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The Suicide King



Estimated reading time — 2 minutes

Modern playing cards are filled with layers of meaning and symbology that can be traced back centuries. The four kings, for example, are based off of real rulers: the king of diamonds represents the wealthy Julius Caesar, the king of clubs is the brutal Alexander the Great, Spades represents the strong but kind David of Israel and Hearts represents the… emotionally disturbed, shall we say, Charles VII of France. It is this king that we will be dealing with today. It should also be noted that Charles was the only one of the four who was actually there to see the day that his face was printed on a playing card, which may rationalize why he acted apart from the others.

Charles’ visage was put on the king of hearts at the very beginning of his rule, but he never really got a chance to come into contact with playing cards until many years later when he became very ill with a fever and was informed that he would be bedridden for the rest of his life. It was during this period that Charles began learning card games to pass the time, such as an early version of black jack, “vingt-et-un” (twenty one).

Charles lay in his bed for two years, constantly fiddling with the cards and always getting weaker. As time continued to pass, there were reports that Charles had begun obsessing over the idea that the king being the thirteenth card in a suit was causing him bad luck. He talked about how he was starting to see the number pop up everywhere and that he was close to figuring out its secret. Of course, his ramblings were blamed on the fever, and by the end of the second year, he had been declared insane, and his son Louis XII took over the thrown.

One day, several months after the end of his reign, one of Charles’ physicians went to his chamber to find the frail old man standing in the middle of the room wielding a large sword. Before the doctor could react, the king said, “Ils m’ont montré la vérité de treize, et il n’est pas signifié pour les yeux mortels.” which roughly translates to, “They have shown me the truth of thirteen, and it is not meant for mortal eyes.” Without hesitation the king proceeded to ram the blade in through the left side of his head (between the ear and temple) until it came out the other side. He wavered a moment, before collapsing to the floor dead.

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After the incident was announced and it was made public that the king had gone mad, the image of Charles on the king of hearts was altered to show himself offing himself. Although the picture is now shown significant-ly less graphically, the image of Charles thrusting the sword into his skull can still be found on modern day playing cards. Perhaps the strangest part of the whole story, however, is the day that Charles chose to kill himself: 7/6/1462. Whether or not it was intentional of the king, the facts that 6+7=13 and 1+4+6+2=13 can only be explained as coincidences.

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//
Credited to John ♠.

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107 thoughts on “The Suicide King”

  1. Barthage Stunbutz

    Charles VII actually starved to death . He had oral tumors and abscesses, which became so large, he could not eat . I call bullshit on this story .

  2. Mrs. Slendy the Killer-ette Widemouth-Bigelsteine

    More fascinating than creepy. From the title, I was guessing it was going to be something like the movie Heathers. I love that movie.

  3. Actually liked this pasta a lot. Not really creepy to me, but interesting for sure. I enjoyed how fact and fiction were woven so well together. Great job.

  4. I knew what would happen cus i do a “bet” with playing cards using the fact not many know the king of hearts sword goes through his head. Not a creepypasta but a delightful little story!

  5. I was just checking out these awesome playing cards that my friend’s sister got, and the king of hearts was actually a skeleton with his sword inside his head.

  6. Weird how I read this today, so 550 years ago tomorrow he will have murdered himself. Time to go look at my playing cards…

  7. I hate correcting people but I have to tell you that symbology is not a word. I think the word you were looking for in the first paragraph is symbolism.
    Great story otherwise :)

  8. I hate to be “that person”, but “symbology” is not a word. I think the word you were looking for in the first paragraph of the story is “symbolism”.
    Great story otherwise :)

  9. Who the fuck cares for accuracy? Have some imagination you wastes of life. This story was amazing, as a lot of the stories on here are. It pulled me in, and now I’m searching for a deck of cards to play with.

  10. the story it’s self ain’t creepy but guys I’m surprised no one noticed this but I found it a nice touch that the story was uploaded at 9:31 pm
    9+3+1=13 ironic no?

  11. Wrong, Charles VII of france actually died 7/22/1461 and aged to be 58, There is, however, a pattern in his death date and age when he died. All those numbers still add up to another set of numbers

    7+2+2=11

    1+4+6+1=12

    5+8= 13

    Also, this may be pushing it, but his birthdate was 10/21/1422.

