Bezique (/bəˈziːk/) or bésigue (French: [beziɡ]) is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players, which was imported to Britain and is still played today. The game is derived from piquet, possibly via marriage (sixty-six) and briscan, with additional scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of the Q♠ and J♦ that is also a feature of pinochle, Binokel, and similarly named games that vary by country.

An early theory that appeared in the 1864 edition of The American Hoyle was that bezique originated in Sweden as the result of a royal competition. This much repeated, but unsubstantiated, tale is recounted thus:

The Royal Game of Bézique

This interesting game is supposed to have originated in Sweden. It is said that during the reign of the First Charles (presumed to mean Charles I of England who reigned from 1625 to 1649)--a reward having been offered by that monarch for the best game of cards, to combine certain requirements--a poor schoolmaster, by name Gustave Flaker, presented for the prize the game of cards which he called Flakernuhle, which was accepted by his royal master, and he made the recipient very happy with the promised purse of gold. The game became very popular in Sweden, and was finally introduced to Germany, changed in some respects, and called Penuchle. There it also acquired great popularity.

It is only a few years since it was first introduced in Paris, but it has also become a favourite game with all classes there. The French gave it the name Bézique.

What is known is that the first rules – for a game played with a single pack of 32 cards – appeared in Paris in 1847 where Méry described it as a new game. Another early theory was that bezique was developed in France from piquet and that the word "bezique", formerly bésique or bésigue, was known in France in the 17th century, coming probably from the Italian card game bazzica.

More recently, French historians traced the origins of bezique to a game called bezi or bezit, which descended through a form of single bezique also known as cinq cents or binage to early modern bezique. This appears to be corroborated by Anton (1879) who tells us that Besigue originally came from the regions of Angouleme, Poitou, and Saintonge on France's Atlantic coast where it was called besit.

The word bezique once meant "correspondence" or "association". In English-speaking nations, Binocles, meaning eyeglasses with this pronunciation, became the name for Bezique with minor rule variations, ultimately evolving into Pinochle. Two-handed Pinochle, two-handed bezique and two-handed binokel are almost identical. The main difference is that binokel is played with two packs of 24, German-suited, cards, instead of two packs of 32, French-suited, ones. Pinochle, together with six-pack bezique and Rubicon bezique, is still played in the United States.

In 1860, the game achieved its greatest popularity in Paris, and reached England in 1861. Perhaps the most famous proponent of the game was Winston Churchill, an avid player and early expert of six-pack, or "Chinese" bezique. There is some evidence that the English writers Wilkie Collins and Christina Rossetti were also enthusiasts. Since the late nineteenth century the game has declined in popularity.

The original 1847 game was played with a single piquet pack of 32 cards. The rules already suggested that the game might be played with two packs, which would double the number of available points. By no later than 1864 in the US, the standard two-hand game had evolved to use two or even three euchre packs, also of 32 cards.}