Annabella Byron

Anne Isabella Milbanke, better known as Annabella Byron, was a wife of Lord George Gordon Byron, (PROSE: The Book of the War) and the mother of Ada Lovelace. (AUDIO: The Enchantress of Numbers, PROSE: The Book of the War)

Lord Byron left his recent wife, the time traveller Amanda Freelove, for Anne Milbanke in 1814. (AUDIO: The Broken Clock) Anne married Lord Byron on 2 January 1815. He called her his Princess of Parallelograms. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Weeks before leaving to Switzerland, Byron abandoned her and their daughter Ada. Mary Shelley described Annabella as sweet. (AUDIO: The Witch from the Well)

It was through her mother's influence that Ada came to see her father, Lord Byron, with disdain. (AUDIO: The Enchantress of Numbers) In fact, the Star Chamber recruited a young Ada through Annabella, and had her raised separate from her father's influence so that her mind could be conditioned for science rather than poetry. (PROSE: The Book of the War) She raised her daughter to think of Byron as a madman, as she could think of no other explanation for the man's behaviour. (AUDIO: The Enchantress of Numbers)