The mystery surrounding the fate of the body of Allegra Byron, daughter of Lord Byron and Claire Clermont, who died in an Italian monastery aged five, is back in the news after the discovery of the monastery’s archive, as presented at the 48th International Byron Conference in Missolonghi, ANA reports.
The unfortunate Allegrina died on April 20, 1822, of an undetermined epidemic, probably typhoid or malaria, at the nunnery of Bagnacavallo near Ravenna. Lord Byron had entrusted his daughter, the result of his troubled relationship with Claire Clairmont, to the convent to receive a good upbringing and education, as the convent was run for financial reasons as a boarding school as well. This choice of his proved fatal.
In a letter to his editor, John Murray, two days after Allegra’s death, the poet pointed out that it was his wish to send the girl’s remains to England to be buried in the churchyard of Harrow, the school he had attended, also “where I once hoped to have laid my own”. The child’s body was “embalmed and in lead” he noted – while in the postscript to his letter, presumably to secure easier acceptance of his request, he added: “You are aware that protestants are not allowed holy ground in Catholic countries”.
According to the official narrative, the coffin with Allegra’s body traveled to England, but the vicar of the church refused to allow the illegitimate daughter of a scandalous poet to be buried in the Christian cemetery. The girl was buried near the church in an unknown place. No tombstone indicates where her body was buried.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Theodoros Vryzakis
