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George Gordon Noel Byron,sixth Baron Byron of Rochdate, (1788-1824) was an English poet. He took a seat in the House of Lords in 1809, but left shortly afterward to tour the Mediterranean, where he gathered material for what would be his finest poetry. Upon his return to England his brilliant social success was seriously compromised with rumors of a liaison with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Within a year of his marriage in 1815 to the beautiful heiress Annabelle Milbanke, the couple separated, Byron bearing the blame for the unsuccessful union. Ostracized, he left England, never to return, and settled in Italy, where he met Teresa, Countess Guiccioli, who greatly influenced his later work. In 1822, Bryon took up the cause of Greek liberty, but in failing health for some time and stricken with fever, he died in Missolonghi in 1824.