A royal privilege dated 9 April 1644 granted the French playwright, author, royal counselor, and military secretary Jean Desmarets (1595–1676) the right to produce and sell a series of didactic playing cards. It claimed that he had come up with a novel solution to the problem of making necessary knowledge tasteful to young princes. The target audience for the games was the young King Louis XIV who, at 5½ years old, ruled France under the regency of his mother, Queen Anne of Austria. The death of King Louis XIII the previous May had left a power vacuum surrounding the pressing issue of Louis's education and, by April 1644, important matters concerning his program of studies had still not been resolved. Desmarets entered the debate by outlining plans in his privilege for educational games on subjects including the history of French kings, famous kings and queens, illustrious men and women, fables, geography, cosmography, morals, politics, logic, and physics. He later explained in the dedication he addressed to the Queen Regent: “I considered that great Princes should never be ignorant, in order to be good & sage, & in order to make everything together amiable & formidable.”

Only four known decks of playing cards attest to Desmarets's far-reaching ambitions. Produced in collaboration with the celebrated Florentine printmaker, Stefano della Bella (1610–1664), these are the Cartes des rois de France (Game of French Kings), the Jeu des reynes renommées (Game of Famous Queens), the Jeu de la géographie (Game of Geography), and the Jeu des fables (Game of Fables). The top halves of the cards are dedicated to Della Bella's images, while the bottom halves feature Desmarets's text.