    2+1=3

    1+4+2+2=9

    9 is 3 squared.

    Creepy huh?

  12. Well This is weird

    umm… i went to look for some playing cards to see if it was true, but when i looked under my foot, the king of hearts was laying right there away from the rest of the deck which has been in a drawer since i got them one year for christmas (it was trick cards, but i dont have anyone to use them on so i just put them away) i haven’t even touched the deck since i got it… i’m getting really scared, you guys, i got this deck when i was 13

  13. being a card lover, this was great 9/10. Wasn’t my usual interests but I liked the background. Maybe it’d be a good story for some type of magic trick with the king. Good pasta :)

    and no offense but people, cmon. We’re seriously gunna correct people on grammar and spelling? Why? To piss people off? It’s a blog type thing, not a novel.

  14. I always wondered why the hell the King on the cards had a sword in his hand. I even remember a comic strip poking fun at it, saying “get this stick out of my head!”

  15. There is a demon of great evil, that will be able to walk upon the Earth if someone is told of its existence and does not repeat the name to another. To the best of my ability, his name roughly approximates \"Jkqxxllyuo\".

    This was told to me by a rather unkempt man on the street; if you have not noticed it already, I just told it to you.

  16. (calling nabor) nabor: WHAT R U DOING THERE ARE PYCHOPATHS OUT THERE -me: can u plz send ur dead wifes blood? i need to barrow some-nabor: oh well,sure i could use some to ill give u a quart-me: WHY U(goes to nabor and kills him)

  17. “So, tell me, what’s the ‘symbology’ there?”

    “Symbology? Now that Duffy has relinquished his “King Bonehead” crown, I see we have an heir to the throne! I’m sure the word you were looking for was “symbolism.” What is the ssss-himbolism there?”

    Also, very interesting. ^_^

  18. RutilusHemal:

    You are my new best friend.

    Symbology?

    Perhaps King Charles should be replaced by \"King Bonehead\". I\’m sure the word you were looking for was \"symbolism.\" What is the ssss-himbolism there?

  19. @doodily.

    shit. I fucked up xD.

    I look like a total douche, talking about spelling then putting in “through it off”.

    Sorry guys, I love munching on pasta when I’m high

  20. it was a good story, I thoroughly enjoyed it, although the little awkward sentences near the end through it off for me.

    I mean, I\’m just being nitpicky, it is good, just the misspelling of \"throne\" vs \"thrown\" and the \"showing himself offing himself\" seemed weird in my mind.

    I just know it distracted me from the actual story, thus lessened the creepy factor, but still very cool. 7/10

  21. I guess I should start commenting on what I have read in here so far.

    Suicide king, well, not that good. With the title, you’d think that it’s about an emo guy, but going to the first part of the story would definitely make you think fast and go on with the chase already. Story made me search for the playing card’s photo, and it’s origins. And I must say, good job with this one.

  22. I liked the urban legend feel to this pasta. Yeah, it’s not historically accurate or scary, but it’s very enjoyable.

  23. @ Blaine Keter, I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    23 is definitely a better creepy number. Lost and the movie The Number 23 made me want to be haunted by it.

  24. that\’s so full of bullshit. the dates are all wrong and inaccurate, and that little number summing game you play at the end is total crap. the results are infinite and you can make up any number if you try a little hard.

  25. When I said weeks, I meant average, FYI. I was, in fact, pleasantly surprised that there was new creepypasta in 6 days, but I have noticed that 6 days is rather fast compared to the average rate of posting.

    Sorry about your electronics BTW. That sucks. I can’t donate any money, but I wouldn’t mind donating some of my time to this site, if it would help?

  26. Oh, please. How on earth are you supposed to stab yourself in the side of the head with a sword?
    The king either had very long arms, or, heh, a very short sword.

  27. The only unclear part was how he knew about the oh-so-magical secret of the thirteen. You could have done loads with that.

  28. Hm.
    I liked this. 13 is not a really very scary number to me, nor was I creeped out by this pasta, nor do I speak French so I can correct your French grammar- The words and translation did look slightly odd together, though- But I liked this very much. It was something to read, it was worthwhile, and it didn’t have one of those utter shit endings like “They say if you go to his final resting place, you can hear the echoing screams”.

