The history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in France is largely dependent on the conditions of its establishment in our country at the beginning of the Empire.

In order to keep the Supreme Council alive, which he founded in 1804, Grasse-Tilly thought of relying on Lodges which practised another Scottish Rite, the Scottish Philosophical Rite, and which had refused to join the Grand Orient de France, which then only recognised the Modern Rite or French Rite.

The first consequence of this decision was to transform the Supreme Council from a Jurisdiction of high grades (4° to 33°) into an Obedience also managing symbolic Lodges. Until 1894, the Supreme Council administered all Lodges and grades from the 1st to the 33rd degree. It was only with regret and difficulty that it accepted the independence of its symbolic Lodges, which were grouped into a Grand Lodge in 1894.

The second consequence followed from the first: in order to manage Lodges and symbolic degrees (Apprentice, Fellow, Master) administratively, the Supreme Council codified rituals for these degrees from the end of the 1820s, thus asserting its dogmatic authority over them.

Even after the separation of the Scottish Jurisdiction and the Symbolic Obedience, the temptation of the Supreme Council to intervene and to govern the Symbolic Lodges was also a constant in the history of the Rite in France. Such interference is fundamentally contrary to the principles governing the recognition of the regularity of an Obedience, as laid down by the United Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Mother Lodge of the World.

The other major event of this period resulted from the imperial will of centralisation, in this case of centralisation of the French Masonry under the aegis of the Grand Orient of France and its real chief, namely Cambaceres, principal collaborator of the Emperor. The signing of a concordat in 1805 between the two Masonic powers did not mask the desire of some, the Scots, to remain independent and the others to absorb them.

The failure of the concordat was reflected throughout the 19th century, but also part of the 20th century, by a subtle interplay of fraternal relations and intervisits and attempts at absorption on the part of the Grand Orient.

In its periodic conflicts with the Grand Orient, the Supreme Council was able to argue its universality and its recognition by the other Supreme Councils to oppose its specificities, especially after the Grand Orient abandoned in 1877 the obligation to refer to the Great Architect of the Universe, a fundamental principle of Masonic regularity.

However, after the Second World War, the irregularity in which the Supreme Council and the Grand Lodge of France found themselves posed a growing threat of isolation from other jurisdictions, particularly North American. Precisely aware of this situation, Grand Commander Riandey provoked the crisis in 1964 on the occasion of the signing of a Treaty of Alliance between the Grand Orient and the Grand Lodge, leading nearly 800 Brethren to join with him the National French Grand Lodge, the only Obedience recognised as regular in our country, and to reconstitute a Supreme Council with the support of the Supreme Councils of the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions of the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

Seeming to present all the guarantees of regularity, since it respected the fundamental Laws of the Order and recruited only regular Masters Masons, this new Supreme Council was progressively recognised by the whole of the world community of Ecossism. However, keeping the habits inherited from history, it did not hesitate to try to intervene several times in the functioning of the G.L.N.F.

This was particularly true during the crisis that the latter went through in 2009-2012. Setting himself up as a judge of Masonic regularity, he decided to accept members of an irregular Obedience into the G.L.N.F., contravening the fundamental laws of the Order, and recognised and concluded an alliance with another French Supreme Council. Finally, in opposition to the universalist tradition of the Order, he attempted to divide the worldwide Scottish community.

Such a situation led, in 2014, three Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, supported and encouraged by many Brothers faithful to the rules of Masonry and Scottishism, to found a new Supreme Council, considering the obvious irregularity of the existing Supreme Councils.

A Treaty of Amity signed with the G.L.N.F. in 2016 anchored the Supreme National Council of France in the purest Masonic regularity, while the scrupulous respect of the Constitutions of Bordeaux (1762) and Bordeaux (1786) inscribes it totally in the Scottish regularity. Recognised since 2018 by forty Supreme Councils, established throughout the country, metropolitan France and overseas, and growing at a rate of 10% per year, the National Supreme Council of France today holds a major place in the French and international Masonic landscape.

1804: Back from America, Alexandre-François-Auguste Comte de Grasse, Marquis de Tilly, member of the Supreme Council of Charleston and Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the French West Indies, founded the first Supreme Council of France in Paris (15 October).

On 22 October, the Scottish General Grand Lodge was founded by the Scottish Mother Lodge of Saint Alexander of Scotland and the Social Contract. It brought together Lodges that had refused to join the Grand Orient de France, practising the Scottish Philosophical Rite and having the vocation to "feed" the Supreme Council. In return, the Supreme Council will integrate the first three degrees (Apprentice, Companion, Master) into the Rite, unlike the practice in the United States and in a large majority of Supreme Councils.

On 1 December, Napoleon's brother, Louis Bonaparte, was appointed Grand Master of the Scottish General Grand Lodge, with Grasse-Tilly as his representative. Among the dignitaries: Marshals Kellerman, Masséna, Sérurier, Lefebvre.

December 5, ratification of an "Act of Union" or Concordat between the Grand Orient and the Grand Lodge General, imposed by the Emperor.

