The University of Grenoble is founded in 1339 by Dauphin Humbert II of Viennois and Pope Benedict XII to teach civil and canon law, medicine, and the liberal arts.

However, the institution lacks resources and will dissolved after Humbert’s death.

Philippe de Mézières, who had joined the crusader relief force led by Humbert II, Dauphin of Vienne, is knighted after defending Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey) against Turkish assault in 1346.

Born of poor nobility, Mézières had initially been a soldier of fortune in Italy, serving Lucchino Visconti, lord of Milan, but within a year he entered the service of the husband of Joan I of Naples and Andrew, Duke of Calabria, who was the son of the King Charles I of Hungary.

Andrew had very soon been assassinated very soon in September 1345, and in the autumn of that year, Mézières had set out for the East in the French army.

When the incapable Humbert's army disbands, Mézières makes his way to Jerusalem, arriving in 1347.

Realizing the advantage which the discipline of the Saracens gives them over the disorderly armies of the West, he conceives the idea of a new order of knighthood, Ordre de la Passion (“Order of the Passion”), whose members will be spiritually distant from worldly preoccupations and devoted to conquering the holy places. (He will later draw up a prospectus for this order, but it will never become a reality.)

Philippe de Mézières, born of poor nobility, was at first a soldier of fortune in Italy, serving Lucchino Visconti, lord of Milan, and then Andrew of Hungary, in Naples.

Joining the Crusade led by Humbert II, he had been knighted after defending Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey) against Turkish assault in 1346.

When Humbert's army disbanded, he had made his way to Jerusalem, arriving in 1347.

Realizing the advantage which the discipline of the Saracens gave them over the disorderly armies of the West, he has conceived the idea of a new order of knighthood, Ordre de la Passion (Order of the Passion), whose members will be spiritually distant from worldly preoccupations and devoted to conquering the holy places.

Although he will later draw up a prospectus for this order, it never becomes a reality.

Mézières had gone in 1347 goes to Cyprus, where he had found a kindred spirit in the son of the king of Cyprus, the future Pierre I.

He now returns to France, again as a soldier of fortune.

The Dauphiné, or Dauphiné Viennois, was originally the County of Albon, but the counts had taken the title Dauphin (dolphin), from which the region gets its name.

It became a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the eleventh century.

The Dauphiné is best known for its transfer from the last non-royal Dauphin (Humbert II, who has great debts and no direct heir) to the King of France, Philip IV, in 1349.

The terms of the transfer stipulate that the heir apparent of France will henceforth be called le Dauphin and include significant autonomy and tax exemption for the Dauphiné region.