    7/10.

    Also, for all you guys who are undoubtably going to eventually complain about how “DIS DIDNT RLY HAPEN WTF RU ON ABUT” It’s a story. It doesn’t matter if it’s fiction. >>

  29. I think this is copyrighted to Warner Brothers. No wait, that’s 23. You’re talking about cards and a different number. Pretty sure this was the exact storyline of another movie too. Can’t think of the title though. That’s annoying.

  30. Good story…short, but still managed to get a nice enjoyable tale across. This would be a good “campfire” tale for kids.

  31. not bad, but not entirely all “shat-bricks” worthy. this kinda reminded me of the movie 23 though, despite the fact this being history..
    hm…i give it a 6/10

  32. Wasn’t bad. The spirit was definitely as fresh as the older ones (my mind goes to Lee Harvey Oswald with the weird Quarter), and had some pretty cool coincidences.

    The mood was a bit broken by the french/french translation (no real need for it), but overall, I liked it. good show.

  33. Julius Caesar wasn’t a king, and apparently the author did not know much about Charles VII either. This pasta is full of fail because it’s premise is so Dan Browned that it breaks suspension of disbelief. 2/10

  34. What’s up with the meh creepypasta here? I don’t mind meh creepypasta as long as it’s posted every other day. I wouldn’t mind waiting weeks for new creepypasta if it was really good creepypasta, but waiting weeks for meh creepypasta is ridiculous. Are there really so few uploads that this is the best rate that can be managed? Even if the creepypasta isn’t particularly good, as long as it’s new I don’t mind…

  35. …so… what?
    The guy on the card went crazy and killed himself.
    How does that affect me? It was more of a history lesson than anything.

  36. This was interesting. Well written, Not really creepy, but still good :) At least it’s not another “OMG EVERYBODY IS A ZOMBIE NOWWWW IM GOINg to BE OnE Too i cant tiiipe anymooore” One like “Evaporation”.

  37. @4: Let’s see… Obama has made progress in getting us out of Iraq, helped mitigate the recession (though he didn’t do enough to properly end it — presumably due to fears of accusations about huge deficit spending if he made the stimulus as large as he should have), has verifiably created and saved jobs, accomplished the first major reform of our broken health care system in decades, and all against an unprecedented level of opposition party obstructionism. Plus, most of his “running up the deficit” is due to finally putting Bush’s two wars on the budget, rather than hiding their cost. Clearly, he’s a much worse president than the last one who turned a giant surplus into a deficit in record time, removed an unprecedented number of freedoms, gave tax cuts to the supremely wealthy under false pretenses, got us into two wars — one of which he lied us into and was inarguably unnecessary — and allowed the worst national security failure in history to happen under his watch.

    Also, setting up your posting name as “President Obama” and tacking “BTW, I’m a horrible president” on the end isn’t funny, and only questionably qualifies as a joke. Please go back to Redstate, where your brand of non-humor will be appreciated.

  38. More entertaining in a faux-informative way than a creepy one, I think. The style was concise (not tl;dr) but it lacked much tension or deep involvement. With a pasta this short you need a really disturbing or shocking ending, and this ending was good but I’m not sure if it’ll stay with me.

    Not to say I didn’t like it. Keep writing! Maybe next time, though, a little more atmosphere? :)

  39. @Arancaytar: Thanks :] And about the \"contrived number games\" I guess I should tell you all the reason I wrote this story in the first place and included some seemingly unnecessary details. You see, I\’m a magician of sorts, and really wanted to create a \"scary story\" magic trick, based on the effect that good creepypasta gives. So, I made up this somewhat accurate tale to go along with a trick: after telling the spectator(s)* about the \"vingt-et-un” game, you invite them to play a hand with you. From a shuffled deck you have each spectator choose two cards, and before letting them look at them the rest of the story is told. I finish with telling about the strange thirteen-related coincidences, which makes it all the creepier when they find out that every hand adds up to 13.

    *one-three

  40. Not all that scary, but at the very least pretty interesting.

    At least it’s not another tl;dr apocalypse pasta.

