How Did The Face Cards In A Deck Of Cards Evolve?

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 follow such a consistent path. The queen of spades represented the goddess Athena, which could also have been a representation of that kindred warrior, Joan of Arc. Rachel depicted the queen of diamonds whose husband, Jacob, waited around for 14 years to marry her. Somewhat disturbingly, the queen of hearts represented Judith, who quite unromantically cut off the head of Holofernes. The queen of clubs did not follow this same pattern. She represented a collection of images that formed Argine, an abstract favorite of kings, whose name appears to be an anagram of “regina” (queen). This also could be a possible reference again to Joan of Arc, as Charles the Great, the French Catholic major domo, was the king of clubs.

The jack of spades was from a knight in Charlemagne’s court; diamonds were for Hector; for hearts we have La Hire himself and Judas Maccabeus represented clubs. A variation on the theme had the four jacks being represented by four well-known knights: Lancelot, Ogier, Roland, and Valery. These four were youthful, clean-shaven and longhaired warriors, all with battle axes. All had a bloodhound-like dog at their feet except for Valery, possibly because Valery was the chief craftsman who created the deck.

For the lower numbers, cards two to ten, their value was on the same scale, i.e. two to ten. The Ace, an English word first defined as “unit”, did not fit into the two through ten range and had French, German, Spanish and other equivalents: as, ass, ace, etc. The Ace was actually valued below the two. The medieval Catholic Church took great exception to this as God was “one,” so to represent the almighty’s number as the lowest on the scale was clearly the work of the devil. Anyone deigning to disagree with this was shown the door to the torture chamber.

Today, the Ace symbolized a kind of quintessence – associated freely with anything from the exposed essence of woman to what the physicists call the “naked singularity” – which is greater in value than any single influential personage. But can a single and the simplest of the cards in the deck stand for anything at once and should one privilege its scientific baseness or metaphysical elevation?

This was debated in the middle ages as it is sometimes done so now. Many countries in our world do not distinguish been spiritual and material matters with both being important to one’s definition of self. In modern times, perhaps more than in ancient times, the rational, mystical, and even blatant sexuality are revered in the designs of a deck of cards.

Back to earth – cards serve the same purpose today as they did back in the middle ages. The rank of cards in the deck possibly reflecting back on the rank of humanity in society, from monarch to serf, with value depending upon rarity and the specific results of thousands of combinations.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Ultimate Bet Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Carbon Poker.

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