Chronology

Bullet points are used to denote events in Byron's life and asterisks to denote historical and literary contexts. 1788 •

22 January, George Gordon Byron born at 16 Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London; son of Captain ‘mad Jack’ Byron and Catherine (née Gordon); 29 February, christened in Marylebone parish church

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First attack of George III's insanity; impeachment of Warren Hastings; published: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

1789 •

Mother took lodgings in Aberdeen

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Storming of the Bastille (14 July); Declaration of the Rights of Man; published: William Blake, The Book of Thel, Songs of Innocence

1790 *

Published: Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

1791 •

2 August, death of father in France; mother took apartment at 64 Broad Street, Aberdeen

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Published: Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Part I

1792 *

September massacres; abolition of French monarchy; British defeat of

Tipu Sultan in Mysore, India; published: Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part II (banned)

1793 *

Execution of French king and queen and commencement of ‘the Terror’; war with France; published: William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice; William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

<target id="page_124" target-type="page">124</target>1794 •

Entered Aberdeen Grammar School

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Habeas corpus suspended; treason trials of forty-one radicals; published: W. Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience

1798 •

21 May, on death of the Fifth Lord Byron (‘the wicked Lord’), George Gordon Byron became 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale; August, accompanied mother to ancestral mansion, Newstead Abbey, Nottinhamshire

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France conquered Switzerland, northern Italy and Malta; rebellion in Ireland; published: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads; Jeremy Bentham, Political Economy; Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population

1799 •

September, entered Dr Glennie's School, Dulwich

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Napoleon became consul; Anti-Combination Laws

1800 •

Summer at Newstead and at Nottingham; fell in love with first cousin, Margaret Parker

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First iron-frame printing press built; French conquered Italy; published: second edition Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth's preface

1801 •

April, entered Harrow

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Peace of Amiens; Act of Union; George III refused to grant Emancipation to Roman Catholics

1802 •

Christmas holiday at Bath

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Edinburgh Review and William Cobbett's Political Register founded

1803 •

July, mother rented Burgage Manor, Southwell; September, fell in love with his cousin Mary Chaworth of Annesley Hall

1804 •

March, friendship with the Pigots; performed at Speech Day

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Napoleon crowned Emperor; Britain declared war on Spain

1805 •

Performed at Speech Day; 2 August, played in cricket match against Eton; 24 October, commenced studies at Trinity College, Cambridge

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Battle of Trafalgar; death of Nelson; published: Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel; Robert Southey, Madoc; Henry Cary (tr.), Dante's Inferno

<target id="page_125" target-type="page">125</target>1806 •

September, involved in Southwell amateur theatricals; November, Fugitive Pieces privately printed

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Deaths of William Pitt and Charles James Fox; coalition ministry of ‘All the Talents’; published: Thomas Moore's Epistles, Odes and Other Poems, Mary Robinson, The Poems (3 vols)

1807 •

January, Poems on Various Occasions privately printed; June, Hours of Idleness published; became friends with J. C. Hobhouse and C. S. Matthews, and later with S. B. Davies and F. Hodgson; July, reviewed Wordsworth's Poems in Monthly Literary Recreations; December, left Cambridge

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Abolition of slave trade in British dominions; published: George Crabbe's Poems; T. Moore's Irish Melodies; Sydney Owenson Morgan, Lays of an Irish Harp; Mme de Staël's Corinne; W. Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes

1808 •

Received MA from Cambridge; January, Henry Brougham's review of Hours of Idleness published in Edinburgh Review; March, Poems Original and Translated published; October–November, continued satire (to be English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) had begun a year previously.

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British campaign in Portugal but Convention of Cintra allowed French withdrawal; Leigh Hunt founded Examiner (–1881); published: Felicia Hemans, Poems; Walter Scott, Marmion; J. W. von Goethe's Faust, Part I.

