After Dinner · At Festive Board

The Loyal Toast

What It Is and Why It Endures

The Loyal Toast is the traditional toast to the reigning monarch, given at every Masonic Festive Board across the English Constitution. It is a constitutional act, not a social courtesy. Its power lies entirely in its brevity.

THE WORDING The King. Nothing more. Nothing added. No embellishment. In 2026, the toast is to His Majesty King Charles III.

No other toast may precede it. It is the anchor point of the ceremonial order: only after the Loyal Toast may other toasts be proposed, speeches begin, or the evening continue. The final toast of the evening — the Tyler’s Toast — is given to all poor and distressed Freemasons, their widows and orphans, wherever dispersed around the globe. It is a toast without borders, and in a Lodge whose membership spans the Commonwealth and beyond, it carries particular weight.

The Rules of Precedence

IAlways the first toast. No toast may precede it without the express permission of the monarch.
IIBrief and unadorned. Adding any other phrase is incorrect unless a specific tradition explicitly allows it.
IIIThe Royal Navy alone retains the privilege of remaining seated — granted by the monarch in the age of tall ships. Army and RAF stand.
IVLoyalty without sycophancy. Tradition without extravagance. Unity without politics. Centuries of meaning in a single phrase.
The Festive Board — formally laid table with Masonic place settings, silver and crystal

THE FESTIVE BOARD  ·  EMPIRE LODGE No. 2108

"Loyalty without sycophancy. Tradition without extravagance. Unity without politics. In an age of long speeches and complex ceremonies, the Loyal Toast remains one of the most elegant traditions in British public life."