Face Cards In A Deck Of Cards: How Did They Evolve?

Etienne de Vignolles, called La Hire, a French military commander who fought alongside Joan of Arc

, happened to be a card craftsman. He was so impressed with the legendary maid's heroism that he replaced the knight in a deck of cards with a dame. Catholics had no objection to depicting human form on cards, decorating cards with Judeo-Christian motifs. The King of spades was King David, with the trophy sword in hand and his sling on the bottom of the card. King of clubs was Charles the Great, King of diamonds was Julius Caesar, and King of hearts was Alexander the Great. The four kings represented the four sources 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.

The jack of spades was the symbol for one of Charlemagne's knights of the court. Hector stood in for diamonds; La Hire himself for hearts, while clubs were represented by Judas Maccabeus. For the sake of variety, the four jacks depicted four famous knights: Lancelot, Ogier, Roland and Valery. Each knight's name appeared below their picture on the cards. They were long-haired, clean-shaven youths, warriors wielding battle axes. All of them buy Valery had at their feet a dog similar to a bloodhound. This may have occurred because Valery was also the lead craftsman of the deck.

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 of today symbolizes a quintessential quality freely associated with any number of entities. It is of greater value than any one personage. But can any card in the deck be a stand-in for the crassness of science or metaphysical meanderings of the mind?

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.

by: Thomas Kearns

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