Lord Byron

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(22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824)  

George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron, was born on 22 January 1788 in London. Over his lifetime he had many affairs with both men and women, and sired at least 4 children with 4 different women. 

Lord Byron's father died when he was three, with the result that he inherited his title from his great uncle in 1798.

Byron spent his early years in Aberdeen, and was educated at Harrow School and Cambridge University, where he had male lovers, including  Cambridge chorister John Edleston. Edleston appears as “the Cornelian” in Byron’s prose writing, named for a gift he had given Byron. Gift and giver were immortalised in Byron’s first poetry collection, Hours of Idleness (1807), and Byron wore the Cornelian ring till the end of his life. 

In 1809, he left for a two-year tour of a number of Mediterranean countries. He returned to England in 1811, and in 1812 the first two cantos of 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' were published. Byron became famous overnight.

In 1814, Byron's half-sister Augusta gave birth to a daughter, rumoured by some to have been Byron's. The following year Byron married Annabella Milbanke, with whom he had a daughter (his only legitimate child) The Hon. Augusta Ada Byron ("Ada", later Countess of Lovelace), in 1815. Ada Lovelace, notable in her own right, collaborated with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, a predecessor to modern computers. She is recognised as one of the world's first computer programmers.

On 16 January 1816, Lady Byron left him, taking Ada with her. That same year on 21 April, Byron signed the Deed of Separation. Rumours of marital violence, adultery with actresses, incest with Augusta Leigh, and sodomy were circulated, assisted by a jealous Lady Caroline.

Facing mounting pressure as a result of his failed marriage, scandalous affairs and huge debts, Byron left England in April 1816 and never returned. He spent the summer of 1816 at Lake Geneva with Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary and Mary's half sister Claire Clairmont, with whom Byron had a daughter.

Byron travelled on to Italy, where he was to live for more than six years. In 1819, while staying in Venice, he began an affair with Teresa Guiccioli, the wife of an Italian nobleman. It was in this period that Byron wrote some of his most famous works, including 'Don Juan' (1819-1824).

In July 1823, Byron left Italy to join the Greek insurgents who were fighting a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. On 19 April 1824 he died from fever at Missolonghi, in modern day Greece. His death was mourned throughout Britain. His body was brought back to England and buried at his ancestral home in Nottinghamshire.

Biography: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/byron_lord.shtml 

https://theconversation.com/byrons-letters-reveal-the-real-queer-love-and-loss-that-inspired-his-poetry-224540

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron