Playing cards arrived in England slightly later than in the rest of Western and Central Europe. While widespread use is not documented until the 1460s, the first concrete reference dates to 1413 (Depaulis, ‘Early References’). The English market eventually became dominated by 52-card decks utilizing the French suit system. From the 1660s onwards, a vast number of decks have survived, highlighting a distinct tradition of incorporating historical, geographic, and political subjects into card designs (Keller (ed.), Catalogue, i, pp. 99–130).

By the nineteenth century, major industrial manufacturers such as Goodall and De La Rue had secured a dominant stake in the English domestic market and, crucially, throughout the British Empire (Houseman, House). The use of Tarot cards, however, was a late development, gaining traction only in the late nineteenth century. This interest culminated in the works of Arthur Edward Waite and Aleister Crowley, who developed two of the most iconic modern Tarot decks in England during the first half of the twentieth century (Decker and Dummett, History, chps. 8–9).

Introduction

The recorded history of playing cards in the United Kingdom begins with a reference in household accounts dating to 1413. Over the centuries, English card culture crystallized around the French suit system and the 52-card pack. Through the expansion of the British Empire, the United Kingdom became a primary vector for the globalization of playing cards.

History

Playing cards were a relatively late arrival to the British Isles. While cards had proliferated rapidly across European society in the late 1370s—with references appearing in Florence, Paris, Siena, and Basel by 1377—England remained silent on the matter for several decades (Dummett, Game, p. 10). An alleged reference to card usage in Norwich in 1374 has been dismissed by modern scholarship as inaccurate (Depaulis, ‘Early References’, p. 165).

For many years, historians believed the earliest evidence was a letter from 1459 within the Paston Letters, a collection of correspondence from a Norfolk gentry family. In this letter, Margaret Paston mentions card playing during Christmas festivities (Depaulis, ‘Early References’, pp. 167–168). However, recent scholarship has identified an earlier entry in the household accounts of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, dating to late 1413 (Depaulis, ‘Early References’, pp. 168–169). Despite this early presence, cards likely remained a rare pastime until the mid-fifteenth century. By 1461, usage was common enough to warrant parliamentary legislation during King Edward IV’s first parliament (Parlett, Guide, p. 46).

Regulation, Religion, and the French Connection

By the reign of King Henry VII, the moral and socio-economic implications of gambling had drawn royal attention. In 1495/6, a royal edict prohibited card playing among the poorer classes, with a specific exception granted during Christmastide (Parlett, Guide, p. 46). This cultural association between cards and Christmas persisted well into the sixteenth century (Benham, History, p. 26).

As the Protestant Reformation took hold, cards became a rhetorical tool for religious debate. In 1529, the reformer Hugh Latimer famously used cards as a metaphor in his sermons at Cambridge (Latimer, Sermons). Conversely, the preacher John Northbrooke condemned them as instruments of idolatry in the mid-1570s, and local officials frequently criticized the rampant use of cards on Sundays (Benham, History, pp. 26–27).

A pivotal moment in English card history occurred in 1583, when the French government imposed heavy taxes on card-makers in Rouen. Many of these artisans fled to England, bringing their production methods with them (Mann, Collecting, p. 62). Although the tax was eventually reduced, prompting many to return to France, their temporary settlement permanently established the French suit system (Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs) as the standard in England, displacing other potential German or Latin influences (Dummett, Game, p. 204; Parlett, Guide, p. 47).

The Worshipful Company and The Civil War

By the early seventeenth century, the industry had matured sufficiently to warrant formal organization. The Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards was established by royal patent in London in 1628. acting as a guild to regulate the industry, setting strict rules and ordinances for manufacturing (Hargrave, History, p. 170; Benham, History, pp. 56–62).

However, the tumultuous period of the English Civil War and the subsequent Commonwealth (1640s–1650s) proved destructive to card history. The Puritan government cracked down on gambling and “frivolous” pastimes; consequently, vast numbers of cards were burned or destroyed. As a result, very few examples of English cards from the fifteenth, sixteenth, or seventeenth centuries survive today (Mann, Collecting, p. 62).

The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

The Restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s ushered in an era of loosened social mores, where drinking and gambling flourished. Cards returned in abundance (Hargrave, History, p. 174). During this period, the game of Hombre arrived from Spain, joining established favorites like Whist, Primero, and Piquet (known locally as ‘Saunt’) (Parlett, Guide, p. 54, 199).

This era also saw the rise of educational and thematic decks. In 1665, Henry Winstanley produced a geographical deck featuring descriptions of distant lands in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (Hargrave, History, pp. 178–179).

By the eighteenth century, high-stakes gambling had become a notorious vice, ruining the fortunes of many noble houses before spreading to the growing middle class (Mullin, Gaming). Card makers capitalized on current events; for instance, Thomas Bowles produced decks in 1720 satirizing the South Sea Bubble, one of history’s earliest financial crashes (Crouch, et al. (ed.), Art, pp. 40–41).

The production of cards was heavily taxed and strictly controlled. In a stark reminder of the severity of these laws, the noted forger Richard Harding was hanged at the Old Bailey in 1805. His crime was forging the ‘Ace of Spades’—the specific card which bore the legal stamp indicating that duty had been paid to the Crown (Benham, History, pp. 151–153).

While the French suit system was dominant, there were attempts at innovation. In the mid-1770s, Rowley & Co. attempted to introduce a distinct “English” suit system consisting of chalices, pikes, faceted diamonds, and shamrocks. The experiment failed to gain traction (Mann, Collecting, p. 163).

Industrialization and Empire

The nineteenth century marked the transition from artisan workshops to industrial manufacturing. Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd. (est. 1821) and Goodall (est. 1820) emerged as giants of the industry. By the second half of the century, they supplied over half the British market (O’Donoghue (ed.), Catalogue, pp. 156–158). As an official supplier to the government and the Royal family, De La Rue played a crucial role in exporting British playing cards to the Empire, fueling markets in North America, the Caribbean, India, Australia, and New Zealand (Houseman, House; Daniels, ‘Australia’).

The Occult Revival and Tarot

Historically, the English did not adopt the Tarot pack for gaming, despite travelers encountering it on the continent. While some divination decks, such as those by John Lenthall, existed in London as early as the 1710s, they were not Tarot cards in the traditional sense (O’Donoghue (ed.), Catalogue, p. 169).

The first sustained English engagement with Tarot occurred through the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1887. Co-founders William Wynn Westcott and Samuel MacGregor Mathers were pivotal in integrating Tarot symbolism into their occult system (Decker and Dummett, History, chps. 3–5).

This occult interest birthed two of the world’s most influential Tarot decks. In 1909, Golden Dawn member Arthur Edward Waite commissioned artist Pamela Colman Smith to design a deck. The resulting Waite-Smith Tarot revolutionized the practice by featuring fully illustrated minor arcana, becoming the standard for modern Tarot reading (Kaplan, Encyclopedia, iii, preface, pp. 1–45).

Later, in the late 1930s, Aleister Crowley collaborated with Lady Frieda Harris to create the Thoth Tarot. Crowley published his theories in The Book of Thoth (1944), though the deck itself was not widely published until 1969 (Crowley, Thoth; Kaplan, Encyclopedia, iii, pp. 152, 156).

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