Lord Byron - The Greatest Romantic of All Time?

Lord Bryon, at this stage of the game, more myth than man, was the first of the rock and roll stars, a maverick and an original. His life is like a cartoon, everything appears larger than life, he lived it by his own set of rules, no matter to the consequences. He was born in 1788 into the ying-yang relationship of Captain Mad Jack Byron and Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire and descendant of King James I. Mad Jack bolted soon after the birth of George Gordon, Catherine took the infant back to her native Aberdeenshire whereupon the death of his fairytale sounding great uncle The Wicked Fifth Baron Byron, the young George Gordon became the Sixth Baron Byron. As Lord Byron, he inherited the Newstead Abbey estate in Nottinghamshire, England. He was schooled at Aberdeen Grammar School, Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.

On the surface, Byron’s childhood would indeed appear blessed, but of course it had it’s problems, indeed it had some very dark problems. He was the product of quite the maniacal home life, his father wanting nothing to do with him and his mother been partial to the more than frequent hysterical episode; he was born with a club foot and this attached to problems with his weight led to self esteem issues; sinisterly there are also many accounts of his sexual activities with his governess while still a child, indeed she was fired from the position amidst accusations of beating Byron. In Harrow, he became quite the tearaway, perhaps his mischievousness stemming from his feelings of inferiority due to his lameness and the fact that although he had a title he was still dreadfully poor in comparison to most of his schoolmates.

However, although far from the model student, he eventually rose to prominence with his dramatic Speech Day recitations. Harrow, is where Byron began to become Byron. After finishing at Harrow, Byron entered Cambridge University in 1805 where he immersed himself in the extra-circular activities of wild parties and love affairs. However, 1806 saw the publication of his first volume of poems, Fugitive Pieces; but it wasn’t well received and Byron recalled as many copies as he possibly could and had them destroyed. He persevered though and continued to publish material, releasing Poems on Various Occasions (1807) and Hours of Idleness (1807) and English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1808), the latter was a sell-out success. Upon leaving Cambridge, it appeared that Bryon may have put his wild past behind him, he moved back to Newstead Abbey, began to write in isolation and even took up his seat at the House of Lords. The latter endeavour went horribly wrong, nobody accepted him at the Lords, dragging up all his insecurities once again, he affirmed that he would define himself in the world by his own terms.

He rode away from England, quite literally, travelling on horseback across Spain and Portugal, boarded a frigate and crossed the Mediterranean, landing in Greece by way of Albania. In Albania, he fell into company of the notorious brigand turned ruler Ali Pasha, together they travelled in some splendour. Byron spent almost two years living the high life on the Continent, scribbling constantly, he returned to England in July 1811, just two weeks before the death of his mother. In the spring of 1812, his account of his travels on the Continent, Childe Harold was published and sold well. Byron was beginning to achieve the fame that he so long coveted, in addition his sale of the Newstead Abbey estate made him a wealthy bachelor, women of high society soon came flocking. One of whom was the married Lady Caroline Lamb, their tempestuous affair shocked London society, however Byron soon tired of the relationship and abandoned any further trysts, leaving Caroline broken-hearted. Devastated, Caroline did not go gently, she wrote letter after letter imploring the cruel Byron to take her back, he refused, she tracked him down, he refused, she went a tad delirious burning effigies of her erstwhile lover along with his letters. Byron had moved on to fresher pastures, bedding a friend of Caroline’s, Lady Jane Oxford and then moving swiftly on to a cousin of Caroline’s, Anne Isabella Milbanke.

This latter affair with Annabella as Byron called her, was to have some longevity, in fact he married her and they had a daughter Augusta Ada, and with that they separated a month later. It was a strange relationship, mostly something of a mystery, they appeared very much in love but then split up very abruptly. There were financial woes, indeed creditors were coming a knocking and arrest seemed imminent. There also exists the lingering rumour that Byron had married to cover up an incestuous relationship he was conducting with his half-sister Augusta that had produced a child but this has never being confirmed. In any case, many in the London high society set cut off both Byron and Augusta, Byron had enough and fled England once again. He traipsed through Europe, eventually shoring up at Lake Geneva where he met and hit it off with Shelley. Shelley had arrived in Switzerland with the inseparable half-sisters Mary Shelley (nee Godwin) and Jane Clairmont, known as Claire. The foursome spent four carefree months at Lake Geneva, it was also a very important time for world literature with Byron writing Prisoner of Chillon, Shelley writing Mont Blanc and Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. Bryon had paired off with Claire, who fell almost immediately pregnant, whence Byron became disillusioned once again and cast her aside. Claire returned to England with the Shelley’s, while Byron meandered around Italy.

He was to remain wandering around Italy for a year, embarking on love affairs and writing. In the summer of 1891, he began a serious relationship with the married Countess Teresa Guiccioli. The affair was to cause serious ructions between the Guiccioli and the Gamba (Teresa’s family) families, resulting in an ecclesiastical separation of the couple. Byron was in fine fettle, canoodling with the Countess, keeping a practical zoo in his Venice residence and in 1821 hanging in Pisa with a glut of Romantic poets including the Shelleys, the Hunts and Edward Trelawny. Tragically, Shelley was killed in 1822 in a boating accident, which had the result of breaking up the circle. Byron began looking around for options, in true Byron style he chose the quixotic and outlandish decision of organising an expedition to go to Greece to support the Greek war of independence against the Turks. He charted a one hundred and twenty ton ship, Hercules, arriving in Greece in August 1823. The expedition didn’t go as expected, Byron was harried for money by Greek commanders, money that he simply did not have. Tragically, it was to be Byron’s last hurrah, in April 1824 he caught a fever and died.