of Italy and the High Council of Italy.
The support of Freemasonry in Europe by Napoleon, caused an unprecedented stir. Many soldiers, politicians, nobility and citizens wanted to become members of Freemasonry. Twenty-two of Napoleon's thirty Marshals, five of the six members of the Imperial Military Council and six of the nine government ministers were Freemasons. The reign of Bonaparte can be called the golden age of Freemasonry. In the 18 years that he was in power, the number of Masonic lodges in France increased from 300 to 1220, of which a large part were military lodges. Napoleon saw in Freemasonry a powerful tool to unite the army, which was very useful for his European ambitions.
Napoleon's Grande Armée, crosses the Berezyna River.
During his military operations in Europe, the International Brotherhood was an ideal instrument. Freemasonry, however, responded to the Emperor with reciprocity. Busts of the emperor were installed in many Masonic temples and any criticism of his rule was considered provocation.
In 1801, the Loge Bonaparte was founded in Paris with the main task of glorifying the emperor's name. The lodge successfully survived exile and Napoleon's death and was not closed until 1871. It withstood the reactionary years thanks to the fact that it was carefully renamed Moderation Lodge.
It was the military officers, subordinates of Bonaparte, who took part in the Egyptian expedition that brought Freemasonry to the banks of the Nile. General Kleber founded Loge Isis in Cairo, also founded by Napoleon.
But the question remains. Although Napoleon made Freemasonry a part of his government policy, was he an active Mason?
If he wanted to become a member, he would immediately receive the highest and most honourable title in the Order.
If we know the character of Napoleon, the answer to this question is quite clear: it was not enough that he was "first among equals", he had to be "above" equality. The Bonaparte family came from an old Florentine aristocratic family. Napoleon had every right to add the title of Count to his family name, but he never took advantage of this opportunity.
But neither did he want to be called a friar.
For the same reason Napoleon once renounced the title of Marshal - it was enough for him that he was "de facto" commander-in-chief of the French army. Ranks and titles were in no way attractive to him. Napoleon was only interested in absolute power.
After he was crowned Emperor of France, Napoleon got his ambition.
He called the imperial throne, "a piece of wood" and sitting at the dinner table with the nobility of Europe, he would sometimes remark,
"When I had the honor of being a junior lieutenant..." .
L'empereur had a nose for propaganda. When it was necessary to demonstrate the wealth and power of his empire, he was not stingy. His palaces were richly decorated with gold and the court was the most refined in Europe.
Coronation of Napoleon I as Emperor of France. Notre Dame, Paris. December 2, 1804.
After he became Emperor, Napoleon remained closely involved in Masonic affairs.
At the execution site of King Louis XVI, he ordered an obelisk to be erected with a Masonic symbol, a five-pointed star. A bee, a Masonic symbol, was used in the creation of his personal imperial coat of arms. The bee is a very old symbol. In ancient Egypt, it accompanied the goddess Isis and had many meanings. For Napoleon, the bee meant a willingness to sacrifice for the country and the ability to rebirth.
Shortly after Napoleon came to power, on 22 June 1799, a nine-article memorandum was signed between the two largest French Grand Lodges, laying down specific
rules. In particular, the Honorable Master was stripped of his exclusive privileges. A system for the election of officials was made compulsory for all lodges. Only a few Lodges in the Scottish Rite refused to join the Memorandum.
Thus, the fragmented French Freemasonry became a unified and homogeneous system, fully supported by Napoleon. Soon the 'Regulator of Freemasonry' was published - a set of rules and rituals for the lodges of Le Grand Orient de France.
The Lodges under the Scottish Rite also made appropriate changes to their rules, but this took three years. As a result, the rituals were still not identical, but there was one Supreme Council of the 33rd degree. The decisions of this council were binding. The Emperor could influence every decision, as the High Council was meanwhile headed by his elder brother Joseph, who had become the Grand Master.
The 'Regulator of Freemasonry', which unified the activities of Freemasons, became a document that organically continued the reforms of Napoleon, along with the Constitution, the Civil Code, the system of universal education, a single award system of the state (the Order of the Legion of Honour), etc.