  41. Actually, this was the first of many pastas that i thought was delicious. It’s well written enough, and even though it’s a fictionalized version of history, I have no problem with fiction in my fiction. Plus, the idea IS a bit creepy, if you imagine a frail old man ramming a sword through his head.

    you get 0 out of 5 turds, good sir.

  42. When I say this sounds like a Dan Brown novel, that’s not meant as a compliment. :P

    Not badly written, but contrived number games just aren’t that scary…

  43. This isn’t historically accurate all that much.

    The King of Hearts is based on Charlemagne, albeit, an ancestor of King Charles VII, but not quite him. Also, King Charles VII died of an infection on 7/22/61. He had been going mad, but didn’t kill himself.

  44. The blue stain on the wall

    ‘Throne’ was spelled incorrectly in the 3rd paragraph, and if I didn’t already research into the subject I would of found it more entertaining.
    1/5

  45. Charles VII of France

    The main problem with this is that the earlier decks had four face cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King), so the decks would have had 56 cards with 14 per suite, making the king #14, not #13. On top of that, the profiles on the cards varied by the location they were printed at, and the modern King of Hearts is a poorly copied version of the ones printed in Rouen, which were not actually based on anyone. Other than that, it’s a pretty solid story.

  46. It wasn\’t necessary \"creepy\" but it was in it\’s own way. I liked it. It was short and to the point. The title was chosen perfectly. I enjoyed this pasta. (:

  47. This one was interesting, to say the least.

    It was well told, and is the kind of pasta that hints at some intangble knowledge not meant for mortal eyes, and I can respect any storyteller that tries to capture that.

    It was a bit weak on the delivery, but overall a decent pasta

    7/10

  48. Got to “symbology,” and stopped reading to point out that the word you are looking for is fucking SYMBOLISM god dammit.

  49. The only tiny nitpick I have is that \"Ils m\’ont montré\" translates to \"they showed me\" not \"they have shown me\".

    But this was a very refreshing pasta, to say the least.

  50. I actually had to pull out a deck of cards and check that there was indeed, Charles VII offering himself. Yes, it\’s true. For two different decks.

    Also, I thought the king of hearts was Charlemagne not Charles VII. Or are they the same person? I really don\’t remember much about the French kings.

  51. I thought this one was great – close enough to historical events to be interesting, and intriguing because nobody really knows for certain where the iconic “suicide king” image comes from.

  52. Symbology? Now that Duffy has relinquished his \"King Bonehead\" crown, I see we have an heir to the throne! I\’m sure the word you were looking for was \"symbolism.\" What is the ssss-himbolism there?

    3.5* out of 10

    * + .5 because it made me laugh.

    1. I know this is from 6 years ago (I’m relatively new to the site) I just had to comment on your comment… Boondock Saints FTW!!! My favorite movies

  53. @ Leffy: Thank you. In my original story, I actually had it so that the king died of starvation/ dehydration as a result of attempting to decapitate himself with an ax but accidently slicing his mouth. This version was definately more accurate, espicially since it is also a fact that the K♥’s sword was originally an ax. Maybe I should have posted that version since people reading it online have access to wikipedia and whatnot, but as a campfire story this version really freaks people out.

  54. Uhm… inb4 THIS PASTA SUCKED!

    Because I know it wasn’t all that great… and grammar Nazis will be ALL over this. I didn’t like it, but thats my personal opinion.

    Of course, all comments are purely opinion…

    Nevermind.

  55. It was more accurate then most of this type. He did go mad with fever at the end of his reign but he actually died of starvation and dehydration…. Which did make it better that, like all of the scariest legends and myths, there was that grain of truth. I love it. Definately will think of it every time I pick up a deck of cards.

  56. You know, a lot of kings who actually did kill themselves. I know you were going with the “Charles” thing for the heart of cards, but really.

    Also, minor nitpick beyond any minor nitpick, you want Louis XI instead of the XII

    1. You’re not the only one with a nitpick. A simple google search will determine that he killed himself on July 22, 1461, not on July 6, 1462.

  57. inb4 lots of bawwwing in the comments about the fact that this fictional story posted on a site dedicated to creepy fiction isn’t 100% historically accurate after people wiki Charles VII to make themselves feel smart ;)

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