1792 4 August: Percy Bysshe Shelley (hereafter PBS) born at Field Place, Warnham, near Horsham, Sussex; eldest child of Timothy Shelley, landowner and Whig MP (1790–92, 1802–18), and Elizabeth Shelley, née Pilfold, of a neighbouring family of landed gentry. Four younger sisters and one younger brother follow.
1793 21 January: Execution of King Louis XVI of France.
September: ‘Reign of Terror’ begins (continues until July 1794).
1798 May–September: United Irishmen rebel against British rule.
1800 July–August: Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland.
1802–4 PBS at Syon House Academy, Isleworth, near London; here and later at Eton attends lectures on general science by Adam Walker, author of Analysis of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1766).
1804–10 At Eton College, rebels against the ‘fagging’ system which required younger boys to perform menial tasks for older ones; befriended by the physician Dr James Lind, author of important research on typhus and scurvy.
1806 Grandfather becomes Sir Bysshe Shelley, Baronet.
1808 Opens correspondence with cousin, Harriet Grove; her family will put an end to their attachment in 1810.
1810 Spring: Publishes Zastrozzi, a Gothic romance.
September: Original Poetry; by Victor and Cazire, written together with sister Elizabeth, subsequently withdrawn when one of the poems is discovered to be a plagiarism.
October: Goes up to University College, Oxford; begins friendship with fellow undergraduate Thomas Jefferson Hogg.
November: Publishes Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson.
December: Publishes a second Gothic romance, St. Irvyne (dated 1811).
1811 January: First meeting with sixteen-year-old Harriet Westbrook.
George III declared mentally incompetent; Prince of Wales becomes regent.
March: PBS publishes anonymously the political satire Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things, to benefit imprisoned Irish journalist Peter Finnerty, and subscribes to a fund for Finnerty’s support. Distributes a pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism (written with Hogg early in the year).
25 March: Together with Hogg is expelled from University College after refusing to respond to questions about the authorship of the pamphlet at a disciplinary hearing.
June: Begins lengthy correspondence with Sussex schoolmistress Elizabeth Hitchener.
25–29 August: Elopes with Harriet Westbrook and marries her in Edinburgh.
Winter: Travels to Keswick and meets Robert Southey (November–January 1812).
1812 January: Introduces himself by letter to William Godwin, whose novels and Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) he had long admired.
February–April: Travels with Harriet to Dublin, where he speaks in favour of Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Union and distributes two pamphlets: An Address to the Irish People and Proposals for an Association of … Philanthropists. A Declaration of Rights printed. PBS adopts a vegetarian diet.
April–August: Disillusioned with Irish politics, moves first to Wales (April–June), then to Lynmouth, Devon (June–August), where he writes A Letter to Lord Ellenborough to protest against the imprisonment of Daniel Isaac Eaton for selling the third part of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, and is subject to government surveillance. His Irish servant is imprisoned for distributing A Declaration of Rights and a satirical poem, ‘The Devil’s Walk’.
May: British prime minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated in the House of Commons; succeeded by Lord Liverpool.
September: PBS Moves to Tremadoc, north Wales, where he supports construction of embankment and model village.
October–November: Close association with William Godwin and first meeting with Thomas Love Peacock in London; meets for first time Mary, daughter of Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Transcribes early poems into ‘Esdaile Notebook’ (from November to early 1813); most remain unpublished until 1964.
1813 27 February: Leaves Tremadoc suddenly, claiming that a nocturnal intruder had fired two shots at him at Tan-yr-Allt, the house where the Shelleys were staying.
March: Travels to Dublin and Killarney.
May: Publishes A Vindication of Natural Diet (on the benefits of vegetarianism); Queen Mab printed and circulated privately.
23 June: Daughter, Eliza Ianthe, born.
July–October: PBS attains legal majority of twenty-one years (4 August). Moves to Bracknell, Berkshire, associates with a radical circle of supporters of the French Revolution, including the vegetarian and naturist John Frank Newton and his sister-in-law Harriet de Boinville.
1814 Divides time between Windsor, London and Bracknell, raising loans for his own and Godwin’s benefit, avoiding creditors and regularly visiting the Godwin household. A Refutation of Deism printed and privately circulated early in the year.
April: French monarchy restored after Allied defeat of Napoleon.
26 June: Mary Godwin declares her love for PBS.
28 July: Elopes with Mary to France and Switzerland, accompanied by her stepsister, Claire Clairmont (hereafter CC).
25–26 August: Begins composition of the prose tale ‘The Assassins’.
September: Returns to London (13 September); pursued by creditors, attempts to raise money over the following months.
Congress of Vienna convenes to determine the shape of post-Napoleonic Europe.
