Which Romantic poet was the husband of Mary Shelley?

Percy Bysshe Shelley was the Romantic poet who became Mary Shelley’s husband.

The couple met in 1814, when Mary Godwin was 16 and Shelley was a 21-year-old poet already married to Harriet Westbrook. They fell in love, eloped to continental Europe with Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, and returned to England in 1816. After Harriet’s death, Percy and Mary married on 30 December 1816.

Their relationship connected two major figures of English Romanticism. Mary later wrote Frankenstein, first published anonymously in 1818, while Percy produced poems including “Ozymandias,” “To a Skylark,” and Adonais. He also encouraged and supported Mary’s literary career.

A common mix-up is Lord Byron, who was a close friend and fellow Romantic associated with the couple’s stay near Lake Geneva in 1816. Byron’s storytelling challenge helped inspire Frankenstein, but he was never Mary Shelley’s husband. Percy and Mary remained together until Percy died in a sailing accident in Italy in 1822.