PySol - Rules for Rosamund's Bower

# Rosamund's Bower

One-Deck game type. 1 deck. 3 redeals.

### Object

Move all cards to the single foundation.

### Rules

At the start of the game, the Jack of Spades is placed aside, along with the King of Spades and Queen of Hearts. Eight cards are dealt in a circle around the queen, and a pile of seven cards is dealt face-down below the king.

The foundation is built down from the jack, turning the corner from ace to king as necessary. When a card is moved from the piles around the queen, it is replaced with the top card from the pile below the king.

When there are no moves left, you can draw cards from the talon one at a time, and move them to one of three waste piles, or the foundation directly. When the talon is empty, you can place the three waste piles on top of each other to form a new talon and redeal. You can redeal three times per game.

Only once all the other cards have been moved to the foundation can the Queen of Hearts or King of Spades be moved. Once they are moved to the foundation, and all cards have been moved to the foundation, the game is won.

### Notes

This game is based on the story of Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II of England. As per the story, they conducted their affairs inside a maze called "Rosamund's Bower".

In the game, the Queen of Hearts represents Fair Rosamund, the King represents King Henry II, with the Jack representing a sinister assailant who wants to take Rosamund for himself. The circle of cards around the queen are the guards of her bower, and the face-down stack under the king are the king's guards. At the end of the game, the king and queen are together at the bottom of the deck, symbolizing Henry II united in love with Fair Rosamund.

Another interpretation of the game involves the Jack being a suitor trying to save the queen of hearts from her father, the evil king. In this variant, the foundation is built separately from the Jack, and the Jack and Queen remain the last two cards at the end of the game.

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