Marriage
When Lord Byron proposed a second time to Miss Milbanke in September 1814, she accepted. The couple were married privately, and by special licence, at Seaham Hall in County Durham on January 2, 1815 (the officiating clergyman was her illegitimate cousin, the Rev. Thomas Noel of Kirkby Mallory, natural son of her uncle, Viscount Wentworth.) The couple lived at Picadilly Terrace in London.
Byron was then in extreme financial distress. He rejected payments offered for his written works, as he believed the sums were insufficient. He was having difficulty selling his estates at Newstead Abbey and Rochdale to clear his debt. During the summer of 1815, he began to unleash his anger and hostility on his wife. His moods were dark and he began to drink heavily. In a letter to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, he stated his suspicions that his wife had broken the lock on his desk and searched it. Later in the year he began an affair with Susan Boyce, a London chorus girl.
Lady Byron became increasingly upset. In the late stages of pregnancy, she feared Byron might be going mad. In November 1815, she wrote to Leigh and told her of Byron's moods and behavior. In answer to her sister-in-law's letter, Leigh traveled to the Byrons' home to assist. Upon her arrival, she became the subject of Byron's wrath and believed him to be temporarily insane. On December 10, Lady Byron gave birth to the couple's only child, a daughter whom they named Ada. Byron's despair seemed to increase.
Read more about this topic: Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one.”
—Victoria (1819–1901)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“For the marriage bed ordained by fate for men and women is stronger than an oath and guarded by Justice.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)