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.

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.

Still lower on the scale came the cards from 10 to 2, marked by the appropriate number of suit symbols, greatest value accorded to the greater number. The English word “Ace” first meant “unit,” and had French, Spanish, German and other equivalents: as, aas, ass, etc. The Ace stood lower on the scale than 2. However, the medieval Catholic Church viciously opposed such a classification. God was “one,” and hence any game or numeric system which defined His number as the lowest was blaspheme and Satan’s work. Anyone who would not agree had to be convinced by an array of means which were difficult to argue with down at the basement.

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.

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 Poker Heaven Rakeback as well as Cellsino Rakeback.