Once again, I’ve returned home after another journey across the world. This weekend marked the annual meeting of the Grand Court of the
Masonic Order of Athelstan for England, Wales, and its Provinces Overseas, a historic occasion as the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Paul Johnston, retired after nearly 12.5 years of service, passing the mantle to his Deputy Grand Master.
Ratae Corieltauvorum
Last Thursday, I landed in London and made my way up to the Midlands to the city of Leicester. I was part of a larger contingent of American Masons who came to show support to Paul and to the Grand Court of England.
Friday, I walked around the city center and checked out the Jewry Walls. Leicester began as Ratae Corieltauvorum, a Roman town on the River Soar, laid out along the Fosse Way, a major Roman road in Britain that connected the southwest to the northeast, linking Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) and Lincoln (Lindum Colonia). Its most spectacular surviving feature is the Jewry Wall (a massive 2nd-century masonry wall that formed part of the public bath complex), which was originally thought to be a forum when first discovered. Excavations by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 1930s confirmed the wall’s relationship to the adjacent Roman baths, whose foundations are still visible beside the wall and interpreted by the adjacent museum. The structure (c. AD 160) is one of the largest pieces of standing Roman masonry in Britain.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, an Anglo-Saxon town grew among the ruins. The oldest standing church is St Nicholas, incorporating Roman brick and stone; it is among Leicester’s five surviving medieval churches and has pre-Conquest origins (in use since at least the 9th century). It stands immediately beside the Jewry Wall, a vivid reminder of the city’s continuity from Rome through Saxon and Norman times.
Within the castle’s bailey rose St Mary de Castro (which I visited last year), founded as a collegiate chapel in 1107 by Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. Its long history ties Leicester to national figures: local tradition connects it to early royal ceremonies (including the child-knighting of Henry VI) and even to Geoffrey Chaucer’s life. Architecturally speaking, it retains Norman fabric with later Gothic additions.
The timber-framed Guildhall (c. 1390) began as a meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi and later served as the town hall. Over the centuries, it hosted council meetings, courts, feasts, theatrical performances, and even debates during the Civil War, which makes it the best-preserved window into municipal life before modernity.
Leicester’s religious landscape was transformed by the Dissolution of Henry VIII. Leicester Abbey, a wealthy Augustinian house, was suppressed in 1538; just years earlier, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s fallen minister, died there in 1530 en route to face treason charges. His burial at the abbey and the subsequent loss of his tomb became one of Tudor England’s lingering mysteries; despite modern excavations, his remains have never been found. The abbey ruins now lie within Abbey Park.
Another focal point was the Greyfriars (Franciscan) friary. After Bosworth (1485), King Richard III was buried here. The friary was later dissolved, the site built over, and the king’s grave vanished from memory until the 21st century; now it's a museum dedicated to Richard III.
Through the 18th century, Leicester expanded as a regional market town. Framework-knitting and hosiery trades thrived, and civic governance continued in and around the old Guildhall, while parishes maintained medieval churches like St Nicholas, St Mary de Castro, and the future cathedral. Though less architecturally showy than the Victorian age to come, this period laid the economic groundwork for industrial growth and urban improvement. Industry, railways, and municipal pride spurred new buildings in the 19th century, while older landmarks like the Guildhall survived as cherished symbols of civic heritage.
Leicester’s most famous modern chapter is the rediscovery and reburial of King Richard III. In 2012, archaeologists located his grave beneath a city-center car park on the site of the lost Greyfriars church; DNA and osteological analysis confirmed the identity. The city created the King Richard III Visitor Center opposite the cathedral, and in March 2015, the last Plantagenet king was reinterred with honor in Leicester Cathedral beneath a Swaledale fossil-stone tomb. The find sparked national debate (including legal challenges over the reburial site) and placed Leicester at the center of global heritage headlines.
Retirement of Paul
While the stones of Leicester speak of millennia of history, this weekend’s events marked the beginning of a new chapter in the living history of our Order. This past summer, Bro. Paul Johnston, Most Worshipful Grand Master, announced his intention to retire.
I first met Paul more than a decade ago during Masonic Week, and I found him to be both a warm friend and an exceptional leader - a man deeply devoted to the Craft. Over the course of his 12.5 years as Grand Master, he guided the Masonic Order of Athelstan from its infancy into its formative years. Under his steady hand, the Order expanded to the far corners of the globe, establishing Grand Courts in nations that had grown strong enough to govern themselves, including the United States.
Paul had joined the Order shortly after its founding and went on to serve as Grand Secretary before assuming the mantle of leadership following the untimely passing of his predecessor. One of his personal goals, he said, was to install his own successor. Yesterday, he fulfilled that wish by installing the Fourth Grand Master of the Order and concluded his tenure with grace and humility, a fitting close to a remarkable chapter in the Order’s history.
