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Lord Byron Facts

Lord Byron Facts
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) was one of Britain's greatest poets, born on January 22nd, 1788 in London, England. His father was Captain John Byron, known as 'Mad Jack', and his mother was Catherine Gordon. Catherine was John's second wife, as his first wife died after giving birth to their second daughter. George Byron had one half-sister Augusta. When he was only 10 George became Lord Byron after inheriting the title from his uncle William Byron. He attended Trinity College but fell into debt. His first published volume of poetry was Hours of Idleness, which did not receive good reviews.
Interesting Lord Byron Facts:
Lord Byron is believed to have been born at 16 Holles Street in London, England.
When Lord Byron went to Cambridge in 1805 he requested his dorm to have four bottles of wine, four bottles of port, four bottles of sherry, and four bottles of claret along with decanters and glasses.
Lord Byron lived a very free lifestyle and contracted a variety of STDs by the time he was only 21.
When Lord Byron was 21 he took his seat in The House of Lords.
When Lord Byron's first volume of poetry was published it was poorly received. Lord Byron then wrote English Bardsand Scotch Reviewers, a satirical poem attacking the literary community.
Lord Byron took a tour of the Mediterranean Sea when he was 22, and began writing a poem titled Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, about a young man traveling in foreign lands.
Lord Byron wrote the poems The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, and The Corsair after an affair with his half-sister.
Lord Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke in January, 1815. Their daughter was born the following December.
Lord Byron's daughter Augusta Ada Byron King became a famous mathematician who is said to have worked on the first 'computer'.
Lord Byron's wife left him in January following the birth of their daughter, because of his alcoholism and debt. He never saw either his wife or daughter again.
In April Lord Byron left England and never returned.
Lord Byron had a collection of wine goblets made from skulls. When his friend Percy Shelley (Mary Shelley's husband) he asked for his skull, but was refused.
Lord Byron and his friends, including the Shelleys and Claire Clairmont, spent the summer of 1816 together at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. It was during this summer that Lord Byron suggested they have a contest to write the best horror story. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Lord Byron's doctor John Polidori wrote The Vampyre.
Claire Clairmont gave birth to Lord Byron's daughter Allegra in January 1817.
Lord Byron supported the Greeks in their bid to become independent from the Ottoman Empire. He commanded an elite unit of Greek fighters.
Lord Byron died at the age of 36, on April 19th, 1824. He had been ill for a few months.
Lord Byron was mourned in England, and his body was returned there from Greece, where he had become a hero.
Lord Byron's most famous poems include The Curse of Minerva (which was written to denounce Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece), She Walks in Beauty, Don Juan, and When We Two Parted.
Lord Byron was considered to be one of the leading figures of the Romantic Movement, an artistic, intellectual, and literary movement in Europe in the 1800s.


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