The Rose Croix degree is the 18th of the 33 degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, an Independent Order of Freemasonry. 

First recorded in England in about 1770.

The Knights Templar degrees were starting in England
at about the same time and eventually the
Rose Croix degree took its place as the final
or ne plus ultra degree of the
English Knights Templar encampments.