Pope Julius, or Pope July, is a gambling card game of the 16th century for four or more players.[1] Players included King Henry VIII and it appears to have been one of his and Anne Boleyn's favourite pastimes.[2][3]
Very little is known about the game, and its existence is known to be attested only by three written sources, those being:
- c. 1521 - John Skelton, Speke, parrot
- Of Pope Julius cardys he ys chefe cardynall.
- 1532 - anon, Privy Purse Expences of King Henry VIII (30 November 1532)
- Itm the xx daye delifed to the kingf grace at Stone whiche his grace loste at pope Julius game to my lady marques, m! Bryan and maister Weston
- c. 1596 - Sir John Harington, A Treatise on Playe, in Nugae antiquae (1769)
- Pope Julio (if I fail not in the name, and sure I am that there is a game of the cards after his name) was a great and wary player, a great vertue in a man of his profession
Some sources speculate that it was the precursor to the game of Pope Joan.[4]
References
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Look up Pope Julius in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- ^ Farquhar, Helen (1916). "Royal Charities" (PDF). British Numismatic Journal and Proceedings of the British Numismatic Society. 12: 84.
- ^ Warnicke, Retha M. (1991). The rise and fall of Anne Boleyn: family politics at the court of Henry VIII. Cambridge University Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-521-40677-2.
- ^ Grueninger, Natalie (2022). The Final Year of Anne Boleyn. Barnsley: Pen & Sword.
- ^ Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland. Retrieved 24 December 2020.