The publication of the first and second canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, in 1812, introduced to society a young nobleman who embodied the romantic villain-hero which still graces the pages of fiction today.
The melancholy hero, Childe Harold, who embarks on a solitary pilgrimage around Europe after turning away from a life of pleasure, is believed to be a self-portrait of Byron.
Byron’s Early Life
Son of profligate gambler Captain John Byron and Scottish heiress Catherine Gordon, Byron’s early life was spent in Aberdeenshire. His father fled to France soon after the birth, where he died three years later. Byron’s mother, who was descended from James 1 of Scotland, educated her son before he took his place at Aberdeen Grammar School. The first ten years of Byron’s life were surrounded by relative poverty as his father had squandered his wife’s money as well as his own.
Byron’s Baronial Title
In 1798, Byron’s life was changed forever. His great-uncle William died and left young George the baronial title and estate at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Leaving behind his ordinary life in Scotland, Byron went on to study at Harrow followed by Trinity College Cambridge.
Byron’s Poetry and the Edinburgh Review
At Cambridge, Byron began both his writing life and his reputation for high-spirited behaviour. He published his first poems in Fugitive Pieces in 1807. When his friend suggested they were too sensual, Byron impulsively destroyed them and only four copies survived. Byron revised his poems as ‘Poems on Various Occasions’, which became Hours of Idleness. His poems were attacked by Brougham in the Edinburgh Review. Cultivating the satirical writing that was to be his trademark, Byron avenged himself by writing a satire in 1809 entitled, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
Byron’s Travels in Europe and Literary Fame
Byron took his seat in the House of Lords but eventually left England, travelling to Portugal, Spain, Malta, Greece and the Levant over the next two years. On his return, aged twenty four, Byron’s days of fame and notoriety began. The first and second canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage elevated Byron to the ranks of literary genius and ensured that he became the most influential British poet known throughout Europe. Byron himself remarked, “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.”
Byron and Women
Byron was hugely attractive to women. Sir Walter Scott described him as having “the remarkable contrast of very dark hair and eyebrows with light and expressive eyes.” Young, aristocratic, a romantic wanderer, and a poetic genius, Byron was in great demand.
Byron, Scandal and Marriage to Annabella Milbanke
A serious attachment eventually caused him pain and exile. Byron fell in love with his half-sister, Augusta, who seemingly bore him a daughter. In the midst of rumours of incense, he finally married Annabella Milbanke, Lady Caroline Lamb’s cousin, in 1815. Byron admired her as “a very superior woman a little encumbered with virtue.”
Annabella was known for her piety and intellect, but their mutual admiration was short-lived. Their marriage lasted only a year before Annabella left Byron, taking their daughter, Ada, with her. She then devoted the rest of her life to maligning Byron’s character.
Byron’s Departure from England
The society who had idolised Byron began to snub him. With rising debts and hounded by bailiffs, Byron, 28 years old and at the pinnacle of his fame, left England never to return. Byron recognised it was partly his own fault. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage ends with the words:
“I planted – they have torn me – and I bleed:
I should have known what fruit would spring from
Such a seed.”
Byron, the Poet Shelley, and Byron's Sojourn in Venice
Byron joined the poet Shelley and his wife, Mary, and her stepsister Claire Claremont at Lake Geneva in 1816, where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Byron eventually gave Claire Claremont a daughter, Allegra, born in England in 1817, although the child died five years later. Byron did not return to England with the others, moving instead to Venice and Rome until, with the sale of Newstead in 1818, he was finally free from financial worries.
In 1819, he became deeply attached to Teresa, the married Countess Guiccioli, living with her in Venice and then Ravenna. Teresa left her husband, took her family and went to Leghorn with Byron. When Leigh Hunt joined them, Byron and he co-produced The Liberal magazine.
Publication of Don Juan and Byron’s Death in Greece
Byron’s stature as a poet grew, especially on publication of Don Juan, a commentary on the society that had rejected him.
His social conscience finally took him to Greece where he formed the ‘Byron Brigade’ to give support to the Greeks’ fight for independence. He made such an impression that they hailed him a hero. George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron, ended his days in the country he had championed, dying of a fever at Missolonghi, aged 36.
His burial was refused in Westminster Abbey. Byron was buried in the family vault in the church at Huchnall Torkard, near Newstead Abbey. Byron had the last word, however, exposing the double standards, politics and social relations of Regency England in Don Juan:
“Without, or with, offence to friends or foes,
I sketch your world exactly as it goes.”
Sources:
Ian Grimble, Regency People, British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972
Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Rvsd, 1996
Ian Ousby, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, 1999
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