Lord Byron died on 19th April 1824 in Missolonghi, Greece. Byron was the most notorious and flamboyant of the English Romantic poets, as famous for his controversial personal life as the massive body of literary work he produced. In Britain, the perception of his literary talent is still tainted by opinions regarding his colourful escapades. In Greece, he is deemed a hero. On the 200th anniversary of his death, let’s delve into the life of Lord George Gordon Byron.
“There is no comedy after all like real life.”
Lord George Gordon Byron
Now, the life of Lord George Gordon Byron (he also added Noel in at some point), 6th Baron Byron, is so full of delicious details. I spent hours on research that I don’t have the space to use here. So, I’m going to break it down into a few categories. Some may feel I gloss over important parts, but this is just a fun blog. I am neither a Byron scholar nor a history professor.
Chaotic Childhood
Lord George Gordon Byron was born with a club foot on 22nd January 1788.
Modern psychologists would likely cite Byron’s formative years as the reason behind his unconventional lifestyle. Who can blame them? He was abandoned by his profligate father, Captain John “Mad Jack” (that nickname says a lot) Byron, a fortune hunter who burned through his mother’s fortune. Mad Jack died while hiding in France to escape his creditors when Byron was 2 years old.
His mother, Catherine Gordon, was a Scottish heiress. She had to survive on a meagre income in Aberdeen until her son unexpectedly inherited the title and estates of his great-uncle, Baron Byron. Catherine was emotionally unstable and raised her son using a varied technique of excessive coddling, maternal pride and insensitive mockery of his disability.
As a result, Byron grew up lacking any sense of moderation or discipline, accompanied by a constant need to be loved. Once he began his education at Harrow, and later at Cambridge, this was expressed through his many sexual relationships with both males and females.
Traveller
After enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle and building mountains of debt at university, Byron went on a Grand Tour of the Mediterranean. He fell in love with their more flexible attitudes, compared to the stiff strictures of English society. His time in Greece left a lasting impression on him, and he particularly enjoyed their frank openness and moral tolerance.
He returned to England in 1811 upon the death of his mother but would leave again in 1816 amidst scandal and scorn. After that, he roamed around Switzerland, Italy and Greece, and played a tiny part in the writing career of Mary Shelley.
Torrid Personal Life
Oh, the relationships of Lord Byron are too many to count. Byron cared little for discretion and openly flaunted his relationships. By the time he returned to England, his works had been published. His brilliant writing, crammed with sardonic wit and passion, combined with his chiselled good looks, made him a celebrity.
He dallied with several married women, including Lady Caroline Lamb, who famously called him “Mad—bad—and dangerous to know” and put their relationship on paper in her Gothic romance novel, Glenarvon (1816).
His most controversial relationship was with his married half-sister, Augusta. One of Augusta’s children is suspected to have been fathered by Byron.
“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.”
Lord George Gordon Byron
To gloss over the scandals of his affairs, he married Anne Isabella Milbanke in January 1815. While Anne was intelligent, she was apparently not much fun. The marriage was doomed from the start. Only a month after giving birth to their daughter, Augusta Ada, Anne left Byron amidst gossip regarding his incestuous and bisexual relationships.
Following their legal separation, Byron left England in 1816 and never returned. Before leaving, he sold his estates to pay his debts, but this now meant he had cash to hand. While on the continent, he continued to jump from relationship to relationship. This included Mary Shelley’s sister, Claire Clairmont, and they had a daughter.
Greek Hero
In the 1820s, Byron sought fresh adventures. He had always supported the oppressed and turned his attention to assisting the Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. When I say support, I don’t mean he raised awareness. He actively worked to unite the Greek factions, used his own money to support the campaign, and took command of an elite fighting force.
However, Byron did not die in glory on the battlefield. An illness in February 1824 weakened him and when he caught a fever in April, he could not fight it off.
He was supposedly deeply mourned in England, yet when his body was returned he was refused burial at Westminster Abbey, probably because of the lingering scandal and a bunch of stuffy old bishops. He didn’t even receive a memorial plaque in the abbey until 1969!
In Greece, on the other hand, his popularity even had them calling off the Orthodox Easter celebrations (he had died the day after Easter). Shops were closed, fireworks were forbidden, and they declared 3 weeks of mourning. In Athens, Byron Street and the region of Vyronas, plus a statue featuring the personification of Greece crowning Byron with a palm branch, all denote the Greek’s love for the poet.
Lord Byron’s Legacy
I should probably include a quick mention of his literary legacy. His body of work is so extensive it’s impossible to mention it all here. His most famous works include Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, an autobiographical poem about a young man’s travels through Europe, and Don Juan, which is esteemed for its satirical realism.
Public Domain
I’ve read nothing by Bryon. Perhaps I should try. You may have noticed I have a fondness for sarcasm, so I should enjoy it. The Poetry Foundation argues his work captivated Western minds and hearts with its dynamism, sexuality, self-revelation and demands for the freedom of the oppressed.
However, his contribution to literature is still disparaged because of opinions regarding his personal life. In a recent article in The Independent, A. E. Stallings argues Byron has been unfairly misunderstood in Britain.
Byron was lauded as a god in Greece and a devil in his homeland, but was it simply because of his scandalous love affairs? Perhaps not. Before he left England, Byron also gave a speech in the House of Lords in support of the Luddites. Were his peers more offended by what would have been considered a betrayal of his class?
Let’s not forget, extra-martial affairs were the norm for high society, even if they were usually more discreet than Byron. Bisexuality was also not new, it was just hidden. It’s the incestuous relationship that doesn’t look good – not good at all, George.
Modern Thinking
From my reading, I feel Byron didn’t take himself too seriously and was not above a bit of self-mockery, so perhaps he could have taken the scorn on the chin. Would a national deeply mourn someone they supposedly despised so much he had to flee?
CC0
Stallings seems to think that Byron, with his ideas of tolerance and dislike of oppression, was viewed as abnormal and his peers, who valued the rigid dictates of British society, deeply misunderstood him. I can’t disagree that this seems a more likely reason for Byron to prefer the more tolerant attitudes of southern Europe. That and the better weather, of course.
Byron continues to have a lot of hate directed his way. But let’s not forget the other legacy he left: his only legitimate daughter, Augusta Ada, AKA Ada Lovelace. Ada became a mathematician and a computer programming pioneer. She created the equation now considered to be the first-ever computer algorithm. Hey, if things don’t work out with AI, perhaps we’ll blame Lord George Gordon Byron for that, too.
Very informative and interesting!