sentences:  It was first mentioned on a written reference dating to 1535, in "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by Rabelais.Although legend attributes the game's creation to Stephen de Vignolles, also known as La Hire, a knight in the service of Charles VII during the Hundred Years' War, it may possibly have come into France from Spain because the words ""pique"" and ""repique"", the main features of the game, are of Spanish origin.The game was introduced in Germany during the Thirty Years' War, and texts of that period provide substantial evidence of its vogue, like the metaphorical use of the word ""repique"" in the 1634–8 political poem "Allamodisch Picket Spiel" (""Piquet Game à la mode""), which reflects the growing popularity of the game at that time.