Elisabeth of France

Born a French princess in 1602, Elisabeth married Philip IV of Spain in 1621, becoming queen of two kingdoms when Portugal was still under Madrid's crown. She held the regency twice during the Catalan Revolt — 1640–42 and 1643–44 — steering Spain through fracture as Portugal broke away for good in 1640. She died in 1644, but her daughter Maria Theresa married Louis XIV of France, and their grandson became Philip V of Spain after the War of Spanish Succession. That crossing made Elisabeth the root of Spain's Bourbon line. Every Spanish monarch since, and the current Grand Duke of Luxembourg, ca…