Lord Byron: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|FRS}} (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was aan BritishEnglish poet and [[Lords Temporal|peer]].<ref name=nmcgann>{{cite ODNB |last=McGann |first=Jerome |title=Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788–1824), poet |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4279 |year=2004 |access-date=8 February 2021 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/4279}}</ref><ref name="The British Library">{{cite web |title=Lord Byron |url=https://www.bl.uk/people/lord-byron |access-date=17 October 2020 |publisher=The British Library}}</ref> He is one of the major figures of the [[Romantic movement]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Marchand |first=Leslie A. |title=Lord Byron &#124; Biography, Poems, Don Juan, Daughter, & Facts |chapter-url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Byron-poet |chapter=Lord Byron |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=London |date=15 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://robertjhmorrison.com/post/byron-and-scotland/|title=Byron and Scotland |publisher=[[Robert J. H. Morrison|Robert Morrison]].com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Lord Byron (George Gordon) |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lord-byron |publisher=Poetry Foundation |date=30 December 2018 |access-date=30 December 2018}}</ref> and is regarded as being among the greatest of EnglishBritish poets.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Nation's Favourite Poet Result – TS Eliot is your winner! |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/vote_results.shtml |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref> Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'' and ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]''; many of his shorter lyrics in ''[[Hebrew Melodies]]'' also became popular.

Byron was educated at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], before he travelled extensively in Europe. He lived for seven years in Italy, in [[Venice]], [[Ravenna]], and [[Pisa]] after he was forced to flee England due to threats of [[lynching]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Poets |first=Academy of American |title=About George Gordon Byron {{!}} Academy of American Poets |url=https://poets.org/poet/george-gordon-byron |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=poets.org}}</ref> During his stay in Italy, he would frequently visit his friend and fellow poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Perrottet |first=Tony |title=Lake Geneva as Shelley and Byron Knew It |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/travel/lake-geneva-as-byron-and-shelley-knew-it.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=29 May 2011}}</ref> Later in life, Byron joined the [[Greek War of Independence]] to fight the [[Ottoman Empire]], for which Greeks revere him as a [[folk hero]].<ref>"Byron had yet to die to make philhellenism generally acceptable." – {{harvp|Plomer|1970}}.</ref> He died leading a campaign in 1824, at the age of 36, from a fever contracted after the [[First Siege of Missolonghi|first]] and [[Second Siege of Missolonghi|second]] sieges of Missolonghi.

His one child conceived within marriage, [[Ada Lovelace]], was a founding figure in the field of [[computer programming]] based on her notes for [[Charles Babbage]]'s [[Analytical Engine]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fuegi |first1=J |last2=Francis |first2=J |title=Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes' |journal=[[IEEE Annals of the History of Computing]] |publisher=[[IEEE Computer Society]] |location=Washington DC |date=October–December 2003 |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=16–26 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887 |issn = 1058-6180}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Ana Lena |title=Crowdsourcing Gender Equity: Ada Lovelace Day, and its companion website, aims to raise the profile of women in science and technology |journal=[[American Scientist]] |publisher=Xi Society |location=Research Triangle Park, NC |date=November–December 2011 |volume=99 |issue=6 |page=463 |doi=10.1511/2011.93.463 |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/crowdsourcing-gender-equity}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/dec/10/ada-lovelace-honoured-google-doodle |title=Ada Lovelace honoured by Google doodle |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 December 2012 |location=London |access-date=10 December 2012}}</ref> Byron's extramarital children include [[Allegra Byron]], who died in childhood, and possibly [[Elizabeth Medora Leigh]], daughter of his half-sister Augusta Leigh.

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{{main|Early life of Lord Byron}}

[[File:CaptainByron.jpg|thumb|upright=1|An engraving of Byron's father, Captain [[John Byron (British Army officer)|John "Mad Jack" Byron]], date unknown]]

George Gordon Byron was born on 22 January 1788, on [[Holles Street]] in London;<ref name=nmcgann/> his birthplace is now supposedly occupied by a branch of the department store [[John Lewis and Partners|John Lewis]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Seargeant |first=Philip |last2=Packard |first2=Selina |date=22 April 2024 |title=Commemorating Lord Byron on the streets of London |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/english-language/commemorating-lord-byron-on-the-streets-london |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711002000/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/english-language/commemorating-lord-byron-on-the-streets-london |archive-date=11 July 2024 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=Open Learning |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2021-03-17 |title=Lord Byron's Birthplace |url=https://www.writerspath.co.uk/post/lord-byron-s-birthplace |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713141456/https://www.writerspath.co.uk/post/lord-byron-s-birthplace |archive-date=13 July 2024 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=Writer's Path |language=en}}</ref> His family in the English Midlands can be traced back without interruption to Ralph de Buran who arrived in England with [[William the Conqueror]] in the 11th century.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 March 2020 |title=Bygone Byrons: The Weird and Wonderful Characters from Lord Byron's Family Tree |url=https://leftlion.co.uk/features/2020/03/lord-byron-family-tree/ |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=LEFTLION}}</ref> His land holdings are listed in the [[Domesday Book]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=BYRON ASSOCIATIONS. |url=http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/books/hucknallchurch/hucknallchurch5.htm |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=Nottinghamshire History}}</ref>

George Gordon Byron was born on 22 January 1788, on [[Holles Street]] in London, England<ref name=nmcgann/> – his birthplace is now supposedly occupied by a branch of the department store [[John Lewis and Partners|John Lewis]].

Byron was the only child of Captain [[John Byron (British Army officer)|John Byron]] (known as 'Jack') and his second wife, Catherine [[Clan Gordon|Gordon]], heiress of the [[Gight]] estate in [[Aberdeenshire (traditional)|Aberdeenshire]], Scotland. Byron's paternal grandparents were [[Vice Admiral John Byron]] and Sophia Trevanion.<ref>{{harvp|Boase|Courtney|1878|p=792}}.</ref> Having survived a shipwreck as a teenage midshipman, Byron's grandfather set a new speed record for circumnavigating the globe. After he became embroiled in a tempestuous voyage during the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]], he became nicknamed 'Foul-Weather Jack' Byron by the press.{{sfn|Brand|2020|p=183}}

Byron's father had previously been somewhat scandalously married to [[Amelia Osborne, Marchioness of Carmarthen|Amelia, Marchioness of Carmarthen]], with whom he was having an affair – the wedding took place just weeks after her divorce from her husband, and she was around eight months pregnant.{{sfn|Brand|2020|p=181}} The marriage was not a happy one, and their first two children – Sophia Georgina, and an unnamed boy – died in infancy.{{sfn|Brand|2020|pp=189, 200}} Amelia herself died in 1784 almost exactly a year after the birth of their third child, the poet's half-sister [[Augusta Leigh|Augusta Mary]].{{sfn|Brand|2020|p=212}} Though Amelia died from a wasting illness, probably tuberculosis, the press reported that her heart had been broken out of remorse for leaving her husband. Much later, 19th-century sources blamed Jack's own "brutal and vicious" treatment of her.<ref name="Galt, John 1830">{{harvp|Galt|1830|loc=Chapter 1}}.</ref>

Jack would then marry Catherine Gordon of Gight on 13 May 1785, by all accounts only for her fortune.{{sfn|Brand|2020|p=221}} To claim his second wife's estate in Scotland, Byron's father took the additional surname "Gordon", becoming "John Byron Gordon", and occasionally styled himself "John Byron Gordon of [[Gight]]". Byron's mother had to sell her land and title to pay her new husband's debts, and in the space of two years, the large estate, worth some £23,500, had been squandered, leaving the former heiress with an annual income in trust of only £150.<ref name="Galt, John 1830" /> In a move to avoid his creditors, Catherine accompanied her husband to France in 1786, but returned to England at the end of 1787 to give birth to her son.{{sfn|Elze|1872|p=11}}

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After this break-up of his domestic life, and by pressure on the part of his creditors, which led to the sale of his library, Byron left England,{{sfn|Cousin|1910|p=67}} and never returned. (Despite his dying wishes, however, his body was returned for burial in England.) He journeyed through Belgium and continued up the [[Rhine]] river. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the [[Villa Diodati]] by [[Lake Geneva]], Switzerland, with his personal physician, [[John William Polidori]]. There Byron befriended the poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] and author [[Mary Shelley|Mary Godwin]], Shelley’sShelley's future wife. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, [[Claire Clairmont]], with whom he'd had an affair in London, which subsequently resulted in the birth of their illegitimate child [[Allegra Byron|Allegra]], who died at the age of 5 under the care of Byron later in life.<ref>{{cite news|url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-10/books/-bk-2960_1_lord2960-byronstory.html|title=A Hero to His Physician: Lord Byron's Doctor by Paul West|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=10 September 1989|last=Rubin|first=Merle|access-date=26 December 2017|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref> Several times Byron went to see [[Germaine de Staël]] and her [[Coppet group]], which turned out to be a valid intellectual and emotional support to Byron at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/z-oldsites/crlc/documents/byronessays/lordbyronandgermainedestael.pdf|title=Lord Byron and Germaine de Staël|author=Silvia Bordoni|publisher=[[University of Nottingham]]|year=2005}}</ref>

[[File:Lord Byron - Childe Harold's Pilgimage - Dugdale edition.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Frontispiece to a {{Circa|1825}} edition of ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]'']]

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Because of his love for the local aristocratic, young, newly married Teresa Guiccioli, Byron lived in [[Ravenna]] from 1819 to 1821. Here he continued ''Don Juan'' and wrote the ''Ravenna Diary'' and ''My Dictionary and Recollections''. Around this time he received visits from [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], as well as from [[Thomas Moore]], to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures", which Moore, Hobhouse, and Byron's publisher, [[John Murray (1778–1843)|John Murray]],<ref name="Elze"/> burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death.<ref name="real byron">{{cite news |author=Bostridge |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Bostridge |date=3 November 2002 |title=On the trail of the real Lord Byron |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/on-the-trail-of-the-real-lord-byron-126324.html |access-date=22 July 2008 |newspaper=[[The Independent on Sunday]] |location=London}}</ref> Of Byron's lifestyle in Ravenna we know more from Shelley, who documented some of its more colourful aspects in a letter:

{{quoteblockquote|text=<poem style="font-size:92%; line-height: 2.1em;">Lord Byron gets up at two. I get up, quite contrary to my usual custom ... at 12. After breakfast we sit talking till six. From six to eight we gallop through the pine forest which divide Ravenna from the sea; we then come home and dine, and sit up gossiping till six in the morning. I don't suppose this will kill me in a week or fortnight, but I shall not try it longer. Lord B.'s establishment consists, besides servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were the masters of it... . [P.S.] I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective ... . I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane. I wonder who all these animals were before they were changed into these shapes.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Letters: Shelley in Italy.|last = Shelley|first = Percy|publisher = Clarendon Press|year = 1964|pages = 330|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ns4LAQAAIAAJ}}</ref></poem>}}

[[File:La Grotta di Byron.jpg|thumb|upright=1|"Byron's Grotto" in [[Porto Venere]], Italy, named in Byron's honour because, according to local legend, he meditated here and drew inspiration from this place for his literary works]]

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After arriving in [[Missolonghi]], Byron joined forces with [[Alexandros Mavrokordatos]], a Greek politician with military power. Byron moved to the second floor of a two-story house and was forced to spend much of his time dealing with unruly [[Souliotes]] who demanded that Byron pay them the back-pay owed to them by the Greek government.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|pp=207–208}} Byron gave the Souliotes some £6,000.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=212}} Byron was supposed to lead an attack on the Ottoman fortress of Navpaktos, whose Albanian garrison were unhappy due to arrears in pay, and who offered to put up only token resistance if Byron was willing to bribe them into surrendering. However, Ottoman commander Yussuf Pasha executed the mutinous Albanian officers who were offering to surrender Navpaktos to Byron and arranged to have some of the arrears paid out to the rest of the garrison.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=210}} Byron never led the attack on Navpaktos because the Souliotes kept demanding that Byron pay them more and more money before they would march; Byron grew tired of their blackmail and sent them all home on 15 February 1824.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=210}} Byron wrote in a note to himself:

{{quoteblockquote|text="Having tried in vain at every expense, considerable trouble—and some danger to unite the Suliotes for the good of Greece—and their own—I have come to the following resolution—I will have nothing more to do with the Suliotes—they may go to the Turks or the devil...they may cut me into more pieces than they have dissensions among them, sooner than change my resolution".{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=210}}}}

At the same time, Guiccioli's brother, Pietro Gamba, who had followed Byron to Greece, exasperated Byron with his incompetence as he continually made expensive mistakes. For example, when asked to buy some cloth from Corfu, Gamba ordered the wrong cloth in excess, causing the bill to be 10 times higher than what Byron wanted.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=211}} Byron wrote about his right-hand man: "Gamba—who is anything but ''lucky''—had something to do with it—and as usual—the moment he had—matters went wrong".{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=212}}

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In 1969, 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.<ref name="abbey">{{cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/poets-corner|title=Westminster Abbey Poets' Corner|publisher=Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter Westminster|access-date=31 May 2009}}</ref><ref name="abbey-byron">{{cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/lord-byron|title=Westminster Abbey Lord Byron|publisher=Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter Westminster|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref> The memorial had been lobbied for since 1907, when ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote,

{{quoteblockquote|text="People are beginning to ask whether this ignoring of Byron is not a thing of which England should be ashamed&nbsp;... a bust or a tablet might be put in the Poets' Corner and England be relieved of ingratitude toward one of her really great sons."<ref name="nytimes 1907">{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/07/13/106710571.pdf|title=Byron Monument for the Abbey: Movement to Get Memorial in Poets' Corner Is Begun|newspaper=The New York Times|date=12 July 1907|access-date=11 July 2008}}</ref>}}

[[Robert Ripley]] had drawn a picture of [[Epitaph to a Dog|Boatswain's grave]] with the caption "Lord Byron's dog has a magnificent tomb while Lord Byron himself has none". This came as a shock to the English, particularly schoolchildren, who, Ripley said, raised funds of their own accord to provide the poet with a suitable memorial.<ref>''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'', 3rd Series, 1950; p. xvi.</ref>

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</gallery>

In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicised affair with the married [[Lady Caroline Lamb]] that shocked the British public.<ref name="spartandaily">{{cite journal|last=Wong|first=Ling-Mei|date=14 October 2004|title=Professor to speak about his book, 'Lady Caroline Lamb'|journal=Spartan Daily|publisher=San Jose State University|access-date=11 July 2008|url=http://media.www.thespartandaily.com/media/storage/paper852/news/2004/10/14/UndefinedSection/Professor.To.Speak.About.His.Book.lady.Caroline.Lamb-1499653.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207054145/http://media.www.thespartandaily.com/media/storage/paper852/news/2004/10/14/UndefinedSection/Professor.To.Speak.About.His.Book.lady.Caroline.Lamb-1499653.shtml|archive-date=7 December 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> She had spurned the attention of the poet on their first meeting, subsequently giving Byron what became his lasting epitaph when she famously described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know".<ref name="Castle">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/13/reviews/970413.13castlet.html|title='Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know': A biography that sees Lord Byron as a victim of circumstances|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 April 1997|last=Castle|first=Terry|author-link=Terry Castle|location=New York|access-date=19 November 2008}}</ref> This did not prevent her from pursuing him.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article830128.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2|title=Ireland: Poetic justice at home of Byron's exiled lover|newspaper=Sunday Times: Property|date=17 November 2002|quote='Mad, bad and dangerous to know' has become Lord Byron's lasting epitaph. Lady Caroline Lamb coined the phrase after her first meeting with the poet at a society event in 1812.|publisher=The Times Online|access-date=21 February 2010|location=Dublin, Ireland}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name="Castle" /> Byron eventually broke off the relationship and moved swiftly on to others (such as [[Lady Oxford]]), but Lamb never entirely recovered, pursuing him even after he tired of her. She was emotionally disturbed and lost so much weight that Byron sarcastically commented to her mother-in-law, his friend [[Lady Melbourne]], that he was "haunted by a skeleton".<ref name="ehist net">

{{cite web|url=https://englishhistory.net/byron/lady-caroline-lamb/|title=Lady Caroline Lamb – Lord Byron's Lovers|access-date=20 November 2008}}</ref> She began to stalk him, calling on him at home, sometimes dressed in disguise as a pageboy,<ref name="spartandaily" /> at a time when such an act could ruin both of them socially. Once, during such a visit, she wrote on a book at his desk, "Remember me!" As a retort, Byron wrote a poem entitled ''Remember Thee! Remember Thee!'' which concludes with the line "Thou false to him, thou fiend to me".

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A few years later, while he was still a child, Lord Grey De Ruthyn (unrelated to May Gray), a suitor of his mother's, also made sexual advances on him.{{sfn|Marchand|1957|p=442}} Byron's personality has been characterised as exceptionally proud and sensitive, especially when it came to his foot deformity.<ref name="Galt, John 1830" /> His extreme reaction to seeing his mother flirting outrageously with Lord Grey De Ruthyn after the incident suggests he did not tell her of Grey's conduct toward him; he simply refused to speak to him again and ignored his mother's commands to be reconciled.{{sfn|Marchand|1957|p=442}} [[Leslie A. Marchand]], one of Byron's biographers, theorises that Lord Grey De Ruthyn's advances prompted Byron's later sexual liaisons with young men at Harrow and Cambridge.<ref name="real byron" />

Scholars acknowledge a more or less important bisexual component in Byron's very complex sentimental and sexual life. Bernhard Jackson asserts that "Byron's sexual orientation has long been a difficult, not to say contentious, topic, and anyone who seeks to discuss it must to some degree speculate since the evidence is nebulous, contradictory and scanty... it is not so simple to define Byron as homosexual or heterosexual: he seems rather to have been both, and either."<ref name="Jackson">Emily A. Bernhard Jackson, "Least Like Saints: The Vexed Issue of Byron's Sexuality, ''The Byron Journal'', (2010) 38#1 pp. 29–37.</ref><ref>{{harvp|Crompton|1985}}.</ref> Crompton states: "What was not understood in Byron's own century (except by a tiny circle of his associates) was that Byron was [[bisexual]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=Crompton |first=Louis |date=8 January 2007 |title=Byron, George Gordon, Lord |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/byron_gg.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411013923/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/byron_gg.html |archive-date=11 April 2014 |access-date=16 October 2011 |publisher=[[glbtq.com]]}}</ref> Another biographer, Fiona MacCarthy, has posited that Byron's true sexual yearnings were for adolescent males.<ref name="real byron" /> It has been asserted that several letters to Byron from his friend Charles Skinner Matthews reveal that a key motive for Byron going on the [[Grand Tour]] was also the hope of homosexual experiences.<ref>{{harvp|Crompton|1985|pp=123–128}}.</ref> While in Athens, Byron met 14-year-old [[Nicolo Giraud]], who taught him Italian. Byron arranged to have Giraud enrolled in school at a monastery in [[Malta]], and wrote him into his will, with a bequest of £7,000 (about £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|7000|1810|r=-4}}|0}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}). (That will, however, was later cancelled.){{sfn|MacCarthy|2002|p=135}} Byron wrote to Hobhouse from Athens, "I am tired of pl & opt Cs, the last thing I could be tired of." Opt Cs refers to a quote from ''<u>Petronius' Satyricon</u>,'' "{{lang|la|coitum plenum et optabilem}}," "complete intercourse to one's heart's desire".<ref>{{harvp|Tuite|2015|p=156}}.</ref> Allegedly, Byron used this phrase as a code by which he communicated his homosexual Greek adventures to [[John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton|John Hobhouse]] in England: Bernhard Jackson recalls that "Byron's early code for sex with a boy" was "Plen(um). and optabil(em). -Coit(um)"<ref name="Jackson" /> Bullough summarises:

{{blockquote|Byron, was attached to [[Nicolo Giraud]], a young French-Greek lad who had been a model for the painter [[Giovanni Battista Lusieri|Lusieri]] before Byron found him. Byron left him £7,000 in his will. When Byron returned to Italy, he became involved with a number of boys in Venice but eventually settled on Loukas Chalandritsanos, age 15, who was with him when he was killed {{sic}}<ref>Contrary to later misconception, Byron was not killed in battle nor died from battle wounds. See also ''The Dictionary of Misinformation'' (1975) by Tom Burname, Futura Publications, 1985, pp. 39–40.</ref> (Crompton, 1985).|source={{harvp|Bullough|1990|p=72}}}}

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He also had an extramarital child in 1817, [[Clara Allegra Byron]], with [[Claire Clairmont]], stepsister of [[Mary Shelley]] and stepdaughter of [[William Godwin]], writer of ''Political Justice'' and ''Caleb Williams''. Allegra is not entitled to the style "The Hon." as is usually given to the daughter of barons, since she was born outside of his marriage. Born in Bath in 1817, Allegra lived with Byron for a few months in Venice; he refused to allow an Englishwoman caring for the girl to adopt her and objected to her being raised in the Shelleys' household.<ref name="Elze"/> He wished for her to be brought up Catholic and not marry an Englishman, and he made arrangements for her to inherit 5,000 lire upon marriage or when she reached the age of 21, provided she did not marry a native of Britain. However, the girl died aged five of a fever in [[Bagnacavallo]], Italy, while Byron was in Pisa; he was deeply upset by the news. He had Allegra's body sent back to England to be buried at his old school, Harrow, because Protestants could not be buried in consecrated ground in Catholic countries. At one time he himself had wanted to be buried at Harrow. Byron was antagonistic towards Allegra's mother, Claire Clairmont, and prevented her from seeing the child.<ref name="Elze">{{harvp|Elze|1872}}.</ref>

During his time in Greece, Byron took interest in a Turkish Muslim nine-year old girl called Hato or Hatagée which he seriously considered adopting. Her mother was a wife of a local notable from Messolonghi, who, at the time, was a domestic servant to an Englishman named Dr. Millingen. The rest of the girl's family had either fled or perished after the Greek revolutionaries took over Messolonghi. Byron spent nearly £20 on elaborate dresses for Hato; he considered sending her to [[Teresa Guiccioli]], or to his half-sister [[Augusta Leigh|Augusta]], or to his estranged wife as a playmate for his daughter Ada. Ultimately, Byron sent both Hato and her mother to [[Cephalonia]] to be cared for temporarily by his friend James Kennedy; soon after Byron’sByron's death they were reunited with their surviving family.{{sfn|Brewer|2011|p=214}}

===Scotland===

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Byron's links to Scotland were demonstrated "in his campaign for the liberation of Greece, where a disproportionate number of his closest friends and associates had strong Scottish connexions, particularly with regard to north-eastern Scotland, which through his Gordon links remained central to the Byronic network throughout his life".<ref name="Pittock, Murray 2022, p. 223"/>

===Sea and swimming===

Byron enjoyed adventure, especially relating to the sea.<ref name="nytimes 1898"/>

The first recorded notable example of open water swimming took place on 3 May 1810 when Lord Byron swam from Europe to Asia across the [[Hellespont]] Strait.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3958|title=Lord Byron swims the Hellespont|publisher=History.com|date=3 May 1810|access-date=5 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306071024/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3958|archive-date=6 March 2009}}</ref> This is often seen as the birth of the sport and pastime, and to commemorate it, the event is recreated every year as an open water swimming event.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/sep/30/escape.turkey|title=The day I swam all the way to Asia|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 September 2007|author=Matt Barr|access-date=5 March 2012|location=London}}</ref>

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P.S. I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective…I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane.|author=Percy Shelley|title=Diary of Percy Shelley}}

=== Vaccine skepticism ===

Byron included an endorsement of [[vaccine hesitancy]] in his 1809 poem [[English Bards and Scotch Reviewers|''English'' ''Bards and Scotch Reviewers'']]'','' he writes:

{{Blockquote|text=Thus saith the Preacher: "Nought beneath the sun / Is new," yet still from change to change we run. / What varied wonders tempt us as they pass! / The Cow-pox, Tractors, Galvanism, and Gas, / In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare, / Till the swoln bubble bursts—and all is air!|author=Lord Byron|title=English Bards and Scotch Reviewers}}

Byron refers to 'cow-pox', a reference to [[Edward Jenner]]'s [[smallpox vaccine]]. He compares these vaccines with [[Perkins Patent Tractors|tractors]] (a fraudulent medical device), and [[galvanism]], which was understood at the time to reference the reanimation of deceased convicts using electricity. "Gas" was likely a reference to [[nitrous oxide]], a substance recently discovered by [[Humphry Davy]] to treat respiratory ailments. The deliberate choice to frame vaccines as similar to well-known controversial medical treatments shows Byron's tendency toward vaccine hesitancy in his writings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Galassi |first=Francesco |date=2022 |title=LORD BYRON (1788–1824) AS THE PRECURSOR OF CELEBRITIES ENDORSING VACCINE HESITANCY: A CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL LESSON FOR COVID-19 IMMUNISATION STRATEGIES |url=https://content.ebscohost.com/ |journal=Anthropologie (1962-) |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=187–190 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

However, it appears he held different views in private, as he had his protege Robert Rushton inoculated for [[smallpox]].<ref>Byron to Hobhouse, from Newstead Abbey, January 16th 1808</ref>

==Health and appearance==

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{{Main|Elgin Marbles}}

Byron was a bitter opponent of [[Lord Elgin]]'s removal of the Parthenon marbles from [[Athens]] and "reacted with fury" when Elgin's agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon, during which he saw the spaces left by the missing part of the frieze and [[metope]]s. He denounced Elgin's actions in his poem ''[[s:The Curse of Minerva|The Curse of Minerva]]'' and in Canto II (stanzas XI–XV) of ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]].''<ref>{{harvp|Atwood|2006|p=136}}.</ref>

==Legacy and influence==

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===Byronic hero===

The figure of the [[Byronic hero]] pervades much of his work, and Byron himself is considered to epitomise many of the characteristics of this literary figure.<ref name="real byron"/> The use of a Byronic hero by many authors and artists of the [[Romantic movement]] showshows Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond, including the [[Brontë sisters]].<ref name="real byron"/><ref>{{harvp|Franklin|2013|pp=127–128}}.</ref> His philosophy was more durably influential in continental Europe than in England; [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] admired him, and the Byronic hero was echoed in Nietzsche's ''[[Übermensch]]'', or superman.<ref>{{harvp|Russell|2004|pp=675–680, 688}}.</ref>

[[Dimitrios Galanos]] in his funeral oration for Lord Byron glorified him by saying "IMMORTAL BE THY MEMORY, THOU DESERVEDLY BLESSED AND EVER-TO-BE-REMEMBERED HERO!!!" published in BENGAL HURKARU, Calcutta, 21 October 1824.<ref name="Funeral Oration for Lord Byron">{{cite web | title="Funeral Oration for Lord Byron" by Demetrios Galanos the Athenian | website=elinepa.org | date=2023-07-02 | url=https://elinepa.org/funeral-oration-for-lord-byron-by-demetrios-galanos-the-athenian}}</ref>

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[[Category:19th-century English nobility]]

[[Category:19th-century English poets]]

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[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]

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[[Category:House of Gordon]]

[[Category:Left-wing politics in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:LGBTLGBTQ peers]]

[[Category:English LGBTLGBTQ poets]]

[[Category:Liberalism in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Literary peers]]