If he wanted someone, he had them. His popularity and good looks guaranteed the fulfillment of his every sexual fantasy. In the 19th century, a nobleman who relished the life of a libertine was frowned upon, but it was not illegal. However, when it became known that he'd maintained an affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, for a number of years, and that the affair had produced a daughter, Medora, Byron was severely and socially pressured to remove himself from the country and live in exile.
Pressured by family and society to settle down, Byron decided to take a wife. His choice shocked many, since Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke was his polar opposite. Perhaps he chose her as a way to prop up his own sordid reputation, or maybe even have some of her purported goodness rub off on him.
Lady Anne was a rare persona for her times - she was highly educated, very religious, and strict in her morality. Obviously, it was not a lasting marriage. Gossip and evidence detailing her new husband's sexual escapades reached the ears of Byron's bride. Lady Byron was with her husband just long enough to produce his only legitimate heir, daughter Ada.
Lady Byron later wrote her memoirs, detailing every salacious bit she'd learned about her husband's secret life, including the affair with his own sister. The memoir wasn't published till after both their deaths, but in life, Lady Byron did much to spread stories about her husband, which resulted in his self-imposed exile from Britain. For many years, literary experts and biographers have debated Byron's interest in men as sexual partners.
A big part of the problem for historians and literary types is that any man of 19th century Britain who also happened to be bisexual or gay could never let that be known. It was a particular problem for noblemen, who were supposed to serve as the moral compass for the rest of society. So, if Byron did not publicly announce his sexuality, he had compelling reasons for remaining silent.
Thus, there is no overt evidence for his homosexuality or bisexuality. Due to the ultimate discretion required, Byron may have had brief, even anonymous sexual encounters with men.
There is lots of circumstantial evidence that points to Byron's male lovers. When Byron was but a lad of sixteen, he met a farm boy named William Fletcher. Legend has it that Byron first saw him plowing a field, was instantly attracted, and made the young man his valet, which was a remarkable jump up in status for a farm boy. Fletcher remained with Byron until his master's death. There was at least one other servant of Byron's who may have been his lover. His name was Giovanni Battista Falcieri, who was called, "Tita.
Falcieri was a handsome young gondolier, a profession that has a tradition of offering paid sexual services in addition to boating duties. Within Byron's body of literary work are found a number of poems written to and about a number of young noblemen. There is even a collection of these poems available. Additionally, Byron was known to have handsome, young male travel companions, including Dr. By the middle of , Byron's name and reputation had become so sullied that he made plans to leave Britain entirely.
While quite a few among the nobility were aware of his sexual excesses, much of the gossip remained within noble families. It was Lady Byron who blasted his activities beyond the closed circles of British nobility.
When she left with their one-month-old daughter to visit her parents in January , she filed separation papers and never returned.
Marital separation and divorce in the 19th century was a scandalous thing, and an actual divorce required an Act of Parliament. It would be a media heyday, and many of Byron's secrets would be publicly exposed. The poet saw the writing on the wall and fled his homeland voluntarily, never to return. Claire Clairmont was the daughter of the second wife of William Godwin, who was a well-known English literary critic. Claire grew up in a household full of literary theory, surrounded by all the fashionable and popular poets and writers of the age, including her stepsister, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein.
It was a huge scandal at the time. While in Europe, the Shelleys met up with Byron, who was still rather depressed about the circumstances surrounding his recent exile from Britain and the numerous personal scandals he left in his wake. Claire , like many others, was instantly attracted to Byron, and essentially badgered him into having an affair with her.
For Byron, affairs were just that, and not intended to last very long or mean very much. Claire regarded the relationship very differently and became a thorn in Byron's side. Over the years, he came to loathe her. Much later, Claire wrote a scathing memoir of her experiences with Byron, Shelley, and others, and labeled them "monsters. Anyone who thinks the hippies of the s were original in their ideas of communal living and free love needs to examine the lives of the early 19th century British Romantic writers and poets.
Particularly of note are the circumstances under which Byron, the Shelleys, Claire Clairmont, and others were living in Most of these young people had fled their homeland because the lives they wished to lead were simply socially unacceptable there. They often lived together in communal settings, wrote together particularly during the infamous "year without a summer," , and practiced free love with one another and with others they encountered on their travels.