1805: After the Grand Orient unilaterally modified the Concordat and the Scottish General Grand Lodge suspended it in retaliation, an agreement was reached in October. The Grand Orient administered the ranks up to and including the 18th, the Supreme Council the other degrees.

1815 : With the fall of the Empire, the Supreme Council goes into dormancy, having however rejected the offers of fusion of the Grand Orient and consecrated "definitively the independence of the Scottish Rite".

1821 : Re-founded by Grasse-Tilly from the Supreme Council of the French West Indies (which became the S.C. of America), the Supreme Council of France regained its strength and vigour and founded the Lodge of the Grand Commandery, which in 1822 became the Central Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

The Count of Valence was Grand Commander (1821-1822); he was succeeded by the Count of Segur (1822-1825), the Duke of Choiseul-Stainville (1825-1838), the Duke Decaze (1838-1860), then the Academician Jean-Pons Viennet (1860-1868).

1862: Napoleon III appoints by decree Marshal Magnan as Grand Master of the Grand Orient in order to resolve the election conflict between Prince Murat and Prince Jérôme-Napoléon. The decree spoke of the "Masonic order" and the new Grand Master ordered Grand Commander Viennet to integrate the Lodges of the Supreme Council into the Grand Orient. The repeated refusal of the Grand Commander was decided in favour by the Emperor.

1875 : On the initiative of the Supreme Council of France and its Grand Commander Adolphe Crémieux (1869-1880), a first universal convent was held in Lausanne, in which only nine of the twenty-two existing Supreme Councils participated. The attempt to substitute the mention of a "creative principle" for the traditional obligation to believe in God failed, as did the idea of an international confederation of Supreme Councils, as no Supreme Council ratified the conclusions of this convent. Only the Bordeaux and Berlin Constitutions remain as the fundamental laws of the Order.

1894: Yielding to pressure from its symbolic Lodges, the Supreme Council delegated its powers over the symbolic Lodges to the Grand Lodge of France, which was founded on this occasion. It did not become autonomous until 1904 when the Supreme Council ceased to issue the patents of the symbolic Lodges, but the role and direct influence of the Supreme Council on the Grand Lodge remained and still remains.

1964: In September, the ratification of a Treaty of Alliance and Friendship between the Grand Orient of France and the Grand Lodge of France by the latter's Convent led the Supreme Council to withdraw the right to call itself the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and a significant minority of the Federal Council of the Grand Lodge resigned.

Convinced through his international contacts that a Supreme Council is regular on the condition that it recruits its members only from a regular recognised Obedience, as he himself says, Grand Commander Charles Riandey established contacts with the regular recognised Obedience in France, the GLNF.

Under rather obscure conditions, the majority of the Supreme Council disowned its Grand Commander and dismissed him.  Taking note of this situation, the Supreme Councils of the Southern Jurisdiction (Mother Council of the World), the Northern Jurisdiction, Canada and the Netherlands encouraged the Grand Commander to re-found the Supreme Council after having been regularised by the GLNF.

1965: On 1 and 9 February, Charles Riandey and about fifteen other Brothers were regularised in Villard de Honnecourt Lodge No. 81 (and not re-initiated, as is sometimes stated).

On 13 February, noting the irregularity of the French Supreme Council, Charles Riandey and nine Brothers were regularised from the 4th to the 33rd degrees by the Dutch Supreme Council in Amsterdam.

On 24 April, the Supreme Council for France was installed by the Supreme Council of the Netherlands in the presence of the American Jurisdictions and the SC of Canada. It recruits its members only from the Grande Loge Nationale Française, the only Obedience recognised as regular in France.

2012: The Supreme Council for France decides to open its recruitment to a Masonic Obedience whose foundation it supported, which, to this day, is not recognised by any regular Masonic Obedience in the world and which, in 2014, signed an inter-visit protocol with the Grand Orient de France. In absolute contradiction with the Grand Constitutions of 1786, it will even recognise another Supreme Council on French territory by signing an inter-visit protocol with the Supreme Council of France in 2018.

These decisions, marked by the seal of the most flagrant irregularity, led many Brothers who were members of the Supreme Council for France to leave the latter.

2014 : On 28 September, Brothers holding the 33° and last degree of the Rite announce that they are laying the foundations of a new Supreme Council, respectful of the Constitutions of 1762 and 1786 and accepting only Master Masons who are members of a regularly recognised Masonic Obedience: the Supreme National Council of France.

2016 : The Supreme National Council of France signs a treaty of friendship with the Grande Loge Nationale Française.

2018 : On 6 October, four Supreme Councils officially install the Supreme National Council of France, in the presence of three other Supreme Councils. This act brought the S.C.N.D.F. into the great regular international community of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite by right.

2020 : On April 23 and 24, the Supreme Councils of the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions of the United States of America in turn recognised the Supreme National Council of France. The first Supreme Council in history, the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, Mother Council of the World, is the undisputed authority on the regularity of the other Supreme Councils.

Today, the Supreme National Council of France is in friendship with forty Supreme Councils in Europe, America and Africa. Its membership is growing at an annual rate of about 10% and it is present throughout France and in the Outremers.