>>509716658 (OP)"it was thanks to Napoleon that Freemasonry spread in Europe and became a mass phenomenon. He turned Freemasonry from a secret society, as it used to be, into almost an official state religion, uniting all the French lodges around the Grand Orient.
The youngest brother, Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860) was initiated into the Freemasons at the age of 17 in the Mir Lodge in eastern Toulon. His career has developed rapidly. A year later, in 1801, he became Grand Master of the Grand Mother′s Lodge of Westphalia, and in 1807, Napoleon made him king.
The elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), was initiated in the Lodge La Parfaite Sincérité (Perfect sincerity) in the Orient of Marseille. In 1804, he became Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France and King of Naples, and then King of Spain.
Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), the father of the future Napoleon III, served as Deputy Grand Master from 1803 to 1806, before being succeeded by Jean-Jacques Regis Cambasseres.
Napoleon’s wife, Empress Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), was initiated into a women’s Lodge in Strasbourg and held the position of Grand Master for some time.
Eugène de Beauharnais, the only son of Josephine from her first marriage, at the age of 24, having received the title of viceroy of Italy from her stepfather, became the founder of the Grand Orient of Italy and the Supreme Council of Italy.
It is not surprising that under this leadership, both military and civilian wanted to enter the ranks of freemasons at the earliest opportunity. Masons were twenty-two of Napoleon’s thirty marshals, five of the six members of the Imperial Military Council and six of the nine ministers in the government."