Alfred, Lord Tennyson

6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was an English poet who served as Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland for 42 years, longer than any other laureate. Author of In Memoriam A.H.H., The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Idylls of the King, he was among the most popular poets of the Victorian era.

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Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Life events

Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire
6 August 1809

Alfred Tennyson was born in the rectory at Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children of a clergyman.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Entered Trinity College, Cambridge
1827 – 1831

Tennyson matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the intellectual society known as the Apostles and befriended Arthur Hallam.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry
1829

Tennyson won Cambridge's Chancellor's Gold Medal for his poem Timbuktu, his first significant literary distinction.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Death of Arthur Hallam
15 September 1833

The sudden death of Tennyson's closest friend Arthur Hallam devastated him and inspired seventeen years of elegiac writing that became In Memoriam.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published In Memoriam A.H.H.
June 1850

Tennyson's long elegy for Arthur Hallam was published anonymously and became one of the defining poems of the Victorian age.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Emily Sellwood
13 June 1850

After an engagement broken off and resumed over more than a decade, Tennyson married Emily Sellwood at Shiplake.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed Poet Laureate
19 November 1850

Tennyson succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland, a post he held until his death.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published The Charge of the Light Brigade
9 December 1854

Tennyson's famous poem commemorating the cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War appeared in The Examiner.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Raised to the peerage as Baron Tennyson
1884

Tennyson accepted a barony, becoming the first English writer elevated to the House of Lords for his literary work.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died at Aldworth, Surrey
6 October 1892

Tennyson died at his home Aldworth at the age of 83 and was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