Did the Jacobite's Shape Freemasonry? | Prince Charles Stuart & the Political Origins Theory (#10 of 12)

In this episode
• Theory #10 of the 12 Origin Theories of Freemasonry
• Prince Charles Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie")
The Jacobite movement and the Stuart Restoration
• The Glorious Revolution and the Forty-Five Rebellion
• Chevalier Ramsay's 1737 Oration
• Politics, symbolism, and the development of speculative Masonry
• The difference between historical influence and historical origin
• Why attractive stories must still bear the weight of evidence
Battlefield Question
Did the Jacobites shape Freemasonry...
or did later generations of Masons weave Jacobite history into the Craft because it offered a compelling explanation for an uncertain past?
The Origin War doesn't seek easy answers.
It teaches us how to investigate difficult questions.

It teaches us how to investigate difficult questions.

Because opinions are light.

Evidence is heavy.

Let's see how much weight this theory can actually carry.

Research Trail

Primary Sources & Recommended Reading

• Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia — Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie (1877)
• Anderson's Constitutions (1723 & 1738)
• The History of Freemasonry — Robert Freke Gould
• The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590–1710 — David Stevenson
• The Craft — John Hamill

The Pocket History of Freemasonry — Pick & Knight
• Chevalier Ramsay's Oration (1737)

Continue the Investigation

Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia
https://archive.org/details/royalmasoniccycl00mack

Anderson's Constitutions (1723)
https://archive.org/details/constitutionsoff00ande

Chevalier Ramsay's Oration
https://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/gar/index.htm

Internet Archive
https://archive.org

Sacred Texts Library
https://www.sacred-texts.com

Battlefield Question

Research Trail

Continue the Investigation