This led Byron to write melancholy poetry and Mary became a fixed symbol as idealized and unattainable love. When Lord Byron later became famous, Mary regretted this decision, although at the time Byron was only fifteen!.
Lord Byron is said to have had charismatic good looks and irresistible sexual charm. It is rumored he was not only involved with women, but with men as well. .
Byron went into debt after a term at Trinity College, and returned in the summer of 1806 to Southwell. Here he gathered all of his previous poems and completed a book in November by the title Fugitive Pieces. However, this was printed privately and his first published poems did not appear until the following June in a book titled Hours of Idleness. Lord Byron was 19 years old at that time.
After this Lord Byron returned to Trinity and befriended a man named John Cam Hobhouse. Hobhouse had an interest in liberal Whiggism and Lord Byron became interested as well. When Lord Byron turned 21 of January of 1809, he took a seat in the House of Lords. He wrote English Bards and Scotch Reviewers anonymously in 1809. Afterwards he and Hobhouse decided to tour Europe.
This journey inspired many of Lord Byron's writings, such as Childe Harold, an autobiographical poem. It also inspired The Maid of Athens, written about the daughter of an old widow Byron and Hobhouse stayed with during their stay in Athens. Byron fell in love with Greece during their stay and he vowed that he would someday return.
This tour may have also given Byron a jumpstart on the many relationship he had during his lifetime. He fell in love with a married woman in Malta and nearly fought a duel for her. It is rumored that Byron had over 300 sexual relationships during his lifetime. These relationships ranged from schoolboy friends to harlots, and household servants to women high in society.
Byron returned to London on July 14, 1811. His mother died in Newstead in August before he could reach her.