The Evolution Of A Deck Of Cards: Face Cards

There was a card craftsman who, as a French military commander, battled alongside Joan of Arc. His name was Etienne de Vignolles, known as La Hire. The courage and heroism of the legendary maid of Orleans so impressed him he removed the knight from a deck of cards and replaced it with a dame. Decorating cards with religious motifs or those depicting humans did not raise the wrath of the Catholic church. The king of spades was designed after King David including his sword and quiver. Charles the Great became the king of clubs, Julius Caesar the king of diamonds, and Alexander the Great was symbolized by the king of hearts. These four members of the monarchy came together to represent the four springboards of western civilization.

Today’s Queens and Jacks did not evolve as consistently. Athena represented the queen of spades, undoubtedly also drawn to be reminiscent of the soldier, Joan of Arc. Rachel, for whom Jacob hung around for 14 years to marry was the queen of diamonds. Oddly, the queen of hearts was depicted by Judith, the lovely maiden who lopped off the head of Holofernes. Now it gets complicated: the queen of clubs was an amalgamation of an abstract favorite of kings, termed Argine, which may have been named for an anagram of regina (queen). But again, it could have been used to suggest Joan of Arc as the king of clubs was depicted by Charles the Great, a very distinguished French Catholic honcho.

A knight from Charlemagne’s court served as prototype for the jack of spades; Hector – for diamonds; la Hire for hearts; and Judas Maccabeus for clubs. As a variation of this, the four jacks represented four famous knights, with their names printed below them on the cards: Lancelot, Ogier, Roland, and Valery. Youthful, beardless, warriors with long haircuts wielded a battle axe. All except Valery (who happened to be the chief craftsman of that deck) had a scent hound at their feet.

Going lower on the scale, we have cards ten down to two, marked with their corresponding number and value. The Ace which was an English word meaning “unit” had translations in French, Spanish, German and other equivalents as well, such as: as, ass, aus, etc. The Ace was ranked lower than even the two. This greatly upset the Catholic Church of the middle ages as God was “one” and any numeric system defining His number as lowly was blasphemous and smacked as consorting with the devil. Should you disagree with this theory, you would undoubtedly come to see it their way on your way to the dungeon.

The Ace stands today for something almost metaphysical – the quintessence of oneness, if you will, which becomes more valuable than any one personification. In reality, should a lone, simple card be given such mystical attributes?

This amorphous debate has been argued for centuries. There are many countries in this world of ours that consider spirit and matter as one and as an important facet of our self-awareness. In these modern times more than ever before, the rational, mystical, quasi-physical and sometimes, sexual elements of a deck of cards are greatly admired. The Ace remains the essential entity of all or nothing, or something of an indeterminate element in the game of cards and life.

Otherwise, the cards serve us pretty much as they served any specific class or a mixture of class during the middle ages or the Renaissance. The basic hierarchy of the deck from King to lowest number, and the 2.598.960 possible combinations of varying value, the value of combinations decided by their rarity, allow ample possibility to project anybody’s social and spiritual aspirations.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at PKR Poker. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.

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