Complex sentence: He was the son of a minor French nobleman, Paul Souchay de la Merie, a Huguenot who left France following the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685.
Split into simpler sentences: He was the son of a minor French nobleman, Paul Souchay de la Merie. His Huguenot parents had left France following the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685.