Not sure where this belongs so here goes. Read this in the Nostalgia Section of a paper called The Senior Connection. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar. Don't know if there's any truth to it but I'm sure someone in the Café will know. And even if it's not true it is an interesting thought.

I have read this in a number of different sources over the years.

It seems to me there's an effect in the making there! It will probably end up in Magicbob's next book!

These names were common on French playing cards. They show up on some of the very old packs.

Spellbinder,

I KNEW you were going to say that!

All... here is some more background on this topic.

http://www.snopes.com/history/world/cardking.asp

As Bill points out, French card makers used the names often, but it wasn't always standard practice.

Another Bourbon legend debunked!

The practice of politicizing playing cards by identifying the court cards with political figures was not, as claimed in the above quoted article, unique to the French. There are examples of Early American decks in which the court cards bore the images of Presidents and other political figures.

And continues today as well. The most famous modern example are the decks with all the main Iraqi leaders on them, with Saddam Hussein as the Ace of Spades. I also have a "political" deck showing 52 of the Democratic candidates running in the 2004 elections. The shop where I bought them did not have the ones for the Republican party.