The castle of Chillon is situated near Montreux at the opposite end of
Lake Geneva from the city of Geneva. It is a large castle, built on an
isolated rock twenty-two yards from the shore of the lake. Beneath this
castle, but some nine or ten feet above the surface of the lake,
supported by seven detached pillars and one semi-detached, is a vaulted
chamber, which was formerly used as a prison. Here, from 1530 to 1536,
was imprisoned Francis Bonnivard.
Bonnivard, the son of the Lord of Lune, was born in 1496. When sixteen
years old, he inherited from his uncle the priory of St. Victor, near
Geneva. Later he allied himself with this city against the Duke of
Savoy, but was captured and imprisoned for two years in Grolée. In 1530
he again fell into the hands of the Duke of Savoy, who this time
confined him for six years in Chillon castle. At the end of this period
he was liberated by the Bernese and Genevese and returned to Geneva to
live a brilliant but wild life until 1570.
Byron takes no pains to stick to the facts of Bonnivard's imprisonment
or life, or even to the facts about the prison itself. Notice, however,
that he calls the poem "A Fable."
Byron and Shelley made a visit to Chillon in June, 1816, and while
delayed for two days at Ouchy, a village on Lake Geneva, Byron wrote
this poem.
Byron and Shelley belonged to a group of poets who were influenced by
the French Revolution. Byron's love of freedom was so great that he
aided Italy, and finally died from a fever contracted at Missolonghi,
where he had gone to aid the Greek revolutionists. The following sonnet,
which was prefixed to _The Prisoner of Chillon_, gives an idea of
Byron's love of liberty.