Read "His most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII" by Marie Belloc Lowndes online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
_For the information contained in this chapter the author is indebted to an authority on the subject._
After the King's accession His Majesty reluctantly decided that he could not hope to find time to fulfil the duties of the high offices in Masonry to which he had been called as Prince of Wales, namely Grand Master of English Freemasons and Grand Master of the Mark Degree. At the same time King Edward was unwilling to cut short his long official connection with Masonry. Accordingly, His Majesty graciously intimated, in a letter read at Grand Lodge on 15th February 1901, that, following the precedent of King George IV., he would, on his retirement from the office of Grand Master, take the title of "Protector of English Freemasons. " Similarly, at a Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons held four days later, it was announced that His Majesty would assume the title of "Patron of Freemasons of the Mark Degree."