The Curse Card of Scotland
We are named The Nine of Diamonds as it is often said that it is the Curse of Scotland (Wikipedia).
We included several of the explanations we have discovered in the book, a few of which are below:
- British Commander William Augustus, the “Butcher Duke of Cumberland”,was a lover of card games and always carried two packs on his person. After his decisive victory in the Battle of Culloden he quickly scribbled an execution order for his Scottish prisoners on the closest paper he had at hand. The paper turned out to be—you guessed it—the Nine of Diamonds, a card that haunts the Scots to this day.
- Comete, a card game inspired by the discovery of Halley’s Comet,was introduced to Scotland by James II. To win the gameone needed to secure the Nine of Diamonds. It is said that the card was called the Curse of Scotland on account of the large sums of money that Scottish gamers lost when first learning this new game.
- Though the nine diamonds in today’s playing cards are arranged in an H pattern, early versions favoured an X shape. When viewed sideways, these cards look very similar to the Scottish flag—known as the St. Andrew’s Cross or the Cross of Scotland. It’s very possible that the original name of the card was actually the Cross of Scotland.