George Gordon Byron Byron h Baron (6t)

Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron (1788–1824), English poet, a leading figure of European Romanticism. Lameness and an unhappy childhood bred morbidity, a scorn for authority, and hatred for oppression. A disastrous marriage and the strictures of English society drove him into exile in Italy (1816). He later joined the Greek revolt against the Turks and died of fever at Missolonghi, Greece. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), a savage riposte to his critics, brought overnight fame, and the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812) established his European reputation. The “Byronic” hero of the poetic drama, Manfred (1817) became a great Romantic theme. Major works include the incomplete satiric epic Don Juan (1819–24) and The Vision of Judgement (1812), satirizing the poet laureate Robert Southey and King George III.

See also: Romanticism.