An engraving with a list of members of Loge Bonaparte. On the left is Bonaparte and on the right is Jean-Baptiste Willermose (1730-1824), who designed a system of High Degrees for Freemasonry in France and Germany.
Following France, the Freemasons of other European countries began to combine their rituals into one system. Marshal of the realm, Freemason Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who became crown prince of Sweden, reformed the Swedish rite. The system of 12 Masonic degrees still exists.
Friedrich Ludwig Schröder, Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg, inspired by the ancient rites of the Knights Templar, developed his Rite, limited to three symbolic degrees. Today it is practised in some lodges in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Switzerland.
In Spain, the Grand Master Count François Joseph Paul de Grass also established a Masonic hierarchy under the leadership of the Supreme Council.
In 1806, to celebrate his triumph at Austerlitz, Napoleon decided to build the Arc de Triomphe. A team of builders and architects, composed entirely of Freemasons, was set up to carry out the project. Brother Jean-Baptiste Nomper de Champagny proposed the concept and chose the building site. The original plan was designed by the architect Charles-Louis Balzac (Loge Le Grand Sphinx, Paris) and the architect Jean-Francois Chalgren (Loge L'etoile Polaire, Paris).
Freemasons created the relief on the arch. The sculptors François Rueud (north side, composition "Marseillaise") and Jean-Pierre Corto (south side, composition "Le monde viennoise"). The official government architect, Maison Pierre Fontaine, supervised the construction.
On the engraving from 1860, under the shadow of the emperor above whom The Eye of the Providence shines, are 61 historical figures from his time. On the left are Désé, Cambassaire, Kleber and the commanders Davaux, Lannes, Murat, Lasalle, Mathieu Dumas, among others. On the right: Washington, Frederick the Great, Alessandro Volta, Diderot, Lased, Lafayette, Parmatier, Helvetia.
Following the military leaders, Napoleonic Freemasonry was enthusiastically received by the most prominent figures of science and culture in France:
Pierre Simon de Laplace - mathematician, physicist and astronomer, one of the creators of probability and differential equations,
Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt - chemist, pharmacist and writer, founder of one of the first scientific journals, Le Bulletin Pharmalogique,
Artist Pierre Prudon (Loge Charity, Bonn),
Artist Francois Gérard (Loge Le Grand Sphinx, Paris),
Portrait painter Jean-Baptiste Isabé (Loge Saint Napoleon, Paris),
Actor Francois-Joseph Talma, reformer of theatrical art (Loge Union, Paris),
Academician Pierre Jean Georges Cabanie, physiologist and philosopher (Loge Les Neuf Sœurs, Paris),
Academician Joseph Lacanal, professor of philosophy, member of the monastery, organiser of the education system in France (Loge Le Point Idéal, Paris),
writer, publicist and politician Henri-Benjamin Constant, the most important representatives of French Romanticism in literature,
sculptor Claude Claudion (Les Amis Fidèles, Paris),
Alexander Bognard, professor of natural sciences, chemist, pharmacist, geologist, zoologist, botanist and palaeontologist (Loge Saint-Jean-du-Contrat, Paris),
architect Pierre Fontaine,
composer André Gretry, creator of the French comic opera,
Composer Luigi Cherubini, creator of the genre "opera salvage" (Loge Saint Jean de Palestine, Paris).
The legacy of Napoleon.
Perhaps the most famous legacy of Napoleon. He introduced the civil registry in the areas where he had power, in the Netherlands in 1811. Births, marriages, everything had to be registered from then on. Family names were already being used, but this ensured that your ancestors adopted their definitive family name. Useful for when you are doing genealogical research. But Napoleon simply wanted a good overview, so that he could levy taxes more easily.
When you get into your car now, you drive on the right side of the road. Thanks to Napoleon. In earlier times, knights on horseback rode on the left, so that they could more easily wield their sword or lance with their right hand. The rich French bourgeoisie stuck to the left. The common people usually walked on the right. But since the French Revolution in 1789, everyone was officially equal. Therefore, Napoleon decreed that right-handedness became the norm. It was also more convenient with the carriages and carts in those days. Countries which he did not conquer, such as Great Britain, continued to drive on the left.
