King

King cards of all four suits

The king is a playing card with a picture of a king on it. The usual rank of a king is as if it were a 13; that is, above the queen. In some games, the king is the highest-ranked card; in others, the ace is higher. In pinochle, schnapsen, and many other European games, both the ace and the 10 rank higher than the king.

In the standard English playing card deck, the king and the other face cards represent no one in particular (though the king of hearts is sometimes referred to as the "suicide king" because he appears to be sticking his sword into his head; evidently, the king of hearts is also the only one of the kings without a moustache, whereas the king of diamonds is the only king not be depicted carrying a sword, wielding an axe instead). However, the court cards in a French deck do have names. Because the manufacture of playing cards was illegal in the UK during the Interregnum, when the English Restoration came and the court began playing card games, the suits in an English deck came from the French deck, but without all of the lore.

For a period, starting in the 15th century, French playing-card manufacturers assigned to each of the court cards names taken from history or mythology. This practice had largely disappeared by the 19th century.^[1] The most common names for the kings were:^[2]

• King of Spades: David (a biblical king)
• King of Hearts: Charles (presumably after Charlemagne)
• King of Diamonds: Caesar (presumably after Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Republic)
• King of Clubs: Alexander (king of Macedon)

See also

The King of Spades from the 15th Century Visconti-Sforza tarot deck (predating the division between Tarot cards and playing cards).

• List of poker hand nicknames
• The King of Hearts, a character from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• King of Clubs, Paul Gilbert's 1998 album
• King of Clubs, a golf-based video game
• King of Hearts, a 1936 film directed by Oswald Mitchell and Walter Tennyson
• King of Hearts, also known as Le Roi de coeur, a 1966 French film directed by Philippe de Broca
• King of Hearts, the title used by Domon Kasshu and Master Asia in the 1994 anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam
• King of Hearts, a 1992 album by Roy Orbison
• Eddie Kingston, a professional wrestler who goes by the nickname "The King of Diamonds."

References

1. ^ "The Four King Truth" at the Urban Legends Reference Pages
2. ^ "Courts on playing cards", by David Madore, with illustrations of the Anglo-American and French court cards