Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a British politician and poet. Born in London to a family of aristocrats and military officers, Byron was raised in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he struggled in school and was prone to violent outbursts. As a young man, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a reputation as a gambler, fighter, and womanizer. In 1809, he embarked on a tour of the Mediterranean, traveling to Portugal, Spain, Sardinia, Malta, Greece, and Constantinople. Byron returned to England in 1811 and published the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in 1812, launching his career as a literary sensation. In 1815, he married the mathematician Annabella Millbanke; their daughter Ada would go on to a successful mathematician and pioneer of computer science. By 1816, however, the pair divorced over Byron's reckless behavior and serial infidelity, and the poet was forced to leave England due to scandal and insurmountable debt. He spent the rest of his life abroad, arriving in the su
