Educated at Aberdeen, Dulwich, Harrow and Cambridge, Byron excelled in romantic poetry including several long narrative poems. He created the defiant Byronic Hero of a man brooding on an injustice of the past and was an exponent of flowing romantic poetry. A deformity of his right foot contributed to his psychological character and a disdain for the social mores. This led to his frequent conflict with society becoming a major factor in his leaving England for Europe in 1816 never to return.
His first poetry collection, Hours of Idleness, was published in 1807 followed by, inter alia, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 1812-1818 and The Corsair 1814, Mazeppa and Don Juan as well as numerous other poems.
After leaving England, he stayed briefly in Switerland before moving to Italy. After a creative period, he joined the Greek independence movement but died of typhus at Missalonghi in 1824.
His daughter, later the mathematician, Ada Lady Lovelace, stemmed from his brief marriage in 1815 to Anne Isabella Milbanke.
