The Cards

We have to thank the French for our modern-day cards. They not only rejiggered the deck to align with their own notions of royalty- kings, queens, and jacks replaced Muslim court cards-but they also replaced the four suits with their current-day counterparts. An early French deck featured Charlemagne as the king of diamonds, Emperor Julius Caesar as the king of hearts, Alexander the Great as the king of clubs, and biblical King David as the king of spades.