This family took its rise in Dauphiné, before the district had that name: the chief place of the family was the château of Beaumont, near Grenoble.
The final victory was near Aquæ Sextiæ (Aix).
The cultivation of the silkworm mulberry will probably die out before very long. The silk crop has lately failed in Dauphiné, and a commission for enquiring into the relative merits of different worms has determined that the Senegal worm produces 633 millegrammes of silk, while the worm, fed on the mulberry produces only 290. The first mulberry trees in France were planted in that part of Provence which is enclosed by Dauphiné.
The feudal buildings were razed by order of Richelieu, but the tower remains a landmark for the valley. Three hundred détenus were confined here after the coup d'état of December 2, 1851.
The origin of the name Dauphin seems to be lost in obscurity, though of comparatively recent date. The Counts d'Albon took the title first in 1140, and their estates were not called the Terra Dalphini, or Dalphinatus, till 1291. The first Dauphins bore a castle, not a dolphin.