1809 •

13 March, Byron took his seat in House of Lords; English Bards and Scotch Reviewers published anonymously; 2 July, departed with Hobhouse on Lisbon packet for Grand Tour; visited Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Sicily, Malta, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor; October, received by Ali Pasha; began Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

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Quarterly Review founded; published: W. Blake, A Descriptive Catalogue; W. Wordsworth, Tract on the Convention of Cintra

1810 •

3 May, swam the Hellespont; 17 July, Hobhouse returned to England.

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French take Holland; London riots in support parliamentary reform; published: W. Scott, The Lady of the Lake; Robert Southey, The Curse of Kehama; George Crabbe, The Borough; Percy Bysshe Shelley, Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire, Zastrozzi, St Irvine, Posthumous fragments of Margaret Nicholson

1811 •

Byron began Hints from Horace and The Curse of Minerva; April, travelled back to England on the Hydra, the ship carrying the final consignment of the Elgin marbles; 14 July arrived in England; 1 August, mother died; 3 August, 126friend Charles Skinner Matthews drowned; September, informed that John Edleston had died in May; wrote the ‘Thyrza’ poems

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Prince of Wales made Regent; Hampden clubs founded to campaign for democracy; insurrection in Colombia and Venezuela against Spanish rule; published: L. Hunt, The Feast of the Poets; P. B. Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

1812 •

Reviewed Spencer's Poems; 27 February, maiden speech in House of Lords against the death penalty for Luddites; 10 March, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I and II published; 21 April, second speech in House of Lords on Roman Catholic civil rights; April, liaison with Lady Caroline Lamb began; October, liaison with Lady Oxford began

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Anti-Luddite act passed and twelve regiments needed to quell unrest and food riots; Napoleon's retreat from Moscow; P. M. Spencer Percival assassinated; USA declares war on Great Britain; published: Anna Barbauld's 1811; H. Cary (tr.) Dante's Purgatory, Paradise; George Crabbe's Tales in Verse; F. Hemans, Domestic Affections and other Poems; P. B. Shelley, An Address to the Irish People and Proposals for an Association

1813 •

February, reviewed William Henry Ireland's Neglected Genius; March, The Waltz privately printed; May, visited Leigh Hunt in gaol; 1 June, third and last speech in House of Lords in support of Major Cartwright; 5 June, The Giaour published; July, liaison with Augusta Leigh, his half-sister began; met Mme de Staël; October, romance with Lady Frances Webster began; 2 December, The Bride of Abydos published

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1813 Wellington victorious in Peninsular war; French expelled from Italy, Holland and Switzerland; Leigh Hunt gaoled for libel; R. Southey appointed Poet Laureate; Wordsworth accepted sinecure as Distributor of Stamps; published: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; S. T. Coleridge, Remorse; J. C. Hobhouse, A Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia to Constantinople; T. Moore Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Postbag; W. Scott, Rokeby; P. B. Shelley, Queen Mab

1814 •

1 February, The Corsair published; 6 August, Lara published anonymously with Samuel Rogers's Jacqueline; 9 September, proposed to Annabella Milbanke

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Abdication of Napoleon and exile to Elba; peace with USA; Congress of Vienna; George Stephenson invented first locomotive; development of steam warship and steam printing machine; Edmund Kean's acting debut; published: L. Hunt, The Feast of the Poets; W. Scott's Waverley; W. Wordsworth, The Excursion

1815 •

2 January, married Annabella at Seaham, near Durham; April, A Selection of Hebrew Melodies published with musical score by John Braham and 127Isaac Nathan; May, Hebrew Melodies published by Murray; became a member of the Drury Lane subcommittee; November, bailiffs entered house, 13 Piccadilly Terrace; 10 December daughter, Augusta Ada born

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Corn Laws; Napoleon escaped to France (March); Battle of Waterloo (18 June); Napoleon exiled to St Helena; ‘Holy Alliance’ instituted; published: W. Wordsworth, Poems, The White Doe of Rylstone; L. Hunt, The Descent of Liberty, a Mask

1816 •

15 January, Annabella left, taking Ada; separation proceedings began; 13 February, The Siege of Corinth and Parisina published; March to April, met Claire Clairmont; April, second number of A Selection of Hebrew Melodies published; 5–6 April, library auctioned; 21 April, signed deed of separation; 25 April, sailed for the continent; visited Belgium, Germany and Switzerland; 1–6 May, began Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III; 9 May, Lady Caroline Lamb's novel Glenarvon published; 27 May, met P. B. Shelley for first time at Sécheron; 14–18 June, the ghost story competition at the Villa Diodati; 22 June, toured Lake Geneva with P. B. Shelley; July–August, frequently attended the salon of Germaine de Staël at Coppet; 14 August, M. G. Lewis arrived; 26 August, Hobhouse and Scrope Davies visited; 28 August, the Shelley party departed for England; August– September, tour to Chamouni, Mont Blanc and later the Bernese Oberland; 5 October, departed with Hobhouse for Italy; 12 October, arrived in Milan; 10 November arrived in Venice; 18 November, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III published; November, affair with Marianna Segati; studied Armenian at monastery on island of San Lazzaro; 5 December, The Prisoner of Chillon and Other Poems published; Hobhouse left for tour of Italy