Thanks to the French, we also have street names with even and odd house numbers. This system was first used in Paris, and later in all conquered regions. We also owe paved roads to Napoleon, who wanted straight lines between cities. Handy for moving his troops, of course. In France, these roads were called the Route Nationale; in Europe they are called Napoleon roads. The Amsterdamsestraatweg in Utrecht is an example of this. It was built by order of Napoleon in 1812, as part of the Route Impériale between Paris and Amsterdam.
A kilo of potatoes, a litre of milk, and, let's say, a metre of beer. Standard measures and measurements. Napoleon introduced the metric system in 1799. Before that, all kinds of different measures were used in Europe, such as inches, ells and feet. Napoleon found this inconvenient and confusing in his empire. And even if you don't realise it, you probably have to deal with it every day.
According to Napoleon himself, his most important legacy: the Code Napoleon, or the Code Civil. The French Civil Code, which laid down the principles of 'liberty, equality and fraternity', but also the separation of church and state, served as inspiration for law books in many countries. Napoleon eventually made his code compulsory in the Netherlands as well. By the way, equal rights did not apply to women in those Napoleonic days.
Abattoir, desk, purse, all words that came into vogue during the French era here in the Netherlands. From 1810 to 1813, French was even an official language here, alongside Dutch. It was also compulsory in education. Napoleon also carried out reforms there. Teachers became obliged to teach in class. Parents had to pay school fees. And he introduced the final exam.
Napoleon appointed his brother Louis king of the Netherlands in 1806, in order to retain as much influence as possible. This makes the Netherlands a kingdom for the first time. It forms the basis for the later monarchy. Iek ben konijn van Olland', said the French Louis when he took office, as he had difficulty with the Dutch pronunciation.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Brother Louis Napoleon took up residence in the Town Hall on Dam Square, which has since become known as the Palace on Dam Square. He made Amsterdam the capital, and founded institutions that we still know today, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Royal Library and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Another striking structure that we owe to the Napoleons: the Pyramid of Austerlitz, near Woudenberg in Utrecht. A 17 metre high homage to Napoleon, constructed by French troops who were stationed there for a few months in 1804. The name Pyramid of Austerlitz was actually invented by Louis Napoleon. It is the place in the Czech Republic where his imperial brother defeated Russian and Austrian armies in a legendary battle.
Although not his invention, Napoleon did provide the impetus. In 1800, he offered a cash prize to anyone who could think of a way to keep food fresh for longer. After all, he needed this for his soldiers during their campaigns. French cook Nicolas Appert discovered pickling. By boiling vegetables in sealed bottles to kill the bacteria, they stayed good longer. Glass was too fragile for soldiers, so the canning jar was invented.
After the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon lost his power and began his exile on the island of Elba, the golden age of the French Lodges came to an end. The restoration of the Bourbons as rulers and the persecution of the Bonapartists made activities of most Masonic Lodges downright dangerous.
But even the dissolved Lodges were not closed. According to Masonic tradition, they were only declared as "sleeping Lodges". After the deposition of Louis Napoleon III and the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, French Freemasonry experienced its second golden age, thanks to the Napoleonic era.
Thierry Stravers is co-owner of Masonic Store.
He likes to combine his passion for style and elegance with his Masonic activities.
Thierry is the owner of Trenicaa marketing agency and is a board member of Loge Enlightenment No.313 O: Hoofddorp.
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After the restoration of the stadtholdership in 1744, Freemasonry revived. In 1756, ten lodges joined together to form the 'Groote Loge der Zeven Vereenigde Nederlanden', which name was changed in 1817 to the name that still applies today: Orde van Vrijmetsaren onder het Grootoosten der Nederlanden'.Two princes of the House of Orange held the position of Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons in the 19th century: Prince Frederik (the younger brother of King William II, who was also a Freemason) for 65 years, from 1816 to 1881, and Prince Alexander (the younger son of King William III) from 1882 until his early death in 1884.
Prince Frederick was born in Berlin in 1797, the son of hereditary Prince William Frederick (later King William I) and Princess Wilhelmina.
