Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
...game without any special suit, or trump suit, along with playing cards, reached Europe in the 14th century, likely by passage through the Islamic world. The earliest game known by name—karnöffel, played from 1428 in Germany—was such, though certain cards of a randomly selected suit possessed trick-taking powers of varying degrees of superiority. Trump suits as such were...
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