nationalist British establishment, who saw, after the Napoleonic struggles a threat from across the divide. Entrenched in their beliefs and fears, and inheritors of the Emperor’s vast international holdings, anything that could bridge that gap, like membership of international orders would no longer be tolerated and a British version inserted in its place at point of death. The Masonic establishment therefore became a British aristocracy affair and ultimately an important instrument of state, albeit via a nudge and wink if not officially expressed. Britain from then on would be always on the Square and the British Monarchy, caught between its traditional Templar stance and the needs of the island state, was once more compromised with an affiliation through one of its senior members leaving the Leadership of the copy Order of Malta or Order of St. John as it came to be known, to the Crown Head itself. Ever since, despite strong support for the Order of the Temple by members of leading families and church establishment, many hedged their bets by becoming members of both the Order and the Freemasons including King Edward the V11 himself much to Queen Victoria’s´s apparent dismay.
The continental threat to the British establishment was real and any loose cannons in the form of subversive movements could not be tolerated with the subsequent closing of ranks against anything with its own basic sovereignty. The present head of the Catholic and original Order of Malta, a British subject, was unable to continue living in Britain although he is afforded the respect of a Head of State when he visits the country. It was for this reason that the Order of Malta which owned the island by that name and which Napoleon took for himself, before losing it to