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Post-war depression; Spa Fields riot; march of the blanketeers; exhibition of Elgin Marbles; published: J. Austen, Emma; S. T. Coleridge, Christabel and other Poems; L. Hunt, The Story of Rimini; C. Maturin, Bertram; T. Moore, Sacred Songs, Vol. I; P. B. Shelley, Alastor and Other Poems; R. Southey, The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo, The Lay of the Laureate; W. Wordsworth, ‘Thanksgiving Ode’; F. Hemans, The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy; W. Cobbett, Political Register and ‘Twopenny Trash’

1817 •

12 January, birth of Allegra, illegitimate daughter by Claire Clairmont; 17 April, set off for Rome; 29 April, met Hobhouse and toured the antiquities together; 20 May, departed for Venice; 16 June, Manfred published; August, met Margarita Cogni, a baker's wife; October, wrote Beppo; September, visit of Douglas Kinnaird, Lord Kinnaird, and W. S. Rose, and gift of Frere's Whistlecraft; 10 December, received news that Newstead Abbey sold to Thomas Wildman for 94,500 pounds

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Demonstrations and petitions for parliamentary reform; habeas corpus suspended; Renewal of parts of 1795 Treason Acts to proscribe ‘seditious meetings’; death penalty for words inciting disaffection in armed forces; William Cobbett escaped to America; trial of William Hone; Pentridge 128rebellion; death of Princess Charlotte; published: S. T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, Sybilline Leaves, Zapolya; John Hookham Frere, The Monks and the Giants; F. Hemans, Modern Greece; John Keats, Poems; T. Moore, Lalla Rookh; P. B. Shelley, A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote, Laon and Cythna (withdrawn); R. Southey, Wat Tyler (piracy); William Hone's Reformists’ Register and Black Dwarf founded; Sherwin's Political Register founded; Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine founded

1818 •

8 January, Hobhouse returned to England, while Byron, settled in Venice; 28 February, Beppo published; 28 April, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV published; 3 July, began Don Juan; 23 August, rode with P. B. Shelley on the lido (incident in ‘Julian and Maddalo’); 24–9, visited by both the Shelleys

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Trial and incarceration of Richard Carlile; strikes of spinners and weavers; Chile declared independence; published: S. T. Coleridge, The Friend (3 vols); W. Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, A View of the English Stage; John Keats, Endymion; T. Moore, National Airs I (–1827), The Fudge Family in Paris; Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; P. B. Shelley, The Revolt of Islam

1819 •

February, objections to Don Juan Canto I in London; April, fell in love with Countess Teresa Guiccioli; June, visited Ravenna; 18 June, began Prophecy of Dante; 28 June, Mazeppa and Ode on Venice published; 15 July, Don Juan Cantos I and II published anonymously; 9 August, followed Guicciolis to Bologna; September, returned to Venice with Teresa; October, visit of Moore and gave him memoirs of life up to 1816; 24 December, followed Teresa to Ravenna and settled there.

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Peterloo Massacre; Six Acts to proscribe radical activity, including Blasphemous and Seditious Libel Act, fourpenny stamp tax imposed on newspapers; British acquisition of Singapore; published: P. B. Shelley, ‘Rosalind and Helen’; W. Wordsworth, Peter Bell, the Waggoner

1820 •

21 February, finished translation of Pulci's Morgante Maggiore; March, finished Prophecy of Dante; April, became involved in planned revolt against the Austrians; May, crisis of the Guiccioli marriage; July, finished Marino Faliero; Teresa separated from her husband; August, became initiated into secret revolutionary society of the Carbonari; 16 October, began Don Juan Canto V; 9 December, commandant shot dead outside house

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Death of George III and accession of George IV; Cato Street conspiracy to assassinate government ministers; trial of Queen Caroline; revolutions in Spain, Portugal, Naples, Piedmont; published: John Clare, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery; J. Keats, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems; W. Scott's Ivanhoe; P. B. Shelley, The Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, Swellfoot the Tyrant; W. Wordsworth, The River Duddon, Memorials of a Tour on the Continent; London Magazine founded

