[Regia-NA] False: The four kings in a deck of playing cards represent Charlemagne, David, Caesar, and Alexander

[Jeanne Papanastasiou]

To dispel this myth:  http://www.snopes.com/history/world/cardking.htm

Claim:   The four kings in a deck of playing cards represent Charlemagne,
David, Caesar, and Alexander.
Status:   False.

Origins:   The origins of European playing cards are highly speculative,
with Chinese, Indian, and Persian parentage all claimed of them. Despite our
lack of knowledge concerning exactly how playing cards came to Europe, we
can determine when they arrived with a fair degree of certainty. Although
the Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch (1304-1375) traveled widely and wrote
copiously, he made no mention of playing cards in his writings despite
covering the subjects of dice and gambling. Likewise, his friend and
contemporary Boccaccio wrote nothing about playing cards either. Ordinances
issued by the Church in 1363 and Charles V of France in 1369 prohibiting the
playing of dice, games of chance, and various sports and pastimes also say
nothing about card games. However, a sermon by a German monk called Johannes
states that "the game of cards has come to us this year, viz the year of our
Lord MCCCLXXVII," and prohibitions against cards were issued by John of
Castile and the cities of Florence and Basle that same year (1377), by the
city of Regensburg (or Ratison) the following year (1378), and by the Duchy
of Brabant (Belgium) in 1379. So, we are reasonably safe in stating that
playing cards first arrived in Europe in the latter part of the fourteenth
century.

The composition and design of playing card decks varied with time and locale
(particularly the number of cards in a deck), but the inclusion of both
numbered cards and court cards (or "royals") -- and the division of cards
into different suits -- were standard features from early on. Italian decks
contained fifty-six cards, included four types of court cards (king, queen,
knight, and knave) and were divided into four suits (cups, swords, coins,
and batons). As the popularity of card games spread throughout Europe and
the demand for decks of playing cards increased tremendously, they ceased to
be expensive, hand-painted luxuries and became cheaper, mass-produced
commodities manufactured by master card makers via the use of stencils.
Around the same time, knaves were dropped from the subset of court cards to
bring the composition of a standard deck down to fifty-two cards.

As the Spanish adopted playing cards, they replaced queens with mounted
knights (caballeros). The Germans similarly excluded queens from their
decks, naming their royals könig (king), obermann ("upper man") and
untermann ("lower man"). German card masters also modified the suits,
replacing the earlier French/Italian symbols with bells, hearts, leaves, and
acorns. The French made further changes, dropping the obermann and
re-including the queen; and adopting the German hearts and leaves (the
latter turned upright to become the more familiar spade symbol), adapting
the club from the acorn, and replacing bells with diamonds (from carreau, a
wax-painted paving stone used in churches).

Over the years, various scholars have put forth the notion that the four
suits in a deck of playing cards were intended to represent the four classes
of medieval society. The Italian cups (or chalices) stand for the Church,
the swords the military, the coins the merchants, and the batons (or clubs)
the peasantry. Similarly, the German bells (specifically hawk bells)
symbolize the nobility (because of their love of falconry), hearts the
Church, leaves the middle class, and acorns the peasantry. On French cards,
the spades represent the aristocracy (as spearheads, the weapons of
knights), hearts once again stand for the Church, diamonds are a sign of the
wealthy (from the paving stones used in the chancels of churches, where the
"well-to-do were buried," and clover (the food of swine) denotes the
peasantry. All of this is mere historic speculation, however.

French cards c. 1780 depicting Charlemagne, Caesar, and David    (pix)

The French suit symbols were more easily stencilled than their earlier
counterparts, and the French card masters soon realized they did not need to
engrave each of the twelve court cards separately, as their German
competitors did. The French simply created one wood block or copper plate
for each of the three royals, printed the cards from them, and stencilled
the suits in later. The French were thus able to outproduce German card
makers, and so the French design eventually became the standard for most of
Europe. It was at about this time that the French card masters also started
the practice of assigning identities to the royals pictured on their court
cards . All of the court cards (not just the kings) were named, and the
identities assigned to them (and printed on the cards) were by no means
consistent. The choice of names differed from master to master, often with
no apparent reason behind them other than personal preference or whim.

Early choices for the identities of the kings included Solomon, Augustus,
Clovis, and Constantine, but during the latter part of the reign of Henry IV
(1553-1610) they were more or less standardized as representing Charlemagne
(hearts), David (spades), Caesar (diamonds), and Alexander (clubs). The
names of the queens -- Judith or Judic (hearts), Pallas (spades), Rachel
(diamonds), and Argine (clubs) -- have been a continual object of
speculation, as the real-life personages they represent are not so easily
identified. Some suggestions for their origins have included the Empress
Judith (wife of Charlemagne's son) or Isobel of Bavaria (wife of Charles VI
and mother of Charles VII) for Judith, Joan of Arc or the eponymous Greek
goddess of war (also known as Athena) for Pallas, Agnes Sorel (mistress of
Charles VII) or Jacob's wife for Rachel, and Mary of Aragon (wife of Charles
VII) or Juno (Greek queen of the gods) for Argine (which is itself an
anagram of 'regina'). Curiously, the identities of the knaves seem to have
remained constant: La Hire (Etienne de Vignoles, Knight and Hero of France)
as the knave of hearts, Ogier (one of Charlemagne's knights in the Chansons
de Geste and the knight who is carried off by the witch Morgan la Fay in
Arthurian legend) as the knave of spades, Hector (the hero of Troy) as the
knave of diamonds, and Lancelot (another knight from Arthurian legend) as
the knave of clubs.

Kings from a deck made for George III.  Note the lack of identifying names.
(pix)

The French practice of printing names on court cards came to an end with the
French revolution in the late 18th century. After the Republican
revolutionaries had beheaded Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, symbols of the
monarchy were decidedly unwelcome in France. Initially, card masters filed
down the crowns and scepters on the blocks and plates from which they
printed cards, or they replaced the crowns with "caps of liberty."
Eventually the court cards were eliminated altogether in favor of "other
symbols which did not clash with Jacobin principles."
In summary, the court cards in decks of playing cards were not initially
identified by name. The assignation of identities to the kings (as well as
the queens and knaves) was a temporary practice unique to French card
masters that began around the mid-15th century, was not standardized for
some time, and was discontinued at the end of the 18th century. The royal
figures on modern playing cards no more represent specific persons than do
the kings and queens in chess sets.


Soffya Appollonia Tudja
http://www.aeonline.biz/Links.htm
Argent, a patriarchal cross between three crescent gules on a chief sable
three fleur-de-lys Or