Pope Julius (card game)

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.^[2]

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 laste day delived unto the kings grace whiche his grace lost at pope July game wt my lady marquess and m Weston xvj cor

• 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

References

1. Farquhar, Helen (1916). "Royal Charities" (PDF). British numismatic journal and Proceedings of the British Numismatic Society. 12: 84.
2. 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.