[1] The Order was founded by King Charles I of Hungary as the Fraternal Society of Knighthood of St George.The precise date of its foundation is not known, but based on the text of its Statutes, it was in existence on St George's Day, 23 April 1326.[1] All that is known about the Order in terms of its mission, composition, obligations and activities has been obtained from the only surviving artifact which describes the Society: the Statutes.Unlike the ecclesiastical Orders of the period, members of the Society wore a black, knee-length, hooded mantle, bearing not an heraldic device but an inscription: "In Veritate iustus sum huic fraternali societae"[2] - "In truth I am just to this fraternal society."[3]The Statutes, written in Latin (the language of learned writing in Hungary before the nineteenth century), are about 1,700 words long, in the form of letters patent.
The Statutes of the Order afixed with the Great Seal bearing an image of St George slaying the dragon.
