Dauphiné

Dauphiné, formerly a frontier province in the south-west of France, now forming the departments Drôme, Isère, and Hautes Alpes. Its capital was Grenoble, and it boasted its 'seven wonders'—remarkable caves, mountain-peaks, &c. Once the territory of the Allobrogi, after the fall of the Roman empire Dauphiné formed the southernmost part of the kingdom of Burgundy. It then passed under the dominion of the Franks, and after the dismemberment of the Carlovingian monarchy, it became a portion of the new Burgundian kingdom of Arles. It then passed by legacy into the possession of the German emperor in 1032, and remained united with Germany till 1343, when it was presented to France (see DAUPHIN). There is a history by Chorier (2 vols. 1883).