Who was France's monarch in 1650?
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638–1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (Roi Soleil), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. Starting on 14 May 1643 when Louis was 4 years old, his reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history.[1][note 1] In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's France was a leader in the growing centralisation of power.[2]
Jacqueline de Montbel d'Entremont
The French court became a battleground between Protestant and Catholic factions until 30 June 1559, when Henry II of France died of wounds incurred at a joust he had organised in honour of his sister Marguerite's marriage to Emmanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy. Henry's son Francis II of France succeeded him and his wife Mary became queen consort. Francis entrusted ruling the kingdom to princes of the House of Guise, accelerating the French Wars of Religion. He died himself in 1560 and his younger brother Charles succeeded him aged only ten years old. Real power lay with the regent, his mother Catherine de Medici and on 24 August 1572 the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre broke out.