30 November: Son, Charles, born to Harriet.
December: PBS’s review of Hogg’s novel Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff published.
1815 January–February: Death of grandfather, Sir Bysshe Shelley (5 January). Meets with radical publisher George Cannon, editor of the Theological Inquirer, which will reprint A Refutation of Deism and large extracts from Queen Mab.
22 February: Mary gives birth to premature infant, who dies 6 March.
26 February: Napoleon escapes from Elba.
May: Financial settlement with PBS’s father allows PBS to pay debts, make gifts to Harriet and Godwin, and grants him an annual income of £1,000, £200 of which is allocated to Harriet.
18 June: Final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
August–September: PBS moves with Mary to Bishopsgate, at the eastern entrance to Windsor Great Park. Ten days’ excursion up the Thames with Mary, Peacock and CC’s brother Charles.
26 September: Treaty of the Holy Alliance signed by Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Autumn: PBS composes Alastor.
1816 24 January: Son, William, born to Mary.
February: Alastor volume published.
3 May: PBS travels to Switzerland with Mary and CC.
27 May: Meets Byron in Geneva.
June: Mary conceives the idea for Frankenstein. PBS tours Lake Geneva with Byron; drafts ‘Hymn to Intellectual Beauty’.
July: Visits Chamonix with Mary and CC; drafts ‘Mont Blanc’.
September: Returns to England (8 September) and moves to Bath.
October: Mary’s half-sister Fanny Imlay (daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and her lover, Gilbert Imlay) commits suicide (9 October).
November: Harriet Shelley drowns herself in the Serpentine, London (her body is found 10 December).
PBS frequents Leigh Hunt’s social gatherings together with Keats, J. H. Reynolds and Horace Smith.
December: Learns of Harriet’s death (15 December). Marries Mary (hereafter MWS) (30 December); marriage reconciles the couple with Godwin.
1817 12 January: Birth of Alba (later ‘Allegra’), CC’s daughter by Byron.
March: Habeas Corpus suspended in England until 1 February 1818 in response to agitation for reform (4 March).
PBS publishes the pamphlet A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote under the nom de plume ‘The Hermit of Marlow’. The Shelleys, together with CC and her child, occupy Albion House, Great Marlow; Peacock is near neighbour.
27 March: PBS denied custody of the children of his first marriage in the Court of Chancery, on a decision of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon.
Composes Laon and Cythna (March–September).
2 September: MWS gives birth to a daughter, Clara.
October: PBS detained briefly for debt.
November: Anonymous publication of History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (which includes ‘Mont Blanc’), co-authored with MWS.
Death of the Princess Charlotte and execution of the ‘Pentridge Martyrs’ for leading an armed revolt in Derbyshire (6–7 November) – PBS composes pamphlet linking the two events, An Address to the People on the Death of the Princess Charlotte (11–12 November).
Drafts ‘On Christianity’ (late 1817).
December: Writes ‘Ozymandias’; Laon and Cythna published and withdrawn from sale.
1818 January: Revised version of Laon and Cythna, its attack on religion toned down and incest theme removed, published as The Revolt of Islam.
March: MWS’s Frankenstein published anonymously.
11 March: PBS departs for Italy, accompanied by MWS, CC, their children and two servants.
4 April: Arrives in Milan.
28 April: Allegra sent to Byron in Venice.
May: PBS meets Maria Gisborne and her family at Livorno.
June: Moves to Bagni di Lucca, where he translates Plato’s Symposium, writes ‘On Love’ and completes title-poem of Rosalind and Helen volume.
August: Accompanies CC to Venice; visits Byron to discuss Allegra’s future; stays in a villa (I Cappuccini), rented but not occupied by Byron, at Este, south-west of the city (until November).
September–October: Begins Prometheus Unbound and Julian and Maddalo.
24 September: One-year-old Clara Shelley dies in Venice.
October: PBS composes ‘Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818’.
November: The Shelley party visits Ferrara and Bologna en route for Rome, where PBS begins to write ‘The Coliseum’.
December: Settles at Naples (1 December–28 February): with MWS and CC makes excursion to ascend Vesuvius; visits Herculaneum, various volcanic landscapes, Pompei, and other sites of Classical interest. Composes ‘Stanzas Written in Dejection … near Naples’.
27 December: Elena Adelaide Shelley born; the birth will be registered on 27 February 1819 and the child declared his and MWS’s legitimate offspring – her true parentage an abiding enigma for biographers.
1819 5 March: Family arrives back in Rome.
April: Acts I–III of Prometheus Unbound completed.
Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems published (spring).
May: Begins to compose The Cenci.