<target id="page_129" target-type="page">129</target>1821 •

4 January, began ‘Ravenna Journal’; January, began Sardanapalus; 10 February, finished first letter on Bowles-Pope controversy; 24 February, plan of Carbonari uprising failed and leaders betrayed; 25 March, wrote second letter on Bowles; 31 March, publication of ‘Letter to John Murray Esq.’ on Bowles controversy; 21 April, Marino Faliero and Prophecy of Dante published together; 25 April, Marino Faliero staged at Drury Lane; 27 May, finished Sardanapalus; 12 June, began The Two Foscari. July, promised Teresa he would discontinue Don Juan; 10 July, first Pietro Gamba then his father banished from the Romagna; 16 July, began Cain; 25 July, Teresa joined her father and brother in Florence; 6 August, Shelley visited Byron in Ravenna; August, wrote The Blues; September, wrote The Vision of Judgment; 9 October, began Heaven and Earth; 15 October, began ‘Detached Thoughts’; 29 October, departed Ravenna for Pisa; 1 November, took up residence at Casa Lanfranchi, Pisa; 19 December, publication of Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari and Cain

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Death of Napoleon; death of Queen Caroline; death of John Keats; Greek War of Independence began; suppression of Neapolitan uprising; Simón Bolívar victorious in Venzuelan war of liberation against Spain: Peru, Guatemala, Panama, Santo Domingo declared independence from Spain; published: P. B. Shelley, Epipsychidion, Adonais; R. Southey, A Vision of Judgment

1822 •

28 January, death of Lady Noel, Byron's mother-in-law; Byron took on name of Noel Byron as a condition of sharing the estate; January, resumption of Don Juan (Canto VI); February, sent 250 pounds to Hunt for his voyage to Italy; 20 April, death of Allegra; 1 (?) July, Leigh Hunt and his family arrived at Leghorn; 3 July, Leigh Hunt moved into Casa Lanfranchi; July, resumed composition of Don Juan; 8 July, P. B. Shelley and Edward Williams drowned in Bay of Spezia; 16 August, cremation of Shelley at Viareggio; 15 September, short visit of Hobhouse; Byron and the Gambas moved to Genoa; 15 October, publication of first issue of The Liberal; 23 November, publication of Werner by Murray; began The Age of Bronze; 14 December, sent Don Juan Canto XII to Kinnaird, i.e. seven cantos now unpublished.

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Suicide of Viscount Castlereagh; Liberal Tories Peel and Canning joined Liverpool ministry, Canning became foreign secretary; Brazil achieved independence from Portugal; Simón Bolívar won Ecuador's freedom from Spain; Greeks proclaimed independence; published: P. B. Shelley, Hellas, A Lyrical Drama; W. Wordsworth, Ecclesiatical Sketches

1823 •

1 January, No. 2 The Liberal published; 10 January, finished The Age of Bronze; February, finished The Island; April–June, friendship with the Blessingtons; 5 April, visited by Edward Blaquiere; 6 May, finished Don Juan Canto XVI; May, elected member of London Greek Committee; June, 130quarrelled with Leigh Hunt and Mary Shelley; 24 July, sailed for Greece on brig Hercules, with Pietro Gamba and Edward Trelawny

3 August, landed at Argostoli, Cephalonia; 13 November, signed agreement for loan on 4,000 pounds to the Greek government; 22 November, arrival of Colonel Leicester Stanhope, agent for London Greek Committee; 29 December, embarked for Missolonghi; chased by Turkish vessels, then driven on the rocks by storms

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Peel began reform Penal Code; Huskisson initiated reform at Board of Trade; Mechanics’ Institute founded; war between France and Spain; published: T. Moore, The Loves of the Angels; P. B. Shelley, Poetical Pieces

1824 •

5 January, came ashore at Missolonghi to tumultuous reception; January, took 500 Suliotes into his service; 14 January, Stanhope launched Greek newspaper, Hellenica Chronica; 22 January, wrote ‘On this Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’; 25 January, commissioned by Mavrocordatos to lead expedition agaonst Lepanto; 5 February, arrival of William Parry, the fire-master; 15 February, Suliotes disbanded; suffered severe convulsive fit; 21 February, departure of Stanhope for Athens; 19 April, Easter Monday, died of fever exacerbated by bleeding

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1824 Combinations Act repealed; unions permitted; National Gallery opened; Published: James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner; P. B. Shelley, Posthumous Poems