George Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824), English poet, politician and leading figure in the Romantic Movement. Known more commonly simply as Lord Byron, a title he inherited at the age of ten, he was born in London and educated in Aberdeen and Dulwich before being sent to Harrow School. He was an undistinguished scholar, but was later admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. Byron travelled extensively through Europe, fought against the Ottomans in the Greek War of Independence and led a life of aristocratic excess. However, he was also a poet of outstanding talent. He is most famous for the lengthy narrative works 'Don Juan' and 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'. He formed many close friendships, notably with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and was notorious for his numerous affairs with men and women. Byron contracted a fever during the Greek war and died from sepsis at the age of 36. |