The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem is an independent international Order of Chivalry. Until the year 1965 it had continued to function under the authority granted to it by the Royal Charter of King Ernest Augustus of Hanover (sixth son of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland).
In that year His late Majesty King Peter II of Yugoslavia deigned to accept election as its Grand Master. On 19 March 1965 King Peter II confirmed and extended his Royal Charter, which he had granted to the Order the previous year.
Three years later, on 1 March 1968, as High Protector of the Order he promulgated the Constitution under which the Order continues to function.
The Constitution of the Order takes the form of a Royal Decree issued by King Peter II.
This conferred Chivalric status upon that organization which had existed and functioned in North America since 1881 in succession from that organization established in 1743 in Paris whose members claimed decent from elements of the ancient Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded in the Holy Land in A.D.1059.
It should be noted that the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, presently operating under the Royal Charter and Constitution of King Peter II, is not associated in any way with any other Order of Chivalry. While sharing a common devotion to Saint John the Baptist, and to the spiritual heritage of those ancient Knights of Saint John who maintained the faith of Christ in the Holy Land and elsewhere, with the other Orders of Saint John who also exist by virtue of Royal Charters, the Hospitaller Order is not affiliated with them. These include the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (SMOM), the Balley Brandenburg des Ritterlichen Ordens Sankt Johannis vom Spital zu Jerusalem (Prussia, 1854), the Venerable Order of Saint John in the British Realm (Britain, 1888), the Johanniterorden in Sverige (Sweden, 1945), and the Johanniter Orde in Nederland (The Netherlands, 1946).