During this period, seven popes, all French, resided in Avignon starting in 1309: Pope Clement V (1305-14), Pope John XXII (1316-34), Pope Benedict XII (1334-42), Pope Clement VI (1342-52), Pope Innocent VI (1352-62), Pope Urban V (1362-70), Pope Gregory XI (1370-78).
After seventy years in France the papal curia was naturally French in its ways and, to a large extent, in its staff.