7 June: Death of William Shelley, aged three and a half.
17 June: PBS relocates to Livorno.
August: Completes The Cenci and sends Julian and Maddalo to Leigh Hunt for anonymous publication (though it does not appear until 1824). Composes Act IV of Prometheus Unbound (August–December).
September: Writes The Mask of Anarchy in response to the ‘Peterloo Massacre’.
October: Moves to Florence (2 October). Composes ‘Ode to the West Wind’ and Peter Bell the Third.
November–December: Drafts ‘On Life’ and begins A Philosophical View of Reform.
12 November: Son, Percy Florence, the Shelleys’ only child to reach adulthood, born.
December: In an attempt to control dissent, Parliament passes the ‘Six Acts’, curtailing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly.
PBS sends ‘England in 1819’ to Leigh Hunt.
1820 January: Death of George III; Prince Regent becomes George IV.
26 January: The Shelley household moves to Pisa.
February: Cato Street conspiracy to assassinate the British prime minister and cabinet detected (leaders executed 1 May).
Spring: Constitutional monarchy re-established in Spain following rebellion of the armed forces (March).
PBS composes ‘The Sensitive-Plant’ and ‘Ode to Liberty’.
Summer: The Shelleys occupy the Gisbornes’ house at Livorno, while they are in England (15 June–4 August), where PBS writes ‘Letter to Maria Gisborne’ and ‘To a Sky-Lark’ (June–July).
July: Learns of the death (on 9 June) of Elena Adelaide Shelley. Constitutional revolution begins in Naples.
August: The Shelleys move to the spa Bagni di San Giuliano (Bagni di Pisa) (staying there until October). PBS writes The Witch of Atlas, ‘Ode to Naples’ and Oedipus Tyrannus; or, Swellfoot the Tyrant, a burlesque Greek tragedy (on the political crisis over the claims of Caroline of Brunswick, estranged wife of George IV, to be crowned queen), which is published anonymously in London in December and immediately suppressed.
Prometheus Unbound … with Other Poems published.
20 October: CC moves to Florence.
29 October: The Shelleys return to Pisa.
November: First meeting of PBS with Teresa Viviani, to whom Epipsychidion will be addressed.
December: First meeting with Alexandros Mavrokordatos, Greek patriot and future president of Greece.
1821 January–February: Introduced to Edward and Jane Williams, newly arrived in Pisa (13 January). Writes Epipsychidion.
February–March: Writes A Defence of Poetry (published 1840); second edition of The Cenci published in London (spring).
March: Neapolitan revolutionaries defeated by Austrian troops acting on behalf of the Holy Alliance.
April: PBS learns (from Mavrokordatos) that an armed revolt has begun in Greece against Ottoman rule, and of the death in Rome (on 23 February) of John Keats.
April–June: PBS composes Adonais (printed at Pisa in July).
May: Death of Napoleon (5 May; PBS probably receives the news in July).
The Shelleys return to Bagni di San Giuliano (8 May). Epipsychidion published anonymously in London.
July: Drafts ‘Written on hearing the news of the death of Napoleon’ (published with Hellas in 1822).
August: Visits Byron at Ravenna.
Late September–November: Composes Hellas.
25 October: Returns from Bagni di San Giuliano to Pisa.
1 November: Byron moves to Pisa.
1822 January: PBS writes scenes for drama Charles the First, which is left unfinished.
14 January: Meets Edward Trelawny, who joins the Byron–Shelley circle in Pisa. Increasing attachment to Jane Williams, to whom he addresses a number of poems (January–July).
February–April: Translates passages from Goethe and Calderón, and works on ‘Unfinished Drama’.
20 April: Death of Allegra.
30 April: The Shelleys and the Williamses move to San Terenzo, on the Bay of Spezia near Lerici.
May–June: PBS drafts the unfinished The Triumph of Life.
12 May: His sailing boat, the Don Juan, is delivered.
16 June: MWS miscarries dangerously, crediting her recovery to PBS’s prompt attention.
1 July: Accompanied by Edward Williams, PBS sails to Livorno to meet Leigh Hunt and his family, who have come to Italy.
8 July: Drowns during a squall on the return voyage, along with Williams and the young seaman Charles Vivian.
Mid July: Bodies of PBS and Williams recovered.
15–16 August: Bodies cremated on the beach near Viareggio, with Hunt, Byron, Trelawny and others in attendance; ashes interred in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome, in 1823.
1823 July: MWS returns to England.
1824 June: MWS publishes Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley; edition suppressed at the insistence of Sir Timothy Shelley.
1839 MWS publishes The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, in four volumes, and late in the year a revised Poetical Works in one volume dated 1840.
1840 MWS publishes Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments in two volumes.