Women Freemasons seem to have been introduced early in Sweden, though the information in scarce: according to documents of the Swedish Freemasons,
Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht was in 1747 the Grand Mistress of in a certain "Ordre de la resemblance", which can thus be interpreted as a Women's Lodge of Adoption. However, a confirmed Women's Lodge does not appear until the 1770s. On 2 May 1776, the Grand Master of the Swedish Freemasonic Order,
Duke Charles, had his spouse,
Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, inaugurated as the Grand Mistress of a female lodge of adoption to his own lodge at the
Royal Palace, Stockholm, named "Le véritable et constante amitié". This new woman's lodge of adoption was confirmed by seal from Grand Master of the French Freemasonic Order,
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and the Grand Mistress of the French Woman's Lodge of Adoption,
Bathilde d'Orléans, on 8 May 1776. The Women's Lodge of Adoption was organized by rules set by Duchess Charlotte in three grades with a ritual in five grades after a French model, and met in the same rooms in the apartments of Duke Charles in the Royal Palace where the male lodge met. In addition to Duchess Charlotte herself,
Sophie von Fersen and
Hedvig Eleonora von Fersen, both introduced in 1776, are confirmed as members of the Lodge of Adoption, and
Charlotte Stierneld is likely to have been member of the same lodge, as she was named as "already a Freemason" when she was introduced in the
Yellow Rose Lodge. It is unknown how long the Lodge of Adoption was active, but it is likely that it functioned at least until 1789, when Duchess Charlotte mentioned that Duke Charles allowed her to participate in "secret gatherings" to explore the occult, and perhaps until the foundation of the short lived Co-Masonic Lodge
Yellow Rose Lodge in 1802, but was surely abolished in 1803, when all secret societies at court were banned. == See also ==