mathematician who paved the way for Charles Babbage ’ s computer, which earned her the title of the world ’ s first computer programmer. Byron spent seven years in Italy. He racked up debts in what his mother described as ‘ reckless disregard for money ’, so he fled to the Mediterranean to avoid his creditors and meet up with a former lover. He also went to have relationships with men, which was revealed in letters to one of his friends. He first travelled to Lisbon, and then on into the eastern Mediterranean, with, which he found mysterious and intrigueing. While in Athens he had a relationship with Nicolo Giraud. While on the road to Istanbul, he swam the Hellespont. After that he returned to England where he married an heiress and had a daughter, Ada Lovelace. It was not long before he went back travelling to Italy, where he in love with a woman called Margarita Cogni. While in Italy he also co - wrote a book about the Armenian language. He stayed in Italy for many years, writing, having love affairs, having weird pets such as an eagle and three monkeys. Today in Italy, there is even a place
named after him, named Byron ’ s Grotto in Porto Venere. In 1823, he was recruited to join the Greek War of Independence. Greece was revolting against the Ottoman Empire, which was orchestrated not by armies of full - time soldiers, but by fragmented bandits and brigands. The Greek cause of revolt tied itself to the Ancient Greek world and advertised to veterans of the Napoleonic Wars and adventurous men like Byron. Byron was recruited by the Greek cause and sold everything he owned to help the Greek cause. During the war, atrocities were committed by both sides. When the island of Chios was massacred, so many Greeks were killed that even today the island has not returned to pre - massacred population levels. Byron adopted a Turkish girl called Hato, whose parents had been killed by the Greeks, and in doing so saved her life. Lord Byron died of illness in Missolonghi in 1824, shortly after the Ottomans had won the Battle of Missolonghi a few days earlier. Today
he is remembered as a hero of Greece.
Statue of Lord Byron in Athens
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