Knight (playing card)
Encyclopedia
A knight is a French Tarot playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...

 with a picture of a young man riding horse on it. The usual rank of a knight, within its suit
Suit (cards)
In playing cards, a suit is one of several categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several symbols showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or in addition be indicated by the color printed on the card...

, is as if it were a 12 (that is, between the queen
Queen (playing card)
The Queen is a playing card with a picture of a queen on it. The usual rank of a queen is as if it were 12 ....

 and the jack
Jack (playing card)
A Jack, also Knave, is a playing card with a picture of a man on it. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, is as if it were an 11 ....

). In Latin suited playing cards such as La Baraja
Baraja (playing cards)
The Baraja is a deck of playing cards associated with Spain, it is usually called Baraja Española . It has four suits and is usually made up of 40 cards...

 and the oldest Western playing cards, the knights take the place of queens.

History

As early as the mid-16th century the knight was called the chevalier (meaning a male riding servant of royalty). The card came to be known as the knight during the middle of the 19th century, when card manufacturers began to label playing cards to indicate their value with 1(A), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Kn, Q, K, Jkr.

Representations

In the standard French Tarot playing card deck produced in English speaking countries, the knight and the other face cards represent no one in particular — this is in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The knights in a French deck have traditionally assigned names as follows:
  • knight of Spades: Ogier the Dane
    Ogier the Dane
    Ogier the Dane is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence....

     (legendary hero of the chansons de geste)
  • knight of Hearts: La Hire
    La Hire
    Étienne de Vignolles, called La Hire, was a French military commander during the Hundred Years' War. His nickname of La Hire would be that the English had nicknamed "the Hire-God" . He fought alongside Joan of Arc in the campaigns of 1429...

     (French warrior)
  • knight of Diamonds: Hector
    Hector
    In Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the...

     (mythological hero of the Iliad
    Iliad
    The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

    )
  • knight of Clubs: Lancelot
    Lancelot
    Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...


Example cards

These card designs are based on those from a historical French Tarot deck, and include the historical and mythological names associated with the French cards.
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