Curse of Scotland

The Curse of Scotland is a nickname used for the nine of diamonds playing card. The expression has been used at least since the early 18th century, and many putative explanations have been given for the origin of this nickname for the card.

A tale of a general who, before a battle, wrote orders on a nine of diamonds card has appeared in folklore several times. The general has been identified with both James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth before the Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679) and Prince William, Duke of Cumberland before the Battle of Culloden (1746). Other tales connect the expression to a decision of collective punishment for theft taken by Mary, Queen of Scots, and to James IV of Scotland supposedly searching for a missing card shortly before his death at the Battle of Flodden (1513).

In a book printed in London in 1708, The British Apollo, or, Curious amusements for the ingenious, a question is posed:

Q. Why is the Nine of Diamonds called the curse of Scotland?
A. Diamonds as the Ornamental Jewels of a Regnal Crown, imply no more in the above-nam'd Proverb than a mark of Royalty, for SCOTLAND'S Kings for many Ages, were observ'd, each Ninth to be a Tyrant, who by Civil Wars, and all the fatal consequences of intestine discord, plunging the Divided Kingdom into strange Disorders, gave occasion, in the course of time, to form the Proverb.

A similar book of 1726 gives the same question and answer, still regarding the question as relating to a proverb. By 1757 the card was described as "commonly called the Curse of Scotland" with the explanation that the epithet refers to Lord Ormistoune, Lord Justice Clerk from 1692 to 1735, who suppressed the Jacobite rising of 1715 and "became universally hated in Scotland". In 18th-century Scotland, the nine of diamonds was sometimes called the "Justice Clerk", and was considered to be the most unlucky card in the pack.

James Mitchell's 1825 Scotsman's Library claimed that the expression originated from the Duke of Monmouth writing orders on such a card before the Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679). Despite this, in The Spectator, a reviewer of an 1885 book by George Gomme commented that the reviewer had believed that the phrase had started from an order written on a nine of diamonds card by the Duke of Cumberland ("Butcher" Cumberland) on the eve of the Battle of Culloden (1746). However he went on to remark that the book claims that "The curse of Scotland must be something which that nation hates and detests. The Scots held in the utmost detestation the Pope."

In the card game Pope Joan, very popular in the 19th century, 9♦ is the most powerful card, and it is called the "Pope". The game is played on a special board on which the middle is marked "Pope Joan", and it is used in association with this card. The game uses 51 cards (8♦ is excluded, making the 7♦, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with 9♦. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". The Spectator review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter".

A letter written in response to The Spectator's book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: