1790: The family moved to Aberdeen. Captain John Byron abandoned Catherine, and she remained in Scotland with her son. They resided in lodgings in Aberdeen living on severely limited means. Byron was home-educated by hired tutors before attending Aberdeen Grammar School. The following year, Captain John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron died in France of consumption (tuberculosis).
1798: George Byron became the 6th Lord Byron when he inherited Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire on the death of his great-uncle William – the 5th Lord Byron. At the age of ten, Byron first visited Newstead Abbey, his ancestral home and planted the famous oak tree. Its location is still identified in the Sherwood Forest Ordinance Survey map (270) – although it finally died completely in 2023.
Young Oak! When I planted thee deep in the ground,
I hoped that your days would be longer than mine
That thy Dark waving branches would flourish around
And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine.
Byron initially lodged with his aunt in Swine Green, Nottingham - before taking up residence with his mother at a house in St James Street. They lived there to facilitate treatment for his deformed foot at the nearby General Hospital.
1799: Having moved to London, the young George Byron attended Dr William Glennie’s school in Dulwich. His mother was known to interfere in his studies, which was a frequent source of conflict with the headmaster.
1801: Byron entered Harrow public school at the age of thirteen. After a shaky start, he rose to prominence becoming a leader amongst the students and distinguishing himself in public speaking events. Byron experienced both sides of the ‘fagging’ system – a traditional, hierarchical structure intended to teach discipline, obedience and self-reliance to younger boys while giving senior boys experience in leadership and responsibility.
1803: With no money available to restore the semi-derelict ancestral home, Catherine Byron rented Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Newstead Abbey and Park was leased to Lord Grey de Ruthyn and Byron was invited to stay there during his summer holidays. He fell in love with Mary Ann Chaworth of Annesley Hall - two years his senior. At first their attachment was mutual and encouraged by her parents. She did not however, reciprocate his romantic feelings and never gave him reason to believe she was in love with him. Byron supposedly overheard her to say to her maid – “What! Do you think I could care anything for that lame boy.”
1804: Byron spent more time at Burgage Manor and established a lasting friendship with Elizabeth and John Pigot who lived across the road. It was due to Elizabeth’s encouragement that he began to take writing poetry seriously.
1805: Byron attended Trinity College Cambridge (1805-1808). He outsmarted the college authorities when he took Bruin the Bear with him, in defiance of the rules that banned students from keeping dogs in college. His attendance record was notoriously poor! Byron established strong friendships with fellow students and experienced a ‘pure, love and passion’ for John Edleston, a choirboy at Trinity.
1806: Byron spent much of his holidays in Southwell where he organised theatricals and published his first poetry. Fugitive Pieces was privately printed and then quickly withdrawn by Byron himself, when the Rev. J.T. Becher objected to what he considered to be the ‘too voluptuous colouring’ of the poem ‘To Mary’ (The Adieu to sweet Mary forever!).
1807: Poems on Various Occasions was privately printed – without the poems written ‘To Mary’ and ‘To Caroline’. When Hours of Idleness was published, it was ridiculed in the Edinburgh Review. Byron retaliated with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (published in 1809). Byron concluded his time at university and resided on and off at Newstead Abbey between 1808 and 1814.
1808: Byron re-visited Trinity College to collect his Master of Arts (MA) degree! Boatswain (pronounced Bosun) - his favourite Newfoundland dog, died of rabies at the age of five. Byron was devastated. He commissioned an elaborate monument, and his love was epitomised on the ‘Epitaph to a Dog’. Byron’s early wills specified that he wished to be buried alongside Boatswain in the large tomb underneath the monument – and without ceremony.
1809: Byron took his seat in the House of Lords – aligned to the Whig party. On 2nd July, he embarked upon a Grand Tour of the Mediterranean along with his university friend, John Cam Hobhouse, and Newstead servants Joe Murray, William Fletcher and Robert Rushton. Due to the impact of the Napoleonic Wars, they visited Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Malta, Albania, Greece and Turkey. In Malta, Byron was side-tracked. He was persuaded by British Naval and Diplomatic Intelligence to visit Ali Pasha at his Tepelene Castle (in Albania). It was here that he commenced writing Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The party then moved on to Greece and Constantinople (Istanbul).
1810: Byron swam around three miles (approaching five kilometres) across the Hellespont (Dardanelles) in a mere one hour and ten minutes. He considered this feat his proudest achievement. He stayed at The Capuchin monastery in Athens, where he met Nicolo Giraud. His valet had returned to England and so he employed the lad as his translator and head servant while he continued his travels abroad.
1811: Byron wrote The Curse of Minerva whilst residing in Athens. The latter denounced Lord Elgin’s actions in removing the ancient Greek sculptures (Elgin Marbles) from the Parthenon in Athens. Byron fell in love with Greece, a passion that would define the last years of his life. In July, after a two-year journey through Mediterranean countries, Byron returned to England somewhat depressed and with significant financial debts. His mother died on 1st August and was buried in the family vault at Hucknall church. Byron resided initially at Newstead Abbey and, after three months, returned to London to live at 8 St James’s Street. This was near to Albermarle Street, where his publisher, John Murray later moved to, following the success of Childe Harold.
1812: On 27th February, Byron made his maiden speech in the House of Lords in response to The Frame Breakers Bill. This applied the death penalty to Luddites convicted of destroying the new machinery that caused unemployment and starvation amongst Nottingham Lace weavers. The first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage were published on 3rd March. The first run sold out in three days - which prompted Byron to exclaim – “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.” Its outstanding success meant that Byron was besieged by women, including Lady Caroline Lamb. At the start of their brief tempestuous affair, she famously exclaimed that Byron was “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know”. Having rejected Caroline, he embarked upon an affair with her friend Jane Harley, Countess of Oxford. He proposed marriage to Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke - but was initially rejected.
1813: Byron made his last speech in the House of Lords on 1st June, arguing for parliamentary reform. He had spoken only three times in the House of Lords. His speeches demonstrated a strong sense of justice and empathy for the common people.
1814: The friendship with his half-sister, Augusta Mary Leigh, had become much closer and more controversial. In the depths of the early winter, Byron and Augusta spent time together at Newstead Abbey. In September, Byron again proposed marriage to Annabella Milbanke - and his offer was accepted. He travelled to Seaham in County Durham, where they were to be married.
1815: The marriage took place on 2nd January, and they lived together at 13 Piccadilly Terrace, London. Byron worked at Drury Lane Theatre and Augusta Ada was born on the 10th December.
1816: The marriage failed. On 15th January, Annabella left the London house and took their daughter with her. The couple never met again. Byron wrote two poems about the separation – Fare Thee Well and A Sketch from Private Life. Annabella forbade any form of contact between Byron and their daughter. The 28-year-old Byron left England on 25th April, never to return. He felt isolated, ostracised and alienated by the hardening of public attitudes toward his lifestyle, sexuality, relationship with his half-sister, a broken marriage and crushing debts. Byron travelled to Geneva where he met up with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont. At Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva they held a competition to see who would write the best ghost story. It was here that Frankenstein's Creature was born and Vampires re-vamped. Claire Clairmont had met Byron before his self-exile and returned to England pregnant with his child.
1817: On 12th January, Clara Allegra Byron was born. Byron had moved to Italy and lived for three years in Venice. In December, he was informed that Newstead Abbey had been sold – and thus his years of financial insecurity were at an end.
1818: Byron rented the Palazzo Mocenigo on the Grand Canal. He lived there with numerous servants and animals and started writing Don Juan.
1819: Byron met and fell in love with the recently married Teresa Guiccioli. It was to be his last love. He took on the role of Cavalier Servente (gentleman in waiting and lover) and accompanied her to her family home in Ravenna.
1820: In February, Byron moved into the Palazzo Guiccioli. In July, Teresa was granted a separation from her husband by papal decree. However, she was obliged to move back in with her father - Count Ruggiero Gamba. It was here that Byron became acquainted with her brother Pietro Gamba, and joined the Carbonari - a secret revolutionary society. However, their planned insurrection failed and ended all hopes for the liberation of Italy from the Austrian Empire.
1821: Teresa’s father and brother were arrested and sent into exile. Byron moved to the Casa Lanfranchi in Pisa where he met up once again with the Shelleys and their friends. ‘The Pisan Circle’ was formed – a close-knit community of like-minded individuals who enjoyed a mix of intellectual pursuits, writing and social life.
1822: Lady Judith Noel Milbanke (Annabella’s mother) died - and Byron incorporated the Noel coat of arms into his own armorial bearings. From then on, he signed his correspondence ‘Noel Byron’. In April, Byron heard the news that his daughter Allegra, only five years old, had died in the convent at Bagnacavallo, Ravenna. On 8th July, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Edward Williams drowned in a boating accident in the Bay of Spezia. Byron moved to Casa Saluzzo in Genoa, from whence The Vision of Judgment was published in the radical journal ‘The Liberal’. With increased political awareness, Byron ultimately turned his back on poetry, to invest his reputation and money in The Greek War of Independence. He joined the London Greek Committee and sailed to the Greek island of Cephalonia, to await further instructions.
1824: On 5th January, Byron finally arrived in Missolonghi and with a strong commitment to ‘The Cause’, he experienced his final transformation into a New Age Statesman and Political Leader. Byron spent a significant amount of his personal fortune providing arms and medical supplies and repairing ships in the Greek fleet. He set up his own military squad of Souliotes (Albanians) and an artillery brigade of foreign volunteers.
Lord Byron died in Missolonghi ‘a martyred hero’ on 19th April 1824, at the age of thirty-six. He died of what is now speculated to have been a malaria relapse and exsanguination (a severe loss of blood) caused by frequent ‘bleeding’ undertaken by his doctors.
“This misfortune that has befallen us is terrible and irreparable. Lord Byron is dead, your friend, and my friend and father, the saviour of Greece is dead. I cannot tell you the inconsolable grief of his friends and of the whole of Greece. In the flower of his prime.” (Count Pietro Gamba)
His death secured sympathy and support by western nations for the war effort. Byron is remembered as generous and brave; a man who gave all he had, including his life, to Greece – an indisputable hero and saviour of Greece.
News of Byron’s death was published on the front page of The Times newspaper. However, many religious and cultural institutions refused to honour him upon the return of his body to England, due to his ‘questionable morality.’ Byron was buried in the family vault at St Mary Magdalene church, Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire.
“The Dean of Westminster refused burial in the Abbey. For many years the open profligacy of his life prevented his commemoration in the Abbey.”
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| by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1830–34 (Alamy) |
Today, it conjures up not only ‘The Genius of Poetry’ but also ‘The Heroic Statesman’ and ‘Martyr to the Greek Cause of Liberty’.
