The card game used to be seen as diabolical entertainment

You can remember, bang, seesaw, sway and markers with it. uh, with what? And also: bashing, bullying, jokers, poker, cloverjacks, bridge… Ah, playing cards!

It is a find with the power of astonishing simplicity. Four times thirteen cards, four different marks on them – hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs. Plus two extra cards, the jokers. Such a stack is enough to play an almost endless series of games.

This classic combination of 54 playing cards is centuries old. How old exactly? Numerous sources answer this question, but they are not unequivocal. Like the wheel, the card game must have been invented in different places.

Here and there can be read that King Charles VI of France was the first card player in Europe in 1390. It would appear from an old bill. Karel’s bookkeeper had paid a large sum of money to an artist to paint and gild maps. The king, who was mentally ill, had a lady-in-waiting nearby to calm him down in anger and delusions. She did this, among other things, by endlessly playing card games with him.

It’s a nice story. It also explains something about the still characteristic visual language on playing cards. It unmistakably dates from the late Middle Ages, with beautifully dressed kings and queens.

Punishment for cheating

But it is impossible for King Charles in 1390 to have had a first. As early as 1367, Bern, Switzerland, was the first in Europe to enact rules against cheating with cards. From that moment on, one city after another country follows, which the playing man wants to keep on the right path. In 1461, the Amsterdam city council imposed a severe punishment on cheating with playing cards: gouging out both eyes.

Like dice, playing cards have a rich tradition of fuss, fueling the fire of alcoholism and gambling. Graphic designer Hans Janssen devotes a few pages to this in his book History of the Playing Card (1985).

Notorious in Antwerp is one Claes DeBlesere, a gambler, who around 1550 earned a lot of money from cheating with cards. Twice a conviction awaits him for ‘bottereyen which he had used in the game of vander caerten’. The second time he is banished from the city for ten years, after he has first undergone a flogging on the scaffold – ‘wallpapered with caertspelen’.

Spiritual foremen also show early concern about evil passions that can unleash in card players. At the beginning of the 15th century, a traveling Italian monk, Bernardinus of Siena, managed to gather crowds around ‘bonfires of vanities’. Everything that can incite sin goes up in flames: books, drawings, paintings. And: playing cards, because they are ‘the devil’s picture book’, in the eyes of the later canonized preacher.

Clatter of arms

Three centuries later, the French philosopher Voltaire does not see that dark side. But there is another: ‘Because people have no thoughts to share, they share cards and try to win someone else’s money. Idiots!’

Playing cards, boredom, debauched behavior – something of cause and effect can be found in this three-piece. For example, on shoreless sea voyages, when time creeps especially when there is no wind. A source from 1634 reports that playing cards are not allowed on board VOC ships as entertainment under any circumstances. Violation carries a hefty penalty: eight days, handcuffed, life on bread and water, plus twenty stuivers fine.

Other sea travel reports also mention a strict ban on the card game, especially in the 17th century. Some acceptance does follow in the 18th, but in the eyes of many preachers it continues to find no favor.

A pastor from Middelburg, H. de Frein, wrote a 68-page pamphlet in 1738, full of admonitions: ‘The card game is accompanied by loss of time, money disputes, unjust trade, quarreling, swearing, blasphemy, sadness, displeasure, insatiable heat and mad addiction to the game, quarrels and murders.’

An image of sinful and devilish also lingers in army encampments, where soldiers wait for battle. Several war diaries report the tearing and/or burning of playing cards just before battle begins. It is an expression of (super) belief not to take the devil to the clash of arms.

Cowboy Gerald

Something of this story can be recognized in an episode that would have taken place during the Second World War. A soldier is playing with a pile of cards during a church service. His lieutenant thinks that is a disrespectful act. After the service, he calls the soldier to account.

His retort: ​​“When I look at the Ace, I know there is only one God. The two tells me that the Bible is divided into two parts. With the three I think of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And so on, up to and including: “The farmer is the devil. The woman reminds me of Mother Mary. When I see the king, I know there is only one great King.”

Believe it or not, these wisdoms are an outright hit on the illegal radio station Veronica in 1965. A disc jockey, Gerard de Vries (stage name Cowboy Gerard), is causing a stir with spoken lyrics in country music. His clap The game of cards is originally an American story, more than two centuries old.

Apparently it strikes a chord in the wild 1960s, when playing cards also took off their devilish mask.

Divide and conquer with these card games

Keezen game

Old Dutch board game, a combination of Mens don’t get annoyed! and teasing the card game.

Clown Games, 2-8 players, €12.99

Qwixx

Dice game, where you have to collect as many points as possible, to keep track of your own score sheet.

White Goblin Games, 2-5 players, €11.80

El Dorado

Board game, like a jungle journey: an expedition to a city full of gold.

999 Games, 2-4 players, €23.99

Beaver gang

Memory game. Each player has four cards ‘blind’ in front of him, of which you can only see two in advance. Each turn, a new card comes into play. Try to get rid of penalty cards to opponents.

999 Games, 2-6 players, €10.89

Great Dalmuti

Deck of eighty cards: a struggle between ranks and ranks, to maintain yourself as king at the top, or fight your way up as a servant.

PS Games, 4-8 players, €11.95

Cockroach salad

Game with 128 cards: about vegetables that may or may not have been eaten by cockroaches – but that’s not really the point. About what? Speed, pay very close attention, confuse your fellow players.

999 Games, 2-6 players, €10.99

Boonanza

Game with 128 cards. Grow your own beans on your own land. Who gets the best beans and earns the most?

999 Games, 3-5 players, €9.99

Horse trading

Game with 40 animal cards and 55 money cards. Collect as many different animals as possible per foursome (quartet). You can auction animals (offer for sale to all players), or have a ‘horse trade’ with one of the players.

Ravensburger, 3-5 players, €10.99

Time after time

Dice and puzzle game. Combine colors and numbers to tick as many boxes as possible on your scorecard.

999 Games, 2-6 players, €15.99

set

A classic: twelve cards lie face up on the table, which can be combined in three different shapes and/or colours. The fastest viewer/thinker sees the sets the fastest and wins.

999 Games, 2-8 players, €15.99

Elixir Mixer

118-card game: Wizards collect creepy spiders and creepy eyes to brew magical potions.

Jumbo, 2-4 players, €8.05