They traversed from France, to Switzerland, to Italy, and eventually, Greece. By the end of , Byron and company had made their way to Venice. And it was there that he was at his most outrageous. He conducted numerous affairs, allowed all manner of people to live in his rented abode, the Mocenigo Palace, which was located on the Grand Canal. Some of these included known sex workers, both male and female, and others of disreputable station.
Life was an ongoing party at this point, though clearly Byron's spirit remained troubled and restless. During his stay in Venice, he also shared his home with 14 servants including Fletcher and Tita , two monkeys, two Mastiff dogs, and a fox. It was in Venice that he began writing his great Romantic poem, Don Juan. Perhaps he took some inspiration from the newest love in his life, the teenaged Teresa Gamba Giuccioli.
The rest were published by John Hunt, who was more willing to scandalize readers and allowed Byron to get away with more than Murray could apparently stomach. During the time Byron was composing Don Juan he also wrote several historically-set, highly political plays, including Marino Faliero , Sardanapalus , The Two Foscar i , and the Biblical-themed Cain Byron wrote these largely as closet dramas, meant to be read aloud or performed with a small group at most.
He later emphasized to John Murray, who published these in England, that he under no circumstances wanted these plays performed theatrically.
Here is a collection of letters between Byron and John Murray, edited by Peter Cochran, dated between and The Greek War for Independence began in , and two years later Byron found himself drafted into aiding the rebellion and left Italy and Teresa Guiccioli behind.
He sailed for Greece on July 16, and arrived on the Greek island of Kephalonia on August 3, despite not having any serious military background or much of a plan for what to do once he got there. His career as a war hero lasted less than a year, and did not begin in earnest until The Greek rebels were divided among several squabbling factions, and Byron did not commit himself to any specific cause until the following January, when he arrived on the mainland and joined Alexander Mavrokordatos, who commissioned him to lead an attack on an Ottoman fortress.
The attack never took place, as Byron could never gather enough troops, and those he did kept demanding more and more money. Poor medical intervention only made his condition worse, and he died on April 19, Unlike other celebrated British writers, his scandalous reputation prevented him from being buried at Westminster Abbey.
Instead he was laid to rest next to his daughter at Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Nottinghamshire. Despite his disappointing military career, Byron was and is still lauded as a hero of the Greek War for Independence. He dedicated himself, and his impressive bank account, to the cause of Greek independence. He was one of the most well-known Europeans to advocate on behalf of the rebels, starting before he even set off for Greece when, in March , he joined the London Greek Committee, which solicited further funds on behalf of the Greeks.
Even in death he served Greece, as news of his untimely end fighting in a rebellion inspired even more support from the rest of Europe. In Greece, the date of his death is commemorated as Byron Day, and Athens has a street and a neighborhood named in his honor.
Don Juan and Romanticism. The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung, Where grew the arts of war and peace, Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung! Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all, except their sun, is set.
He counted them at break of day— And when the sun set where were they? And where are they? On thy voiceless shore The heroic lay is tuneless now— The heroic bosom beats no more! And must thy lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine?
For Greeks a blush—for Greece a tear. Must we but blush? Of the three hundred grant but three, To make a new Thermopylae! What, silent still? In vain—in vain: strike other chords; Fill high the cup with Samian wine! It was Sophia Byron, wife of navy officer John and mother of Jack, who was perhaps the most long-suffering member of the family.
She braved a series of scandals precipitated not only by the men, but also by her daughters: the married Fanny took a string of lovers and another eloped at Despite poor health caused by decades of stress, Sophia clung to her pride and continued to attend fashionable soirees — once throwing a courtesan out of a salon held by her friend Hester Thrale. She did, however, have the sense to keep it behind closed doors. Emily Brand is an author and historian specialising in romantic relationships during the long 18th century.
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A portrait of the poet Lord Byron with his ancestral home Newstead Abbey. Image by Mary Evans Picture Library. A portrait of John Byron, by Joshua Reynolds. The scandal that catapulted Jack Byron to notoriety, in , was his affair with the married Amelia, Lady Carmarthen, pictured.
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