The love tokens being exchanged by people, in the name of love and friendship, came to be simply called as valentines.

Are you aware that the earliest Valentine’s Day card (many believe it to be the first true-blue Valentine’s Day card) was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415 A.D. after the Battle of Agincourt? Obviously missing her, he sent several poems, rhymed love letters or ‘valentines’ to his wife in France. One of these was sent on 14th February.

Preserved in the British Museum, this earliest Valentine’s Day card showed like nothing else did just how deep and strong the roots this tradition had taken. Even aristocracy had succumbed to its charms!