Did they have playing cards in knighthood or something before that?

Answer

Playing cards come from the Far East, where they were used in a ‘leaf game’ as early as the 6th century BC and later ended up in Persia.

The set of 52 cards, divided into four groups of symbols (polo sticks, coins, swords and cups), may date from the 13th century, when the Mamluks ruled Egypt. In Europe they were not introduced until the 14th century, they were mainly made in Bavaria. Usually this was by block printing, which were later colored by hand or with stencils – although there were also experiments with engraving techniques (such as the unknown Master of the Playing Cards).

Many of those sets had many more symbol groups than four, and usually regional names as well. Our four playing card symbols originated around 1480 and come from France. Also in that period came the names for the three ‘nobility cards’: king, knight (later queen) and servant.