Elizabeth Medora Leigh

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Elizabeth Medora Leigh, around 1834

Elizabeth Medora Leigh (born April 15, 1814 at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire , † August 28, 1849 in Versols-et-Lapeyre , Aveyron ) was a British adventurer and probably the illegitimate daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron .

Life

Elizabeth Medora Leigh was officially the third daughter of the royal stable master George Leigh (1781–1850) and his wife The Honorable Augusta Byron (1783–1851); since her mother lived separated from her husband since 1811, it is considered biographically probable that she was the daughter of her mother's half-brother, Lord Byron (1788-1824).

At the age of 16 she had a love affair with Henry Trevanion, the husband of her older sister Georgiana (1808–1866). The connection resulted in a daughter, Marie-Violette (1834–1873). She and her daughter were supported financially and emotionally for years by Lady Byron (1792-1860) and later by the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron, Lady Ada Lovelace (1815-1852). She later had another affair with a French officer. This ultimately ended with his servant, a former sergeant named Jean-Louis Taillefer. A son, Elie (1846–1900), emerged from the joint connection. On August 23, 1848, the two lovers married and thus gave the children a legitimation. The following year Madame Taillefer died of complications from tuberculous meningitis and was buried in the Versols-et-Lapeyre cemetery.

Worth mentioning

  • Her daughter Marie-Violette joined a nunnery in 1856 as St. Hilaire's sister , and her son became a Roman Catholic priest in Aveyron.

literature

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe: True story of Lady Byron's life ; 1869. First published: Fields, Osgood, & Co. Boston, 1870
  • Charles MacKay (Ed.): Medora Leigh, a history and an autobiography . London, 1869. Reprint: AMS Press, New York, 1973; ISBN 0-4045-6759-2
  • Elizabeth Milbanke Lamb Melbourne: Byron's “Corbeau Blanc”: The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne, 1751-1818 . Edited by Jonathan David Gross. Rice University Press, Houston (Texas), 1997; ISBN 0-8926-3351-4
personal data
SURNAME Leigh, Elizabeth Medora
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taillefer, Elizabeth Medora
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British adventurer and presumably illegitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Newstead Abbey , Nottinghamshire
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1849
Place of death Versols-et-Lapeyre , Aveyron