Treatise on the Morals and Discipline of Human Conduct

The third reason, which arises from the painter’s courtliness, is that the Queen and her handmaidens are included in the game itself just as if they were actually present. For every real game teaches and signifies some spark of morality, which is represented through the exercise of the game. This is evident in the game of chess original: "ludo scacari"; a reference to the "Ludus Scaccorum," a famous medieval work by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis that used chess to explain the duties of different social classes., concerning which a certain brother of the
Some things from here, some from there

Order of Preachers The Dominicans composed a treatise, drawing the game itself toward human morals. Here indeed, this game which we have at hand ham'? also teaches moral matter, and it will be made clear in what follows that the aforementioned "Maries" original: "mariā"; this likely refers to a specific name for the queen cards or suit types in this particular game are nothing other than the Queen together with her handmaidens. For the game is believed to represent a complete royal court, which court is broken if the Queen and her maids are not there. For no King remains long without his wife, and this is for two reasons: for the sake of nature and for the sake of decency. First, for the sake of nature, because a King cannot perpetuate himself in the world; he would die out if he did not produce offspring from his own seed. Lest he be frustrated in this intention, he is bound to take a wife and not remain for long without a wife or a Queen. This is why King Ahasuerus, after Queen Vashti was repudiated, did not remain for long without a wife, but immediately took another, Esther. Second, from the Gesta [Romanorum], it is likewise shown that this same thing is necessary for the sake of decency: namely, that a King should have a Queen as a wife if he wishes to live chastely and continently. Wherefore, regarding him it is read in the life of Saint Henry the Emperor Henry II (973–1024), Holy Roman Emperor, who was famous for his reportedly virginal marriage to Saint Cunigunde, who lived chastely with his wife, and both remained in their royal status. This Empress was on one occasion put to the test because a rumor had been spread regarding a certain knight of whom she was suspected. The Emperor himself, out of a fit of jealous envy, struck her on the jaw because this...