The King is a playing card with a picture of a king on it. The king is usually the highest ranking face card. In French playing cards and tarot decks, the king immediately outranks the queen. In Italian and Spanish playing cards, the king immediately outranks the knight. In German and Swiss playing cards, the king immediately outranks the Ober. In some games, the king is the highest-ranked card; in others, the ace is higher. In pinochle, schnapsen, and many other European games, both the ace and the 10 rank higher than the king. The king card is the oldest and most universal court card. It descends directly from the Mamluk king card where it outranked the viceroy card. In a French deck, the court cards do have names. Because the manufacture of playing cards was illegal in England during the Interregnum, when the English Restoration came and the court began playing card games, the suits in an English deck came from the French deck, but without all of the lore. For a period, starting in the 15th century, French playing-card manufacturers assigned to each of the court cards names taken from history or mythology. The names inscribed on these cards still appear on 32 card decks in France. The names for the kings in the French national pattern (Parisian or portrait officiel) are: In many card games, when all four kings are acquired by a single player, they are commonly called “the four horsemen”.
