Historic Figures
WITH THE NAME BYRON
Lord Byron was a leading English poet and a leader of the Romantic Movement, some of whose most famous narrative works were “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage†and “Don Juanâ€. He was also a social activist, calling upon Parliament to honor the claims of the Luddites, the revolutionary group who opposed the mechanization of labor. Almost as well known for his personal life as for his poetry, Byron was the subject of much gossip and rumor, from the scandal that he had an affair and fathered a daughter with his half-sister, to the numerous other illicit romantic liaisons he instigated in his short life, both with men and women, to his personal excesses and debts. Club-footed from birth, Byron was exceedingly self-conscious of his defect, while being very vain about his good looks and his height (5’11â€). It is said that he wore curlers in his hair at night, that he was a strict vegetarian who occasionally ate red meat and then purged. He was aware of his notoriety and seemed to revel in being the living epitome of the “Byronic heroâ€. His wife coined the term “Byromaniaâ€, referring to all the public attention that he got – as the precursor of today’s super celebrities. Lord Byron fathered at least two daughters, one by his short lived marriage to Annabella Milbanke Byron, another as the result of an affair, and possibly a third, the daughter his half-sister gave birth to. When his marriage ended, Byron spent the last eight years of his life abroad, where a somewhat more forgiving societal rule prevailed. In 1824, while preparing to join the Greek uprising against Ottoman rule, he contracted a fever, was subjected to bloodletting, and finally died in Greece, where he is revered as a national hero. It took somewhat longer for such status to attach to him in his homeland, but in 1969, a mere 145 years after his death, a memorial to George Gordon, Lord Byron, was finally placed in Westminster Abbey. Oh, those impulsive Brits!
Lord Byron was a leading English poet and a leader of the Romantic Movement, some of whose most famous narrative works were “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage†and “Don Juanâ€. He was also a social activist, calling upon Parliament to honor the claims of the Luddites, the revolutionary group who opposed the mechanization of labor. Almost as well known for his personal life as for his poetry, Byron was the subject of much gossip and rumor, from the scandal that he had an affair and fathered a daughter with his half-sister, to the numerous other illicit romantic liaisons he instigated in his short life, both with men and women, to his personal excesses and debts. Club-footed from birth, Byron was exceedingly self-conscious of his defect, while being very vain about his good looks and his height (5’11â€). It is said that he wore curlers in his hair at night, that he was a strict vegetarian who occasionally ate red meat and then purged. He was aware of his notoriety and seemed to revel in being the living epitome of the “Byronic heroâ€. His wife coined the term “Byromaniaâ€, referring to all the public attention that he got – as the precursor of today’s super celebrities. Lord Byron fathered at least two daughters, one by his short lived marriage to Annabella Milbanke Byron, another as the result of an affair, and possibly a third, the daughter his half-sister gave birth to. When his marriage ended, Byron spent the last eight years of his life abroad, where a somewhat more forgiving societal rule prevailed. In 1824, while preparing to join the Greek uprising against Ottoman rule, he contracted a fever, was subjected to bloodletting, and finally died in Greece, where he is revered as a national hero. It took somewhat longer for such status to attach to him in his homeland, but in 1969, a mere 145 years after his death, a memorial to George Gordon, Lord Byron, was finally placed in Westminster Abbey. Oh, those impulsive Brits!
