Grand Lodge of London Formed
June 24, 1717
Four London lodges, the Goose and Gridiron, the Crown, the Apple-Tree, and the Rummer and Grapes, met at a tavern and agreed to form a Grand Lodge. Speculative Freemasonry, a fraternity of the curious, the ambitious, and the mildly mystical, would spread across Enlightenment Europe with astonishing speed. Within fifty years lodges thrived from Philadelphia to St. Petersburg, counting kings and commoners among their brethren.
In context
Also in 1717 (3 other events on record)
- Fall of Belgrade · Europe · War
- Ashanti Conquer Denkyira · Africa · War
- Blackbeard Captures La Concorde · North America · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
Era
Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.