The First King of England
King Athelstan (c. 894 - 939 AD), grandson of Alfred the Great and son of King Edward the Elder, stands as one of the most significant yet often underappreciated monarchs in English history. Known variously as Athelstane, Athelstone, Athelston, Aldiston, Adelstan, Adelston, and Ethelstan, he is celebrated as the first true King of all England, as he was the ruler who transformed a patchwork of Anglo-Saxon and Viking kingdoms into a unified realm.
Athelstan was raised partly in Mercia under the care of his aunt, Æthelflæd, the “Lady of the Mercians,” where he absorbed both Mercian and West Saxon traditions of governance and warfare. Upon the death of his father in 924, a brief succession dispute arose between Athelstan and his half-brother Ælfweard, but the latter’s sudden death soon after cleared the way for Athelstan’s accession. He was crowned in 925 AD at Kingston-upon-Thames, a symbolic site straddling the ancient borders of Wessex and Mercia, embodying the unity he would soon achieve across England.
From the outset, Athelstan proved to be an exceptional military leader and statesman. In 927, he captured York from the Danes and compelled the submission of Constantine II of Scotland and other northern rulers at the Treaty of Eamont Bridge. By doing so, he brought Northumbria firmly under English control and became the first monarch to rule over all of England.
His greatest test came a decade later at the legendary Battle of Brunanburh in 937 AD. Facing a formidable alliance of Scots, Strathclyde Britons, and Dublin Norse under Constantine II, Owain of Strathclyde, and Olaf Guthfrithson, Athelstan’s forces won a decisive but bloody victory. Chroniclers hailed the battle as a defining moment in forging the English nation, preserving its unity and independence for generations to come.
Athelstan’s reign was not defined by warfare alone. His government introduced innovative reforms that strengthened royal authority and improved national cohesion. He issued extensive law codes to ensure justice and order, regulated coinage to prevent fraud, and centralized trade within burghs to encourage urban development. He reorganized the Midlands and former Danelaw into shires, consolidating administration across England. Abroad, he forged alliances through the marriages of his half-sisters to European princes and cultivated cultural and ecclesiastical ties with the Continent.
A patron of learning and the Church, Athelstan gathered relics and illuminated manuscripts, many of which he gifted to monasteries and churches. His generosity toward the clergy ensured their support, while his endowments enriched England’s spiritual life. Upon his death in 939 at Gloucester, Athelstan was buried in Malmesbury Abbey, a monastery he had long favored and supported. Though his tomb now lies empty, his legacy as England’s first unified monarch endures.
Commemorating 1100 Years of Legacy
In Masonic tradition, King Athelstan occupies a place of profound honor. According to early manuscripts, including the Halliwell (Regius) Poem, the Cooke Manuscript, the Landsdowne Manuscript, and the lesser-known Roberts Manuscript, a great assembly of stonemasons was convened at York in 926 AD by Athelstan’s half-brother, Prince Edwin, at the king’s command. There, the traditions of symbolic and operative Masonry were codified and the Craft’s ancient charges were reaffirmed.
The Masonic Order of Athelstan was founded to honor this spirit of enlightenment and fraternity embodied by the king. It seeks to celebrate his unifying vision, his devotion to law and learning, and his legendary association with the early organization of masonry in England.
As the world marks the 1100th anniversary of Athelstan’s coronation in 2025, the Order and its charitable arm (the King Athelstan Memorial Foundation) have undertaken a series of meaningful projects to preserve and promote his memory. Established in 2020, the Foundation has already realized numerous initiatives:
- In 2021, it presented a magnificent King Athelstan tapestry to All Saints Church in Kingston-upon-Thames, the site of his coronation.
- In 2022, it donated a replica Saxon sword crafted by renowned smiths Hector Cole, M.B.E., and Tim Blades, along with an audio-visual system and documentary for the Athelstan Museum in Malmesbury.
- In 2024, the Foundation contributed money to support the exhibition of ancient Saxon papers on loan from Cambridge University and funded educational installations and the Guide to Athelstan & Malmesbury Trail for the town’s upcoming 1100 celebrations.
- The same year saw the launch of the ambitious “York 1100 Project,” which raised £100,000 to sponsor a stonemason’s accommodation unit at York Minster and commission a carved grotesque of King Athelstan to adorn the cathedral’s South Quire.
By June 2025, the project reached fruition: the Most Worshipful Grand Master and a distinguished delegation presented both the accommodation unit and the completed grotesque to York Minster, honoring Athelstan’s enduring legacy as patron and protector of the Craft.
Further commemorations followed on September 4, 2025, when All Saints Church in Kingston-upon-Thames unveiled all seven embroidered tapestries from their Seven Saxon Kings Project. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, additional projects are planned to continue celebrating the life and legacy of this remarkable monarch.
Through these works, the Masonic Order of Athelstan and its Foundation have ensured that the spirit of England’s first king, and the legendary assembly of York in 926 AD, remains alive in both history and fraternity, a thousand years on.
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