Curse of Scotland excluded, making the 7, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with the 9. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". "The Spectator" review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter". A letter written in response to "The Spectator's" book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: An 1864 book
Playing card down. The latter two correspond with the "ober" and "unter" cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the / system with the "Knight" and "" or "" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the "knave" which originally meant "male child" (compare German ), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the king and queen; the meaning "servant" developed later. Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen