The queen is a

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

with a picture of a queen on it. In many European languages, the

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and queen begin with the same letter so the latter is often called ''dame'' (lady) or variations thereof. In

French playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Playing card suit, suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains th ...

, the usual rank of a queen is between the king and the

jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

. In

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

decks, it outranks the

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

which in turn outranks the jack. In the Spanish deck and some Italian decks, the Queen does not exist and the Knight appears in them instead, with the same role and value. In several card games, including the middle eastern Trex and French Barbu, the queen is a major card to avoid taking, with each queen taken inflicting a penalty on the player. Similarly, in Hearts, the

queen of spades The queen of spades (Q) is a face card in decks of French-suited playing cards and Tarot, depicting a queen of the spades () suit and associated with the Greek goddess Pallas. In Old Maid, several games of the Hearts family, and some variants ...

is to be avoided, and is called a variety of unsavoury names. In the

Paris pattern French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. In ...

, each court card is identified as a particular historical or mythological personage as follows: Image:Queen of spades fr.svg,

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

Image:Queen of hearts fr.svg,

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

,
Biblical figure Image:Queen of diamonds fr.svg,

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

,
Biblical figure Image:Queen of clubs fr.svg, Argine,
an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

of ''Regina''
(

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "queen") Queens may have been an invention of early German cardmakers. One of the earliest surviving packs of playing cards, the

Stuttgart pack The Stuttgart pack or Stuttgart Cards () is one of the most valuable collections of the Landesmuseum Württemberg. It is a hunting-themed deck of playing cards painted on gilded pasteboard dating to around 1430.Wintle, Adam''Stuttgart pack, c.143 ...

(circa 1440), consists of all female courts in two of the four suits where Queens have replaced Kings. The

Ambraser Hofjagdspiel The Ambraser Hofjagdspiel (Court Hunting Pack of Ambras; sometimes the Ambras falconer cards or the Courtly Hunt Cards) is a pack of cards painted around 1440–1445 and attributed to the engraver Konrad Witz from Basel, Switzerland. It origin ...

(circa 1440 to 1445) and many other surviving 15th-century packs include the Queen as a fourth independent rank from the King,

Ober Ober may refer to: * Ober (playing card), court card in the German and Swiss styles of playing cards * Ober, Indiana, an unincorporated community in Washington Township, Starke County * Oberek (also ''ober''), a lively Polish dance in triple metre ...

, and Unter. Modern

German-suited playing cards German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Lau ...

have dropped the Queen rank, but

French-suited playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Playing card suit, suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains th ...

have since adopted it as a replacement for the Knights.

Cultural references

Regarding the anonymous nursery rhyme, " The Queen of Hearts" (published 1782), Katherine Elwes Thomas claims, in ''The Real Personage of Mother Goose'', that the Queen of Hearts was based on

Elizabeth of Bohemia Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the po ...

. Benham, in his book ''Playing Cards: History of the Pack and Explanations of its Many Secrets'', notes that French

s from the mid-17th century have

from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Queen of Hearts (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) The Queen of Hearts is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' by Lewis Carroll. She is a childish, foul-tempered monarch whom Carroll himself describes as "a blind fury", and who is ...

In Unicode

The queens are included in the

Playing Cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a Pap ...

: * * * *

References

{{Authority control

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

Cultural references

In Unicode

See also

References